Straight to the Pool Room: New Australia’s Stylish Suites
Architecture in the Outback embraces the outdoors. From the world-famous Sydney Opera House to the desert Aboriginal huts, Australian architecture rises from the elements while learning from them. In terms of vernacular shelters, sheds, sheds, and porches often became community centers or gathering places. These humble beginnings changed over the following centuries as people began building for the “Australian Dream”. Whether using traditional bayes construction or dramatically manufacturing new forms, architects began to take advantage of and reinterpret historical building methods.
+11
This movement has produced dynamic multicultural hybrids, spaces that are both derived and imported in nature. In response to population growth, climate change, and the increasing demand for public spaces, designers are beginning to create new design solutions that are celebrated around the world. The geometry of the wing is one such pattern undergoing a transformation. These free-standing structures span the boundary state between formal buildings and the Australian landscape. Contemporary suite designs include spaces for viewing, recreation and contemplation. The following Australian pavilions explore the country’s unique spatial approach and diverse design cultures.
“Crescent House” was the first in an annual series of temporary pavilions to be installed at the Sherman Foundation for Contemporary Art in Paddington, Sydney. The goal of this Fugitive Structures program is to engage a broad audience in architectural thought. The brackets are set in a seemingly simple straight shape. The arcs split, creating a pair of infinitely sharp points and a threshold for the space beyond. This combination of fragility and robustness seeks to charge the conversations within the space with a certain quality.
In Absence is the fifth annual meeting of the NGV Architecture Committee, which invites audiences to better understand the fallacy and continuing legacy of the Terra Nullius hypothesis, which declared Australia as a void awaiting ownership, by revealing and celebrating over 3,000 generations of indigenous design, industry, and agriculture. In the context of the park site, the tower’s initial exterior exerts a tangible presence on the National Gallery of Victoria Park and the people venturing inside.
HexBox Canopy is an experimental split wood casing, consisting of pre-fabricated boxes in the shape of a hexagonal shape made of sheets of plywood. Since ancient times, arched spatial structures such as masonry vaults and domes have played an essential role in architecture, allowing the coverage of large areas without the use of intermediate supports as well as greatly reducing the amount of materials required.
British designer and architect Thomas Wing Evans has created an interactive sound pavilion in collaboration with the DX Laboratory of the State Library of New South Wales in Australia, which takes paintings from the library’s collection and turns them into music. Located outside of the Mitchell Reading Room in Sydney’s CBD, the Wing-Evans Suite features a curved black wood frame clad in anodized aluminum panels.
With green architecture in mind, the idea of a “green ladder” is a combination of bamboo ladders – a popular equipment made from bamboo – a traditional material in Vietnam. These bamboo modules were assembled in Vietnam and transported to Australia. The structural elements are linked together to form a porous but sturdy mesh-like framework, which supports the planter pots inserted in the middle. The pavilion acts as a physical link connecting visitors with nature. It eventually becomes more of form, function, and beauty, but a cofactor between human nature.
Located on a former chicken farm in Cranbourne South, Victoria, Australia, Brompton Pavilion is a completely unparalleled residential exhibition pavilion. An innovative vision started by residential developer Wolfdene, the pavilion arose out of close collaboration with Oculus Landscape Architects and Clear Graphic Design. Designed as a ‘lens to the landscape’, the pavilion was proposed to revitalize the site and engage the local community.
Glenorchy Arts and Sculpture Park, GASP!, is Room 11’s first foray into public architecture. Along the Derwent River in Glenorchy, Tasmania, Room 11 has built a brightly calibrated public walkway that artfully connects previously marginal, but surprisingly beautiful, sections. The abundant bird life and smooth surface of the river can be closely examined when one walks in the gentle arc that connects the existing school, playground, main recreation center and paddling club.