To make a showcase of Lismore’s timber industry heritage, the first floor gallery ‘container’ is clad in locally sourced Australian hardwood, reducing embodied energy.

The form and scale of the building complements the historic Conservatorium and Library, whilst the first floor Galley bends to embrace the existing large Tallow wood tree and make a signaling gesture to Keen Street.

A truly sustainable Arts Centre is proposed with innovations such as naturally lit galleries, masonry walls made from the recycled Block ‘C’ brickwork, trees planted to reduce solar heat gain on the building’s northern side, the reduction of embodied building energy with simple lightweight timber construction to the first floor, a naturally ventilated roof plenum for summer cooling, winter solar pre-heating for conditioned air plus gravity fed storm water storage for WCs, washing and landscape irrigation. The smaller roof area resulting from the two-storey footprint minimises solar heat gain, and openings on the hot and cold sides of the building are designed to allow effective cross ventilation to reduce air conditioning loads to the foyer and ancillary spaces. Offices are positioned on the cooler eastern side of the building to reduce reliance on air conditioning.

Stage one of the six-stage development in Croobyar Road was approved by Shoalhaven City Council on September 6, 2009. The “ambitious and innovative” seniors’ living community will lay the foundation for what is expected to be “one of country NSW’s finest over 55s lifestyle communities”. The Claydon Park community will be situated on just under 100 acres of which it is planned to have 70 per cent open space and landscape areas.

The Master Plan includes spacious villas, terraces and cottages from one-and-a-half bedrooms through to luxury four bedroom homes. The clients require that each residence be capable of providing the ultimate in architectural, eco friendly, smart design to accommodate today’s and tomorrow’s rapidly changing trends, needs and expectations.

To resonate with St Peter’s stained glass windows and add colour and elegance to this corner of Parramatta, the proposed slender glass tower will appear subtly coloured and patterned by internal blinds which are part of the façade’s environmental performance system. Such environmental devices will offer a more pleasant atmosphere inside the building.

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer have designed one quadrant of the village, a complex of seven luxury houses. Each house reconciles the southern views with a desirable northern aspect for sunlight. Each has a low-impact footprint to reduce impacts on the habitats of indigenous fauna. Carefully managed strategies for rainwater collection, high-score BASIX envelopes and the retention of all significant trees have ensured that the development has minimum environmental impact on this unique site.

The houses form a related group, with each having an individual response to its location and unique planning. Each house is a composition of elegant prismatic shapes, inflected to provide sunlight and views, and providing a variety of roof shapes. The houses are designed in a simple combination of sandstone and timber. Key urban design locations are celebrated with sandstone structures that terminate major site vistas, mark the corners and edges of roads and common areas, and enliven the experience of the site as a whole.

The Musselroe brief calls for a design that achieves a level of luxury with a special focus – here is not the luxury of vast space and expense, but rather the luxury of careful design to meet every need, responsively and responsibly.

Luxury will come from being able to immerse oneself in a unique natural setting, in complete comfort and privacy, with an unequalled range of facilities and experiences at hand. This sense of true relaxation will only be enhanced by the knowledge that Musselroe Bay has been built and managed to enhance the local ecosystems, its footprint on the earth carefully contained.

It will be the project as an indivisible whole, a well-managed union of land, flora, fauna, architecture and engineering, that will create its world-wide profile as a Tasmanian icon, an instantly recognised brand, a destination. The clusters will sit into the site with comfort and ease, but will constantly involve and interest the occupant through the subtlety of their articulation and the quality of their materials.

The Towers are a series of 19 pylons, each 30 metres tall, which unite many functions on a very small footprint to facilitate crown flows. Large-scale photovoltaic solar collection is couples with sophisticated lighting and structure to create functional public sculpture. At their base, the Towers house all the services required to events in the Plaza, including high and low voltage power, communications, water and drainage.

A five metre square facetted mirror, designed with Barry Webb and Associates, has sophisticated photo metrics, which reflect area lighting indirectly onto the Plaza, providing a unique, glare-free night time ambience. 1150 square metres of photovoltaic collectors are arranged 6 metres above the paving, to provide areas of shade in the Plaza at key locations. These dramatic floating louvred shades are self-coloured and have been designed to provide easy event and maintenance access. At the time of completion the photovoltaic provided one of the largest public solar collectors in the world, and continue to generate a net surplus of power.

The Towers have precast concrete bases, providing volumes to house services and seating. The shafts are angled to true north, away from the large masses of the stadia and towards the Olympic Boulevard, uniting the separate Towers into a cohesive group.

The design takes advantage of the Pacific Ocean views and is based on ‘openness’ and accessibility. The gallery shares the foyer space of the theatre, allowing appropriate exhibitions to fill the public spaces and, on low-visitation days, to be operated by minimal staff.

Wrapped around the sculpted form of the tall auditorium, the naturally ventilated foyers are open and glassy. The route from entry to auditorium is an exciting architectural journey through the levels of the space, overlooking parts of the gallery. The auditorium is a semi-traditional proscenium horseshoe, with a fully equipped lyric stage and fly tower. The orchestra pit is hydraulically raised and lowered to increase the flexibility of the space. All sightlines have been computer modelled, and the sound performance designed to exacting standards.

The expressive form of the exterior signals the cultural use of the Glasshouse, echoing the movements of the ocean and sky.

This complex project involves the retention and adaptive reuse of heritage sites as well as new buildings. Approximately 16000sqm of space both new-build and refurbished will create a vibrant new retail, entertainment, dining precinct and a boutique hotel, “Off Broadway”, focused on a characterful urban mix of buildings.

The project offers an outstanding opportunity for urban renewal that reflects the eclectic, historic and dynamic character of the inner city.

In order to create a “world retail icon”, TZG’s design focused on the analysis of context and the site. The proposal achieved architectural resolution in its complex shifts of form and scale, by the creative ordering of its parts and the integration of complementary architectural “orders”. The proposal synthesises four ordering systems, each of which is suited to the scale of the different forms of the building. The Urban Order was defined by analysis of the street pattern and urban relationships; the Retail Order modulates the shopping tenancies; the Civic Order relates to the public realm within the development and the Centrepoint Order responds to the scale and pattern of Sydney Tower in relation to the taller elements of the new buildings. An appropriate level of urban complexity was thus achieved from the relatively large and straightforward functions of the Centre, ensuring both sustained visual interest and unity to this very large development.

To assist in the creation of a functional public domain, the design considered climate and views, amenity and sense of place, strengthening edges, enlivening spaces by the spill-out of activity, and increasing the connectivity of the whole precinct. The design complied with strict environmental regulations utilising green roofs, passive ventilation and capitalising on the environment’s natural power for heating and cooling.

The new design incorporates five residences, each accommodating up to twelve people, a central community facility and administration building. The complex of buildings cascade down the gentle north-facing slope, using a network of paths that traverse the site and connect the buildings as a series of meeting places, allowing privacy while encouraging interaction. The paths connect the residents’ communal living and recreation areas, the staff quarters and the rural environment, unifying all in a tangible gesture which symbolises the common quest for the residents’ recovery of a normal life.

The design is environmentally sensitive, employing a narrow lineal layout of rooms to allow solar heating to the floors, passive cross-ventilation and rainwater collection via the roofs. It also caters to disabled residents and is organised so that the residents may readily participate in the management and operation of the community.