ADR: What makes for a good adaptive re-use project and what are the key challenges in delivering one?
SH: I think a good adaptive re-use project is neither too disrespectful to an existing building nor too precious with it. Unless it’s a fine piece of heritage stock, it’s a real opportunity to remodel things, treating them well but aggressively too. It doesn’t have to be a very subtle exercise.
Some of the key challenges are discovering things in a project that are unexpected that can add risk and cost to a project. Other things are to do with compliance, logistical issues regarding access and construction – it’s more complicated to work with existing buildings, and the construction industry, and to some extent the consultancy industry, has historically been set up on the premise of an ‘anti’ site, because ultimately it’s easier than having to work out what’s going on with pre-existing conditions. But good architects who work with existing buildings produce remarkably good outcomes. I think one of the ways you do that is about showing off some of the existing building where you can.

ADR: The Boral Design Award challenge is about delivering a mixed-use, medium density residential building through adaptive re-use. What qualities should a good example of this typology have?
SH: Well, that it is actually mixed-use, that it’s not just residential from the first floor and failed retail on the ground floor, that there is genuine activation happening at the street level. Residential also shouldn’t be singular in its type, there should be a diversity of housing options. Mixed use should be creatively thought about, and not necessarily just the urban cliché of cafes on the ground floor with housing above.

ADR: Australian Design Review ran a feature on its ‘top five Australian residential adaptive re-use projects‘ a few weeks ago. What would be your ‘top five’ local picks (of any typology)?
SH: Paddington Reservoir Gardens by TZG, NMBW’s Building 45 at RMIT, Hill Thalis’ Substation no. 175, Maria Gigney’s The Barn, and the Smith Street (ware)house by Terroir.

www.designawards.boral.com.au

Images (1) Smith Street (ware)house by Terroir, photo by Jonathan Wherrett; (2) Paddington Reservoir Gardens by TZG, photo by Brett Boardman; (3) RMIT Building 45 by NMBW, photo by Peter Bennetts; (4) Substation no. 175 by Hill Thalis, photograph by Brett Boardman; (5) The Barn/Strangio House by Maria Gigney, photo by Matthew Newton.

A mid- to senior-level architectural draftsperson with a minimum of 6 years’ postgraduate experience in the local market and a combination of strong Revit skills and technical cabability would be ideal for this role.

Additional key attributes required for this role include:

• High proficiency in ArchiCAD and/or AutoCAD
• Expertise delivering high quality documentation
• Expert knowledge, understanding and application of construction detailing
• Sound presentation in 3D modelling and rendering
• Consultant coordination experience

You would initially be involved on a variety of retail, mixed use and multi-residential developments, with the expectation of diversifying in the near future with several Revit delivered projects due to come on line. This opening provides a fantastic opportunity to join a practice in the early stages of their Revit development.

This role will be offered on a long-term contract basis with an hourly rate offered at the higher end of the spectrum. The studio can be flexible if you have a specific preference to work on a permanent, salary basis but this would be determined on an individual basis in accordance with your level of skills and experience.

For further information or a confidential chat please forward your resume to Bruce Whetters at brw@bloomfieldtremayne.com.au or call (03) 9349 1055 and quote reference M14264.

About the Opportunity
Do you have a passion for bringing people together through innovative and exciting design?

Due to their continued growth and expansion, Proludic is looking for an enthusiastic design and technical assistant to join their supportive team in the beautiful Northern Beaches.

As a key individual within the Proludic process, you’ll be assisting with the plans and proposals for the design of playgrounds and recreation facilities. Not only will this valuable role allow you to develop your hands-on experience in landscape design, it will also give you the opportunity to liaise with well established design and technical specialists.

If you’re a recent graduate in landscape architecture and are looking to get your foot in the door within this competitive industry – this is the opportunity for you!

About the Benefits
In return for your hard work and commitment, you will be rewarded with an attractive remuneration of $50,000 – $55,000 plus superannuation, negotiable based on skills and experience. You’ll also get the chance to have a real impact in the business and travel to France for training.

Working with a friendly team in a great Northern Beaches location, you’ll be part of a forward thinking, dynamic and growing business. An exciting graduate opportunity with a great international company in the play and leisure industry.

For more information, or to apply online, please visit applynow.net.au/job31732

The office prides itself on the friendly, laid back personalities of their staff and this is proven by years of exceptional staff retention. You won’t be disappointed with the scope of projects either, with a variety of high-end multi-residential, commercial, mixed-use and apartment developments undertaken, ranging on average from $5m to $40m in value.

The practice has just won a large-scale development in conjunction with another architectural practice and the early design stage is underway, hence the need to appoint an intermediate level ArchiCAD documentor or architect with strong design development and documentation experience.

The ideal person will possess 5 to 8 years’ postgraduate experience with a proven background delivering larger scale apartment developments within Australia. Solid construction knowledge and technical ability is paramount, in addition to your exceptional capability using ArchiCAD. If you are proficient on another software program but exceed all of the other requirements listed, you should still apply, as the firm will bend the rules and retrain if it means securing the best of the best!

There may also be room for the right person to get involved in the design process but you’ll need to demonstrate your skills in this area and possess an unwavering commitment to quality design.

Offered on a permanent basis to commence immediately, the expected salary will be in the range of $65,000 – $80,000 plus Superannuation in accordance with the skills and experience you can bring to the role.

For further information or a confidential chat please forward your resume and portfolio to Bruce Whetters at brw@bloomfieldtremayne.com.au or call (03) 9349 1055 and quote reference M14270.

The company is seeking an experienced, highly motivated professional who resides in the Melbourne or Sydney area for the position of Australian Regional Manager.

This is an opportunity to sell Forms+Surfaces architectural products, including a wealth of innovative surfaces, walls and elevator interiors, site furnishings, lighting, doors and more. Our interrelated product lines provide real-world solutions to the challenges our customers face every day.

Beyond stellar sales skills, the ideal candidate will meet the following criteria:
• Strong, experience-based understanding of the A&D community; proven success working with architects, contractors, designers, landscape architects, facility owners and other specifiers.
• The ability to craft technical, “substitution-proof” specifications and follow them throughout the bidding and ordering cycle.
• In-depth knowledge of specifiers’ needs, requirements and concerns, and the ability to offer creative solutions to their challenges.
• The ability to prioritise multiple tasks and projects in a fast-paced environment. Territory Managers typically have more than a hundred projects moving through different phases of the sales cycle concurrently.
• Excellent communications and organisational skills, along with the ability to fully utilise our CRM software and other technologies.
• Enjoy working in a collaborative, entrepreneurial environment and engaging team members throughout the organisation – Sales, Marketing, Manufacturing, Design – to accomplish a common goal.

This is a unique opportunity that offers career independence and control with a company that provides ample support, training and hands-on mentoring to help ensure success.

Forms+Surfaces has more than five decades of experience, an impressive array of solution-based products, state-of-the-art manufacturing capabilities, and a growing international presence with a family feel.

If you meet the requirements above and would like to apply for this position, please visit www.forms-surfaces.com/careers or email megan.hamm@forms-surfaces.com for more information.

New carport, with entertaining spaces above

The architects took an alternative strategy. By concentrating on the existing house’s inherent spatial and material qualities, and fully exploiting the site, the possibility for better performance and comfortable living has been dramatically increased. While earlier additions had made the interior space poorly lit and cramped, the existing building has largely been upgraded and today functions exceptionally well, benefiting from orchestrated interactions with sun, shade, breeze and views, so that the interior now floods with natural light. Instead of being raised, the house has been extended into the lot and into the environment. There is now a bathing pavilion off the bedroom wing on the east; a new living room and covered outdoor room on the south; and an enclosable, entertaining deck thrusting out to the north, reclaiming the view of the coastal plain down to Moreton Bay.

New spaces connect seamlessly to the original house

Set on the brow of the hill, the land comes up to meet the house, sitting within reach of the garden rather than above it. The original garage becomes a workshop and the alternative carport, which would have occupied the site’s best position, is now tucked beneath the entertainment space beside the new swimming pool. The entry sequence takes us under the walkway, which links the original house and the new pavilion, and up half a flight of stairs to a new porch. On the threshold of the house proper, the veranda eaves, in counterpoint to the high-ceilinged interior, come down low over the fully glazed entrance lobby.

Openings admit light into the porch

Due to the availability and vast range of choice, contemporary houses often use an overly complicated materials palette. Here, the materials that were available in the 1890s when the house was originally constructed – timber weatherboards, vee-jointed timber wall lining and hoop pine flooring – continue to have relevance and integrity, but the new additions are complemented by hardwood shiplap cladding and spotted gum decking, and the new ancillary spaces are arranged around the original core, linking to the house seamlessly, without breaking the integrity of the original hipped-and-ridged roofline. Functionally, aesthetically, spatially and materially, the ease with which the new additions supplement the original house belies the fact that they do not set out to replicate the late 19th century idiom in style or form.

Materials in the new addition complement the original home

The archetypal timber-and-tin Queenslander house is often criticised for being dark inside, with poor thermal properties – cold in winter, hot in summer. Not this one. Unlike surrounding properties, it does not ignore the advantages of the subtropical climate, and the environmental effect on the architecture is palpable. Despite proximity to neighbours, the house is very private yet has a feeling of openness. Masonry walls extend into the site laterally to shade windows from the angle of the sun, a strategy that also frames foreground views and mediates between the external environment and the spaces within. Openings are deftly handled in scale, location and adaptability to admit light where and as needed.

The interior balances sun, shade and breeze to suit the subtropical climate

At the same time, the architecture pays due respect to the sometimes high-intensity rainfall, with deep eaves on the original house and hoods folding and wrapping into the form of the new extensions. Brisbane’s natural environment is mostly congenial, a fusion between tropical exuberance and temperate restraint, like the house itself, which enriches the experience of subtropical living. Light fills the home in winter, eliminating the need for artificial lighting during the day. And there is light, indirectly, in summer, although it doesn’t bring the heat in with it.

By avoiding the impulse to raise the house, the architects have achieved notable success. They have allowed the owners to enjoy the property on both a functional and an experiential level. At the same time, through deliberate juxtaposition of space and mass, void and solid, they have enacted classic architectural principles: a play of light and shadow on three-dimensional form, not only externally, but internally as well.

www.lockyerarchitects.com.au

Rosemary Kennedy is the director of the Centre for Subtropical Design and senior lecturer in architecture in the School of Design at QUT.

The Hyde Park Barracks is a UNESCO world heritage listed site, and these evocative objects are both functional and sculptural additions to the festival bar, sited beneath an historic tree in the former convict barracks site. The organic forms of the installation are derived from the excellent drape characteristics of the material, and contrast with the formal architecture of the barracks whilst offering guests a playful corner filled with tactile furniture to relax in.

Manifested in this work is Archrival’s foremost aim to create collaborative projects between skilled design professionals. Archrival held workshops over a five-day period and the invited team were asked to bring a recycled chair ‘relic’ than could be used as formwork for the concrete fabric. The material is cumbersome and, at times, intimidating, so each participant saw immediately the value in working together on each piece. Gradually a communal notion of authorship developed for the installation, which culminated in all participants working together to curate the pieces on site at the Hyde Park Barracks.

This collaboration is as integral to Concrete Colony as it is to Archrival’s practice. Archrival will continue to use this methodology to create their work for the 2012 Venice International Architecture Biennale.

Located behind the soaring brick wall of The Melbourne Club, this restaurant space has been transformed with a design that matches the menu’s honest Italian food.

Techné opted to rip off the exterior hording, which in turn opened up the restaurant to finally relish in the magnificent views of the Club’s towering Plane trees. Flooding the space with some much needed light, the interior shell was stripped back to reveal a fantastic space with a lofty concrete ceiling and exposed red brick walls.

Macrame elements are the stand-out addition to the space and were produced by Brunswick-based artist Sarah Parkes of Smalltown. Working closely with Sarah to design fittings that were unique to Lupino, the lights and interior screen divide the restaurant with a bold effortlessness.

High-polish concrete floors and red bricks alongside green leather banquettes generate a familiar Italian aura. Terracotta tiles line the long, marble- and timber-topped bar, revealing the bustling kitchen and encouraging diners to interact with the chefs and feel part of the production.

Nouvel’s installation at the fair featured an enclosed stand, with all four surfaces clad in Bolon’s new Create flooring collection. The project explored the textural qualities of Bolon’s collection, with flooring running up the walls and onto the ceiling – a concept that Nouvel said “challenges gravity as well as the traditional ideas of flooring”.

The four surfaces of the stand were each clad in different colours of Create flooring. A number of furniture pieces adorned the walls and hung suspended from the ceiling, accompanied by four mannequins depicting Nouvel reclining, sitting and reading in the space. The result was an eye-catching and humorous installation, with Nouvel – the man and mannequin – as the star attraction at Bolon’s stand.

Nouvel collaborated with Bolon to produce the architectural setting for the annual fair in Stockholm, launching the Create collection as well as the flooring company’s new inspiration web tool, a digital design tool for testing ideas and looks for interior settings using the Create range. Having previously partnered with a number of ‘Designer Friends’ over the years including the Campana brothers, Giulio Cappellini, Tom Dixon and Jaime Hayón, Bolon introduced Nouvel as their first ‘Architect Friend’ for the Stockholm collaboration.

Nouvel said of his inspiration for the project: “Imagine the world of a fly where floor expands in every direction, with no up or down… This is Bolon universe, exclusively a universe of floors: no ceiling, no walls… just floors – a palace for flies… This is the Bolon space where I stand, as in my fantastic dreams without gravity.”

Bolon was first established in Sweden in 1949, and is now run by sisters Annica and Marie Eklund – the third generation of Eklunds to own the company. From its beginnings as a manufacturer of woven flooring, today the brand has evolved to become an innovative international flooring brand, with their product used by leading architects and designers around the world. The company is set to unveil another collaborative project at Milan Salone in April 2012 – watch this space.

www.bolon.com

With the theme ‘Adaptive Reuse’, this year entrants must devise a scheme to transform a commercial building into a medium-density residential or mixed-use development. The idea is to transform existing building stock in an inner-city suburb into a feasible residential development.

Entrants must specify from the extensive range of Boral products including decorative and structural timber, bricks and blocks, plasterboard, pavers, decorative and structural concrete, retaining walls, roof tiles, windows and doors. Fifty percent of the existing building fabric should be preserved and incorporated in the concept, while passive design principles including natural daylight penetration and cross ventilation must be considered.

The competition is split into three categories: Professionals, Emerging Professionals (graduates who have been in practice for up to five years) and Students. A prize pool of $34,000 is on offer, with $20,000 awarded to the winning Professional scheme, $10,000 for the best Emerging Professional submission and $4,000 for the winning Student entry.

Entries will be judged by a panel of experts, including Peter Colquhoun, architect and presenter of television show Great Australian Sandcastles; Rachel Neeson, director of Neeson Murcutt Architects; Stuart Harrison, broadcaster, author and director of Harrison and White Architects; and Maitiú Ward, Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Review Australia magazine.

Entries close 1 March 2012

Download the competition brief and entry guidelines at www.boral.com.au/designawards

Image Courtyard House, 2010 Boral Design Award winning scheme by Aidan Murphy and Aaron Peters (Cox Rayner Architects/Kerry Hill Architects)