Urban Design

Bendigo TAFE City Campus Revitalisation • Six Degrees Architects and SBLA Landscape Architects • Photographer: Trevor Mein

The Urban Design category recognises achievement in design which enhances the quality of the built environment or public domain leading to the betterment of the broader city for the general community. Projects considered in this category may be single buildings, a group of buildings or non-building projects, studies or master plans of a public, civic or urban environment.

Kim Irons FRAIA Jury chair Katherine Sundermann RAIA Juror

Simon Topliss RAIA Juror

Jury chair report

A major focus of this year’s submissions was: how can an architectural project eke out more space for public activity? The most successful demonstrated the value in the art of subtraction to create new public spaces and connections within their context. Architectural devices of scale and materiality were used as framing devices to invite the public to step over the threshold and engage in the new spaces within their precincts. The typologies submitted for urban design were diverse both in type and locations, with a particular emphasis on urban precincts, reimagined tower podiums, major commercial projects and cultural facilities. In addition to the core assessment criteria, the jury were clear that integration with context, the project’s responsibility as neighbour, pedestrian activation of the public realm and impact on its immediate precinct were key considerations. In a new COVID context, one of the challenges is to assess the success of the activation, particularly where reliant upon retail. Many of the commercial city projects had clearly integrated pedestrian movement and activation, but the jury was clear to consider their additional interaction with adjacent buildings above street level. The jury observed that successful projects benefited from rigorous design processes, particularly in early collaborations with clients to establish, challenge and test the brief and its capacity to give to the communities beyond their boundary.

Category sponsor

The Joseph Reed Award for Urban Design Bendigo TAFE City Campus Revitalisation by Architectus with Six Degrees Architects and SBLA Landscape Architects

Dja Dja Wurrung Country

Working collaboratively with the joint design team, client and contractor, this project has transformed what was once a rabbit warren of an educational facility into a new collective space in the city of Bendigo. In a transformative move, the brief was reimagined from a single large building to a project of urban repair. New well-mannered buildings have been carefully added to the existing heritage fabric to frame collective spaces and connections for the public moving through the city. Formerly hidden TAFE programs such as hospitality and hairdressing have been made visible, celebrating the activity inside and bringing life to the street while moments of respite are also created within the campus. The buildings and architectural interventions are well considered, and suitable to the robust nature required of a city campus and streetscape. The heritage buildings are dealt with subtlety, repairing where necessary and adapting to suit their uses and thresholds. Level changes, landscape and building edges are negotiated to create intuitive journeys through and within the site. The Bendigo TAFE City Campus Revitalisation project demonstrates that through considered moves of insertion, repair and removal, the revitalisation of campus facilities, can offer something greater than just a building to its city.

Practice team: Ruth Wilson (Principal in Charge), Jayden Peacock (Associate, Project Leader), Kellee Frith (Education Design Strategist), Emma Lombardi (Architect), Sarah Ianno (Interiors), Colin Mitchell (Architect), Beatrix Fampa Matheson (Architect), Lucy Croft (Interiors), David Andrew (Senior Associate), Daniel Ballin (Senior Associate Interiors), Scott Jackman (Associate), Ken Waters (Team Member), Thurston Empson (Graduate), Jordan Head (Graduate), Peter Malatt (Director, Project Director), Simon O’Brien (Director, Design), Catherine Quinn (Senior Architect, Project Lead), Dan Demant (Associate, Delivery Lead), Angela Reid (Documentation), Anastasia Sklavakis (Architect), Aleks Jovanovic (Graduate), Amy Hall (Architect), Wendy Li (Architect), Rivkah Stanton (Architect) Consultant / Construction team: Integral Group (Services Engineers and ESD Services), Slattery Australia (Cost Planners), Irwinconsult / WSP (Structural & Civil Engineering Services), ADG (Structural Engineering), Resonate Acoustics (Acoustic Engineers), HLCD Pty Ltd (Heritage and Conservation Design Services), SBLA Landscape Architecture and Urban Design (Landscape Architectural Services), McKenzie Group (Relevant Building Surveyor and Access Consultant), MEZA (Wayfinding & Signage), Spiire (Town Planning Consultant), Foodservices Consultants Australia (Kitchen Consultant) Builder: Kane Nicholson Joint Venture

Photographer: Trevor Mein

Bendigo TAFE City Campus Revitalisation • Six Degrees Architects and SBLA Landscape Architects • Photographer: Trevor Mein

Award for Urban Design Collingwood Yards by Fieldwork

Wurundjeri Country

What was once a boarded up former Technical College, Collingwood Yards has been opened up and given back to the city, providing much needed affordable space for creativity and connection. A narrative of doing less with the existing fabric and engaging with institutional materials and colours allows for a playful engagement with layers of history, and creates a backdrop for creative production, events and art. Access is a major spatial driver, with new arcades carved through existing buildings, provided by both the gilded portal-like main entrance on Johnston Street, and the cobbled retail arcade to the rear. Clever level management allows for direct access from the entrance to all buildings on sloping Johnston Street, and two matching brick lift shafts act as markers, supported by sculptural Parks Victoria inspired stairs and lookouts. Closed off to the busy main road, Collingwood Yards is a creative village, with a protected courtyard, cobbled paths and arcades, clear wayfinding and finely detailed steel shop fronts. Fieldwork worked closely with the client to curate the mix of artists, arts organisations and social enterprises to help activate this village, demonstrating a mature urban design response in creating an environment for creative life.

Practice team: Joachim Holland (Design Architect), Tim Brooks (Project Architect), Vladislav Doudakliev (Project Architect), Piers Morgan (Graduate of Architecture) Consultant / Construction team: SBLA (Landscape Consultant), Marshall Day Acoustics (Acoustic Consultant), Philip Chun (Building Surveyor), WSP (Civil Consultant), Bluebottle (Lighting Consultant), Reshape Group (Project Manager), Slattery (Quantity Surveyor), The Company You Keep (Signage and Wayfinding), WSP (Services Consultant), Leigh Design (Waste Management) Builder: McCorkell Constructions Photographer: Tom Ross

Award for Urban Design Queen & Collins by KTA + BVN

Wurundjeri Country

At Queen & Collins we are invited across the threshold of what was once a closed and convoluted commercial tower lobby. Spaces both intimate and grand have been revealed in this new and delightful chapter for the Venetian gothic-inspired bank complex. Moving far beyond former surface level interpretations of this architectural movement, a highly crafted journey is created through a network of semiopen laneways and campiellos. With the footprint of corporate lobby dramatically reduced in size, a series of new urban moments are opened up, with quiet nooks to retreat, courtyards in which to linger, and the temptation to climb the of pink stairs to the upper levels. With oversized and ornate pink glass lights playing guide, open air bridges criss-cross giving hints to the activity above. Direct connections to Queen and Little Collins streets have been highly considered, as have the more discreet opportunities to stroll through the block, enriching the laneway network of our inner city. While we await our COVIDimpacted CBDs to come back to life and the tenants to fully occupy the ground floor retail, we applaud client and architect for making the private public and offering to share such treasured city spaces.

Practice team: Kerstin Thompson (Design Architect), Kelley Mackay (Director of Projects), Michael Blancato (Associate, Project Lead), Claire Humphreys (Associate, Design Lead), Lloyd McCathie (Associate, Project Architect), Martin Allen (Associate, Senior Architect), Grant Dixon (Senior Architect), Patrick Phelan (Architect), Henry Russell (Architect), Caroline Chong (Graduate of Architecture), Darcy Dunn (Graduate of Architecture), Marwin Sim (Graduate of Architecture), Tamsin O’Reilly (Visualisation Specialist), Ninotschka Titchkosky (BVN, Co-CEO), Rob Vider (BVN, Senior Practice Director), Sean Regan (BVN, Architect), Alan Monckton-Milnes (BVN, Architect), Sally Campbell (BVN, Senior Practice Director), Marc Hine (BVN, Associate), Renae Tapley (BVN, Interior Architecture Project Leader) Consultant / Construction team: Armitage Jones (Project Manager), Tract (Town Planner), Aurecon (Structural / Civil Engineers), Aurecon (Facade Engineer), Arup (Mechanical / Electrical Engineers), Arup (Hydraulics / Fire Services), Arup (ESD Consultant), Arup (Fire Engineering), Acoustic Logic (AV Consultant), Irwin Consult (WSP) (Traffic Engineer), Slattery (Quantity Surveyor), Millar Merrigan (Landscape Architect), Bryce Raworth (Heritage Advisors), Lovell Chen (Heritage and Preservation Architects), DJ Coalition (Lighting Consultant), McKenzie Group (Building Surveyor), Studio Semaphore (Wayfinding + Signage), Morris Goding Access Consultants (Accessibility) Builder: Probuild Constructions Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Shortlisted • 80 Collins, Melbourne • Woods Bagot • Multiplex Construction • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Trevor Mein

Melbourne Park Precinct • NH Architecture • Lendlease • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Bennetts Shortlisted • Jewell Station Precinct • BKK Architects, MA Architects & GLAS Landscape Architecture • Manresa Construction Company • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Derek Swalwell

Melbourne Square Stage 01 • COX Architecture • Multiplex • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Clarke Shortlisted • Shepparton Art Museum • Denton Corker Marshall • Kane Constructions Pty Ltd • Yorta Yorta Country • Photographer John Gollings

Wesley Place, 130 Lonsdale Street • COX Architecture • Lendlease • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Trevor Mein Australia 108 • Fender Katsalidis • Multiplex • Wurundjeri Country • Photographer Peter Bennetts