Archinect - News

Australia allocates $228 million towards new Indigenous cultural center in Canberra

2022-02-07T12:15:00-05:00

A new Indigenous cultural precinct where repatriated ancestral remains will be cared for, and where Indigenous Australia’s history will be unfurled through a large but little-known collection, is set to become a reality in four years on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and the minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt made the joint announcement on January 4th. The precinct, named Ngurra, which means home, will receive $228 million from the federal government for its construction. A national architecture competition for its design is set to be launched this month.

Sitting in the heart of Australia’s capital, Ngurra will house a National Resting Place for Indigenous remains that have been repatriated from overseas collections, and it will serve as the new home for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). While there have been decades-long calls for a National Resting Place, reactions to Ngurra have been mixed, with critics believing money would be better spent alleviating the poverty that Indigenous communities face.

Take a peek inside the mesmerizing Hotel Hotel, the 2015 World Interior of the Year

2015-11-06T20:35:00-05:00

Floating fragmented pieces of reclaimed timber energize the lobby space of the charmingly named Hotel Hotel, located in the blossoming precinct of NewActon in Canberra, Australia. Designed by Australian practice March Studio, the hotel was recently named World Interior of the Year at the INSIDE: World Festival of Interiors in Singapore's Marina Bay Sands.

Coinciding with the World Architecture Festival, INSIDE highlights the most outstanding projects in the international interior design scene. This year's competition started out with over 100 nominations that were narrowed down to nine category winners. After the nine teams vied for the overall-winning title in one final round of presentations, Hotel Hotel scored the prize at the end of the day.

Hotel Hotel is part of a wider scheme that includes offices, private residential apartments, cafes, and a cinema. A grand staircase at the center of the two-floor hotel draws in guests to the building's other main areas, which feature more rec...

50 years of gentrification: will all our cities turn into 'deathly' Canberra?

2014-12-12T13:22:00-05:00

The Economist Intelligence Unit puts Melbourne in first place, followed by Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto, Adelaide and Calgary. There is never any mention, on any list, of London or New York, Paris or Hong Kong. There are no liveable cities where you might actually want to live. [...] Liveability, it seems, is defined by a total absence of risk or chance, pleasure or surprise. It is an index of comfort, a guide to places where you can go safe in the knowledge you’ll never be far from a Starbucks.

Editor's Picks #387

2014-10-02T12:29:00-04:00

For the latest edition of Working out of the Box: Archinect talked with Adora Lo, Architect turned Pro LEGO Builder.

They discussed the "challenge of keeping it LEGO legal" and the satisfaction of designing a "Star Wars building in LEGO". midlander was impressed "That Boston model...The Lego version of 111 Huntington is nicer than the real one!"

Plus, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg shared the debut issue of ‘LOBBY ’, The Bartlett School of Architecture ’s new architecture magazine, for Screen/Print #25.

News
The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) announced that it will be making significant changes to its Intern Development Program (IDP). Separate from other considerations to change the IDP's terminology, this decision chiefly includes two phases: (1) the removal of "elective" hourly requirements, and (2) condensing IDP's experience areas from the current 17 into six "practice-based categories".

The general consensus seemed to be underwhelmed - midlander quipped "So......

An illustrated history of Canberra, the Australian capital designed by American architects

2014-09-25T20:13:00-04:00

Cartoonist and journalist Eleri Mai Harris tells the story of Canberra's creation by architects Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney Griffin (who also happened to be married to one another, and worked with Frank Lloyd Wright).

Read the piece in full, gorgeous watercolor on Medium: The Utopian City That Wasn't: How two American architects won a competition to design Australia’s capital in 1912

Winners of Australia’s THE LODGE ON THE LAKE Competition

2013-05-31T18:30:00-04:00

Winners have been unveiled in THE LODGE ON THE LAKE competition. As part of the celebrations for the Centenary of Australia's capital city Canberra in 2013, the University of Canberra and the Gallery of Australian Design had invited designers to participate in this design ideas competition for a new official residence for the Prime Minister of Australia on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.

The competition was endorsed by the Australian Institute of Architects and the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, however there are currently no intentions by the Australian Government to actually build a new Lodge for the Prime Minister.