Tabla de contenidos para September 2020 en Architecture Australia

Twelve years ago, Hélène Frichot and Nicole Kalms reflected on the often uneasy “coupling of architecture and feminism” and the need for more gender awareness in the built environment in an essay for Architecture Australia (March/April 2008). They noted a flurry of events that undeniably highlighted how “women’s issues,” including representation, were still knocking at the various doors of the creative and built environment sectors. Fast forward a decade and architects and designers are more aware of the need for gender equity in the architecture profession. There is still more work needed in understanding how the gendering of architecture shapes the bodies, identities and agencies of people that pass through it. Conversely, architects and designers have much to learn about how architecture can construct and challenge gender. This dossier investigates…

While many Australians experience psychological distress and loneliness, their experiences vary according to gender and culture. In the 2011 AHURI report Loneliness, housing and health, sociologists Adrian Franklin and Bruce Tranter highlighted that Australian men feel less able to talk about their experiences and worsening conditions than women, a factor that contributes to a male suicide rate that is three times that of females.1 For Indigenous males, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports a much higher incidence: psychological distress and loneliness at 26 percent and a suicide rate 2.6 times that of non-Indigenous males.2 In remote areas, compounding situational factors can negatively impact the wellbeing of all Indigenous peoples. Limited employment opportunities and overcrowding are common and a “widespread anxiety disorder” is pervasive. The latter is a phenomenon that architect…

Built on the land of the Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung peoples In 2009, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the largest one-time investment in social housing by a government in Australia’s history. The $5.6 billion commitment formed part of a then unprecedented “nation building” stimulus plan intended to guide the economy unscathed through the financial chaos triggered by the collapse of the USA’s subprime mortgage market. Although the government pitched the commitment as an immediate boon to the construction industry – by underwriting projects directly as well as allowing non-profit housing providers to leverage Commonwealth funding in borrowing against an expanded asset portfolio – the influx of capital also drew a new generation of design practices into the low-income housing space, right when crisis conditions were threatening the staple pipeline…

The rise of female participation in organized Aussie Rules football and cricket at community and professional levels in the past decade has seen an increase in demand for changing rooms at sports facilities that were previously the domain of men.1 This has led to many adverse situations due to inadequate and overcrowded facilities: women have been getting changed on the sidelines, in tents, cars, canteens and loos, and even behind bushes. (And so have some men, too.) To meet the gap between the supply and demand of changing facilities – a gap that is exacerbated by the fact that many facilities are designed for the needs of males – local, state and federal tiers of government have been rolling out facility upgrades that emphasize female participation2 so that, as Prime Minister…

Built on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation “A facade, of course, differs from an elevation in being a vertical surface endowed with a metaphorical or allegorical presence.”1 Colin Rowe’s critical observation is one that also distinguishes Central Park, in the inner Sydney suburb of Chippendale, from its surrounding urban setting. Phoenix is located on a modest side street bordering the precinct’s farrago of glass and aluminium elevations. Its facade is initially jolting, as it conceals more than it reveals. You can examine the contents of its extroverted neighbours from hundreds of metres away but, even in close proximity, this cryptic urban wall shields its secrets. But it is certainly not silent. Phoenix is acutely responsive to surrounding urban cues. The junction with Smart Design Studio’s…

The cliché is that necessity is the mother of invention. But crisis pushes everything up another notch. Throughout history, pandemics, economic recessions and wars of global proportion have been catalysts for quantum leaps in medicine, technology and material science. Human disasters wreak havoc and we react as if in battle. Words change as we “fight” the crisis and “turn back the tide.” But from desperate responses to a devastating, often destructive cataclysm comes also a level of sinister benefit – and architecture is inevitably a recipient. The architecture of crisis almost always has a form of wicked novelty because the parameters of crisis are almost always new and unknown, requiring novel solutions to conditions never before experienced. Generally, the architecture of crisis arises in three ways: first, as a direct…

For many architecture practices working on commissions for single-sex schools, a recurring consideration is how the physical environment of schools should reflect the gender diversity of its students. While there is much debate about the merits of single-sex versus co-educational schools, there is little critique of how the design of learning spaces contributes to definitions of gender identity and how schools shape gender equity. Recent research relating to gender disparity influenced by school experiences has focused on the distribution of recreational facilities. A 2018 study of 20 independent schools in Brisbane revealed that boys’ schools had three times the amount of outdoor play space within their immediate school grounds than girls’ schools.1 The boys in the study had higher aspiration toward outdoor careers than girls. The authors speculate that greater…

Built on the land of the Taribelang people of the Gureng nation Mon Repos Conservation Park, 14 kilometres east of Bundaberg on the Woongarra Coast of central Queensland, is a globally significant site for research on and protection of the endangered loggerhead sea turtle, a prehistoric species thought to have emerged around 40 million years ago. Adjacent to the Southern Great Barrier Reef and bracketed by rocky outcrops, the ecological conditions at Mon Repos Beach support a key stage in the ancient life cycle of the loggerhead and two other species – flatback and green turtles. For the turtles that arrive here annually from November, the innate connection to place is astonishing to contemplate. Mon Repos is their natal beach. While they spend decades at sea reaching sexual maturity, and…

Logan Youth Foyer The Logan Youth Foyer supports young people, aged 16–25, who are engaged in education or training and who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. This Wesley Mission Queensland program delivers services from a centre in Woodridge, a suburb in Logan City, south of Brisbane. The centre’s recent expansion – which adds 16 new one-bedroom units to the existing 24 studio units, as well as communal areas, an office and training spaces for the youth community – exemplifies the value of direct engagement of an architectural practice as the principal consultant by a government department. Bark Design Architects was one of six practices shortlisted by the Office of the Queensland Government Architect and engaged by the Queensland State Government’s Department of Housing and Public Works, with the…