Work from the 2011 Graduating Design Studio | Master of Architecture | University of Queensland | St Lucia

© COPYRIGHT THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLANDSCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

Graphic Editors | Adrianne Jamieson, Charles Rowe, Jonathan Ward

Cover Graphic | Gemma Baxter & Sandy Cavill

Portrait photographer | Bowen Lahsenduo

Publication Committee | Bowen Lahsenduo, Jonathan Brown, Will Harvey-Jones, Adrianne Jamieson, Charles Rowe, Luke Rynne, Jonathan Ward, Kumutha (Kay) Yoganathan

Website | uqarchitecture11.org

The 2011 UQ Architecture Graduate’s Publication has been generously supported by

Cox Rayner Architects

It is with pleasure that we sponsor the UQ-Cox Rayner-Peter Hale prize, graduate exhibition again this year, I think the 9th such year.

It has been of great mutual benefit in fact, as through it we have employed some brilliant graduates such as Casey and Rebekah Vallance who are now mainstays of our practice.

Since the last awarding of the prize, Queensland has been through a maelstrom of floods and cyclones, and worldwide there have been many natural disasters. So while architecture always has an enduring range of problems to solve, it now confronts very tangible environmental challenges, which will become increasingly diverse. I believe that these create a renewed relevance for architecture, and opportunity.

The solution to them will be in part technological and immediate, but in part creative and long term. The next decade at least is a time for thinkers, and I have long observed these are what UQ produces. Cox Rayner likes to regard practice as a place where learning and enquiry continue on from University, and wish all those graduating a ‘thinking’ future.

Michael Rayner

INTRODUCTION

This capstone project for the 2011 Architectural Masters involved the detailed resolution of a complex architectural and planning program. The project is based on a design scenario that addresses the Gold Coast City Council’s future need for staged accommodation with a public interface. Sited within the Gold Coast City’s southern most Principal Activity Centre, it is immediately adjacent to the Robina Railway Station and bus interchange.

The program ran between August and November 2011. The Gold Coast City Council supplied a building brief, developed by the Economic Development and Major Projects Branch and supplemented by various subject matter experts. The brief focussed on ESD outcomes, site connectivity, activation of building edges, development of a sustainable built form and making a positive contribution to the urban planning of Robina. Students were encouraged to be mindful of the sense of place and to consider the social and cultural impacts that a built environment can have on a developing urban community.

This joint initiative aligns with the design education and advocacy role of the Office of City Architect and Heritage as supported by the Gold Coast City Council. The University and students can be congratulated on the final results. The outcomes reflect the University’s quality teaching and communication of the design process, realised through the final year student’s vision and execution in their project work.

Christopher Gee

City ArchitectGold Coast City Council

ROBINA ESD WORKPLACE 2011 – GOLD COAST CITY COUNCIL

It is with great delight that I write about project work from the graduating Masters cohort of 2011.

The final semester of architectural design adopted the form of a capstone project requiring students to demonstrate the attributes and competencies expected of a graduate of Architecture. Given the option of continuing to develop design proposals opened up in Semester 1 or to work with the EOI documents prepared by the Gold Coast City Council for an ESD Workplace and Library on a site at Robina, most students opted for the Council brief. It may be that students recognized that such a project, despite its dry brief and tough, uninspiring site, presented an opportunity to test the ability to think and act architecturally. Along the way they also discovered that the common project provided opportunities to benchmark against peers, to learn from each other and to realise strengths and discover weaknesses in their own individual skills sets.

It was intended the ESD Workplace and Library project would stimulate proposals for a civic building with the potential to operate as agent for cultural change - within both the council administration and the urban situation that is Robina. To this extent project work extended themes from first semester to focus in particular on developing proposals anticipating relationships between a work of architecture, individuals and the immediate and wider context. Attention was given to linking urban and architectural space to create coherent sequences of public rooms.

This semester would not have been possible without the assistance of key people from the Gold Coast City Council : Chris Gee and Lily Chan, City Architect and Principal Architect, Michael Parrish and Ben Mansfield, Project Officers and Marian Bindon-Morgan, Manager of Library Services and Cultural Development. It was through their agreement and effort that the project was made available to students. This success of the semester owes much to the efforts of co-co-ordinator Doug Neale, Professor Luis Feduchi and studio advisors Jo Case, Gerry Murtagh, Tony Mitchell, and when Tony departed to make good his dream of sailing the Pacific, John Price.

Once again students received consultant advice on their developing project work from a team of structural and mechanical engineers at ARUP Brisbane city offices, organised and led by Josh Neil and Ian Ainsworth. The ARUP team addressed

students’ demand for input over successive weeks in practical and comprehensive ways and the value of their contribution cannot be under-estimated.

The final capstone projects from the graduating class of 2011, prepared in only one semester, are gathered here in this publication accompanying the Graduate Exhibition. The preparation of completed architectural designs tests ideas and strategies, and reveal a range of potential outcomes, for the ESD Workplace at Robina and the cultural precinct at Evandale. The graduates of 2011 are pleased to share their achievements and in turn, we wish them all the very best.

Elizabeth Musgrave Master of Architecture Final Year 2nd Semester Course Coordinator The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus QLD 4072

FOREWORD

Architecture is like a code-cracking puzzle that involves the knowledge of philosophy, art, history, human sociology, geography, as well as the current issues today. Therefore, I believe that a ‘good design’ is a product of successfully solving and combining this range of different layers of information into one single entity.

CONNECTION: The site has the potential to be the ‘gateway’ of Robina since it is located closely in between the highly active Robina train station with the other main destinations of the suburb. This ‘gateway’, by other means, is a place that gives a sense of ‘continuity’ for one’s journey, should be activated with public spaces and areas where it could draw more people in. This act of continuing a user’s journey from point A to B is simply an attempt of connecting the site with the surrounding context from the urban scale, all the way to the spaces within the building. ARTIFICIAL VS NATURAL: The Robina Green Precinct design is an attempt to minimise energy consumption by prioritising the design of the building envelope, orientation of high circulated spaces and introducing horizontal trellis walls that cover most parts of the building façade, by incorporating the idea of blending in the ‘man-made’ (artificial) into the ‘natural’ (existing landscape).

Abdul RAhmAnilee

“An Architect is the drawer of dreams.” [Grace McGarvie]I believe the role of the architect is simple; to bring the dream of a drawing to life; from paper to built reality. Architecture is the opportunity to create spaces that are memorable, comfortable and most importantly responds to each distinctive setting.

The proposed design dreams of a place in Robina that responds to its low scale suburbia context in the backdrop of both the organic mountain ranges of the hinterland and the stark geometry of the Gold Coast city skyline. The building is elevated with the courtyard entrance orientated towards the west and views to the hinterland are framed. Occupants who enter the building are made aware of their proximity to the hinterland. The Hidden Reading Room of the Library is submerged, turning the observer’s attention away from the context and instead inwards into the contained. Like the stainless steel tree-like canopies over the green open space, the Hidden Reading Room is a space akin to sitting or lying under a tree - a place for reading, rest or even to daydream. However, unlike the reading room, those that occupy the semi outdoor study space to the library, the terraced seating, the performance stage and even the bus plinth on the edge of the site, feel apart of the wider civic space. The vines that climb the columns and across the beams create dapple shade, achieving a large-scale version of the effect in the Hidden Reading Room of the library.

AbellAnosAave maria

Architecture is an object which directly engages human activities - given this, it should be delivered in relation to human behavior. But architects are not god, we cannot control it, but a spend lifetime to understand and manipulate. I think this contradiction is beautiful.

The site has its own memory. This became a driver for this scheme. Building form aims to create a series of pockets with different scales, which expect to be activated along Laver Drive and the sense of activation is brought to public courtyard. Internal circulation on ground level is a continuation from public courtyard and to maximize permeability within the space, this aims to blur the sense of a visual boundary between library and government supporting facilities. Yet in internal space, a series of thresholds, which work as invisible boundaries, are created to control the sense of scale within this free circulation. The functions of the buildings are divided by a huge atrium which controls sense of vertical volume.

The office tower faces the Laver Street and works as a “show-case” of bureaucratic activities to the community with transparent walls.

AoyAmAkiichi

I have become increasingly more observant of the way people occupy space, and critical of the way cities and neighbourhoods are being shaped through individual ambitions. Societal priorities have evolved over time; homes and other buildings we occupy daily express our collective ideals of venerating privacy and ownership above the public realm, and its crucial role of connecting its citizens.

The mixed-use brief enabled an investigation into new typologies for the increasing instability of both the local and international environments, due to finite natural resources, increasing populations leading to urban sprawl and inner-city congestion, climate volatility and the cultural and psychological impacts of technology and social change.

One device to achieve true sustainability, was the provision of a covered and grand pedestrian street from the train station to Laver Drive, with an abundance of solitary and group sitting and meeting spaces, that would ultimately expose and promote the public spaces such as the library.

While egalitarian mixing zones for all user groups was imperative, to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and learning, and develop a sense of community, primary concern was invested into establishing two polar spatial types. Heavy concrete walls alluding to historical forms and a sense of permanence, protective and impervious, support main circulation, administration, services and spaces of refuge. A dichotomous skin, incredibly dynamic and celebrating the ephemeral and transient nature of modern lifestyles, provides a sense of prospect.

bAxteRgemma

Creating a successful habitable space requires the fine balance of many influential parameters. It requires elegance, practicality and appeal. It strives to involve users and respond to different uses. It should answer to the needs of people, the environment and changing lifestyles. It must be versatile, allow for further education and most certainly provide comfort and shelter.

This project explores the high school education of new generations in an inner urban setting. It creates equality among everybody in the community and encourages proactive learning through the sharing of ideas, skills and opinions. Classrooms have a unique visual connection to broaden perspectives and encourage additional learning investigation. Corridor design, furniture layout and transport options encourage interaction between people while stimulating educational thought. An otherwise neglected river tributary has been injected with life through green transport initiatives and water cleansing practices while the site has been opened to both private and public activities simultaneously. The program responds to the strict brief by providing a stimulating, safe educational facility that respects the local environment and considers the future impact of humans on the earth.

bRenneRalvin

Throughout the formal component of my architectural education, I have invested concern in the opportunities that lie in the architecture responding to, and potentially enriching and invigorating the place. Opportunities for integrating with or reacting to existing architectures, have been foremost considerations.

The Robina project occupies a key site at the heart of a proposed new central business district, and therefore, serves as a keystone, vital to the success of this new city centre. Still in its infantile stages, the city centre suffers a lack of urban legibility, seemingly, an ambivalent collection of built form and lacklustre consideration for the pedestrian environment. The proposed intervention sets about reconciling the misdemeanours of precursory development through a contribution of significant civic amenity, whilst prescribing an appropriate tempo for the scale and fabric of future development.

The intervention offers a generously proportioned public square, dedicated as a place for genuine civic occasions, which is of critical consequence to both the distant and immediate context. The playful arrangement of the form, which emulates the erratic context, serves to mediate opposing scales at the site’s threshold. The earthly materiality of the architecture at the ground plane is intended to be long-lived, weathered, and over time, patinated through the activity of occupation.

CAvillsandy

To me, architecture is a facilitator of human life. No matter how beautiful, functional or technologically advanced a building or space is, it is only a well-arranged pile of materials. Only when a piece of architecture is comprehensible, touchable, lovable on an intimate scale, and serves to enrich the human life and activities that take place, only then is it good, living, architecture.

During this project, the design process set out to achieve ‘CO-ENRICHMENT’ between the various types of program, each with its own set of dynamics; in terms of function, feel, pace and formality. The overarching strategy employed to achieve this was to blur the boundaries between public and private, inside and outside, formal and informal, to allow the public realm to reach far into the buildings, working as a threshold, link and ‘spice’ between various programs. Visually, this was done by projecting meeting rooms over public walkways, and opening up the edges of buildings to reveal the operation of community groups. Physically, a threshold entry space is used to link the office foyer and library, while a break-out reflective courtyard provides a link to the urban context and further mediates between differing levels of formality by allowing library users and office workers to intermingle.

ChAnpeter ho

Architecture is about the creation of place. Uncertainty remains on the issue whether architecture can enhance social engagement and sustainability. I am simply interested in the understanding of the human dimension and psychology in relation to our urban environment.

This project explores how places are connected in the urban environment and the making of civic spaces. In consideration of the European urban model, urban spaces are often formed by different type of spaces and of various scales.

My urban proposition connects four significant civic spaces, ‘The Civic Room’ for the Council corporate meeting centre, ‘The Reading Room’ for the library, ‘The Dining Courtyard’ for cafes and restaurants and ‘The Public Garden’ binding the three programs together. The Dining Courtyard and the Public Garden are open courtyards creates a threshold from Laver Drive and into the complex. The Civic Room and The Reading Room are large semi open halls with a control degree of openness natural light and fresh air and vista into the hinterlands.

The building mass is a composition of vertical towers and horizontal building wings changing heights in reference to ‘The Rocket’ and the Robina railway station.

The composition continues into architectural elements of ‘Wrapping canopies’ of the outdoor spaces, ‘Roof Lattice’ of the Civic Room and the ‘Layers of sky-roof’ of the Reading Room.

ChAnsiu man

Influencing the built environment represents an enormous responsibility and privilege. I don’t believe any level of education can properly prepare us for this undertaking, though it does present the opportunity for an incredibly stimulating lifetime of investigation, encompassing a wide variety of personalities and disciplines.

This project seeks to declare legible civic presence in the archipelagic semi-rural context of Robina. Classical devices are explored to enforce this message; a municipal street presence is promised by setting back the building from the street with a deliberate narrow street frontage to discern it from other commercial office types. A promenade links the scheme to the pedestrian infrastructure of Robina Train Station and Skilled Park, arriving at a single shared entry. This entry space is intended to recall the notion of the piano nobile; a raised reception area offering views of the city skyline to the north-east, and the mountains to the south-west. This axis also provides an attitude to how spaces are arranged, marking a transition from the urban/pedestrian realm to the rural/vehicular realm. These functions are played out within a single perched building form, acknowledging the collective memory of the (common) earth and the (noble) sky.

ChARles-Ginnsam

Architecture is a phenomenal relation to humanity therefore changes the way we live. A fusion of space light, material and time. Architecture is always bound to situation and site, allowing a poetic link for what a building can be. Architecture is never complete and is only truly tested through the human body.

This proposal of the GCCC ESD Workplace + library precinct entails a design that focuses on enhancing the community of Robina through a landscape. It reinforces the grain of the mountainous backdrop of the hinterlands and introduces a sense of place through the careful articulation of four courtyards. Surrounding these courtyards the major elements of the brief are assembled, the Council workplace, the corporate meeting centre, the community library and the external public space. The main driver of this scheme explores the subtle separation of the public space with the courtyards through architectural ideas of transparency, planes and relationships between internal and external spaces. The scheme explores the phenomena of being part of a landscape as you move in and between spaces. The Council tower is an exploration of a high tech structure that engulfs the building from the outside. This allows ones understanding of the architectural anatomy of a monumental building for the GCCC.

ChuRCheRdavid

The principles of sensitive design have guided the approach to this building. The scheme wraps the new built form around an existing cluster of pine trees and links together prominent pedestrian pathways between the station and town centre. In doing this, an internalised courtyard has been shaped around the pines, which themselves create a pleasant environment of dappled light, shade, and a textured blanket of pine needles. The courtyard is the heart of the building, and all major functions both open into and overlook it. The building’s edges in turn seek to respond to the pine environment and visually blend the form into the tree canopies.In contrast, the external façade is sharp, clean and white, and has been detailed and massed in response to the surrounding context. A visitor, travelling through the site, would essentially encounter two distinct worlds – an external envi-ronment of glass, white concrete and perforated steel, and an unexpected rustic green environ-ment within.

My approach to architecture is centred on the idea of sensitive design. This involves a consideration of a wide range of factors. Do spaces respond to physical and psychological needs the occupants? Does the de-sign encourage social interaction and create a sense of community/identity? Does the building work with the environment or fight against it? This approach always considers the surrounding context - urban, natural, historical, and social – and the impact of a building not just on its own site and occupants, but also on the wider urban fabric and society as a whole.

CoAtesjack

a cloud comes bimming growing over the zenith morning is nearby

This final masters’ project was for me as much experiment, as it was evolution.

Sustainability should start at the idea, which becomes proposition, and eventually design. The Gold Coast City Council Sustainable Workplace is a culmination of not only environmental sustainability, but pragmatic and human sustainability.

To lead by example, day lighting the office interior was achieved through a structural strategy that maximised the façade facing north. This is complemented by a photovoltaic system to harness energy, and green walls to defend the building from the harsh elements.

An integrated approach to the design has been envisaged from the outset, through the creation of modest pieces, or rather ingredients that can come together to form the whole.

Visual connections flourish the site, from the highest level of the tower to the intimacy of a reading room in the library. The development of these lines of sight are integral in connecting the users, be they long term, or passers-by.

de PlAteRthomas

My approach to architecture is centred on designing civic spaces in my schemes that are able to be utilised by the surrounding community- to promote a sort of social sustainability. I strive to include spaces, either exterior or interior, that fulfil a niche in the urban context.

Retaining the permeability that exists on this site (the journey from the train station to town centre) is a priority in the design of this scheme. This is responded to with the incorporation of a covered walkway that affords views to the amphitheatre formed courtyard and therefore creating an experience of the journey.The amphitheatre is an initiative to develop social sustainability in Robina. Robina currently has few free facilities for various sized groups to meet and the amphitheatre fills this niche- at its largest scale it could easily accommodate a community event such as Christmas carols, at a smaller scale simply somewhere for a few friends to meet. The architecture of the scheme focuses on taking advantage of the sub-tropical climate of the Gold Coast with natural ventilation and lighting. The council building also responds to social sustainability by providing a singular large cafeteria and a roof top staff recreation area which both encourage social interaction between staff.

di. PAsquAleolivia

Architecture is an ever evolving discipline that seeks opportunities to solve the problems of the built environment. I am interested in the multifaceted nature of the design process and the opportunities created by integrating emerging technologies.

The GCCC Civic Centre was inspired by the transparency of the site through the existing slash pine trees and the worn shady path connecting the two site entry points. This site condition drove the core design concept of creating dynamic relationships between movement and momentary visual connections. The quality of light and visual transparency on the existing site informed the creation of a 3 story civic scaled plinth that embodies the transparency of the ground plain and the translucent quality of the existing canopy. A repertoire of screens was introduced to control the visual connections and internal ambient lighting conditions. As informed by the vehicular realm the screens are shaped by pedestrian movement and dynamic sightlines.

dodGsonjack

L’Architecture est Culture. Elle n’est réussite que lorsque qu’elle est empreinte de son environnement et des personnes qui l’occupent. Bien plus qu’un abri au travers de notre espace quotidien, elle ancre nos racines au travers du temps. Aujourd’hui le reflet d’une organisation sociétale que le temps n’a que trop essoufflé, l’Architecture se doit de redevenir remède à notre bien-être: épurée, naturelle et fidèle en son essence.

This scheme aims at becoming a community hub within the fast growing region of Robina.Built forms gather around a central courtyard space which offers varying outdoor experiences and promotes social interaction. As a human condenser, this public podium acts as a pedestal for the office tower. It gives it prominence and permeates both public and private domains.The 15-storey office tower escalates from this rather crafted base of concrete and wooden layers into a much sober finish to rationalise the verticality of what is the heart of the scheme and a strong landmark for the community. Views and natural light access became major drivers for the internal layout of the office space which integrates ESD principles for a more enjoyable working environment that users can control throughout the day.

FReReaurelie

I am interested in architecture that creates intelligent, beautiful forms which invent new possibilities for content and everyday use - an architecture which dares to challenge previous beliefs exploring new ideals, processes and experimentation.

The Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) Workplace and Library combines the entire process of city governance into a single loop of interconnected activity. Rising from a common public platform accommodating the Robina Library and retail facilities, two towers rise together each dedicated to the workplace of the GCCC eventually merge into one another in a dramatic, seemingly impossible cantilever holding the various pieces of collaborative and dynamic program of the brief. The project’s distinctive three dimensional loop aims to offer an alternative to the exhausted typology of the tower - the project aspires to incubate a new set of cultures for the GCCC consolidating all of their operations in a continuous flow.The monumentality of the building is grounded by a large, undiluted public plaza which invites users to occupy the space under the soaring canopy, The space seeks to connect the surrounding nodal points of Robina in the effort to become a focal point for the growing city.

FRiGentipaolo

The scheme proposes a new GCCC civic complex. The intentions of the scheme are: to establish a permanent, accessible and diversely programmed community space and; to register and evoke the qualities of the landscape. A conversation addressing (im)permanence of the community and the landscape becomes the driver of the architecture.

Heaps of walls are proposed across the site. The holes and thickness of walls pose questions of cultural and natural value in what space they bind, apparent material permanence and what flows (water, wind, light, cars, birds, dogs and people) are permitted to interrupt them. More ephemeral planes are inserted perpendicularly to permit natural flows and blur the distinction between internal and external space. Set between these walls three distinct communal courtyards are imagined as the pivotal responses to the brief. They perform the role of registering the once swampy flat riverine landscape and providing key communal gathering spaces.

willhARvey-Jones

I believe that architecture has a great responsibility to society, community and the individual (also the environment) through its immense ability to mould and shape every day life. I am interested in the way in which we have the opportunity to enhance emotion and experience for the individual through careful manipulation of architectural space.

Several intensions motivated this project, however, the primary consideration was the establishment of a space for community and gathering, to take advantage of its position at the junction between many important activity nodes. This resulted in a number of strategies expressed in architectural form. In order to establish a sense of gathering, the proposal creates a strong centrality. In the wider context, the towers are an orientation point. While in the immediate context, concrete fin walls direct movement and focus towards the central courtyard. The sunken courtyard demonstrates the original site topography and is North-Easterly orientated for climatic considerations. The multiplicity of entrances allows for greater ‘accidental’ occupation of the site. Directionality was also considered in the relationship with the site’s mountainous surroundings, enhanced by the framing of the view by two tower forms.To act as an exemplar of ecological sustainability, the project rejects the current building obsession with steel. This is to demonstrate opportunities in use of recycled engineered timber as a low embodied energy alternative.Many other strategies were built upon in the project. These include the preference to preserve existing vegetated land, referencing the built character of Robina, as well as the wider Gold Coast and the maintenance of existing natural pedestrian movement through the site.

hetheRinGtonkirsty

I think that the most important thing which I have learnt during my education is that engaging architecture can be very captivating and memorable for the user. I feel that through the use of authentic and locally sourced materials, Australia has the potential to continue creating a vernacular architecture that is both unique and responsive.

Through the provision of a retail zone accessed from one of 2 courtyard spaces it is envisaged that community members will utilise the ground level facilities as well as the public library.

The existing site acts as a thoroughfare for pedestrian traffic where users skirt the edges of the site to and from the train station or to skilled park. The architectural intention was that the edge zones of the buildings would create places to view the courtyard from above or be amongst the landscape at the ground level.

It was also imperative that the work was able to develop a civic presence in Robina so that the council’s location would become familiar and recognisable.

Through screening the western edge of the building and raising the library on piloti the urban intervention can be seen to drive people through the courtyard spaces to Laver Drive. The courtyard spaces have been considered as an opportunity to mediate the distance from one destination to the other, with rest spaces provided in between.

JAmiesonadrianne

It is my belief that architecture in urban settings should encourage human interaction and contribute to the wider public space of the city. Given current environmental issues I also believe that architecture needs to contribute to environmental sustainability through the use and development of environmentally sustainable design principles.

The central plaza is the most prominent of a se-ries of linked public spaces. It links all the people and program together. In the library, the existing pedestrian short-cut was used to generate form and separate the main parts of the library from the informal reading room which becomes part of the plaza. The library comprises a solid rectan-gular “book building” and a more organic formed “people building” which are separated by a series of voids. The office component is located in a nine storey tower atop a three storey plinth building. The plinth building is the public face of Council and contains all the semi-public functions around a central atrium. The third floor terrace encour-ages interaction between council officers and the public. Interaction in the office building is aided by a large public stair and small libraries. The office building is layered to deal with heat gain on the western façade.

KAyjessica

As an education, architecture redefines the way in which you see and interpret the world around you. As a profession, it is the changing of that world through the continual searching for simple rational ideas. As an art, it is the measured application of only those ideas that maintain their own integrity.

This project proposal seeks to take the disparate elements of the site and it’s wider context and unite them with the project brief via a set of shared architectural ideas. The driving concept for the proposal is that of movement with the arrangement of space and volume seeking to manipulate the movement of people at various scales.

In most offices, the larger dimension is the vertical - an obstacle commonly negated by a lift. This proposal reduces the vertical to a scale where stairs can become the primary circulation method. Long linear floor plates with articulated circulation paths are then used to move people at level.

The architectural focus is placed upon giving people both active and passive alternatives regarding how they choose to interact with their built environment. It is through this provision of choice that the architecture seeks to improve the occupants wellbeing.

KlAGesdavid

“The history of architecture and landscape architecture reveals three basic modes of relationship between architecture and the landscape: contrast, merger, and reciprocity. The contrasts, tensions, and ambiguities brought about by combining these various modes not only enhance the appearance of a work but allow it to embody a rich complexity of meaning.”Rainey, R.1988. Architecture and Landscape: Three Modes of Relationship.

The ideas behind the GCCC ESD Workplace proposal was in response to the topography and expanse of natural landscape, experiencing the volume of space and different light qualities created by the existing tall pines on the northern end of the site, the views to the mountains beyond and the possibilities of interaction with people and the surrounding built environment in particular the link between the neighbouring train station and how a re-contextualized landscape / building can form new opportunities for people to gather and work therefore prompting the idea of a central green space, recessing the retail spaces below ground level to form a courtyard / food hub, providing accessible green roofs and elevating the workspace structure above the landscape to capture the views beyond.

KRmPotiChbianca

Active civic spaces play a fundamental role in society as a place where the community can gather and express themselves to a wider audience. Without these spaces individuals are isolated from one another and are void of the opportunity to express and connect with the wider community.

With this in mind, the importance of a major civic space for the public became apparent - as a place for meeting, and a place for recreation. The square is designed as a room which opens onto Laver drive, with cafes, bars and retail skirting all its edges. The office and library occupy opposite sides of the square, with their foyers aligning to one another, and a continuous ribbon of glazing and timber battening wrapping along their civic edge which serves to define the square.

The ESD design utilizes thermal flues which make the most of the unfavorable east west orientation by using the suns heat to generate natural ventilation for 78% of the scheme. The 2nd skin concept led to the development of details and elements which are folding, floating, or both.

lAhdensuobowen

Architecture has the potential to solve urban, social and environmental issues of modern cities, both in the wider master planning context and on a human scale. It has the power to “enlighten and enrich the human experience, and to provide a beautiful context for life’s drama” - Frank Gehry

This scheme proposes a civic square to provide a sense of centralisation and improve urban connections in a disjointed suburb. The brief functions have been divided into two building masses which active the square edge. A large setback from the street encourages heavy pedestrian flow and proposes Laver Drive as a boulevard. Through high-rise building form, the design allocates excess site area for future development. Basic climate-responsive design principles are implemented in the form of a simple North-South orientated scheme, with careful placement of masses for over-shadowing considerations. This design takes a conventional office block and transforms it through pushing and pulling masses in order to create a tower of voids and verandahs which supports outdoor spaces and gardens to provide a higher quality of office work life to building users. The library connects with the office tower through mirroring its architectural language, resulting in a unified development.

loReKjessica

To the seven lamps, add a few wheely ramps, voila! Architecture.

The proposal is response to a site with few existing contextual clues. From the outset it aims to generate a partial urban room condition, projecting beyond the allocated site to connect what is the current activity centre to the south and the planned Stadium Village development to the north. After making the initial urban move, subsequent detailed design works to program a hard western edge for services and circulation as a backdrop, from which is layered private-invited-public volumes planned to consider ebb and flow of occupants along a plate that reaches 126 meters in length. A dialogue between varied construction methods directs a further rationale for the conceptualising of office program unique to council departments and library components.

mCniCholangus

My approach to architecture focuses on the idea of designing spaces that connect positively to the surrounding urban context in effort to generating a stronger pedestrian and social environment. This involves the process of creating spaces that encourage social interaction and a sense of community.

Project design is developed to connect existing unrelated key activity nodes of the project site and urban context of Robina. The priority of this design scheme is to encourage greater pedestrian movement between the Train Station and Town Centre. In response the project arranges various spaces and masses to influence pedestrian movement across the project site. A key space in the design is the central courtyard. This public space is design to be enjoyed by all, or simply to pass through. It is formed between various scaled masses in effort to create an experience along the journey.

The Office Workspace is designed to encourage a greater social environment. A double height central breakout and collaboration space is located on every second level to provide employees with greater opportunity for informal meetings and social interactions. It is designed to encourage collaboration in particular between different directorates of the Council and provide greater awareness of the larger council organization. This space connects directly to courtyard via views through a central glass façade, which rises above the office entry point to the roof of the building.

milliGAnbianca

My understanding of the relationship between architecture and its urban situation is one in which architecture enhances its urban context by responding to the needs of its occupants as well as providing a positive impact on its wider social context, respecting ‘its’ people as well the project’s site.

This proposal for the Robina ESD Workplace is intended to accommodate a wide range of user groups rather than target a specific demographic connecting the project to its wider setting through ‘its’ people. The main entrance lobby is relocated to the exterior, as a plaza for workers, visitors, and the general public. Amenities, include the library, a cycle centre, a convenience store, cafes, a dry cleaners, and a florists which connect to the outdoor lobby at ground level to draw in users

One of the main features of the design is the operable aluminium mesh panel façade. This device serves two purposes; it is a climatic response in terms of shading and a cultural response to the GCCC’s changing office culture. Appearing to be windowless and opaque at midday, the building transforms in appearance over time becoming almost transparent at dusk. The reading of the building is in terms of transformation.

mubARAKyousaf

Art and nature are two elements that should inspire architecture. The world today is disjointed and lost where people, nature and culture are not harmonized. Beautiful architecture does not necessarily need to be eye pleasing. Beautiful architecture should be created from the people’s experiences in spaces and consequently, establishing place.

Exposed and bare would be the words to describe Robina. To remedy these qualities, this scheme proposes to enhance natural landscaping and provide a ‘place’ for the community to gather. Modern Robina developments have abandoned the vernacular of Queensland architecture. It neglects to take advantage of the Gold coast’s mild weather and idyllic landscape, instead opting for harsh thresholds and cold material palettes. This scheme proposes the return of Queensland tradition blurring indoor-outdoor thresholds and utilizing verandas and green space. A chain of shaded green spaces enhances the amenity for pedestrian movement with an Arbour element that meanders its way through the site providing a central way finding ‘spine’; linking and drawing people into the several landscaped spaces like a maze. The arbour element invades the buildings, branching and grafting onto them like a parasite. The focus of these green spaces is a central triangular courtyard which links the programmatic elements of the scheme and draws people from within the building for respite, social integration and amenity. The Green band also invades the buildings sculpting, blurring and softening the building ground level edge as with the moving façade to encourage movement and alleviate the existing mundane surfaces from adjacent buildings.

nGuyenbao-anh lily

The physical interaction between the public city, the individual’s daily life and contact with other humans should be inseparable. Playful, bold, generous, lively, healthy public spaces… that’s what I want to help create.

Platform C strives to provide a civic and cultural centre for the Gold Coast. A transit centre and cultural precinct surround a generous public square looking over the lake to the famous Gold Coast skyline. The project consolidates activity and foyers around the edge of the square. This high intensity of human occupation is encouraged by locating the two nodes of public transport (cable car and bus platforms) on either side of the square to tease out pedestrian travel through the precinct. The key architectural ideas include a landscape of folding roofs that play with changing volumes of space, a folding timber cave skirting the square’s perimeter and high set coloured glass panels illuminating internal spaces with coloured light.

As corny as it sounds, it excites me to think that maybe one day a space I imagined, fashioned from a multitude of precedents and influences, could be built and become part of the memory of people in the city.

nobellara

Beginning with a public square and connecting civic rooms with existing urban context, Laver Drive is upgraded to a significant CBD boulevard with retail services and civic amenities at street level. The proposal identifies the importance of the ground plane and provides opportunities for activity on numerous levels. An arcade dissects the site as it descends into the landscape and unfolds into foyers for a 21st Century library and the GCCC administration office tower. Two paths through the site are identified; the first as a direct means of access framed by a colonnade arcade providing covered passage through the site and reinterprets the previous well worn goat track. The second a meandering path ascends through an urban landscape peppered with rest areas, exhibition spaces and an outdoor auditorium which leads to a second entrance to the library as well as cheeky access stair to street level.

PAlmeRjonathan (jp)

In today’s environmental climate creating sustainable architecture that reacts to, has minimal impact on and contributes to the surrounding environment is imperative. In developing sustainable design solutions occupant and user well being needs to be achieved through the development of passive architectural systems.

The architectural aims of the project were to provide occupants and users with a constant connection to the natural environment and provide high levels of occupant and user well being: the creation of a healthy building. This is achieved through the implementation of breakout spaces on the northern façade of the office tower and external planter systems on most facades to give the design a sense of life with the growing plants constantly ascending the horizontal timber screens on the outer edges. Internally relief air ducts provide a constant flow of fresh air into the workspaces within the office tower and within the east façade of the library planters are situated to improve the internal air quality. Being inside a building and seeing plants move through natural air circulation aids in blurring the line between inside and outside space. The layering of the façade systems allows for the mitigation of northern and western light where skylights within the roof system and at ground allow for natural light to enter the upper and lower levels. Creating a visual and physical connection to nature was a key driver behind the design of the project.

PieRPointbryce

I believe the influence that architects have on shaping the experiences and recollections of a city are vast. Careful articulation and strategic planning of a piece of architecture is vital so that it intuitively integrates into its urban context. Architecture needs to be memorable, inspiring, technical and poetic. If these fundamental elements are considered and respected than a building is going to be memorable.

The project involves the creation of a central hub in Robina, providing an important link from the railway station to Laver Drive through to the Promenade. The hub is intended to be a place of cultural and social exchange between the Council and the public. A large, green central public plaza is located on grade with Laver Drive , linking the Library, retail and council components. A significant portion of the site is retained as remnant and usable greenery which flows down from the rail link to a lower plaza and lower library level.

The traditional library was pulled apart, taking the highly public elements and integrating them more directly and accessibly into the urban spaces of the scheme. The council offices adopt a large central atrium which is used to better connect staff visually and physically, through informal meeting and accidental interaction. This is achieved by lining breakout and collaborative spaces along the atrium edge and near major circulation and communal spaces. The atrium also fosters ESD strategies, giving workers immediate access to outdoor terraces as well as acting as a solar chimney to improve cross ventilation and offer mixed mode operation.

RobeRtsonalexander

Architecture is a physical art articulating the place it is situated in. It resonates and enhances the context both natural and historical, providing an elevated human experience and a platform for delicious social encounters.

On first arriving at Robina I perched on the shaded embankment and took in the hinterlands through the tall pines, this prospect resonated in the design. The precinct forms a place belonging to the landscape, views through trees to the surrounds enhancing its inherent qualities.

At ground the portico and library orientate to Skilled Park forming a public space that signals a civic realm beyond site limits. A smaller gathering area is at the heart of the site, beneath the shelter of the library; part of the entry sequence it shifts focus from the square, orientating to the landscape. You descend beneath the portico to a courtyard, drawing on original conditions of site and exemplifying the natural assets of the context.

Glass-bricks in the library floors diffuse natural light into the gallery and public room below. The wings meet at a raised reading room, with views of the hinterland through the trees. Nestled within the branches, readers are suspended by a frame structural system offsetting it from the schemes dominant mass language which connects it to the earth.

Rowecharles

Good architecture results from a genuine social concern and willingness to improve the liveability of our communities. However, as Philip Johnson stated, “Architects are pretty much high-class whores. We can turn down projects the way they can turn down some clients, but we’ve both got to say yes to someone if we want to stay in business.”

In one word- transparency. That is, transparency to the internal workings within this machine that is the administration centre as it addresses the relationship (or lack of) that the public may have with local government by utilising an arrangement metaphorical of an antfarm and hence ‘putting a face’ to their council whom are supposedly working for the community. Composed of two long linear masses, one addressing the rail line and one addressing the street, a large pedestrian corridor and public space is created between that directly links the rocket office tower to the transit centre. A monumental concrete lattice structure wrapping the entire exterior, provides shade, lessens the mechanical cooling burden and contrasts with the crystalline transparent edge treatment of the atrium space and thus highlights the central ‘galleria’ as the focal gathering point of the site. Here, views are offered through varying opacities of glazing to selected areas where staff may be seen interacting with one another along internal edge walkways, across staggered vertical circulation within multivolume spaces and towards the ‘floating hub space’.

Rowelldaniel

Architectural design an inseparable mix of art, history and science that ultimately arises from basic human need. It is indulgent yet rational, public yet private, static yet fluid, imagined yet real, silent yet loud, conspicuous yet camouflaged, ephemeral yet forever...

Designed as a reaction to the man-made ubiquitous concrete and tar landscape that currently characterises Robina, the new Robina workplace project aims to create a ‘new’ model of sub tropical design and thus, set a precedent for future development in the region.

Since the early 1990s, rapid privatised development in the area has led to a lack of community spaces. The project aims to provide a gathering place for Robina’s ever growing local community. Inspired by the fact that the site was formally swampland, a reflection pool lies in the centre of a large urban garden room. This space functions as a sub tropical oasis, provides relief and shade for the community and is framed by a community library and the Robina City Council offices.

The use of timber is directly related to ideas of fitting in with the natural surroundings and Queenslander subtropical living. The timber promotes environmental sustainability and combined with the panoramic views of the Gold Coast hinterlands and Surfers Paradise Sky Line, the towers celebrate nature and a new way for future design.

Rynneluke

Recognising the variety and significance of programme dispersed within its context, the design proposition seeks to better integrate the existing fabric of the town centre, facilitating the connection between public transport and wider Robina through the form of a civic plaza, offering amenity both diverse and complimentary to existing commercial and cultural opportunities and the needs of project users.

At the site ground plane, the central plaza zone and gardens offer both prospect and refuge opportunities for frequent inhabitants, visitors and passers through and the nature of building program forming its edges serves to activate the external realm, provide spectacle, and in places blur the line between plaza and building.A prioritisation of the inhabitant defines the human-centred organisation, form and expression of space within the plaza, office tower and civic program.

Scale and material treatment of the tower is intentionally modest and pure, affording centre stage to the civic program.

seARlelarissa

The term “Architecture” arises some of the most en-joyable and frustrating experiences. Architecture is fascinating, ever evolving yet ever-lasting. From urban planning to detailing, poetics to pragmatics, form vs. function, less vs. more, materials, technology, social, en-vironmental, and political attitude shifts, architecture is not just about aesthetics, and has come far from simply providing shelter. It is the fusion and product of everything surrounding man. I find it an endless subject of discovery, which requires perseverance, discipline, and an open mind.

The aim of the design is to create maximum public space, addressing Laver Drive and Robina station, preserving existing trees on site, and encouraging more interaction between the community and the council. The main strategy is to use the library as an an-chor, functionally and physically, between the public space and the council office, and between built form and nature. It is achieved by merging the building into the terrain, producing an artificial landscape.The sequence of events takes place in a series of linked public rooms: the main foyer, the plaza, the alleyway, and the courtyard. Each space offers a unique quality; let it be professional, exciting, lei-surely, or tranquil; to suit the needs of all users.The site is landmarked by the foyers that address the entrances. They are visually connected to each other by their volumes and transparency. At night they are lit and become the beacons of the site.

shenGtianqin

The origins of any place reach deep into prehistory. To unravel traces of development, the various cultural lines and the evolution of the natural environment is to connect with the place as it stands. If we can take these ingredients, draw on these and evoke these, we have created a sense of place.

The character of the Gold Coast people is intrinsically linked with a closer investigation of natural places around the gold coast revealed an array of qualities, kinds of spaces, kinds of light, and kinds of water.

I drew on these qualities through the courtyards, foyers spaces, transitional spaces and communal rooms, creating a microcosm of the greater Gold Coast environment and integrating them into the experience of this public place and into the daily or weekly experience of the people.

120,000 years ago during an Ice Age, The seas lapped the foothills of the Gold Coast Hinterland. In the scheme, the courtyard floor becomes the ocean and the ground emerges from the depths, hinting at an ancient wonderland. The main foyer becomes a cavern where light streams in from above. Timber vestibules provide places to gather and discuss while connecting with the natural courtyard. Roof tops with timber canopies allow shade with areas to lookout and connect with the greater place and infinite beyond.

smithjames

Always a dreamer, yet residing purely in the practicals of construction. From labourer, to foreperson, to draftee, to estimator, to freeing one’s mind beneath moons, pencil to pad, Arvo Pärt to ear... A dream has evolved of an industry that values and utilises all intuitive thoughts, from labourer to architect.

The design was conceived through incorporation of three existing axis of movement, the northern train line, the dominant south-east winds and the north-east breezes. The major north and south-east aligned masses create an inner south facing courtyard that addresses Laver Drive and passing traffic. The north-east twisted element acts as a connection between the two majors and also creates a zone of compression that defines a difference between the external and semi-internal courtyard volumes, which are in essence essentially one entity. The north-east twisted form reaches from the verticality of the distant Gold Coast skyline and transfers to the horizontality of the hinterland mountains beyond to the west. Internally this element houses a centralised ‘heart’ community interaction space, the reading room, a space that allows users to explore and experience scales of grand and intimate natures. Formally this element is a direct figurative representation of the geographical location of Robina.

stiGwoodjackson

Architecture can be defined as the art of connecting people and place. The design of built form creates spaces which evoke a myriad of emotions and experi-ences within the context of the urban fabric. The role of the architect is to understand and respond to the people and the place, in order to create an experi-ence which connects with its surrounds.

The final scheme of the GCCC Administrative Centre and Library precinct identifies and con-nects to the existing urban link through Robina, which runs through the site. Major public spaces can be found adjacent to this major pathway. The public library mediates the relationship between the Administrative Offices and the highly public front of Laver Drive. The two major public wings of the scheme reach out and capture the natural ‘amphitheatre’ within the site to create a series of public spaces linking the major pathway to the central foyer, drawing one’s attention towards the picturesque hinterland on the South-West.

The office building has been designed to evoke the experience within the threshold space of the existing pine trees. The eastern facade treatment creates an interesting play of light and shade both externally and internally. Office zones are separated through a series of timber batten false ceilings. A series of social voids have also been created to connect people together and allow sun to penetrate into the office levels. The inten-tion throughout the scheme is to connect people and place together in a logical yet imaginative manner.

tAnjoshua

Architecture influences people’s everyday life. It is about creating space that people can engage with, a language that links up people and the building. It is an object that reminds people memories of oneself and the site, also allows people to create their new memories. It has form that generated by functions and one can understand and appreciate. Architecture is an everyday journey that enjoyable for everyone.

The design ideas started from the library, it is because the library is expected to be the most important public destination. The upper floor is a series of treads (platforms); they are the stage where people occupy, able to see people who come forward from this reading space, while they also became part of the whole picture of the interior view that people can see when that first arrive the library.The journey within the library is leading by the ‘wall of knowledge’ – stack of horizontal timber that remind us of the classical library bookshelf. The vertical structure of bookshelf extends and becomes part of the roof structure. The ‘bookshelf ’ becomes an architectural element that indicates the journey within the library, it also generate the form of the building and functions as a separator between public and formal within the library. The same language extends beyond the library and becomes the language for the whole precinct.

tsuichuen

I believe that buildings are for people, and thus spaces designed around the human form. Structures should not follow the usual soldierlike dimensional similarity, in recognition of the singularity in every man.

The building responds to its existing context, following the urban morphology, growing from a natural topology and modest domestic scale, gradually massing towards the institutional hierarchy anchored on the platform.

Translated through the use of platforms and terraces, these platforms receive, orientate and produce engaging accidental meeting spaces for its community. The civic platform dissolves vertically into “diminutive” versions or terraces creating intimate spaces, activating the edge, providing a sense of refuge within the greater whole.

The building stands bare with its “bones” exposed, communicating with its user, through primary, secondary and tertiary structural systems, further emphasised by order and material, this quality is consistent across the reading spaces in the library to the individual office desk in the workplace tower.

The design is a notion of a selfless institutional building, which provides ownership to its community, creating a sense of patriotism by contributing to a young and growing cityscape and not merely through a stream of commercial enterprises, competing for some kind of place in the sun.

vAn deR meRwejaneke

The scheme centres around the creation and activation of a public urban space with the intent to bring people through the site, providing a link to from Robina train station to Laver Drive, Robina’s business zone and Robina Town Centre. The public space is activated by lining it with cafe’s restaurants and retail stores as well as the library, a cycle centre and the public face of the council, making the urban space not only a link but a destination and a place for people to gather.The scheme is divided into two buildings, the council offices being the larger of the two occupies the western edge of the site protecting the urban space and library from the harsh western sun. The smaller library occupies the north east corner of the site, whilst providing some shade to the urban space, still allows eastern and northern sun to reach into the urban space and the council offices.The council offices are centred around a spine of ‘sky’ lobbies looking over the central urban space. Each lobby provides a physical and visual connection between three floors of offices as well as serving as breakout spaces, spaces for informal meetings as well as encouraging interaction between staff.

vellAnicholas

Establishing the project primarily as a unique civic address, as opposed to simply providing accommodation for council offices was the principal driver behind this proposition. Key to this aspiration was the organisation of the civic ‘heart’ of the project – the Robina Library – within the larger building program, securing the project identity as foremost a public building.

Formally, the building defines a street edge, strengthening a future Laver Drive precinct, before giving way to an urban plaza that recognizes anecdotal links to Robina train station. The library presents a formal address to this outdoor space by way of a projected masonry screen, which defines the informal ‘reading room’ program internally. Beyond, a significant public volume provides definition between spaces for ‘collection’ and ‘information’. This volume acts to pull the edge of the civic plaza within the building envelope, blurring the distinction between public and invited space. Entry to the building is deliberately aligned to ensure accountability of council functions to the community for which it serves.

wARdjonathan

“Let it not be imagined that building, merely considered heaping stone upon stone can be of great consequence, or reflect honour either upon nations or individuals. Material in architecture are like words in phraseology, having separately but little power; and they can be so arranged as to excite ridicule, disgust or even contempt. Yet when combined with skill, and expressed with energy they actuate the mind with unbounded sway” – Francis Greenway

The architecture responds to the nature of the site, which possesses various entry points mainly from Paddington Place, Laver Drive and Robina Town Centre Drive. As such, the design is driven by three foyer spaces within the podium that are strategically located to address these entry points whilst internally connecting the library component, council component and cycle centre. These foyers share similar attributes such as having a backdrop of vertical structural elements that frame the views to Gold Coast’s western hinterland and are also double height volumes that are outlined with glass panels or balustrades to enlarge the space and offer uninterrupted views internally and externally. The towers are oriented to possess predominantly northern and southern facing facades with end cores in the east and west. This serves well climatically and caters to the client’s preference of end cores for their office layout. The public square is nestled between the main council foyer, office towers, creative studio, large meeting room and retail enabling it to possess edges that have promotes various uses. The public square is envisioned to be a space similar to Brisbane Square whereby its serves as a link, linking the future workforce from Robina train station to the existing pedestrian crossing at Laver Drive and at selected times could transform into a temporary market place where the larger urban society could gather and mingle.

yoGAnAthAnkumutha (kay)

ilee abdul rahmanave maria abellanosakiichi aoyamagemma baxteralvin brennerpatrick bossinghamjonathan brownsandy cavillpeter ho chansiu man (simon) chansam charles-ginndavid churcherjack coatesthomas de platerolivia di. pasqualejack dodgsonaurelie frerewill harvey-joneskirsty hetheringtonadrianne jamiesonjessica kaydavid klagesbianca krmpotich

bowen lahdensuojessica lorek

angus mcnicholbianca milligan

yousaf mubarakbao-anh (lily) nguyen

lara nobeljonathan (jp) palmer

bryce pierpointalexander robertson

charles rowedaniel rowell

luke rynne larissa searle

tianqin shengjames smith

jackson stigwoodjoshua tan

chuen (thomas) tsuijaneke van der merwe

nicholas vellajonathan ward

chuan xiaokumutha (kay) yoganathan

UQ ARCHITECTURE 2011