ANGELO CANDALEPAS CANDALEPAS ASSOCIATES
Angelo Candalepas was born in Sydney and graduated from the University of Technology in 1992. In 1994, he established his own architecture studio which, in its first year of practice, won an international competition for housing in ‘The Point’, Pyrmont. The project was the recipient of several awards.
In 1999, Angelo established Candalepas Associates and since then has won and been shortlisted on several international and national design competitions including most recently NGV Contemporary, Australia’s largest gallery dedicated to contemporary art and design.
The company under his leadership has received a significant number of awards from the Australian Institute of Architects including the Sulman Medal for Public Architecture in 2009 and 2018, the Frederick Romberg Award for Residential Architecture - Multiple Housing in 2011, the Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture in 2016 and the Aaron Bolot Award for Residential Architecture - Multiple Housing in 2011, 2013, 2017 and 2019.
In 2016, he was awarded the NSW Premier’s Prize for Architecture. Angelo was made a Life Fellow of the Australian Institute of Architects in 2019 and in 2020 was presented with the University of Technology Alumni Award for Design, Architecture and Building, in recognition of his commitment to the profession.
Recent projects include Punchbowl Mosque, winner of the 2018 Sulman Medal for Public Architecture; Church of the Living God, Hurstville; 72-84 Foveaux Street, Surry Hills; Botany Road, Zetland; 1 Lawson Square, Redfern and The Castle, Bathurst Street, Sydney.
LB 14 ANGELO CANDALEPAS the castle, is the fourteenth title from LONG BOOKS COLLECTION.
The beginning and end are common in the circumference of a circle (translation).
Diels: Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker (Heraklitus) 1
I like to believe that it is the moment of possibility when what to do meets the means of doing it.
APPROACH AT COMPETITION STAGE
Kahn said ‘I love beginnings’, the question for me is always ‘where do I start?’
The central concept of architectural space, both formal and informal, engaged our considerations from the outset on this important corner site of our city. The questions of at once dealing with considerations of urban human habitation whilst also simplifying a complex architectural proposition were diverse. The question, ‘where to start?’ held great promise and joy, inspiring the design process.
Strangely the mundane had the ability to eclipse the desire and effort toward beauty; the basic technical considerations taxing the design at any stage.
Our intentions were to engage with an ‘entirety’ of vision and a ‘wholeness’ of form. The entire structure and volumes were singularly conceived, and the sectional volumes described a memorable palette of experiences. Nothing was conceived without the spatial orders associated with the volumes of a vaulted room or the cathedral-like external spaces.
Understanding the priorities in sequencing of design was relevant for this to be a successful creative process. In this instance, focussing on the relatively ‘mundane’ topics of garbage and delivery vehicles enabled a settling of certain critical issues associated with both the public offering and the structure of the tower. These matters, alongside the more elusive concerns of heritage and mass, started to add the flavour of considerations propositioned at the earliest stages of the competition process.
It was vital to understand the limitations of the site in the context of respecting heritage and dealing with the loading docks. It would seem a more literal interpretation of the sacred and the profane was evenly considered in the objectives of the competition. These two matters could not belie the possibility for an aesthetic answer. Indeed, any approach must work with such grounding to deliver a work of memorable ‘architecture’ to our city. In our view, this was the most critical objective, and it is often forgotten.
THE CASTLE SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 2013-2022
I signed contracts with five separate clients to complete this project. Greg Gav (Mars Property Group Pty Limited) originally owned the site, and it was subsequently purchased by others.
In the end it was a Chinese Buddhist client who said, ‘we are equal, together we are the client.’
I explained to Mr Fu that we serve more than three dimensions, and I did not need to create the largest project of my career to date (as at that time) as something that did not understand this. It was obvious he understood this by giving me the opportunity to engage in something rare and fulfilling in his relations with me; all communication was through a translator.
Since childhood, I have known that there are many grades of shade; some shadows sit sharply as they cut objects away. The ancient observations about the human eye and its sensations and deceits are to be found in Rome and Sydney alike and yet so often these are not prioritised, reducing the necessary opportunities for beauty. In my observation too much is made of the novel, too little of the substantive, the need to build upon a tradition with something new is a concept rarely uttered.
There was an observation about the buildings in the street adjacent to this work, many of which had hitherto facilitated the characters of light able only to be observed in Sydney due to our atmosphere in this particular latitude. Nothing is like its mild haziness in the summer nor its molecular clarity in winter; how beautifully it is eluded by metals and how magically it is absorbed by curved dense form. Grey is not grey and white never white, the pencil knows this as exactly as the eye in the transit of one’s effort as one draws this city.
I thought of Bridget Riley and Sol LeWitt and lines on a wall being the sum of which could be only imagined as holding latent the desires of circles in a meaning to unfold with great potential. I therefore upheld the power of an economy of ‘shape’ and its parent ‘line’ which is manifest in my drawings for this work. I meditated on the notion of lines and light.
In the now familiar works of our city over which an economic outcome is necessary, it is often difficult to arrest the moment of art; observation about the human condition is indeed ostensibly lessened in relevance.
It is indeed therefore important to enhance the awareness of any client of their duty toward humanity (and therefore to themselves); to deliver outcomes that are of more than the one dimension of economics, although this must never be forgotten at any time. An attentiveness to the spirit of our time and its needs is not exclusive to itself nor is an attentiveness to the pre-empting of a likely reading of any work by passers-by.
Architecture is not anything other than architecture for me. Architecture alone may bring something to bear which is universal for clients, investors, builders, and our citizens. This way the outcomes of economic ends are vindicated beyond what can easily be first imagined.
When the light touches the fine efforts of our contractors upon these fragile walls, I know that these workers are all aware that the effort we offer any work can be a mirror of our intentions; and I have found that for the most part, everyone on a journey is able to be persuaded that we are worthy animals from whom an optimistic reaction is able to be elicited.
THE CASTLE SYDNEY AUSTRALIA
2013 - 2022
Client
United Development Sydney Pty Ltd (original competition with Mars Planning Pty Ltd)
Project team
Competition - Stage 1 (2013)
Angelo Candalepas - Director
Raffaello Rosselli
Fernando Torres Rebollo
Nina Fett
Competition - Stage 2 (2013)
Angelo Candalepas - Director
Jemima Retallack - Associate
Raffaello Rosselli
Fernando Torres Rebollo
Nina Fett
Design Development (2014-2017)
Angelo Candalepas - Director
Evan Pearson - Principal
Alex Dircks
Nichole Darke
Nathan Kong
James van Geffen
John Evans
Lewis Evans
Jemima Retallack
Lachlan Seegers
Luiz Maia
Construction Documentation (2016-2019)
Angelo Candalepas - Director
Sergio Melo e Azevedo - Senior Associate
Peter Kouvelas - Associate
Jason Williams - Associate
Martin Christensen
Joanna Latoska
Pedro Nascimento
Carl Tappin
Jarrod Hinwood
Nathan Kong
Silvia Fernandez
Lazslo Kotvan
Paul Lopez
Interiors Detailing (2018-2019)
Angelo Candalepas - Director
Vesna Kocovic
Shelby Kueber
Nathan Kong
Construction Phase (2018-2022)
Angelo Candalepas - Director
Jason Williams - Principal
Martin Christensen
Sheli Barracluff
Wesley Whittle
Consultants
Builder: Hutchinson Builders
Structural (Heritage): Mott Macdonald
Structural / Civil: BG&E Consulting
Engineers
PCA/BCA: Elite Certification
Mechanical: Evolved Engineering / D&E
Electrical: Evolved Engineering / Ultegra / Perigon
Lighting (Exterior and Porter House):
Firefly PointofView
Fire: Innova Services Sydney
Lifts: Evolved / Kone Australia
QS: Altus Page Kirkland
Traffic: Traffix
Landscape: Sydney Design Collective
Acoustics: Acoustic Logic
Façade Engineer / Surface Design: Surface Design / GJames
Façade Access: Arup / Safemaster
ESD / Basix: ADP Consulting / Northrop
Access: Morris Goding Accessibility
Consultant
Planner: Ethos Urban
Heritage: Extent Heritage / NBRS
Architecture Heritage
Waste Management: Elephants Foot
Signage: Corlette Design
Art Strategy: Amanda Sharrad
Artist: Interior - Fernando Torres Rebollo / Exterior – Maria-Fernanda Cardoso
Geotechnical: Douglas Partners
Interiors (apartments): Studio Aria
F&B: The Mack Group
Pool: Wright Pools
Area Hotel – 5,885 m2
Residential – 11,600 m2
Commercial – 1,180 m2
Images
© Rory Gardiner
AMAG LONG BOOKS COLLECTION brings together a unique selection of projects that establish new paradigms in architecture.
With a contemporary and timeless conceptual graphic language, the 1000 numbered copies of each LONG BOOK will document works with different scales and formal contexts that extend the boundaries of architectural expression.
