Kim Utzon: The Latest Architecture and News

Grant Associates, the UK landscape architects behind Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, has just been appointed by the Royal Botanics and Domain Trust in Sydney to help develop a new sustainable masterplan for the historic Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney and adjacent public Domain. Working alongside Cox Richardson Architects and Planners, Grant Associates will be responsible for developing the landscape strategy and public realm elements of the new masterplan which includes an area of 64 hectares on a spectacular location bordering the iconic Sydney Harbor waterfront. More images and architects’ description after the break.

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Part park, part urban square and part garden, the public realm of the Green Square Library proposal is a unique landscape offering to this new urban community and is an exemplar of contemporary community public space design and place making. Designed by ASPECT Studios, the public realm is designed to integrate with the program of the library building and facilitate a richness of public experiences and moods by changing scales and tempos. More images and architects' description after the break.

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The proposal for the Green Square Library & Plaza in Syndey rethinks a common emphasis on new technologies and the transformation of a reading room in a library being an inside storage space of books to a public space that communicates with its boundaries. For this design, Gus Wüstemann Architects suggests a bridge from the virtual world to the authentic world, from nature to culture, society and technology. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Taking place at the Japan Foundation Gallery in Sydney from April 2-May 1, Parallel Nippon, a world-class exhibition, will feature Japan’s most influential architects including 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Toyo Ito, Kengo Kuma, Tadao Ando, Kenzo Tange, SANAA, and many more. Containing over 100 large-scale photo panels of landmark designs, architectural models and video footage, the exhibition is divided into four thematic sections: Urban, Life, Culture and Living, a cross-sectional view of Japanese society. These areas represent the revolutionary, innovative and progressive architectural achievements realized not only in Japan but across the world as projects of Japanese architects. More information after the break.

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Four of architecture’s finest has been shortlisted to design what Australian businessman James Packer hopes to be the most iconic building in Sydney since the Opera House. Italian Pritzker Prize-laureate Renzo Piano will compete against Chicago-based Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture, New York-based Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates and London-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects to design a $1 billion, six-star Crown Sydney resort on a 6000 square meter site in the inner-city waterfront precinct of Barangaroo. 

"Sydney deserves one of the world's best hotels and with these amazing architects I'm confident we will see the most iconic building constructed here since the Opera House," Packer told The Daily Telegraph. "I want this hotel resort to be instantly recognizable around the world and feature on postcards and memorabilia promoting Sydney. That's how you attract international tourists, create jobs and put Sydney on the map."

More after the break...

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Australian firm HASSELL Studio, OMA and Populous have been announced as the winners for the redevelopment of Sydney’s new convention, exhibition and entertainment precinct (SICEEP) at Darling Harbour.

The 20-hectare, billion (Australian) dollar project, which will stretch from Cockle Bay to Haymarket and Ultimo, will include Australia's largest convention and exhibition facilities, Sydney’s largest red carpet entertainment venue,  a hotel complex with up to 900 rooms, and a new urban neighborhood in Haymarket.

More on this project, after the break...

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