Not only can we welcome October today, we also get to bring you our top 10 stories covered in September.

Click on the title or images to be taken to the original story. And don’t be shy about letting us know if we missed any big news so we can report back to everyone.

1

Dame Zaha Hadid brings grace to Brisbane with redesign of abandoned ABC site

Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Dame Zaha Hadid has imagined three glass towers complete with a neo-futuristic façade for an abandoned ABC broadcasting site in Toowong, QLD.

Ranging from 22 to 25 storeys, ‘Grace on Coronation’ will feature three unique multi-layer facetted buildings comprising a curtain wall glazing, overlayed with a quilted diamond pattern made from glass reinforced concrete.

2

A model approach to housing: 5 prefab homes in Australia

Prefab projects seem to have shaken off the stigmas of ‘makeshift’ and ‘second class product” too, especially as quality and attention to detail is rarely compromised, and in many cases, improved because of the factory controlled processes.

In this article we explore five homes in Australia that show off the quality of prefabrication.

Kensington Residence by Arkit. Completed in 2011, it was constructed in two weeks. Image: Arkit

3

Five-storey modular house clings to a cliff face like a barnacle

Yes, love it or hate it – and the concept certainly has polarised many in the design community - this house has generated a good deal of conversation this month. If you missed it, Australian architecture collective Modscape revealed a design concept for a modular home that anchors to the side of a cliff.

The aptly named ‘Cliff House’ was proposed in response to a client’s request for design options for a holiday home on an extreme coastal plot they owned in Victoria. Modscape envisioned the house as an extension of the natural topography, building it onto the side of the cliff rather than on top of it.

4

Why biophilic architecture works: five reasons and case studies

Incorporating plants in your building’s envelope can increase its overall thermal performance, while designing green interior spaces will make your inhabitants happier and healthier. These are some of the claims coming from recent studies on biophilic architecture.

This article presents five case studies where biophilic design has made a positive impact on the inhabitants of the environment …

Woods Bagot incorporated biophilia into their design of 700 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Image: Trevor Mein.

5

3XN win major Sydney tower design competition: city’s biggest Danish project since Opera House

A 200-metre-high stack of shifting glass volumes conceived by Danish architecture firm 3XN edged-out Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning firms in a design competition for AMP’s prominent site at Circular Quay, Sydney.

Architectural firms competing included Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (FJMT) from Sydney; Ingenhoven + Architectus from Germany and Sydney; Morphosis from the USA; MVRDV from The Netherlands; and SANAA from Japan …

6

Sydney tower competes with buildings by Rem Koolhaas, Steven Holl and Stefano Boeri for world’s best high rise title

The five finalists announced for the International Highrise Award (IHA) 2014 include Sydney’s One Central Park, which is in the running against towers by acclaimed architects like Rem Koolhaas.

The other finalists are Bosco Verticale by Boeri Studio (Italy), De Rotterdam by Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Netherlands), and Sliced Porosity Block by Steven Holl Architects (China).

7

5 amazing examples of cardboard architecture – including world’s most complex

Steel, concrete, bricks and even engineered timber are some of the most commonly used products in the building industry, but cardboard is a material that is joining the ranks and could become even more prolific in time to come.

This article includes five examples that showcase the endless possibilities of paper’s sturdier sister …

8

Flat assembled in four hours at 50% of conventional modular building costs [video]

JAYZ Building Solutions has launched a new products line, the TransPack multi-purpose buildings, which can be assembled onsite in just one day at half the costs of conventional modular buildings.

The video shows the assembly process, said to take approximately four hours only for each module.

 

 

9

Six states, six residences: which will be Australia’s best new house of 2014?

Following the positive (and negative) feedback regarding our provocative article State vs. State: Australia’s six best commercial projects for 2014, we once again pitted the finest of Australia’s architecture projects against each other in the state versus state format.

Each of the residential projects was a winner of the Residential Architecture category at their respective State Architecture Awards …

Stamp House – Charles Wright Architects, Queensland (Photography: Patrick Bingham Hall)

10

A freight or a house? The Pod in Victoria is made of staggered boxes

This project by Melbourne-based Whiting Architects proves the most clever, quirky and creative design is not the exclusive domain of ‘star-chitects’ and international practices.

A small, standalone three storey guesthouse and weekend getaway that sits next to the larger family home, The Pod is located on a steep site near the Great Ocean Road in Victoria …

Photography by Sharyn Cairns and Carole Whiting