A lack of education and understanding is to blame for many architects’ stubborn resistance to Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) that have borne excellent results in recent years, a leading architect has said.
Traditionally, the PPP structure is condemned as a “barbaric system” in which dollar-driven developers “dumb down” good design, Hamish Lyon, principal at NHArchitecture said.
However, the proof is in the pudding, Lyon told Architecture & Design. And while recently completed projects in Melbourne, such as the new Southern Cross Station and the Melbourne Convention Centre (MCC), may have their critics none should be laying blame at the developers’ doors, Lyon said.
For example, while the government requested a four-star green star rating from the MCC, the Plenary Group delivered six stars, he said.
“These major projects are delivering at a higher level than they are being asked by the government and a higher level than the commercial sector demands. In the end, the proof is in the outcome,” he said.
Often debate surrounding PPPs is lagging behind reality, he said. There needs to be a “robust conversation” about projects rather than clichéd and polarized comments, if projects are to be as successful as possible.
NHArchitecture worked jointly with Woods Bagot in the MCC project, which officially opened this week.
The convention centre is already being lauded as the city’s new architecture pin up, flaunting a “distinctly ‘Melbourne’ look and feel”.
The design team wanted to subvert the trend for convention centres to “be poor second cousins of public buildings”, Lyon said. In the team’s research they found the many convention centres tend to be more like modified sports stadiums or multi-purpose halls than international hubs.
“The design culture in Melbourne is very strong so we wanted the building to become part of the collection of buildings that includes the national gallery and Federation Square. We thought of the building very early on as being a public building,” Lyon said.
The designers created a building that is “inside out” with the public spaces on the outside.
Other elements, such as an 18-metre tall glass façade fronts the river and a gently curving exterior that hugs the banks of the Yarra River place the centre firmly within the city.
The vibrant orange interior of the centre represents the colour of ships hulls and funnels, and acts as a beacon at night for rivers edge traffic.
The large rose patterned carpet in the Grand Banquet Room on Level 2 represents Melbourne’s public gardens and the roses in full bloom during Melbourne’s famous annual Spring Racing Carnival. On certain walls on Level 1 an indigenous plant pattern symbolises the native flora of Melbourne, evoking the root systems of our bush and grasslands.
Five different seat fabric colours in the massive 5000-seat Plenary Hall emulate the blades of grass at the legendary Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
“The international traveler for conventions is particularly important because they are operating at the national and international level all the time. A certain level of parochial is quite good because they are looking for an experience of the local when they arrive. And if we are going to attract delegates from Europe or US or Asia when they come to Melbourne I think it’s an advantage for them to engage with our local culture,” Lyon said.
