New Principals at HASSELL
We are pleased to announce the appointment of three new Principals at HASSELL, all of whom have been promoted from within the business. The promotions were announced at the practice's annual Principals' Conference, which took place in the new Sydney studio last week.
The new Principals are:
_Mike Rendell, Architecture, Perth
_Megan Reading, Architecture, Brisbane
_Thomas Herron, Interior Design, Shanghai
Mike Rendell has worked at HASSELL for nearly a decade and over this time has had a focus on residential design, including bespoke housing, multi-residential buildings as well as urban design master planning. Some of the key projects Mike has worked on include Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority Precinct Master Planning at Riverside in Perth and the University of Western Australia Currie Hall Student Accommodation project.
Megan Reading has been working as a designer for almost 20 years and has been at HASSELL since 2006. Key projects in her portfolio include the A$1.75 billion Gold Coast University Hospital (the Hospital's Mental Health Unit recently received the 2013 Building of the Year in the AIA Gold Coast/Northern Rivers Regional Awards) and the Auburn Hospital Redevelopment in Sydney.
Thomas Herron joined HASSELL in 2012 and has extensive experience across the workplace, hospitality and residential sectors and has led projects in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Significant projects he has worked on include the Bank of America in Hong Kong, the Radisson Blu Resort in Qingdao and the Hongqiao Xin Qiao Office Tower in Shanghai.
Announcing the appointments, HASSELL Managing Director Rob Backhouse said that our continued ability to attract retain and develop future leaders is one of the key factors in the company's continued success.
"We focus on identifying and promoting great designers who genuinely love working collaboratively with colleagues and clients. Our Principals are not only talented designers but they also immerse themselves in the business of their clients. The combination of creativity, passion, listening and understanding is at the heart of great design," said Rob.
L-R: Mike Rendell, Megan Reading and Thomas Herron
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Vale Dianne D’Alessandro
A tribute from the team at HASSELL on the passing of Dianne D'Alessandro: an admired and much loved member of the Sydney design community
To those who knew her personally and professionally, and to many of you who were great friends with her, you would know that Di had been putting up a courageous fight against leukaemia for the last 16 months. On Tuesday 7 May, Di unfortunately lost that battle.
During her time at HASSELL, Di lent her extraordinary talent and patience to projects not just in Sydney, but around the world, including Bangkok and Greece. She demonstrated her unique talent through award winning projects such as Leo Burnett and PTTEP.
Her clients loved working with her and more often than not they became more than just clients, they became friends. Together with us will they will mourn the passing of this remarkable young woman.
Her most valuable and inspiring trait was her love for life. She attacked everything she did with gusto and a can do attitude. She bought to the Sydney interiors team and the Sydney studio this love for life. She embraced her work and the social aspects of the studio and the industry, like she embraced everything in her life. In times of stress she was the one still with a smile on her face and trying to make others laugh. In fact her smile was one of the brightest I have ever seen.
She was always at the centre of any fun, and at any social event she would be there to the bitter end; dancing, singing, drinking red wine and entertaining those around her. Di also loved the outdoors and when she wasn't running marathons and participating in fundraising events for CanToo, she could be found either in the yoga studio or topping up her tan on Bondi beach.
We have lost a real bit of magic from not only HASSELL, but this world. Di had an amazing talent, an undeniable spirit and love for life, a personality that would light up a room, and in the last 16 months, an undeniable courage that allowed her to spend what precious time she could with her two little twin girls Luella and Saskia, that she and Josh had wanted so much.
She will be missed by all of us.
_Matthew Blain
HASSELL Principal
(As published on IndesignLive)
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Virtual cuppa with Tony Grist
Companies now want their workplaces to reflect brand values, but who gets to see them except for staff, asks Neil Usher from On Office magazine? In the May 2013 issue of the magazine, Neil discusses a more extrovert approach that blurs the boundaries between public and private with Tony Grist, Head of Architecture at HASSELL, who has worked on many high profile workplace projects.
"Moving to a system that acknowledges the benefits 'in use' of a workplace is much more valuable, and will deliver more creative spaces that in turn influence the public realm and the city," explained Tony.
"The lower levels of a building are beginning to define this new direction by effectively becoming a hub space for a multi-tenanted building and its immediate environs, providing enticement for various tenants in a building to come together, and mix with visitors looking for mobile space."
Tony further explained that models do exist where corporates have opened their doors to the public through exhibitions and the arts, and there are models for space to be visually connected to the public realm, while some organisations are providing more public access through manipulating points of security, giving the ground floor over to more public interfaces.
HASSELL uses university learning hubs and campus designs (such as the University of Adelaide Learning Hub) as a model for these merging forms and transitional spaces – they merge architecture, workplace design and the design of the public realm. The students that use these spaces will, in time, demand similar spaces in their working life, Tony explained.
"Employers specifying new workplaces have to deliver space that remains relevant in five or ten years' time. The design community must take every opportunity to engage with current and future users, while at the same time sharing their findings with those who procure the workplaces of the future," Tony concluded.
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The airport with no check-in
Imagine an airport terminal with no check-in counters - designers at HASSELL already have.
HASSELL Principal Mark Wolfe recently told an international conference in Switzerland that there might be no need for traditional check-in facilities at many airports by 2025.
“We are likely to see more sophisticated security, trusted traveler programs etc,” Mark said. “With the majority of processes either disappearing or becoming virtual, the journey through the terminal and kerb-to-cabin journey will become faster and more reliable.”
Mark was speaking at Passenger Terminal 2013 in Geneva.
He said the key to airport design in the past 20 years has been flexibility with the most successful terminals able to respond to exploding demand for air travel, changing technologies and the growth of new, budget airlines with very different business models.
“The challenge from here on in is to design terminals that are not just physically flexible,” Mark said. “Terminals will have to cater for a range of airline operational models and provide opportunities for clear product differentiation.
“A more reliable and seamless passenger experience could result in a change in behavior. Could it means that greater number of passengers arrive later and move through the terminal just in time for boarding? Does the airport lose that passenger dwell, that contact that enables them to transact and generate revenue?”
HASSELL put those questions to a group of airport planners from Australia and New Zealand in Melbourne recently.
“We debated whether this future was a reality and whether or not airports would struggle to be commercially viable,” Mark told the Geneva conference.
“We considered whether they would become something like a bus station – somewhere to go to catch a plane but with very little amenity, or would they respond by reinventing themselves as a destination.
“Interestingly, the consensus was that this would really be defined by the passengers themselves. In some cases the terminal would need to be both a bus station for some passengers and a destination or experience with amenities for others.”
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Mark Kelly joins HASSELL
HASSELL is pleased to announce the appointment of Mark Kelly as a Principal.
Mark will be taking a key leadership role within the practice nationally and internationally.
With twenty-five years’ experience working as an architect and designer in both Australia and the United Kingdom, Mark brings with him broad, internationally recognised experience across commercial, leisure, residential, health, education and science sectors.
“Mark will work across several key sectors, providing knowledge leadership that contributes to design excellence and will bring tangible benefits for our clients,” said HASSELL Managing Director Rob Backhouse.
“Mark’s mindset is aligned with ours – he is passionate about deeply understanding the needs of clients, delivering excellent, sustainable design and drawing together international experience to deliver the best outcomes on projects,” said Rob.
Prior to his appointment with HASSELL, Mark was a Director with Woods Bagot based in Melbourne with responsibility for leading the Education, Science and Health sectors and Sustainability globally.
Mark’s extensive portfolio of work includes the Daniel Mannix Building for the Australian Catholic University and a range of corporate headquarters projects for Toyota Motor Corporation, Siemens and Cathay Pacific. Mark also led the teams on several high profile projects including the Victorian Police Headquarters and the landmark tower at 1 William Street in Brisbane.
As well as commercial workplace projects, Mark also has particular expertise in complex medical, research and data centre facilities. He was design director for the CSIRO Division of Minerals, JP Morgan Data Centre, the National Stem Cell Research Facility and the Monash Nanofabrication Facility in Melbourne.
“I’m excited about joining HASSELL. My first impression is that there’s a fantastic culture, a team of remarkable people and a lot of opportunity to create very high quality design,” said Mark.
Mark will be based in the HASSELL Melbourne Studio and can be contacted on +61 3 8102 3000 or mkelly@hassellstudio.com
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HASSELL shortlisted in UNSW Alumni Park design competition
The HASSELL proposal for UNSW Alumni Park, developed in collaboration with Greyspace and E2 DesignLab, was one of five designs shortlisted in the University of New South Wales’ competition to generate proposals for a major new open space and associated facilities for the Kensington campus.
“The vision for Alumni Park is a place where past, current and future campus communities meet to share their experiences of academic life”, said Angus Bruce, Principal and Head of Landscape Architecture at HASSELL.
“Central to the HASSELL concept is the rite of passage from student to alumnus. Through the physical creation of this symbolic passage, the purpose of academic life becomes ‘tangible’, encouraging students to imagine their future. This emphasises the connection to a larger network beyond the campus and reinforces goals, encouraging students to reach their potential. For returning alumni, it will be a place to reflect on the past, surrounded by the vibrant atmosphere of contemporary student life.”
The theme of ‘networked connectivity’ is explored in the design. It reflects increasing mobility and student-centred learning in spaces outside the traditional ’classroom’, through Wi-Fi, podcasts and online study for example, and builds on the relationship and accessibility between the University campus and the wider world.
In a world that is increasingly ‘connected’, the design serves to connect students physically. It establishes physical, environmental, social and digital networks through a sequence of zones: The Collect, Green Heart, The Commons, Alumni Terrace and Old Tote, which combine to create Alumni Park. The result is a meaningful space that is adaptable and supportive of individual and collective academic aspirations.
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Tony Grist featured in The Welsh Agenda publication
Tony Grist, Head of Architecture and based in the HASSELL London studio, believes it is time to create a new heart for Cardiff and that the redevelopment of the Central Station could be the focus for uniting a divided city. Following his successful presentation at the Design Commission for Wales conference, ‘Moving – Prioritising People and Place in Transport Interchanges’, Tony was invited by the Institute of Welsh Affairs to write a parallel article for their Spring issue of The Welsh Agenda.
In the article, Tony talks about how the coming of rail in the mid-nineteenth century divided the Welsh capital with the rail lines creating a division between the north and south sides of the city. He discusses how this could be repaired through the creation of new public space, and reconnecting the valleys though linear greens spaces down to the docks.
He describes how a new Metro may integrate with a revived Central Square, bringing life to the public spaces and reinvigorating traditional arcades and connecting laneways; and how event crowds from the Millennium Stadium can work within this new public space.
The Institute of Welsh Affairs is an independent, membership-based think tank, dedicated to promoting the economic, social, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales.
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Parkroyal Darling Harbour
HASSELL has been working on the Parkroyal Darling Harbour and the new lobby was recently unveiled
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Scott Walker reflects on IDEA
Scott Walker, Head of Interior Design at HASSELL, reflects on his time as jury member for this year's Interior Design Excellence Awards (IDEA) on Australian Design Review
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ArchDaily on Bjarke Ingels' visit to Sydney
ArchDaily covers the news of Bjarke Ingels' visit to Sydney, sponsored by HASSELL
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Designing for integrated education and research
How HASSELL designs for integrated education and research
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Rundle Mall in Adelaide
Ben Willsmore, HASSELL Senior Associate, discusses the Rundle Mall redevelopment in Adelaide that he is working on as project design leader
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Open plan offices - the pros and cons
Steve Coster, Head of Knowledge and Sustainability at HASSELL, discusses the pros and cons of open plan offices
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Developing Australia's regional towns
The SuperTowns initiative in Western Australia is discussed on Design Build Source
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Palm Island on IndesignLiveAsia
The Palm Island project takes its inspiration from the unique geography of Chongqing where the Yangtze River and Jialing River converge into one
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We Love Perth profiles young architect Carly Barrett
Young HASSELL architect and Creative Director of Open House Perth was profiled on We Love Perth
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Common Ground Sydney featured on Inhabitat
The World Architecture Festival award-winning Common Ground Sydney project features on Inhabitat with a special emphasis on its sustainability features
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Changing the face of Perth through architecture
Design Build Source looks at how the Perth CBD is changing with developments like the HASSELL-designed Brookfield Place
