A ground-breaking building for Melbourne's Docklands
A 1,000 square metre park will welcome staff and visitors to the new Medibank building in Melbourne's Docklands, currently being designed by HASSELL for developer Cbus Property.
The park will be the main arrival point for Medibank and act as a gateway to the entire precinct. It will feature a multi-purposecourt, entertainment area and an 'edible' garden for Medibank's staff.
The building will be triangular in shape and clad in planted green walls. The shape is conceived from two side core buildings that merge around a central atrium to bring in light to all levels. External terrace spaces and planting accentuate the tower form of the building.
HASSELL Melbourne Managing Principal Ingrid Bakker said the building would be a landmark adjacent to Melbourne's Etihad Stadium and the elevated footbridge that links the stadium to Southern Cross station.
"It will also be a great place to work," she said. "Medibank provided an inspirational brief based on its 'for better health' brand. They want a building that promotes employee health and encourages healthy lifestyles, a workplace that serves as an exemplar of a healthy work environment.
"Our design responds to the brief, creating a workplace that employees will want to work in."
Medibank will occupy 30,000 square metres and other tenants a total of 16,000 square metres in the 20 storey building. HASSELL are also designing the interior of the floors occupied by Medibank.
"The workplace design will be carefully tailored to the way people at Medibank want to work," said Ingrid Bakker. "It will foster teamwork and collaboration and allow very efficient use of the space.
"The design process has been very collaborative with HASSELL, Cbus Property and Medibank all working towards a shared vision – a fantastic workplace in a beautiful, sustainable building that brings new life and energy to Docklands."
Medibank is scheduled to move in to its new headquarters in 2014.
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Temple Restaurant features in New York Times review
The Temple Restaurant Beijing, designed by HASSELL, was featured in a recent New York Times review.
Reviewer Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan said the 600-year-old temple exuded ''cool silence'' the moment you enter the compound from the loud chatter of the hutong, or old Beijing laneways.
"All around us were sleek, minimalist furnishings and a backlit bar.'' The design ''juxtaposes old and nouveau Beijing in both ambience and flavors,'' said Lu-Lien Tan in the review.
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Jamie Brewster joins Design Commission for Wales
Jamie Brewster, a Senior Associate in our Cardiff studio, was recently appointed an Advocate in Practice for the Design Commission for Wales.
The role of an Advocate is essentially acting as an 'emissary' of the Design Commission to assist them to advance their key messages about design quality in the built environment. Advocates have a relaxed mandate – there are no fixed agendas, actions or requirements, just the obligation to promote good design through access to like-minded professionals via regular forums and events.
The current group of Advocates is a diverse group of people, consisting of urban designers, landscape architects and local authority planning officers as well as architects and academics. The focus is on the built environment as a cohesive whole (from buildings, across landscapes to infrastructure), which is why it is so important that there is a wide range of group members.
The Advocates group also takes advantage of the network to begin to collaborate on initiatives and recent examples include engaging with several schools and education authorities as well as running design workshops with local developers.
“I’m really excited to be part of the Design Commission for Wales as it allows me to go beyond the day-to-day project thinking and gives HASSELL the opportunity to contribute to a wider design context. The work of the Commission is also really tightly aligned with the core values of our practice,” said Jamie.
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World Architecture Festival success for HASSELL
Tianjin Binhai Transport Interchange in Tianjin, China, is just one of 10 HASSELL designed projects shortlisted for awards at the World Architecture Festival 2012.
The awards program is a major part of the three-day festival of architecture - the largest event of its type, dedicated to celebrating and sharing architectural excellence from across the globe. This year the festival is being held in October in Singapore. It is the first time it has been held outside of Europe.
HASSELL short listed projects are:
_Chasing Kitsune, State of Design Festival 2011, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia - Completed Buildings - Shopping
_Common Ground Housing, Camperdown, New South Wales, Australia - Completed Buildings - Housing
_Cronton Colliery Competition, Knowlsley, England - Future Projects - Competition entries
_Dandenong Government Services Offices, Dandenong, Victoria, Australia - Completed Buildings - Office
_Gold Coast Rapid Transit Corridor Study, Queensland, Australia - Future Projects - Master Planning
_Man-Built Islands, Dongqian Lake, Ningbo, China - Future Projects - Experimental
_Perry Park Design Competition, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - Future Projects - Competition entries
_Route de Meyrin, CERN International Competition, Geneva, Switzerland - Future Projects - Competition entries
_Shenzhen Affordable Housing Competition, Shenzhen, China - Future Projects – Residential
_Tianjin Binhai Transport Interchange, Tianjin, China - Future Projects - Infrastructure
Presentations to awards juries will be held in October, when representatives from HASSELL will join thousands of delegates from around the world.
Images top to bottom:
_Tianjin Binhai Transport Interchange
_Cronton Colliery Competition
_Chasing Kitsune
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Peter Duncan interviewed on workplace wellness by SCMP
HASSELL Chairman Peter Duncan was featured in Hong Kong's leading newspaper, the South China Morning Post, talking about workplace wellness and the integral role it plays in the HASSELL business strategy and the company's international expansion.
Peter shared how he extended his personal fitness ethos to the practice, putting in dedicated spin cycle stations in the Shanghai studio and providing instructor-led classes for employees to promote a healthy lifestyle. HASSELL also sponsors employees in its Hong Kong and mainland China studios to take part in the Great Wall marathon in Beijing each year.
"I love running in Chinese cities as they change so quickly; being able to explore a city with a morning run is a wonderful way to start the day," he said.
A healthier workplace not only improves productivity and the quality of work at HASSELL, it also encapsulates the company's design philosophy, Peter said. Clients are also increasingly seeing the value of the HASSELL approach.
"Ten years ago, business in China was geared toward indulgent activities such as banquets and karaoke,'' Peter is quoted as saying. "Being recognised and associated with a different path reinforces a point of difference in the culture of our practice, which I think is really important."
"I believe sport and fitness give us a strong sense of balance. Since working in China, I have found that projects are large, complicated and demanding. For me, being fit and healthy makes me more resilient," Peter said.
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one40william wins Chicago Athenaeum Award
The one40william building in Perth has been awarded a 2012 International Architecture Award by The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
The International Architectural Awards is a distinguished building awards program that honours new and cutting-edge design. This annual program also promotes international architecture and design to a global audience.
The 2012 Jury for Awards was held in Oslo, Norway and 81 projects from 28 nations were selected by a group of leading Norwegian architects and educators.
one40william is one of Perth's most significant and influential projects, setting a benchmark in environmentally sustainable design and bringing new life to the city's retail centre.
The project revitalises a landmark CBD site, integrating 36,000 square metres of commercial office space and 6,000 square metres of retail, food and entertainment tenancies.
In October, 2012, The Chicago Athenaeum, together with The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies will present a special exhibition of all awarded buildings at the annual The City and the World symposium in Istanbul, Turkey, in conjunction with the Istanbul Biennial.
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Mark Wolfe asked to judge the world's best airports
HASSELL Principal Mark Wolfe was recently asked to be a member on an international panel appointed to review the standout airport projects around the globe in the past year.
The panel was brought together by Passenger Terminal World, the leading international airport publication. Mark was joined on the panel by designers from other leading airport terminal design firms such as Aeroports de Paris, KPF and HOK, together with airport CEOs, journalists and the Director General for Transport of the European Union.
Mark's appointment to the panel recognised his international experience and a prolific track record at HASSELL in terminal design in the Asia Pacific region.
"Part of the reason I joined HASSELL was because of the extensive back catalogue of projects that includes the Qantas Terminal at Sydney, which I'd long admired," said Mark. "At the moment we are busy working on terminals in Perth, Melbourne and Christchurch. There is a major redevelopment of Sydney on the cards and we are looking to work in other parts of the world."
The PTW survey included two UK projects at Heathrow and Gatwick Airports that Mark was involved with before joining HASSELL.
"It was very satisfying to be asked to join the panel," Mark said. "But it was disappointing that only Wellington Airport featured from the Asia Pacific region. My aim is to ensure that we can work with the right airport clients to deliver projects that are recognised for great design, sustainability and operational efficiency. I'm positive that we will see HASSELL airport projects appear on this list in the not too distant future."
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RMIT Career Discovery Day at HASSELL
RMIT's Career Discovery Day was held at the HASSELL Melbourne studio last week.
In an effort to attract the next generation of designers to the industry, RMIT chose our studio as the perfect environment to showcase landscape architects working in a vibrant interdisciplinary design setting.
A workshop format, the Career Discover Day was a chance for students from year 10-12 to see inside HASSELL and understand what working in a busy studio environment is like.
RMIT's Discipline Head of Landscape and Architecture SueAnne Ware led the session, which included inspiring presentations about rooftop landscapes – the theme of the day – from HASSELL landscape architects Brenton Beggs, Jo Picton, Jack Barlow and Tim Muhlebach.
Other activities included a 'site visit' up to the Melbourne studio rooftop – led by Sue Anne and three RMIT students – and a model making exercise, which enabled our guests to explore their own design ideas.
Praising the Discovery Day program, Melbourne's Head of Landscape Architecture Mary Papaioannou said the day was valuable for everyone there, including the HASSELL team.
"It was inspiring for us to see such enthusiasm for design coming out of our schools and we were equally thrilled to give the kids a 'day-in-the-life of a designer' opportunity."
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Creating knowledge through coworking
Steve Coster, joint Head of Knowledge and Sustainability at HASSELL, presented at the Municipal Associations of Victoria forum on Creating the Knowledge-Based Organisation for the Future, held in Melbourne this week.
Workplace environments are often under-utilised in knowledge management - enabling individuals, teams and organisations to collectively and systematically capture, store, create, share and apply knowledge.
Steve presented with HASSELL client Brad Krauskopf, CEO and founder of Hub Australia. In their work together, they have focused on creating knowledge through the principles of coworking, a global movement of shared workplace communities that is gathering momentum in Australia. More than a trend for freelancers, coworking reflects a dramatic change in the way organisations design their workspaces, distribute their workforces and optimise their processes for collaboration.
"Places can play a critical role in supporting communication, knowledge transfer and valuable new ideas - but they must be the right kind of places. Good design is part of getting them right," Steve said in his presentation.
A leader in workplace design, Steve is primarily interested in the strategic value architecture and the design process can offer organisations.
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Rodney Uren 1948 - 2012
Rodney Uren, a HASSELL Principal who left a profound mark on the practice and on the cities of Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney, has died after a long illness. He was 63.
His wonderful legacy is the many successful buildings he helped design. Perhaps the best known is Olympic Park Station, built for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and designed to accommodate up to 50,000 passengers per hour during major events. This beautifully crafted public building, engaged with the landscape, sensitive to climate, expressive of technology, with robust engineering and finely wrought detail embodies all that Rodney held dear.
"The station was one of a handful of projects that put HASSELL on my radar as a young designer," said Managing Director, Rob Backhouse. "It was one of the projects that attracted me to the company. Without Rodney, HASSELL would not have achieved the success it has in the rail sector.
"But Rodney's contribution goes far beyond that. He was an industrial designer originally. He became Design Director at Foster and Partners on the back of major projects like the Bilbao Metro. He first joined HASSELL in Melbourne in 1995, taking charge of interior design, but later moved into architecture and to Sydney. He was clever, subversive, and had a great sense of humour. His death is a great loss".
Ross de la Motte, HASSELL Sydney Managing Principal, who worked with Rodney for many years, described him simply as "a remarkable man and a great friend."
Ken Maher, Chair of the International Executive, said Rodney’s talent, passion, intelligence and infectious enthusiasm was unique. “I had the privilege of collaborating closely with him over the years and gained much from the experience,” Ken said.
"He made projects demanding in his search for perfection, yet always fun. He touched all he encountered deeply and his legacy will remain with us forever.”
HASSELL Chairman Peter Duncan also paid tribute. “Rodney was a truly remarkable man who made an equally remarkable impact on our practice through his passion, design talent, and enormous encouragement with his colleagues. He will be greatly missed by our colleagues, partners and clients.
“His design thinking led to a unique aesthetic balanced with an intelligent technical understanding. His influence lives on through his colleagues and projects around the world in marking his wonderful life.”
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Helping our community: Common Ground housing project
The Common Ground housing project in Sydney was one of this year's finalists for the prestigious 2012 NSW Premier's Prize. It is an acknowledgement by the NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell in addressing our social responsibility issues. As architects we are in a privileged position to enact positive change and this project is an example of how we can make a difference.
Common Ground Sydney, an initiative by Housing NSW and Mission Australia Housing, addresses the problem of chronic homelessness by providing stable, high quality, low cost, permanent housing.
HASSELL collaborated with developer and builder Grocon on a pro-bono basis to prepare preliminary design feasibility studies on a number of sites within inner Sydney, before providing full design services for Common Ground at cost to Housing NSW.
"Common Ground is a worthy housing typology offering critically needed support to the disadvantage and adds essential diversity to the housing stock," said Ken Maher, Chairman of the International Executive at HASSELL and the design leader on the project.
"Accommodation is arranged around a central atrium, with common facilities and a courtyard at ground level and street-front community services. Rooms are naturally ventilated and all have balconies," he said.
Common Ground Sydney adopts the 'street to home' approach of the Common Ground model originating in New York. The model satisfies the fundamental requirements of shelter, warmth and basic life needs as a vital first step towards a satisfying and balanced life for people affected by homelessness. Importantly, this model provides on-site support designed to help tenants maintain their housing, address health issues and pursue education and employment.
Through our Corporate Social Responsibility program, we have contributed free time to over 130 projects in Australia and Asia over the past four years. Our involvement in projects can be a response to a specific request from sponsors or passionate individuals within our practice. Other recent projects we have donated our time to include habitat restoration for flood mitigation in Bangkok, assisting the Red Cross earthquake relief in China and support for the work of Emergency Architects Australia (EAA).
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6 stars for ANZ Centre - again!
ANZ Centre in Melbourne, designed by HASSELL and Lend lease Design, has done it again, winning its third 6 Star Green Star rating.
It has been awarded a 6 Star rating for Office Interiors. It's a result that exceeds expectations as the interior design for the project was registered to achieve a 5 Star rating.
This means the ANZ Centre is only the second building in Australia to achieve a triple 6 Star rating – for Office Design, Office As-Built and Office Interiors.
The Green Star assessors awarded 75 points to the Office Interiors, including four for innovation. It was the additional points for innovation that secured the 6 Star rating.
The innovations in the building included:
_Underfloor air distribution which allows individuals to control air flow around them
_A cogeneration plant connected to the building that helps reduce the demand for energy
_A big reduction in car parking – 95 per cent fewer parking spaces than local planning rules would have allowed. This encourages people working in the building to use public transport.
"HASSELL put its heart and soul into the ANZ Centre project," said Managing Director Rob Backhouse. "We are about being a global leader in designing a sustainable future and at ANZ we had a client who shared our vision of what could be achieved in this project. That's why they ended up with a triple 6 Star building."
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Success at the Victorian Architecture Awards
We are proud to announce Dandenong Government Services Offices won a Commercial Architecture Award on Friday night at the Australian Institute of Architects Victorian awards dinner.
The 6 Star Green Star commercial workplace, developed and built by Grocon, is one of the key projects of the Revitalising Central Dandenong initiative, a major urban renewal project led by Places Victoria and the Victorian State Government.
In announcing the award, the AIA jury said: “This is a new type of building, a vertical campus stitching the large and the small into an orchestrated, organic whole."
"Great care has been taken to humanise the environment, creating a hybrid commercial/institutional structure. This allows for multiple street addresses and identities together with a striking, successful workplace environment.”
Dandenong Government Services Offices is fully occupied by four government departments, with more than 14,400 square metres of office space over eight levels.
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HASSELL wins Tbilisi Zoo project in Georgia
The London Studio of HASSELL, working with Arup, has been appointed by Tbilisi City Hall to carry out the concept design of the new Tbilisi Zoo on the outskirts of the Georgian capital city.
The project will see the existing city centre zoo replaced by a zoological and recreation complex adjacent to the inland lake known as Tbilisi Sea.
Working with Arup's Dublin office, HASSELL has developed a concept that sits lightly within the spectacular new site, using a design strategy of minimal disturbance to preserve the area's natural beauty. Relocating the current zoo's species and activities calls for a number of new buildings and landscapes. These will include an entrance hub, boulevard, a secondary hub with playground and café, inner zoo and an outer open range zoo. There are also woodland areas set within the Soviet era Arboretum known as Dendropark National Park. A recreation area created on the shore of the Tbilisi Sea will include new buildings for an aquarium and dive school.
The plan builds upon the dramatic landscape and mountainous topography of the area to create a visitor experience unique to Georgia. The country is positioned at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa and these will be represented by the division of the site into distinct grassland habitats. A choice of five different walking routes around the zoo affords a variety of visitor experiences, encouraging return visits.
The zoo creates an international tourist destination for zoo, safari, botanical and recreational experiences. The design will celebrate the natural history of the site and encourage visitors of all ages to take a personal interest in the importance of conserving the earth's environmental heritage.
The project builds on HASSELL's extensive masterplanning, landscape architecture and zoo experience in Australasia including the award-winning Adelaide Zoo, Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Werribee Open Range in Victoria.
Jon Hazelwood, Head of Landscape Architecture at HASSELL's London Studio, commented:
"We believe in the collaboration of landscape architecture, masterplanning and architectural design and the new Tbilisi Zoo is a fantastic opportunity to put this philosophy into practice by developing a new zoo destination from first principles. Our team has been inspired by the beauty of the Georgian landscape to create a scheme that works in harmony with the environment, respects the animals that will inhabit it and allows people to observe them in a space akin to their natural habitat."
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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
