As another month passes by, we take a look at the top 10 stories covered throughout March.

Click on the title to be taken to the original story, and let us know which your favourites were - or what else we should have covered. 

1.jpg1. Architect responds deftly to video imploring consumers bypass architects in custom home construction

A Youtube video from a marketing agency representing builders caused a stir in architecture circles this month.

‘Why you shouldn’t use an architect to design your new home’ is the latest in a series of videos from the Association of Professional Builders uploaded to its Youtube channel on 12 March.

The video is presented by Co-Founder of APB, Sky Stevens and offers guidance to viewers who may be considering building a new custom home about what professional help they should hire.

2.jpg2. Woods Bagot delivers a new way to shop in Myer’s “store of the future”

With customer service and localisation as heart of Myer’s new strategy for the future of their department stores, Woods Bagot has designed the interior and architectural concept of the new Warringah Mall store to create a sensory shopping experience that reflects its location and customer demographic.

Completed in November 2016, Frank Alvarez and his design team curated a concept that balanced the retail demands of high-end department stores with the causal lifestyle of Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

3.jpg3. Sydenham Green Amenities by Sam Crawford Architects sets benchmark for public toilet designs

Sydenham Green Amenities, designed by Sam Crawford Architects, is intended “as an exemplary precedent for future public toilet projects, aimed at maximising public safety and civic pride, and minimising vandalism of an oft-benighted building type”.

Resembling a fallen section of fuselage, the building’s distinct lines and angular, even slightly crumpled form, reference the planes passing overhead at three minute intervals. Its materiality takes cues from the surrounding urban fabric and brief requirements for durability and resistance to damage.

4.jpg4. Australian first: window-meets-balcony system to be used for Brisbane tower

Brisbane’s Hayes Anderson Lynch Architects (HAL) made headlines two weeks ago when a proposal for a unique Victorian-inspired tower popped up in the Brisbane City Council development portal with its name on it.

One week later, the firm and the project got a second run in the press as it became apparent that ‘Broadway’ in Woolloongabba could eventually be Australia’s first project to incorporate the innovative Bloomframe window/balcony.

Designed by Amsterdam-based Hofman Dujardin Architects, the window system allows entire sections of an apartment’s wall to fold outwards to create a balcony extension.

5.jpg5. Martin Place mega development edges closer to approval

Plans for a $2 billion integrated metro and commercial tower development at Sydney’s Martin Place have progressed to the final stage of the Unsolicited Proposals process and will now be handed to the NSW cabinet for assessment. 

The proposal will also be put to the Department of Planning and Environment by its developer, Macquarie Group as a series of development applications in the coming months, allowing the public to have its say on the state significant development.

6.jpg6. New York’s The Big Bend a game-changer in the race for the ‘tallest’ building

Design studio Oiio has responded to the high-rise obsession of Manhattan's luxury condo developers by proposing a conceptual skyscraper that substitutes height with length.

The race to create standout buildings on the New York skyline has led to developers exploiting loopholes in the city’s zoning laws to maximise the height of their buildings, and thereby automatically add premium value to their ‘supertall’ properties.

 

7.jpg7. Central courtyard with polycarbonate roof brings out the magic of simple coastal home

Court House is one of those projects that get its brief and context right, seemingly without doing anything new or special. Set within a quiet court with a walking track down to a secluded beach, the brief was for a modest timber dwelling with a protected outdoor area away from the strong Southerly breezes. As expected, timber plays a key role in the design to connect the home to its coastal bush landscape.

But these are just first impressions made from afar. The delight of Court House is found up close and possibly behind closed doors – its namesake, a courtyard set between living areas that clue us in on the project’s true personality.

8.jpg8. Micro Sydney Uni dorms a new model for affordable student accommodation

Nettleton Tribe is the latest architecture firm to bear the fruits of Sydney Uni’s billion-dollar redevelopment of its city campuses, and it’s a project that could end up having a significant impact on student accommodation design in Sydney.

Earlier this month, the Sydney-based practice submitted a development application for a new mixed-use project at the City Road entrance to the university’s Camperdown Campus.  

The Regiment Mixed-Use Redevelopment Project includes the addition of a new eight-storey student accommodation and educational facility, to be integrated with a number of heritage items currently occupying and bordering the site.

9.jpg9. Behind the façade: Zaha Hadid Architects project director discusses 600 Collins St

Melbourne’s CBD will soon be home to a new skyscraper from international architecture firm Zaha Hadid Architects.

The $300 million mixed-use tower on Collins Street will include 420 apartments, office and retail space as well as communal public areas such as a ground floor art space, a public plaza and a publicly accessible terrace.

Michele Pasca di Magliano is Associate Director at Zaha Hadid Architects based in the United Kingdom. Throughout the course of his career, Michele has led several competition winning schemes such as the d’Leedon residential complex in Singapore that received the World Gold Award for Residential High-Rise at the FIABCI World Prix D’Excellence Awards 2016.

10.jpg10. Sydney Uni Australia’s top ranked in 2017 QS World University Rankings for architecture

Sydney has maintained its position over Melbourne in Quacquarelli Symonds’ (QS) 2017 rankings of the world’s top university architecture faculties.

The University of Sydney has placed before The University of Melbourne in the annual survey which rates the top universities for architecture based on academic reputation, employer reputation and research impact.

This year, for the seventh edition of the survey, QS has expanded the ranking to list the world’s top 200 schools.