NUMBER 1
IN THIS ISSUE:
1999 ARCHITECTURE
STUDENTS
COMPETITION
Described by the judging panel as 'spectacular', Lana van Galen's winning design for a regional multi-purpose sports centre uses concrete masonry in a sculptural manner
Regional Multi-Purpose Sports Centre
The judges were favourably impressed with the overall standard of entries. However we were disappointed with the limited number of entries. Hence the sense that this worthy competition, held each year since 1985, is truly representative of the national architectural student cohort was reduced. As the winner, Lana van Galen noted:
`Thank you all kindly for enabling the students of architecture in this country to challenge themselves through your brief, and be rewarded with generous recognition of their effort. I am proud to accept this and hope that other students will take up such an opportunity if it is presented again.'
The design brief for a Regional Multi-Purpose Sports Centre was presented to students of architecture across Australia during 1999. This was the fifteenth in a series of design competitions sponsored annually by the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia to encourage students to familiarise themselves with concrete masonry products and their characteristics. Students are expected to use the products in their designs for the competition.
The brief is created with the intention of being conducive to producing innovative solutions, in which conceptual design ideas can be coupled with the practicalities of construction.
The competition was held in two stages. Stage 1 involved the selection of two entries from each participating School of Architecture by members of the teaching staff. During Stage 2, a judging panel in Sydney evaluated the entries submitted from each school.
The judging was held on 7 December 1999. Members of the jury for Stage 2 were:
- Patrick O’Carrigan, Patrick O’Carrigan & Partners (Author of brief and Head of Jury)
- David Von Schill, NSW Sport and Recreation
- Mark Broadley, Giles Tribe Architects
- Harry Partridge, Partridge Partners
The winner of Stage 1 from each School of Architecture was awarded $500 and the runner-up received $300. The winner of Stage 2 receives an economy round-the-world airline ticket plus $2000 spending money.
Judges Comments:
Winner Lana van Galen - Deakin University (No 23)
This is a spectacular entry with an arresting concept, superb graphics and images, and a sure hand in addressing the central concerns of the brief. Lana’s approach to the Australian 'shed' vernacular, the demands of the site and its topography helped set this entry apart from all others. Lana managed to take the Australian vernacular by the scruff and to haul it forward. The solution is at once derived from the site particulars and yet is a very positive, contemporary statement.
The form - low, spreading and sheltering springs from the earth - it is not fragmented into bits and pieces. The free-floating curvaceous form is an evolution of the landform. Clearly its concerns are not the natural given circumstance but the hand of people, the marks and traces left by tracks and farming machinery. In Lana`s words `a familiar image to be seen in the rural landscape is the apparently discarded piece of farm machinery, lying where it was last dragged through the earth. This evocative image is the idea behind my concept`.
The jury was intrigued by the use of masonry in a sculptural manner in this partially embedded building- it inspires reconsideration of this humble time-honoured material. This architecture is assured; it is simple shelter writ large in a landscape where often our structures are dwarfed by the vast open spaces and endless horizons. The planning is sensitive and practical, housing all elements along a linear path under a spoked pinwheel structure.
The leading edge successfully captures the sculptural blade of the plough churning the earth. While the judges were sceptical of the extreme spans required of the plantation timber portal frames, they felt the built solution could be achieved with further design development. Environmental issues were addressed in terms of passive daylighting, natural ventilation and cooling strategies, and site revegetation. Her design also sought to supplement the earth’s natural mass and thermal constant with masonry’s ability to deliver low maintenance thermal lag.
The judges also commented favourably on the confident and stimulating use of computer graphic software including Rhino 3d, 3D Studio Max V2.5 and Adobe Photoshop & Pagemaker to enhance and convey the essence of the scheme, ie the use of computer was a means to the design not an end in itself which, in some other schemes, ended up muting the message.
Highly commended Nic Tang - University of NSW (No 31)
The formal arrangement was simple and robust and eminently suited to the brief. The two component buildings, one existing and the other new, were subsumed in one form. The judges believed the solution to be eminently buildable. It did not however express innovation. The architecture was less well integrated to the landform - there was a sense that it was plonked there. The expression of materials was thoughtful. The photographs of the working models conveyed well the sense of exploration. The proposal was a clean, ordered, low cost and straightforward solution in which masonry dominated. Nic was aware of the sheer size of the structure and attempted to break down the scale. This was achieved by lowering the hall, through the use of shade awnings and repetitive pier and laminated truss spacings, and secondary roofs. Great attention is paid to details such as louvred breezeways and timber slat shade structures. If anything the point of differentiation in this design being placed second is that its conceptual order and ultimate resolution is derived from the extant site, as Nic. writes `the site generates the plan, structural lines and spacings are determined by the existing pool structures and the playing field.` The winner was at once able to grasp the site and yet go beyond the immediate and introduce something new and evocative.
Commended Siew Fung Then - Curtin University (No 14)
Iona Mansfield - Queensland University of Technology (No 3)
Commendations were awarded by the jury to Entries 14 and 3. Principally, they did some things extremely well, but overall were evidently less comprehensive and striking as the winning and highly-commended entries.
Siew Fung Then's entry is poetic in its minimalism and simplicity which achieves almost an abandoned feel, a ruin. This solution speaks of masonry, its massiveness and stability, and the importance of wall for its sense of closure, security ( punched openings contrasted with the ephemeral. Attractive in its formalism the jury felt that the re-orientation of the existing pool was a step too far.
Iona Mansfield's entry was grand and the most expansive solution extending to the lake’s edge. The ordering device was a linear axis with a series of overlapping and stepping platforms and well-greened courts and terraces. Throughout a water theme was used to good effect environmentally in mitigating a harsh microclimate. It also amplified the setting and place-making connections in the design. However, it did result in a somewhat over-scaled solution with fragmented elements and highly repetitive units of design detail.
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| IN THIS ISSUE: | |||||
1999 ARCHITECTURE
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| Described by the judging panel as 'spectacular', Lana van Galen's winning design for a regional multi-purpose sports centre uses concrete masonry in a sculptural manner |
Regional Multi-Purpose Sports Centre
The judges were favourably impressed with the overall standard of entries. However we were disappointed with the limited number of entries. Hence the sense that this worthy competition, held each year since 1985, is truly representative of the national architectural student cohort was reduced. As the winner, Lana van Galen noted:
`Thank you all kindly for enabling the students of architecture in this country to challenge themselves through your brief, and be rewarded with generous recognition of their effort. I am proud to accept this and hope that other students will take up such an opportunity if it is presented again.'
The design brief for a Regional Multi-Purpose Sports Centre was presented to students of architecture across Australia during 1999. This was the fifteenth in a series of design competitions sponsored annually by the Concrete Masonry Association of Australia to encourage students to familiarise themselves with concrete masonry products and their characteristics. Students are expected to use the products in their designs for the competition.
The brief is created with the intention of being conducive to producing innovative solutions, in which conceptual design ideas can be coupled with the practicalities of construction.
The competition was held in two stages. Stage 1 involved the selection of two entries from each participating School of Architecture by members of the teaching staff. During Stage 2, a judging panel in Sydney evaluated the entries submitted from each school.
The judging was held on 7 December 1999. Members of the jury for Stage 2 were:
- Patrick O’Carrigan, Patrick O’Carrigan & Partners (Author of brief and Head of Jury)
- David Von Schill, NSW Sport and Recreation
- Mark Broadley, Giles Tribe Architects
- Harry Partridge, Partridge Partners
The winner of Stage 1 from each School of Architecture was awarded $500 and the runner-up received $300. The winner of Stage 2 receives an economy round-the-world airline ticket plus $2000 spending money.
| Judges Comments: Winner Lana van Galen - Deakin University (No 23) |
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This is a spectacular entry with an arresting concept, superb graphics and images, and a sure hand in addressing the central concerns of the brief. Lana’s approach to the Australian 'shed' vernacular, the demands of the site and its topography helped set this entry apart from all others. Lana managed to take the Australian vernacular by the scruff and to haul it forward. The solution is at once derived from the site particulars and yet is a very positive, contemporary statement.
The form - low, spreading and sheltering springs from the earth - it is not fragmented into bits and pieces. The free-floating curvaceous form is an evolution of the landform. Clearly its concerns are not the natural given circumstance but the hand of people, the marks and traces left by tracks and farming machinery. In Lana`s words `a familiar image to be seen in the rural landscape is the apparently discarded piece of farm machinery, lying where it was last dragged through the earth. This evocative image is the idea behind my concept`.
The jury was intrigued by the use of masonry in a sculptural manner in this partially embedded building- it inspires reconsideration of this humble time-honoured material. This architecture is assured; it is simple shelter writ large in a landscape where often our structures are dwarfed by the vast open spaces and endless horizons. The planning is sensitive and practical, housing all elements along a linear path under a spoked pinwheel structure.
The leading edge successfully captures the sculptural blade of the plough churning the earth. While the judges were sceptical of the extreme spans required of the plantation timber portal frames, they felt the built solution could be achieved with further design development. Environmental issues were addressed in terms of passive daylighting, natural ventilation and cooling strategies, and site revegetation. Her design also sought to supplement the earth’s natural mass and thermal constant with masonry’s ability to deliver low maintenance thermal lag.
The judges also commented favourably on the confident and stimulating use of computer graphic software including Rhino 3d, 3D Studio Max V2.5 and Adobe Photoshop & Pagemaker to enhance and convey the essence of the scheme, ie the use of computer was a means to the design not an end in itself which, in some other schemes, ended up muting the message.
| Highly commended Nic Tang - University of NSW (No 31) The formal arrangement was simple and robust and eminently suited to the brief. The two component buildings, one existing and the other new, were subsumed in one form. The judges believed the solution to be eminently buildable. It did not however express innovation. The architecture was less well integrated to the landform - there was a sense that it was plonked there. The expression of materials was thoughtful. The photographs of the working models conveyed well the sense of exploration. The proposal was a clean, ordered, low cost and straightforward solution in which masonry dominated. Nic was aware of the sheer size of the structure and attempted to break down the scale. This was achieved by lowering the hall, through the use of shade awnings and repetitive pier and laminated truss spacings, and secondary roofs. Great attention is paid to details such as louvred breezeways and timber slat shade structures. If anything the point of differentiation in this design being placed second is that its conceptual order and ultimate resolution is derived from the extant site, as Nic. writes `the site generates the plan, structural lines and spacings are determined by the existing pool structures and the playing field.` The winner was at once able to grasp the site and yet go beyond the immediate and introduce something new and evocative. |
Commended Siew Fung Then - Curtin University (No 14) Iona Mansfield - Queensland University of Technology (No 3) Commendations were awarded by the jury to Entries 14 and 3. Principally, they did some things extremely well, but overall were evidently less comprehensive and striking as the winning and highly-commended entries. Siew Fung Then's entry is poetic in its minimalism and simplicity which achieves almost an abandoned feel, a ruin. This solution speaks of masonry, its massiveness and stability, and the importance of wall for its sense of closure, security ( punched openings contrasted with the ephemeral. Attractive in its formalism the jury felt that the re-orientation of the existing pool was a step too far. Iona Mansfield's entry was grand and the most expansive solution extending to the lake’s edge. The ordering device was a linear axis with a series of overlapping and stepping platforms and well-greened courts and terraces. Throughout a water theme was used to good effect environmentally in mitigating a harsh microclimate. It also amplified the setting and place-making connections in the design. However, it did result in a somewhat over-scaled solution with fragmented elements and highly repetitive units of design detail. |
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