They say dogs look like their owners. But what about houses? When Madeleine Blanchfield Architects was approached to craft a residence for an artist and his family, the studio leaned into sculpture to mould a contemporary Australian house on the outskirts of Sydney. Raw and rooted in its hillside context, the building is cubic and angular, with echoes of brutalist architecture, but softened by locally sourced, earthy-toned Krause ‘Bronte’ bricks and oak, and is devoid of finishes.

Step inside a sculptural house in Australia

Sculptor Aaron Crothers worked with the architect to create the three-storey house that evokes an artwork itself – and is fittingly titled 'Sculpted' – nodding to the owner’s work in ceramic and timber. Collaborating closely with his architect, Crothers even added the personalised finishing touch, carving the house number into a raw brick before it was laid within the wall.

‘The main conceptual principle was to build a home with zero superfluous layers,’ says practice director Madeleine Blanchfield. ‘The project explores materiality in its rawest form while taking on board our core values of solar-passive design, rigorous planning and finessed detailing, while delivering the same joie de vivre we seek in all our work.’

The team was sensitive to the site's context too. The intention was to create a space that drew on its location (the ancestral home of the Cammeraygal People of the Eora Nation) while also acknowledging neighbouring buildings. Blanchfield explains: ‘The home is immersed in the native landscape and [gives the feeling of] living outdoors when opened up. Light floods in from all directions throughout the day.’

The residence is accessed from the ground level. The first floor hosts the kitchen, equipped with a pink ‘Patagonia’ honed quartzite island and bench, as well as the dining and living areas. A second lounge to the south showcases the building's high ceilings and houses a monolithic concrete fireplace at its core. A terrace stretches out from this part, shaded by the canopy of a tree, the sun trickling through the leaves occasionally to cast golden beams across the interiors.

The concrete floor acts as a structural foundation, anchoring the building to the ground, while the brick walls are exposed, bearing the house's 'bones'. ‘It is very unusual for the slab to be the finished floor, and there is no room for error,' says Blanchfield. ‘After the pour, the wind blew gum leaves onto the concrete in the girls’ bedrooms. Nature’s accidental marks became akin to a ceramicist’s intentional stamping process, and are embraced as part of the house’s story.’

The sculptural touches don’t end there. Each interior furnishing is a considered choice – from the Michel Boyer brutalist coffee table to a vintage ‘Le Bambole’ B+B Italia sofa. A Max Lamb lounge chair, an ‘Albireo’ sofa from De La Espada, and a daybed by Skupa finish the living room.

The garage has become home to Crothers’ sculpture studio, a place for him to hone his craft, such as his new ‘Interconnected’ series of stoneware ceramic sculptures. This entire residential design is a thoughtful example of how a house can reflect not only its context or a sole architect's formal experimentation, but also the person who resides there. Sculpted House perfectly echoes the creative, collaborative spirit that birthed it.

madeleineblanchfield.com

Architecture studio Mathieson has just revealed a new Sydney penthouse – a private home set on a high-rise by the city's famous harbour, anchored in its setting through wide-reaching vistas that guide the gaze towards the blue horizon. The project, titled Kurraba Penthouse, was commissioned by local property developer Third.i, which partnered Mathieson, along with architecture firm SJB and landscape designer Dangar Barin Smith, to craft a home that makes the most of its spacious interior and expansive views.

Explore an expansive Sydney penthouse by Mathieson

Taking advantage of the property's large swathes of glazing, which offer up long views of Sydney’s waterfront parkland and the picturesque Kirribilli neighbourhood, the architecture team worked to balance this rich setting with a monochromatic interior, rooted in minimalism and refinement. This way, a gracefully uncluttered space, defined by careful dark accents and strategic materials, art and furniture frames the penthouse's main event – its striking cityscape and waterside aspect.

'The project continues our tradition of using a refined palette of materials applied in sophisticated layers,' says firm director, Phillip Mathieson. 'Natural stones like limestone and marble bring a comforting warmth to the space. The use of wire brushed oak veneers, lacquer, and patinaed metals has been carefully incorporated throughout the design to cultivate a refined and serene ambiance.'

The project was furnished in collaboration with luxury French furniture brand Liaigre, while an extensive art collection, curated by Mathieson in partnership with Artbank, dots the space. Offerings include unique pieces by artists such as Joel Elenberg, Brett Whitley, and Bronwyn Oliver.

A timber-panelled lobby greets visitors on the lower level of the duplex penthouse. The generous living spaces beyond include the dining and kitchen areas, while this flowing, open-plan interior can be divided using movable partitions as needed. Seamlessly stepping outside to the landscaped terrace and garden from there means that residents can have flexible entertaining arrangements as needed – indoors or al fresco.

The upper level contains four bedrooms, each with its own ensuite bathroom and dressing room. This spacious feel is underlined by the primary bedroom's custom stone bath and circular marble vanity, which have each been carved from single blocks of marble. It's this attention to material choices, as well as careful lighting design throughout, that make the interior exude a sense of effortless luxury, elevating the experience of urban living.

'In essence, our approach to lighting in the penthouse marries atmospherics and functionality, allowing light to be the transformative force that seamlessly integrates with the interior architecture, creating an enchanting and functional space,' Mathieson concludes.

mathiesonarchitects.com

The new Sydney Fish Market unites essential industry with public amenity. Its vast, undulating canopy shelters a unique vertical stacking of wholesale trade, crowned by an open-air public hall. Marking the beginning of an urban transformation of a working bay on Sydney Harbour, the building's stepped massing operates in the round with a strong civic presence.

Industrial in scale yet delicate in expression, the two-hectare roof comprises 407 pyramidal aluminium modules that peel up like fish gills, creating apertures that admit indirect sunlight. These sit within a diagonal grid of deep timber laminate trusses, supported on fine cruciform columns, so the canopy appears to float. The ensemble creates a bright, dynamic interior atmosphere, complementing the glass, stainless steel, aluminium and ceramic detailing of the building's enclosure – a material palette that reflects its technical character.

Step inside the new Sydney Fish Market

Sustainable architecture is united with operational needs underpinned by GXN, the green research arm of Danish architects 3XN (the project was designed by 3XN GXN, in association with BVN Architecture and landscape architects Aspect Studios, and delivered by Infrastructure NSW on behalf of the NSW Government). The roof is topographically mapped to harvest rainwater, meeting half the buildings’ water demands. Energy consumption is reduced as harbour breezes flow beneath the market hall roof, while daylight ensures brightness even on overcast days. The modules were prefabricated on a nearby harbour island, barged and hoisted into place; the Italian glulam timber never touched the road.

Across a 24-hour cycle, workers, visitors, seafood, and machinery move through a carefully choreographed system. In an open circulation core, travelators connect the basement delivery docks and parking to the market hall on the upper level. En route, large windows offer public views to the wholesale trading floor between, revealing early-morning operations – trolleys lined with fish, large ice machines in action and climate-controlled rooms accommodating different live crustaceans. Climatised truck lifts move products efficiently between temperature-controlled zones, loading docks and processing areas, maintaining the cold chain.

Set on the building’s perimeter, the raked, three-storey auction hall opens itself to the public realm, where passers-by can glimpse the intensity within. In the early morning, up to 160 buyers bid as the space operates as an urban theatre, where commerce becomes spectacle.

Above, an open-air market hall buzzes into the evening. Laid out across internal streets are fishmongers and restaurants, with glazed offices and a cooking school on top. Stepped terraces and ramps draw the public upward from the ground plane, creating an active public realm with 24-hour waterfront access. From these elevated platforms, views stretch toward the city, harbour and foreshore neighbourhoods, framed by the geometric roof.

On opening day, Sydneysiders swarmed the building, a testament to the market’s place in the city’s psyche. As visitors and workers moved through this building as landscape, industry met tourism, and architecture became part of the performance of the city.

3xn.com

bvn.com.au

aspect-studios.com

The new year brings travel into focus. While the months ahead may herald anticipated openings, 2025 has already delivered a series of assured arrivals – hotels led by design, intent and context. From Taipei’s first luxury opening in over a decade to the long-awaited Chancery Rosewood, and a Saudi resort carved into the landscape itself, these projects stand apart. Each has a singular character, and each is worth the journey.

The best hotel openings of 2025

Capella Taipei

Long-awaited in the Taiwanese capital, Capella Taipei marked the city’s first true luxury hotel debut in over a decade. Conceived by André Fu, the hotel occupies part of a newly built glass tower by Tokyo’s Mori Building Group, unfolding as a modern urban mansion shaped by the Hong Kong-born designer’s own encounters with Taipei. The 86-room property sits in a calm, subtle palette, where bespoke fixtures and artisanal details form a sophisticated urban bolthole. Four on-site restaurants sharpen the hotel’s profile, while the dramatic Glasshouse crowns the ensemble with a three-storey bar complex. A minimalist spa, finished with beige barrel-vaulted ceilings, completes the picture with celestial, lunar-led treatments.

Capella Taipei is located at No. 139, DunHua N Rd, Songshan District, Taipei City, Taiwan 105

Read our full review of Capella Taipei

The Chancery Rosewood

Once Eero Saarinen’s modernist vision of American diplomacy, the former US Embassy on Grosvenor Square re-emerged this year as The Chancery Rosewood. A sensitive restoration saw British architect Sir David Chipperfield and French interior designer Joseph Dirand recast the Grade II-listed landmark as an all-suite hotel defined by Rosewood’s high-touch hospitality. Across 144 suites, softened geometries, tactile layering, and a palette of neutrals and burnished tones create a cocooning sense of calm; a language echoed through all public spaces and the Asaya Spa. Eight restaurants and bars introduce their own unhurried atmospheres, including the first European outpost of New York institution Carbone and Japanese chef Masa Takayama’s Tobi Masa. Meanwhile, the seventh-floor Eagle Bar opens onto panoramic views across London.

The Chancery Rosewood is located at 30 Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 9AN, UK

Read our full review of The Chancery Rosewood

Desert Rock Resort

Set within Saudi Arabia’s dramatic Hejaz mountains, Desert Rock Resort rises directly from millennia-old granite. Fifty-four villas and ten suites feel almost geological. Conceived by Oppenheim Architecture, the resort doesn’t impose itself on the terrain; it yields to it. Stone quarried during construction was folded back into the architecture. Studio Paolo Ferrari brought the same reverence to the interiors, allowing the raw power of the setting to remain the focal point. Dining unfolds across Nyra’s elemental wood-fire kitchen, Mica’s forward-thinking cocktail programme, Basalt’s reassuring comfort dishes, and Wadi’s lively poolside scene. On the valley’s far edge sits the spa, built against a towering rock face.

Desert Rock Resort is located at 7GQVP67Q+5P 48561, Saudi Arabia

Read our full review of Desert Rock Resort

The Eve Hotel Sydney

The Eve Hotel Sydney arrived as a vibrant new marker on the cusp of the Central Business District. Designed as a warm brick-and-biophilic low-rise by local firm SJB, with landscape architect Daniel Baffsky and interior designer George Livissianis, the hotel balances architectural restraint with bursts of colour. The 102 rooms, hued to the Australian bush, each feature balconies overlooking shingled rooftops and greenery. On the food front, guests can choose between Bar Julius, a European-inflected lobby bar, and Lottie, the rooftop Mexican restaurant and mezcaleria. Also upstairs, the Sukabumi-tiled rooftop pool beckons, though the surrounding mix of native and exotic flora demands equal attention.

The Eve Hotel Sydney is located at 8 Baptist St, Redfern NSW 2016, Australia

Read our full review of The Eve Hotel Sydney

Few & Far Luvhondo

Husband-and-wife adventurers Jacob and Sarah Dusek introduced Few & Far Luvhondo, a safari eco-lodge offering front-row access to the raw wilderness of South Africa’s Limpopo province. Designed by Nicholas Plewman Architects in collaboration with Ohkre Collective, the lodge’s six cliff-edge suites take their sculptural cues from Africa’s most emblematic trees, notably the monumental baobabs that anchor the surrounding landscape. Nature continues indoors, where clay-toned earths, sky blues and deep greens echo the terrain. In the kitchen, chef Nhlakanipho Soxhela leads a thoughtful farm-to-table programme celebrating regional cooking. Days unfold through immersive encounters with land and culture, from daily game drives to outdoor yoga sessions or guided mindfulness practices.

Few & Far Luvhondo is located at R523, Waterpoort, 3813, South Africa

Read our full review of Few & Far Luvhondo

La Fondation

Once a parking lot, La Fondation emerged as a brutalist shell softened by warm hues and muted tones that ripple through its ten floors. Paris-based architecture firm PCA-STREAM reimagined the exterior, while New York studio Roman and Williams infused the interiors with a modern, eclectic character, accented by nods to Piet Mondrian’s De Stijl palette and geometry. Muted tones and artisanal detailing define the 58 guest rooms, and two on-site dining venues offer a mix of French classics and contemporary dishes overseen by chef Thomas Rossi. The latest opening from Groupe Galia also introduces open co-working areas, a health club with a climbing wall, a spa with a semi-Olympic pool, and a rooftop garden with views from Sacré-Cœur to the Eiffel Tower.

La Fondation is located at 40 Rue Legendre, 75017 Paris, France

Read our full review of La Fondation

Patina Osaka

With the Osaka Expo pulling global focus, Patina Osaka debuted at just the right moment. Set in a 20-storey glass tower by Jun Mitsui & Associates Inc. Architects, the property, which marked the Japan debut for the Singapore-based group, sits between the Osaka Castle and Naniwa-no-Miya-Ato Park. Tokyo-based studio Strickland shaped the interiors with crisp Japanese geometries, softened by sculptural curves and copper accents that nod to the castle. Five dining concepts anchor the hotel, fronted by P72, where Japan’s 72 micro-seasons inform dishes served beneath a dramatic timber ‘roots’ installation. The Patina Spa is the real draw, offering hyperbaric oxygen, cryotherapy and holistic treatments for a full-spectrum reset.

Patina Osaka is located at 3-91, Banba-cho, Chuo-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka, 540-0007, Japan

Read our full review of Patina Osaka

The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien

A ten-building beach resort with plenty of swagger became The Standard’s fourth outpost in Thailand, pairing luxury with the brand’s trademark wit and creative flair. Led by the group’s global head of design, Verena Haller, alongside DIN Studio and Studio Lupine, The Standard Pattaya Na Jomtien occupies a sculptural white complex by Thai firm Onion, whose undulating curves echo their work for The Standard Bangkok and Hua Hin. Its 161 rooms, offered in seven generous configurations, feature high ceilings and sunlight-drenched spaces. Dining spans Sereia, an elegant seafood restaurant sourcing from Thailand’s eastern seaboard, and Esmé, a beach bar channelling CDMX street food. The adults-only spa, Mmhmmm, embraces the mud-bathing renaissance with a dedicated outdoor terrace for the ritual.

The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien is located at 8/12 Moo 2, Soi Na Jomtien 10, Na Jomtien, Sattahip, Chonburi 20250, Thailand

Read our full review of The Standard, Pattaya Na Jomtien

Villa Dubrovnik

Long a friend of Wallpaper,* Brazilian architect Arthur Casas and his studio led the reimagining of Villa Dubrovnik, the 1961 modernist landmark perched dramatically above the Dalmatian coast. Guided by the Croatian philosophy of fjaka –an artful devotion to unhurried living – the interiors are measured and serene, grounded in local tradition. Custom blankets and cushions, woven with patterns drawn from regional dialects, thread a quiet sense of place through all 56 rooms. Dining unfolds across moods: Restaurant Pjerin for refined dégustation or à la carte dining, Giardino for relaxed lunches, and aperitivo-worthy views at Libero Bar or the rooftop Galanto Bar. When the Adriatic sun takes its toll, the spa delivers restorative facials, massages, and exfoliating rituals.

Villa Dubrovnik is located at Ul. Vlaha Bukovca 6, 20000, Dubrovnik, Croatia

Read our full review of Villa Dubrovnik

W New York – Union Square

W Hotels’ evolution trades party-first theatrics for grown-up confidence, without losing its spark. The shift is clearest at W New York – Union Square, the global flagship, alongside newer openings in Florence and Budapest. Opened in 2000, the hotel has been reimagined by original architects Rockwell Group with a lighter, more assured hand. Its 256 rooms and suites balance scale with playfulness. On the food front, Seahorse pairs heritage and modernity with unmistakable New York ease; the high-energy Living Room (once a ballroom) serves cocktails and light bites, flowing into the laid-back Living Room Café; and upstairs, the 17th floor is home to Union Square’s only rooftop bar.

W New York – Union Square is located at 1567 Broadway, New York, NY 10036, United States

Read our full review of W New York – Union Square

This is the latest instalment of The Inside Story, Wallpaper’s series spotlighting intriguing, innovative and industry-leading interior design.

This transformation of a two-level, late-1990s apartment in the heart of Sydney unites two seemingly disparate influences: sun-drenched Aussie vibes and the elevated grandeur of a Parisian flat. Layered throughout are design moments oriented towards one of the home’s most enviable assets: its show-stopping view of the city skyline.

The project is the work of Dylan Farrell Design, led by New York duo Dylan and Nicolette Farrell. The 465 sq m home – comprising four bedrooms and four bathrooms – was conceived for a couple with whom the Farrells have a long-standing relationship, which afforded the creative trust needed to take bold aesthetic risks. A willingness on the part of the clients to ‘expand the budget where exceptional results were possible’ didn’t hurt either.

Dylan Farrell Design’s signature aesthetic blends modernism with ornament, precision and romance. Contemporary Australian buildings, the designers note, often lack the ‘charming patina’ of their European counterparts; thus, the intention was to create what they call a ‘transatlantic transplant’, importing the atmosphere of a classic Parisian apartment. This meant concealing modern systems within walls and ceilings, designing and casting custom architectural mouldings, and developing bespoke finishes that evoke a sense of timeworn beauty.

The colour palette is a study in tension: serene, airy neutrals interrupted by ‘unexpected and almost overwhelming moments’ of saturated colour. Sometimes the contrast plays out between rooms rather than within them: the main suite offers an almost entirely achromatic experience, while the stairwell is enveloped in vivid aqua Venetian plaster. Throughout, quiet neutrality is punctuated by deep greens and brilliant reds.

This exploration of opposites continues in the material palette. Adjacent spaces might feature dramatically different textures, such as sandblasted beside polished marble. Polished nickel fittings are set against blackened steel and hand-forged metals used for doors, shutters and lighting. Even the rustic, variegated floorboards are intentionally contrasted with the glassy smoothness of polished plaster walls.

The finished home is an intriguing fusion of austerity and glamour – a laid-back contemporary sensibility enriched by the opulence of 19th-century Paris. It’s a transformation made possible by opening up what was once a ‘rabbit warren’ of small, constricted rooms in the original building; in its place now stands an expansive, open-plan new core with a character entirely its own.

An ice cream craving is always latent, waiting for its cue. In Britain, it's roused by the toy-like chime of vans drifting through suburban streets – fairgrounds on wheels, plastered with cartoon cones and sun-bleached decals. The visual identity is maximalist and celebratory, yet the product itself remains restrained: the archetypal 99, a neat swirl of soft-serve crowned with the simplicity of a Cadbury Flake. It's at once both impulsive, yet ritualised.

In contrast, Italy could not be more different. Gelato is a passeggiata companion, its flavours artisanal and refined: pistachio, nocciola, stracciatella, amarena. Counters stretch wide, vitrines gleam, and pozzetti lids conceal the craft beneath polished steel. Each portion is shaped with a flat paddle rather than scooped: a fleeting moment of theatre, as opposed to a mere transaction.

The context of ice cream has always been inseparable from the experience of eating it: a mirror of history and culture. In Turkey, dondurma is dense and elastic, sold from brass-trimmed carts where fez-wearing vendors tease customers in playful routines. In India, kulfi is pulled from conical moulds at vividly painted stalls. In Mexico, tiled paleterías brim with rainbow ices and fruit sorbets dusted with chilli or chamoy.

Each country has long held to its aesthetic codes. But in recent summers, a new wave of parlours has emerged. Here, architects and designers approach ice cream as stagecraft, creating experimental environments that are as sensorial and inventive as the flavours themselves.

The evolution of the ice cream parlour

In Odessa, Tanu (‘Таю’ is Ukrainian for ‘I’m melting’) reframes the ice cream shop as a space of grown-up composure. Sivak+Partners resisted the usual pastel kitsch, instead wrapping the interior in undulating stainless-steel panels that ebb and flow like frozen liquid. What might have felt sterile was softened through finish: ‘Thanks to its matte, worn texture, the metal ended up resembling velvet or fabric on the walls,’ says studio founder Dmytro Sivak.

‘There’s no loud, boisterous music or children’s birthday-party vibe,’ Sivak adds. ‘Rather, it offers a calm and pleasant weekend serenity.’ This is a parlour where ice cream is contextualised as an adult ritual, not a sugar rush.

In a similar vein, El Equipo Creativo aimed to create something more grown-up for the design of Barcelona’s Gelato Collection by Spanish chef Albert Adrià. ‘We wanted a space that offered more than just ice cream, where each flavour would be presented as a collectable jewel,’ shares Natali Canas Del Pozo, co-founder and creative director of the studio, which borrowed aesthetics from perfumeries and jewellery stores for the project. The centrepiece is undoubtedly a glass display case designed like a block of ice.

Walls are lined with champagne-toned porcelain tiles, a material choice that echoes the creaminess of gelato. Overhead, octagonal glass light fixtures emit a cool glow. The entire design slows consumption: you don’t grab and go, you approach the counter as though entering a gallery. Adrià’s numbered, ever-changing flavours – recent ones include ‘balsamic candy,’ ‘hibiscus margarita’ and ‘mango green curry’ – are almost treated like precious stones.

Nearby, Amiko Gelato (also in Barcelona) takes a more exuberant, lush and playful approach. Masquespacio pushed Miami Art Deco into the future with pastel geometries, sculptural seating and a shifting play of light. Tropical greenery floods the room, set against ceramics, microcement and metal, creating a deliberate clash between nature and industry. ‘Organic forms and sculptural elements, directly inspired by ice cream, are seamlessly integrated into both the furniture and décor,’ explains Borja Sánchez Marín, product designer at the studio. The effect is lushly immersive, a sensorial oasis rather than a pit stop, sitting at the intersection of juvenile and mature.

Similarly, at The Dreamery in London, ice cream is recast as part of a longer, more indulgent ritual, while ensuring an immersive element: you stay for a glass of wine, under a ceiling mural that dissolves into infinity. English artist Lucy Stein created a canopy of folkloric creatures painted on unryu rice paper, backlit and reflected by three mirrored walls. The result is an enveloping dreamscape that makes time feel suspended.

The material palette – cement-coloured tiles, stainless steel bar, vintage Brutalist sconces by Marino Poccetti – sets a restrained stage, allowing the ceiling to dominate. ‘We wanted somewhere comfortable and playfully innocent,’ co-founder Alex Young says, ‘a retreat of sorts from cynicism and seriousness.’ Traditional English sweetshops informed the design, but nostalgia is filtered through sophistication.

Elsewhere, designers are looking at the past to inform the future of the ice cream parlour, while tuning it into a creative adult ritual. Scooped by Demetres at Square One in Toronto plays with cinematic artifice. ‘We were inspired by the simple, pared-down sets of 1940s and ‘50s films like The Gang’s All Here and An American in Paris, which used design elements like half-height partitions and gestural, line-painted backdrops that disrupt the vastness of the studio sets and ask the audience to use their imagination,’ explains Kfir Gluzberg, founder and principal at Kilogram Studio.

Fluted glass clad with mirrored film refracts light and movement, while perforated steel panels, lacquered with a soft pink automotive finish, shimmer under changing light. This choreography is deliberate: with no colourful tubs on display, attention shifts to the reveal of the scoop itself. ‘The lack of one clear focal point and the monochromatic palette draw heightened focus on the moment the ice cream is revealed,’ the architect notes.

Meanwhile, Gelato Messina’s Sydney outposts show how retro language can be sharpened into a contemporary brand identity. The Newtown site – described by Sans-Arc Studio as ‘a bit retro, a bit 1970s, but also a bit shiny’ – works with a narrow footprint, squeezing circulation around the central freezer. The architects borrowed cues from diners and mid-century gelato bars: timber panelling, a black-and-white chequered floor, and compact counter lines.

In Redfern, the diner influence is pushed further: cork wall panels and spotted gum bullnose battens hug bright orange light boxes, giving a vivid postmodern pop to the brand’s pint-sized offering. The atmosphere is cheerful yet disciplined, part retro homage, part contemporary riff. For Sans-Arc, each Messina outpost is an opportunity to evolve the brand language across multiple sites: ‘developing it over several spaces, improving and becoming more unique with time.’ Here, the parlour becomes an iterative brand experiment rather than a one-off showcase.

The new ice cream parlour occupies a threshold: between child-coded nostalgia and adult sophistication, between memory and reinvention. Designers are not erasing the kitsch traditions of the past, but translating them into new forms: velveted steel, jewel-like vitrines, dreamscape ceilings. The result is a typology redefined by tension; playful yet serious, indulgent yet reflective. Ice cream becomes both an artefact and a stage, suspended between different life stages.

And in each, the ritual itself is re-engineered. Whether through conceal-and-reveal, immersive theatre or sensory overload, ice cream is no longer a snack, but architecture’s most playful act of indulgence.

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth is back and looking better than ever. First opened in 1966 as Australia’s original international five-star hotel, the heritage-listed building has long been one of the city’s most recognisable addresses, hosting a kaleidoscope of dignitaries, royalty and VIPs from Princess Diana to Bill Gates. Now, following an AUD $70 million overhaul led by Australia-based multi-disciplinary design practice FK, it’s been given a sophisticated refresh that reimagines this modernist landmark while firmly bringing it into the 21st century.

Best known for projects like MONA in Hobart and Kuala Lumpur’s Merdeka 118, FK followed the brief to honour the spirit of the original hotel while reframing it for a new generation, approaching the project with a focus on heritage and spatial flow, using warmth, texture and local craftsmanship.

Tour the reimagined Sofitel Sydney Wentworth

The building’s listed curved façade remains intact, but inside the mood has been distinctly elevated. The lobby has been reconfigured into a warm, layered arrival space, with pockets for quiet conversation and a sculptural ceiling installation of 400 hand-mounted lights. Designed by Shaun Dudley, the piece is a subtle nod to Sofitel’s French heritage and the tradition of guests being guided to their rooms by candlelight.

Capturing FK’s design nouse, Tilda – the ground-floor seafood grill – sits within the lobby, but has been smartly configured so that it feels discreet and self-contained. The palette draws from the Australian landscape – ochres, clay tones, natural linens with hints of sea blue – while the furniture and fittings celebrate local makers, including Jardan furniture and ceramic lighting by Sarah Nedovic. Following suit, the food features dishes such as Fraser Island spanner crab ravioli in roast potato dashi; WA king prawns with curry leaf and black lime sorrel butter; and a sharp edit of local wines.

Next door, the curbside Bar Tilda channels a more sultry mood, with burgundy tones, wooden Venetian blinds and dramatic drapery that adapts with the time of day-light and is textured by morning, intimate and atmospheric by night. Alongside a 100-strong Australian whisky library housed in a handsome armoire, the drinks menu features the likes of Lost At Sea, a tribute to former prime minister Harold Holt, who disappeared at a Victorian beach in 1967, that blends botanical vodka, tea tree, orange, lemon salt, and green apple.

On level five, Delta Rue’s colonial nostalgia sets the scene for a menu of French-Vietnamese plates – from Banh khot with rare-breed pork to Hanoi-style pork neck skewers – layering rattan chairs, reclaimed teak, leafy greens and custom wallpaper by Kerrie Brown. Outside, the terrace – a previously underutilised space – is now home to the Wentworth Bar, a lively alfresco space beneath a glass-and-copper canopy, dotted with terrazzo tables and potted greenery.

Upstairs, the bathrooms remain untouched, but new carpets, joinery, soft finishes and – most importantly – muted lighting across all 436 rooms and corridors bring cohesion to the overall experience. The materials, like the public areas, are calm, tactile and quietly luxe, giving the spaces a stronger sense of refinement.

An overhaul that marks a pivotal reset for Sofitel Sydney Wentworth, FK’s approach has been smart, grounding the hotel in a strong sense of narrative that elevates its identity and restores it as a true city icon.

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth is located at 101 Phillip St, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia.

In a metropolis of spectacular dining, Australia’s most celebrated chef has reopened his three-hatted restaurant (the equivalent of a Michelin star), now in an expanded version complete with boutique accommodation to match. From dinner to breakfast, guests can experience the full extent of chef Josh Niland and his wife Julie’s vision, where their passion for seafood at their modern Australian restaurant goes hand-in-hand with their ethos of traceability and no-waste in whole-fish cooking.

The well-situated, yet quieter location, that being a heritage-listed former pub The Grand National Hotel in Sydney’s Paddington, suits the destination, where fine dining and luxury accommodation combine for an immersive, unforgettable stay.

Wallpaper* checks in at The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter

Who is behind the design?

Sydney-based interior design firm Studio Aquilo – directed by Belinda Chippendale and Dimity Chitty – worked with the Nilands to create the right design to bring their concept full circle. ‘This building has been around since 1980 and although we didn’t necessarily want to lose its Victorian / Paddington terrace feeling, we wanted to bring it up to date,’ explains Josh Niland. ‘Studio Aquilo brought a really sharp eye when it came to textures and layering. They did the dining room and bar as well as the rooms, allowing the overall design to feel complimentary of its history but different at the same time.’

Australian tones of Eucalyptus and earthy browns are found throughout the building, purposefully natural and quietly refined. Studio Aquilo also worked with local artisans on design features. In the main dining room, a handmade skeletal fish-bone aged brass pendant light by Lost Profile is hard not to admire, while a JN Custom Metal-made bespoke vessel shaped like an oyster shell chills wines and champagne. The open kitchen sees hanging dried seaweed, while custom-rendered walls and ribbed tiling represent the ocean and fish scales. For the tableware, artisans Claudia Lau and Sam Gordon were enlisted on custom designs for both plates and cups, using discarded fish bones in their clays.

The room to book

With seven rooms on each floor, each is slightly different in the heritage build, but they all come with unique selling points from top-floor city vistas to slightly larger room footprints. There are also perks for every guest: priority booking at the fine dining restaurant, along with an exclusive experience that can be discovered at night when looking down onto the Saint Peter kitchen through the glass ceiling.

Find king-size beds and footed bathtubs amongst brass, marble and stone detailing and illustrated wallpaper from luxury brands such as Catherine Martin, Cole & Son and Fornasetti. Art pieces are curated by Tim Olsen of Sydney-based Olsen Gallery, including artworks by Byron Bay artist Michael Cusack and the legendary Ken Done, both in the hotel and dining areas. Every part of the detailing in rooms has been selected by the Nilands, such as the all-inclusive mini-bar, Aesop amenities and fish-fat soap made in collaboration with The Soapstress using waste from the restaurant.

Welcome snacks include treats such as a Yellowfin Tuna fermented rice cake with N25 Kaluga Caviar (an Australia-wide exclusive to Saint Peter currently) or Passionfruit Marigold and Lemon Myrtle Soda, an inventive concoction by Sam Cocks, the Saint Peter bar manager. At turn-down, guests receive handmade chocolates on the bed along with a personalised, signed note from Josh Niland.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

A seat at Saint Peter’s table has long been the hottest ticket in town, with pioneering chef Josh Niland creating a one-of-a-kind experience revered by Australian and global chefs alike. Their new home includes a dining room for 40 guests, a bar for 30 and a private dining room for 15.

Niland’s sustainable, fin-to-scale and whole-fish philosophy has influenced how many now consume and serve fish, with his trail-blazing approach presented in his artistry. From Australia’s best oysters in the restaurant’s nine-course tasting menu to a yellowfin tuna cheeseburger in their ala carte dining at the bar, both fine dining and casual are welcomed here at Saint Peter at The Grand National Hotel.

Breakfast of champions?

Available exclusively to guests, the hotel breakfast is a spectacular event: a three-course breakfast menu, cooked especially by the Saint Peter team and served either by Niland personally or head chef Joe Greenwood.

It all tastes as sensational as it looks, but it's the marron scrambled eggs dish which delights the most. The Australian freshwater crayfish has every edible part of its torso presented on the plate, along with its head filled with rich hollandaise – all served on a bed of foie sourdough toast and scrambled eggs. Seasonal fruit plates are presented with marigold flowers and goji berries freeze-dried with liquid nitrogen to create dramatic smoke effects for extra theatrics. It’s a breakfast that guests will be talking about for months.

The verdict

Independently run, the Nilands keep developing their offering to make it even better – it is also their personalised approach at Saint Peter that makes every guest feel welcome and proud to support their mission. Josh Niland’s whole-fish cooking has been instrumental to sustainable consumption and transparent sourcing, translated into the extraordinary dishes guests from around the world travel to Saint Peter for. Now, they can experience the full extent of the Niland’s vision, from check-in to check-out.

The Grand National Hotel by Saint Peter is located at 161 Underwood St, Paddington NSW 2021, Australia; saintpeter.com.au

A new addition on the cusp of Sydney’s Central Business District, The Eve Hotel Sydney is a brick and biophilic low-rise that showcases Australian art and design while celebrating its history and locale. Part of the TFE Hotels group, this new opening strives to be ‘a playground for the curious and creative’.

Wallpaper* checks in a The Eve Hotel Sydney

What’s on your doorstep?

With its lush canopy of oak trees, Baptist Street is a picture of tranquillity. However, it wasn’t too long ago that this area, along with the surrounding suburb of Redfern, could best be described as ‘sketchy’. As gentrification crept in, a run-down mall made way for the Wunderlich Lane commercial and residential development. A decade later, this once gritty patch of Sydney is now the city’s newest hospitality and retail darling.

Who is behind the design?

Adam Haddow, director of local firm SJB, the hotel’s principal architects, collaborated with landscape architect Daniel Baffsky and interior designer George Livissianis to bring the project to life. ‘The street-level entrance is deliberately immediate – there is no buffer. Guests step straight from the raw energy of the city into an experience heightened by contrast,’ says Haddow.

A vaulted Barrisol ceiling is emblazoned with a luminous abstract digital mural by artist Louise Olsen, co-founder of homeware and jewellery studio Dinosaur Designs. The reds and browns of Australian hardwoods, such as jarrah and ironbark, add tonal warmth to the floors, pillars and walls, which are adorned with eye-catching artworks by the likes of Richard Killeen, Robert Henry Dickerson and Angelo Savelli.

Contrast comes again in the cool, white lobby, its natural stone flooring and rendered walls softened by flashes of colourful upholstered furniture, the curve of a pair of mottled blue faience reception desks and sightlines to a garden courtyard. The lobby is restrained and meditative, acting as an architectural palate cleanser before guests continue along a cloistered corridor to the guest rooms. ‘The passageway serves as both a physical and psychological threshold, offering a moment of pause to engage with the courtyard’s landscape and subtly reorient oneself within the city,’ says Haddow.

The room to book

The 102 rooms and suites are dressed in the hues of the Aussie bush, from the shower stalls and bathrobes to the headboards and banquettes. All have balconies or terraces, which overlook rows of shingle and tin roofs and swathes of greenery. Haddow suggests taking time to admire the outlook, when ‘the city dissolves into a landscape that feels almost like the bush – a rare moment of retreat within the urban fabric’. In-room amenities, including glassware and olive oil-based bath and body products, are provided by lifestyle brand Saardé, whose first retail outlet is located on site.

Where to switch off

The hotel pool – on the rooftop – with its Sukabumi tiles and underwater speakers, is one of the hottest in town, while burnt orange sunloungers, umbrellas and cabanas add a retro LA vibe. It’s the garden, however, that steals the show. ‘It’s an eclectic mix of native and exotic flora, including edible species such as lilly pilly, feijoa and lemon myrtle,’ says Baffsky. ‘The landscape is sometimes tidy and refined, sometimes wild, resilient and a bit rough and ready, a mix that reflects the vibrant characteristics of the neighbourhood.’

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Dining and drinking options abound at Wunderlich Lane. Sharing the rooftop space is contemporary Mexican restaurant and mezcaleria Lottie, which offers a wraparound terrace and sublime sunset views. Also on site are Regina La Pizzeria, high-end Japanese diner R by Raita Noda, and Island Radio, a Southeast Asian noodle bar (with a resident DJ), the last housed within a heritage-listed former bank building alongside Baptist Street Rec Club, a cocktail bar that channels the flamboyance of 1980s Sydney. Then there’s Olympus Dining, a circular 200-seater Greek arena that’s proving very popular with the city’s hipster gourmands. In the centre sits a 50-year-old bougainvillaea tree beneath a retractable glass-domed roof, which shelters diners from, or exposes them to, the elements as they tuck into taramasalata, dolmades, grilled octopus and roasted milk-fed lamb.

The verdict

It’s a far cry from Redfern’s murky past, but Haddow believes The Eve Hotel Sydney ‘speaks to its surroundings with clarity, authenticity and a profound sense of belonging’, bringing a welcome new lease of life to this colourful neighbourhood.

The Eve Hotel Sydney is located at 8 Baptist St, Redfern NSW 2016, Australia; theevehotel.com.au

A version of this article appears in the May 2025 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands from 3 April, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Unlike London’s Paddington, which is synonymous with everyone’s favourite marmalade-eating bear, Paddington in Australia’s Sydney is known for its abundance of art galleries and boutique shopping, alongside designer pop-ups and markets. Now the neighbourhood is home to Studio Henry Wilson, as the eponymous designer opens up his first store.

Inside Studio Henry Wilson's showroom and store

‘The idea for a store started, like many good things, by chance,’ says Wilson, who stumbled upon the location, which is set beneath the area's old Scout Hall. ‘I happened to catch a sign at the small space and immediately admired the even light from both sides and the large, copper-lined Victorian shop-front window. It had a simple, flexible interior by the architect Madeleine Blanchfield, which had housed her meeting room and library for several years.’

The studio which was established in 2012, is known for its furniture, lighting, accessories and components in metal, stone and glass, all characterised by their utilitarianism and, in Wilson’s words, ‘giving precedence to form and function’. He is also drawn to the charm and beauty that comes with pieces made by hand, making sure that durability isn't compromised. ‘I see longevity as one of the simpler forms of sustainability we can hope to achieve as contemporary designers’.

This creative approach is threaded through the interior of the designer’s first flagship. Paying homage to Blanchfield’s original architecture, Wilson wanted the store to feel like a ‘collector’s apartment’. The warm white walls act like a canvas to showcase his work, while the uneven floors and pressed tin ceiling help to modernise the space. An elongated steel plinth runs the length of the interior and acts as both display area and storage for merchandise.

The store is not only a showcase of Wilson’s work, but also a platform for other Australian-made pieces, and items that he personally finds to be beautiful and functional, including glassware and linen, scents such as handmade pure wood incense, and oils from Perfumer H and Aesop, as well as personal care products from To My Ships.

The Australian landscape is what inspires Wilson, especially the arid nature and unpredictability of the weather. ‘Nothing remains perfect in Australian conditions, and I believe weathering is to be accepted and valued even up to the extent of effecting subtle imperfections during manufacture.

'I have struggled to justify the mercantile aspect of the store; certainly, it makes little sense on paper. However, in the face of an increasingly fragmented community, I wanted a place to meet and to house the objects we make. Somewhere for the public to see, feel and sense what we do.'

Studio Henry Wilson showroom is located at 87 Paddington Street, Sydney, Australia studiohenrywilson.com

It’s not exactly easy to pinpoint where the Wallpaper* editors will be. From design festivals to fashion weeks and OOO adventures, there’s always something exciting on our team’s calendars. Keep reading to find out where the magazine’s staff members will be heading in the new year.

Wallpaper* editors’ 2025 getaway plans

LA: Charlotte Gunn, Director of Digital Content

‘I will look forward to my annual trip to Los Angeles to visit friends and family. I spend the year diligently plotting all the new openings I want to try on a Google Map so I am fully prepped by the time we arrive. I’m already itching to try Camelia, a French fusion restaurant which opened in Echo Park at the end of the summer. I’m also keen to see how the development of Melrose Hill has progressed since my last visit – a couple of notable galleries had moved into the area and there was a pledge to redevelop a disused retail block with new independent shops and restaurants. To get me through the long British winter, I shall be dreaming of fresh seafood at sundown from The Jolly Oyster on Ventura beach.’

Venice & Helsinki: Ellie Stathaki, Architecture & Environment Director

‘The Venice Architecture Biennale always causes a stir of excitement at the architecture desk, so my biannual visit to the Italian city in May for the vernissage is at the top of my list for 2025. I am also dreaming of a winter trip to Helsinki. I’ve always felt there’s lots to see and enjoy in the Nordic capital, and I have only scratched the surface. I have only ever been for work, so going on a long weekend in a private capacity is also on my list. The reopening of Alvar Aalto’s Finlandia Hall in January just adds to the reasons why.’

Switzerland & Budapest: Hannah Tindle, Beauty & Grooming Editor

‘I’m hoping to travel to Clinique La Prairie in Switzerland in 2025, a spa and clinic that has been running since 1931. (Previous devotees to its ‘CLP method’ include Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo). I also want to visit the Omorovicza spa in Budapest, another institution with a storied past, built on the Rác Thermal Bath, which dates back to the 16th century.’

Naoshima: Jason Hughes, Creative Director

‘In 2025, I’m heading back to Japan, more specifically to visit the islands of Naoshima and Teshima, which sit in the Seto Inland Sea and are easily accessible by ferry from Osaka. Famous for their art and architecture, I look forward to exploring both islands on a bicycle and seeing the works of artists Yayoi Kusama, James Turrell, Walter De Maria and Lee Ufan. I’m planning to stay at Benesse House, a museum and hotel concept, designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando.’

Australia, Uzbekistan and beyond: Lauren Ho, Travel Director

‘As I live my life constantly on the road, it’s important for me to plan my trips so that I make the most of each region or destination I am in. For 2025, I will be ringing in the new year in Sydney, followed by a few weeks of checking out new hotels in Australia. In late January, I will be heading to Beijing to see the newly opened Mandarin Oriental Qianmen, the group’s newest property, which unfolds within a 600-year-old hutong complex. This will be followed by a trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which I am particularly excited about, and then, I will make my way to Europe, where I plan to explore Greece’s new hotel openings, and will head from Lisbon to the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe. While luxury hotels are my passion, at least once a year I like to visit a random destination I have never been to and that most people might not have access to. Finally, by June, I hope to make my annual pilgrimage to Africa to get my safari fix.’

Malaysia: Melina Keays, Entertaining Director

‘In February, I am travelling to The Datai beach resort in Langkawi - one of my favourite destinations in the world. Langkawi is the largest of a cluster of islands off the coast of northwestern Malaysia, separated from the mainland by the Strait of Malacca. I’ve been visiting this wonderful place for decades, and it never loses its allure. Langkawi is a proper tropical paradise; awarded Geopark status by UNESCO, it offers lush rainforests, stunning mountain ranges and white sand beaches.

There are fantastic things to see and do all over the island, which is rich in history and culture, but I could easily spend all my time at The Datai resort itself. It was designed by visionary architect Kerry Hill, who was determined to honour its environment, and set high over Datai Bay. The hotel is melded into its jungle setting, and its beautiful rooms and spaces float amidst the rainforest canopy, with breathtaking views of the Andaman Sea. The food at the Datai is superb, and I am particularly looking forward to the delicious Malaysian cuisine at The Gulai House, which is to be found at the end of a candle-lit jungle trail.’

Geneva: Tianna Williams, Editorial Executive

‘For the first week of spring, I will be heading to Geneva, Switzerland, to reunite with my cousin and sister. The location of this annual reunion varies from year to year, from the rolling hills of Shropshire, the coastline of the Gower Peninsula to London’s Hyde Park. I am excited to trade the London smog for crisp Mont Blanc mountain air, warm up with soothing mugs of hot chocolate, and, if feeling brave, take a plunge in Lake Geneva.’

Madrid, Rome, Paris: Sofia de la Cruz, Travel Editor

‘I tend to be quite spontaneous with the locations I travel to, often booking trips or accepting invitations at the last minute. That said, I will begin the new year in Madrid, and a few weeks later, I have a trip planned to Rome to explore the upcoming Hotel Romeo Roma, one of Zaha Hadid’s final projects before she died in 2016. I also have a weekend in Paris scheduled, which is something I make a point to do every year. As for the rest of the year, I hope to fulfil my lifelong dream of visiting Japan.’

Shanghai: Smilian Cibic, Editorial Assistant

‘I’m travelling to Shanghai to visit my dad, who has been working there for the past five years. I’m looking forward to seeing what he’s been up to. He’s designed his own micro home apartment, which has had quite a stir in the Chinese press. We will then travel together to Jingdezhen, the porcelain capital of China and then Shenzhen, the tech capital of the world.’

For more Travel content, visit Wallpaper*’s dedicated channel

Clifton House, tucked away behind cascading palms and leafy foliage, is a charming build full of light-boosting conservatory qualities, playfully reimaginng ways to create a home with privacy, without blocking out the outdoor environment. Located on a suburban block in North Bondi, Sydney, the four-bedroom family house replaces a bungalow and is nestled on a sandy flat that runs from the beach to Sydney Harbour at Rose Bay.

Inside Clifton House in North Bondi

The house was designed by Anthony Gill Architects, who worked closely with their client, Bill Clifton, who also was the builder of the project. Landscape architects tackled the garden. The latter said: ‘Our aim here was to create a family home on a suburban block with some clear logistical challenges, that allowed us as the builder to learn from the process of being a client, to try new ways of doing things that improved our process while also creating a memorable piece of architecture that enhanced the streetscape.’

The logistical challenges included working around somewhat dense surroundings due to the site sharing boundaries with a mix of housing types. Focusing on creating a home which values privacy, the Australian architects designed the house around a series of courtyards with compact vegetation to create a secluded sancturary, without compromising on light.

As you enter through the ground floor, the residence opens up into a spacious living room, kitchen and dining area, which allows fluid access to several garden areas. Large opening windows help the cooling sea breeze to circulate throughout the home. Upstairs, angled fibreglass panels help keep rooms private. The bedrooms are adorned with plants, creating a playful greenhouse effect and providing an intriguing contrast with the red brick façade.

The interior detailing is gentle and organic, with low-lying furniture in earthy tones providing a softness to the overall home's materiality. Outside, a pool is nestled into the garden offering tranquil privacy within a friendly and bustling suburb.

gillarchitects.com

dangarbarinsmith.com.au

This contemporary Sydney house is located just across the city's harbour, with easy access to the surfing hotspot of Manly and the 30km stretch of sandy paradise that is the Northern Beaches. It stands out amidst the traditional homes of its tree-lined street in the quiet suburb of Clontarf.

Designed by Alexandra Kidd Interior Design and Rich Carr Architects for a young family of five, the two-storey home seamlessly blends indoor and outdoor spaces, incorporating five bedrooms, a study, laundry room, pantry and playroom, as well as a private courtyard, swimming pool and cabana.

A Sydney house is a family's 'forever home'

‘It’s our forever home,’ says the clients, whose vision was to build ‘a beautiful, modern, minimalist and luxury home that will adapt, and grow with the family.’ As it is set on a corner plot with two street frontages, the brief had the added difficulty of considering privacy and security, with the popular Manly-Spit walk being only a street away.

Mission accomplished thanks to Rich Carr, a Sydney-based practice that aims to create ‘personalised architecture symbiotic with the environment and inhabitants at all scales’, and Alexandra Kidd, an award-winning design studio located in nearby Potts Point that specialises in creating ‘functional homes filled with light, joy, colour and texture’.

‘This home is a haven that celebrates the beauty of light, space, and the tranquil coastal landscape,’ says founder Alexandra Kidd. ‘It invites nature to become an integral part of the living experience.’ The pair of tall palm trees that graced the original plot have been thankfully preserved, and are now joined by a new-build home with striking geometric planes and large circular openings that create eye-catching shadows on the façade.

The carefully selected materials, including honey-coloured stonework, Venetian plaster, and warm wooden slatted panels, are carried throughout, inside and out, creating ‘a highly tactile environment that engages the senses and connects residents with the space and its surroundings,’ says Kidd.

At the heart of the home is a small courtyard with large stepping stones leading across a water feature, which ‘adds to the sensory experience, with the soothing sound of water and the mesmerising reflections of water patterns on the stone walls when the sun dances on the surface’.

There is a huge variety of beautifully crafted stone used throughout the house, from the travertine cladding the walls to the oversized marble waterfall island in the kitchen, which is complemented by sleek, dark cabinetry. Each of the six bathrooms offers a unique mix of terrazzo and marble finishes and is illuminated by large skylights.

The resulting home strikes a perfect balance between private, quieter areas and open-plan spaces perfect for lively gatherings. ‘Our aim was to create a sanctuary that not only respects the environment but also enhances the quality of life for those who inhabit it,’ concludes Kidd. ‘This project is a testament to the power of design to inspire, connect with nature, uplift, and hopefully transform the way we live.’

.alexandrakidd.com

richcarrarchitects.com.au

The City extension to the Sydney Metro opens in August 2024, the latest addition to the city’s underground railroad system. Australia’s largest transport infrastructure project to date, the first tranche of stations opened in 2019 and work will be continuing until 2032 at least, with a total of 113km and 46 stations planned.

Sydney Metro's new Central Station concourse

This is the newly refurbished and expanded Central Station, a collaboration between John McAslan + Partners and Woods Bagot and a key interchange on the City & Southwest section of the system. This is already Australia’s busiest railway station, with rail lines that stretch out into the suburbs handling a remarkable 96 per cent of Sydney’s trains. To aid the interchange with the Sydney Metro, a new Northern Concourse has been added, with additional platform and concourse space beneath an oversailing roof.

In some respects, the project is similar to John McAslan + Partners’ work at King’s Cross in London, with the dramatic new structure bridging the walls of the existing Edwardian terminus. Designed by Walter Liberty Vernon and George McRae, the original structure dates back to 1906 and is considered one of Sydney’s landmark structures.

The new spaces integrate the station into the public realm, with escalators, stairs and lifts leading down from street level to a lower-level concourse lit by an array of kite-shaped roof lights punched into the curving structure. The vaulted roof covers an impressive 2,420 sq m, with perforated white aluminium cladding enhancing the restored stone facades and classic detailing of the original station building and the sandstone 1936 Central Electric Building.

Around 450,000 people are expected to use this building every day with the new line up and running, a 60 per cent increase on current capacity, and spaciousness, simplicity of navigation and an important first impression were all part of the brief.

As with almost all contemporary urban infrastructure upgrades, the new works have had to be carefully threaded into the urban fabric. The new lower level was made possible by the digging out of a maze of existing pedestrian tunnels. The heritage building is raised up on a new structural plinth, with the new roof oversailing it completely.

Such is the lightness of touch that the entire scheme is capable of being removed without any damage to the original structures, but if modern station upgrades are anything to go by, the new concourse will soon become a core part of Sydney’s identity.

McAslan.co.uk,

WoodsBagot.com

SydneyMetro.info

A collaboration between industrial designers from Sydney’s University of New South Wales (UNSW), urban technology planners from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Transport for NSW, Benchmark is a new experimental seating solution designed to better understand how women, girls, and gender-diverse individuals use public spaces.

Funded by Transport for NSW under the Safer Cities programme, the innovative outdoor benches were designed by Gonzalo Portas, chief investigator and associate lecturer in Industrial Design at the School of Built Environment, UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture, with assistance from four female industrial design students – Eleanor Tang, Grace Wong, Christine Chen and Eugenia Cheung – under the mentorship of senior lecturer Rina Bernabei.

Featuring motion-activated LED lighting and monitored by AI technology, the seating elements have been installed at the UNSW Village Green for a month, so members of the public can interact with them and participate in a survey to provide valuable insights into public space usage for the broader Safer Cities programme, and inform future urban design and planning decisions.

‘Through this project, we hope to create a model for smart, safe, and inclusive public spaces that can be replicated across various urban environments,’ explains Portas. ‘By involving diverse voices in the design process and leveraging cutting-edge technology, we aim to address the unique needs and preferences of underrepresented groups in public spaces.’

Fabricated at the Design Futures Lab at UNSW, each bench is made from durable, locally sourced recycled plastic sheets supplied by Defy Design. The lightweight units, which can be easily moved and used according to user preference, also incorporate LED lighting strips, which illuminate when there is movement nearby to increase visibility.

‘Users can flexibly sit in various positions, including cross-legged on top, perching on the edge, reclining against them, or straddling them like benches,’ explains Portas. ‘They are also free to reposition the chairs to other locations within the UNSW Village Green, adding to the interaction and flexibility.’

The seating area is monitored using AI vision technology developed by MIT’s Norman B Leventhal Center for Advanced Urbanism (LCAU) that detects general movement and usage patterns.

‘We want to know what makes women and girls feel safe in public space,’ says associate professor Sarah Williams, director of the MIT Civic Data Design Lab. ‘Using the power of AI vision recognition software, we’re able to detect how people interact with our seating and whether they feel comfortable enough to sit and stay for long periods, alone or with others, indicating they feel safe.’

There is no data-capturing technology mounted in the seats but instead, a camera mounted on a nearby pole detects the bench shapes and movement of people. ‘What’s unique about the AI vision recognition software is that it doesn’t collect identifiable data,’ Williams explains. ‘The software recognises the bench model and how users interact with it but deletes image frames permanently, leaving behind just dot points on a map that we can analyse.’

Unsw.edu

Surry Hills in Sydney is known for its many cafés and bars, some dotted along main streets, while others, such as the recently opened Beau, are accessed from a laneway – in this case, Flacks Lane. Designed by Smart Design Studio, the two-part, 200 sq m venue is the brainchild of the Nomad Group, established by Rebecca Yazbek and her life and business partner Al.

Beau Sydney: a bakery and a bar in one

A stone’s throw from the couple’s other restaurant, the Nomad, also in Surry Hills, the Beau sits within an office building designed by SJB. Inheriting a glazed brick façade with a scalloped front window, the brief to Smart Design Studio called for a bakery at the building’s front and a casual bar and dining area to the rear. ‘Rebecca and Al wanted a place where people could start the day by having fresh Manousha and end the day with a glass of wine,’ says architect Arash Engineer, an associate of Smart Design Studio, who worked closely with architect Christina Markham, a director of the practice.

Located at the ground level, both the bakery and the bar share similar design features – including a series of mesh ‘fringes’ suspended across the entire ceiling, caramel-coloured banquette seating and light oak-washed tables and chairs. And while both areas feature polished concrete floors, the bakery at the front is lighter in tone with a stainless-steel kitchen and pale granite counters – as opposed to the darker palette bar, with its black granite and raw steel joinery. Both spaces feature an outlook to the lane’s exposed brick walls and the interior’s rough-finished original walls – even with chunks of bricks missing in some parts. ‘We saw both areas like siblings. There are some similarities, but you can also see the differences. But it was important to create that dialogue between the two,’ says Engineer, who also included outdoor seating along the laneway.

Designed to seat 75 people across the two venues, with a further 50 people spread across the laneway, the Beau is quickly shifting traffic to this part of town. While Smart Design Studio is often associated with art galleries (the White Rabbit Gallery) and high-end bespoke homes in Sydney, this latest venue shows the practice’s skill in delivering fine contemporary spaces that can also be enjoyed for the simple pleasures in life – be it eating, drinking or both.

Beau Sydney is located at 1 Fracks Ln, Surry Hills, beau.sydney

Tobias Partners' Lavender Bay House occupies an enviable spot on the northern shores of New South Wales. Set within a densely built context of seaside plots, the new-build residence (the home of a family of five) makes the most of its site, opening naturally towards the water as it overlooks Sydney Harbour. 

Step inside the Lavender Bay house by Tobias Partners

The generous dwelling contains ample accommodation for its permanent residents while allowing for guests and entertaining. Its lofty volumes feel at once comfortable and even cosy, framed against the dramatic sea vistas and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Luna Park and Opera House views beyond. 

The house's spatial arrangement is based on a mix of both 'expansive and introspective outlooks', write the architects, headed by studio founder Nick Tobias. The project was led by Tobias Partners' designer and principal Richard Peters. The site's steep slope (there is a 16m terrain drop across the plot) led to a stepped approach. 

At the same time, 'a deep excavation was required to accommodate our clients’ brief and maintain view-corridors for surrounding properties', the team continues. 'From the street, the house reads as a single level, and the main entry sequence makes a feature of the Harbour Bridge’s north-western pylon.'

Inside, the interiors – also crafted by Tobias Partners – blend monumental concrete, marble and timber accents. Material consistency and a restricted colour palette unite the home's five levels. 

The lower levels, which most connect with the outdoors and the property's cascading garden, house the living areas, which spread across a majestic, double-height space. 

Upstairs is where the private areas are located, including a principal bedroom contained within its own level, and three more bedrooms above it. 

An extra family room on the top floor provides space for a home office and an added terrace lounge for family and guests.

tobiaspartners.com

The Darling hotel at The Star Sydney – an entertainment hub amid the yacht-studded harbours of Pyrmont – has seen an interior refresh, with luxurious new suites befitting its location. International design practice Fender Katsalidis made sure to balance sophistication with a playful and colourful twist.

The Darling in Sydney

The Star encompasses various food and beverage options, a casino and an array of event and function spaces, as well as The Darling, whose sixteen suites have been through an extensive, two-year refurbishment. Wanting to make the rooms a place of rest and relaxation, the design practice focused on comfort, with soft furnishings and carpeted floors.

Curves are a key design element, evident in sofas, lighting fixtures, and stools, and balanced by linear table tops, shelving, and kitchen countertops. The colour red is threaded through each suite as a signature element, and is most evident in the penthouse’s karaoke room, which is enveloped in sultry red hues. Guests can sing to their heart’s content, as each room features suitable acoustics for a high level of privacy.

Reflecting on the project, Fender Katsalidis’ associate principal, Catherine Allington, says, ‘Our goal with refurbishing the two levels is to offer captivating experiences and one-of-a-kind memories through design. With this intention, each guest suite is reimagined to have its own unique visual and sensory journey, creating distinctive moments that oscillate between playfulness and respite.

‘The deluxe penthouse suite with the all-red karaoke room is unrestrained in its playfulness, so this is counteracted with an equally enhanced atmosphere of restfulness through the hues of soft greys and sages in the bedrooms.

‘Slight variations were also applied to the interpretations of each suite, as we were working with many existing finishes being retained. Applying this nuanced approach created experiential vignettes and a level of personalisation that sustains a continued sense of discovery and excitement for recurring guests.’

thedarling.com, fkaustralia.com

Wharf Apartment in Sydney, a recent renovation by Australian interior design firm Lawless & Meyerson, adapts a rich, heritage space into an airy apartment that is inspired by modern coastal living.

Completed in 1915 by the Sydney Harbour Trust, Finger Wharf was once a busy passenger terminal. In the late 1980s, it was derelict and facing the threat of demolition, but the local community successfully rallied to save it. The historic wharf was subsequently transformed into a boutique hotel, including some private apartments and upscale restaurants. Today the area remains a popular destination, while its apartments – one of which is this Lawless & Meyerson commission – are highly sought-after real estate. 

Wharf Apartment: a serene heritage space inspired by seaside holidays

Located in Sydney's suburb of Woolloomooloo, Wharf Apartment is a refined, character-filled home that highlights the historic exposed structure and marina views.

After purchasing the property, the owner approached Lawless & Meyerson seeking to transform it into an open, flexible abode for everyday living, working, and entertaining. The brief was to evoke a calm, holiday-like atmosphere while elevating the space’s industrial maritime spirit.

The team deferred to the historic character of the exposed structure throughout the renovation. They opted for quiet, sensitive insertions that highlight the original steel trusses, I-beams littered with rivets, and voluminous ceilings that give the residence its distinct tone.

There were, of course, bureaucratic challenges inherent to renovating a heritage-listed space. Still, the team was able to carefully navigate the regulations and carry out important updates: raising a low ceiling to further expose the original trusses, adding a primary bathroom, and slotting in a smaller bathroom and laundry room. The kitchen, an essential for future entertaining purposes, was created around exposed beams, hidden structure, and myriad other services – all without losing the original character that defines the apartment.

Purchased as a two-bedroom abode, the renovation saw the second bedroom absorbed into the living space, enhancing the apartment’s connectivity and ensuring that natural light penetrates every corner. The architects approached the design of the sole remaining bedroom like that of a boutique hotel. 

Rather than partition it from the open-plan living space with a solid wall, they installed white steel and glass doors, shaded by heavy linen curtains. With this design pivot, the entire space can be easily linked together, with privacy an equally accessible option, achieved by cordoning off the bedroom.

A restrained palette of neutral colours and natural materials creates a calming whole that forms a clean backdrop against the architecture’s industrial spirit and the marina’s blue waters reflecting through the large windows. A subtle, textured approach feels contemporary and serene, letting the architecture do the heavy lifting.

Dated, wall-to-wall carpeting was replaced with elegant limed oak parquetry. A custom sisal rug anchors the living space, accented by linen sofas, canvas and chrome Knoll ‘Wassily’ chairs, and concrete tables from Tigmi Trading. Meanwhile, the adjacent kitchen is a poised composition of grey Savannah marble and white paint.

lawlessandmeyerson.com

Australia’s three biennials – Biennale of Sydney, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, and newcomer PHOTO International Festival of Photography, Melbourne – have joined forces to create the country’s first Art Grand Tour across Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, teaming up with major art events to collectively present the work of over 400 artists. 

Australia's first Art Grand Tour

The Art Grand Tour is a build-your-own art adventure that will see locals and visitors moving between the three cities. It kicked off at the end of February 2024, with the Melbourne Art Fair presenting solo shows and artist commissions from 60 of the region’s leading galleries and Indigenous art centres, and is followed by PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography on 1 March. 

Dedicated to contemporary practice, the photography biennial is marking its third edition. Addressing the theme The Future Is Shaped by Those Who Can See It, PHOTO 2024 features a trail of 100 free exhibitions and large-scale outdoor installations across Melbourne with artists including Ryan McGinley, Cao Fei, Omar Victor Diop, Carmen Winant and Edward Burtynsky. This year, PHOTO also celebrates three icons, Nan Goldin, Malick Sidibé and Rennie Ellis.

In Melbourne, the Art Grand Tour incorporated new commissions and works by 120 artists for NGV Triennial (opened in December and running until 7 April 2024) – with Yoko Ono, Elmgreen & Dragset and Tracey Emin amongst others – as well as MPavilion 10 by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando, an architectural commission of concrete minimalist perfection in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens.

In South Australia, the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art opens concurrently on 1 March. Curated by José Da Silva and titled Inner Sanctum, the biennial showcases 24 artists and poets across exhibitions, performances and talks that explore our engagement with the world and each other. The Adelaide Biennial is part of the Adelaide Festival. Curated by artistic director Ruth Mackenzie CBE, and chief executive Kath M Mainland CBE, 2024’s Adelaide Festival features 64 events including Australian Premieres by Marina Abramović, Laurie Andersen and Víkingur Ólafsson. 

The Biennale of Sydney opens to the public on 9 March and its 50th anniversary year is led by artistic directors Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero. Under the theme Ten Thousand Suns, dynamic artworks, large-scale installations and site-specific projects by 88 artists and collectives from 47 countries will be presented across a number of landmark galleries including, for the first time, at the recently restored White Bay Power Station. In association with the biennale, the Sydney Opera House will be illuminated every night after sunset with artwork projected onto its sails. 

Visitors to Sydney will also be able to see the exhibition ‘Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?’, the artist’s largest survey to date in Australia and the first monographic exhibition staged in the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ new SANAA-designed building, Sydney Modern. 

Rhana Devenport, director, Art Gallery of South Australia, is one arts leader planning to visit all three cities. ‘It’s a rare opportunity to experience these exemplary gatherings of art that push boundaries, and alter your perceptions, and create new memories,’ she says. With international curators and collectors jetting into Australia for this art extravaganza, the Art Grand Tour marks a distinct turning point for the country’s relationship with the global arts community.

Biennale of Sydney, multiple venues, 9 March  – 10 June 2024
Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, 1 March – 2 June 2024
The Melbourne Art Fair ran from 22 – 25 February 2024
NGV Triennial, NGV International, until 7 April 2024

The new Sydney Modern store by Akin Atelier brings a calculated splash of colour to SANAA’s ethereal, minimalist architecture. The retail space, which has now opened to the public, becomes a key shopping hub for Sydney Modern, one of Australia’s key, new cultural destinations. The installation, located in the Entrance Pavilion of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, is an immersive space that blends orange resin surfaces and reflective objects that shape an inviting, luminous design. 

The Sydney Modern store by Akin Atelier

‘At first glance, this work makes a bold and simple statement. Its purpose is defined and its identity is definite. But with further investigation and understanding, you see its complexity and that it is in harmony with its natural, architectural, and artistic context,' said Kelvin Ho, principal at Akin Atelier, who worked on the project together with studio associate Alexandra Holman. 

The scheme establishes a new horizon within the generous, transparent spaces of the SANAA-designed building. The shop’s perimeter is delineated by fluid contours of striated bio-resin wrap. 'Windows' within it allow sightlines to connect the user with the wider architectural context and the city and views beyond. 

'The site gave us a unique opportunity to break past the “exit through the gift shop” conventions and extend the artistic experience of the gallery into the design of the retail space. Our intention was for the work to clearly express a sense of place in a way that not only preserved but also enriched the cultural and architectural experience of the gallery. These were the ideas that drove both the design and materiality of this project,’ said Holman. 

Akin Atelier worked with multidisciplinary designer Hayden Cox to fabricate and apply the bio-resin elements. The bespoke quality of the design shines through – quite literally, as light gently bounces off the polished surfaces. 

'As the principal retail space of the new gallery building committed to contemporary artists, the Gallery Shop by Akin Atelier is both a [store] and a sculptural installation, designed to express the artistic endeavours of the Sydney Modern building and challenge the commercial experience of an archetypal gallery shop,' the architecture team conclude. 

akinatelier.com 

The highly anticipated Capella Sydney is the newest reveal in the Australian city's booming hospitality scene – which includes the soon-to-open W Hotel and the recently launched Crown Towers, Ace Hotel Sydney, and The Porter House, to name a few (see our Sydney guide). Located in the northern CBD, close to the commercial, arts and cultural districts, the Capella brand’s first Australian outpost has raised the bar for luxury accommodation in Sydney.

Capella Sydney’s heritage-informed, contemporary approach

The hotel occupies a grand, heritage-listed sandstone building – once home to the government departments of education (built 1912-15) and agriculture (added in 1930) – and its design has been spearheaded by architecture studio Make, which incorporated a four-floor extension from the original roof, slightly set back, making it less visible from the street below. The design itself makes the most of the building’s existing features, such as the majestic marble-clad entrance, while celebrating contemporary Australia with modern details.

At the core of the hotel, Aperture, the ground-floor all-day dining space, is enclosed with a skylight and features a 7m-high green wall with nearly 70 species of local flora. Taking centre stage is a mesmerising, bespoke kinetic sculpture called Meadow, designed by Amsterdam-based Studio Drift, which represents 18 colours of Australian wildflowers. 

Throughout the hotel, it’s the artwork that steals the show. From the Living Room lounge to the two ground-floor restaurants, the bar and the 192 guest rooms and suites, every space features standout pieces by Australian artists. Large-scale artworks by Judy Watson dominate the ground floor, while lively dots, spirals, swirls and dashes by Otis Carey adorn the walls of the McRae Bar. 

In contrast, the guest rooms each feature one key piece – spanning artworks, archival images and contemporary photography – amid their stylishly muted interiors, featuring walnut wood and natural stone, Frette linen and Hæckels bath products. 

Chef and restaurateur Brent Savage – behind Sydney favourites, Bentley, Monopole, Yellow and Cirrus – brings his magic to Capella Sydney with Brasserie 1930. Named for the year this part of the building was constructed, the room here features a chequerboard black-and-white marble floor alongside stained-glass details, and art by Georgia Bisley. The food celebrates the best of Australian produce, with cooking methods that focus on age-old techniques such as curing, smoking, fermenting, preserving and pickling. Expect dishes like Flinders Island scallops served with nectarine, brown butter and finger lime, or the sensational whole roasted duck, served with the breast and neck sausage, alongside roasted plum, fennel, spinach and glazed eschalot. 

Named in honour of George Mcrae, the building’s original architect, the McRae Bar is a modern take on a Victorian drinking den, with a cocktail list peppered with late-1800s touches that celebrate the golden age of fine drinking.

And then there’s the sprawling sixth-floor wellness space. Here the Department of Education’s former art gallery has now been transformed to include a 20m heated indoor swimming and vitality pool, where a series of copper-lined heritage lanterns illuminate the space with natural light. Elsewhere, there is a fully-equipped gym, a yoga platform, saunas, steam rooms and the Auriga Spa, with a menu of indulgent, immersive treatments sure to set you on the right path for exploring the streets of Sydney.  

Rates from AUD750 (approx £412) for a Deluxe Room

capellahotels.com 

makearchitects.com 

During the 50th anniversary year of its most famous building, Sydney is truly having a moment. Sydney Opera House has undergone a decade-long refurbishment, and is now joined by a new architectural icon: Sydney Modern. Lockout law restrictions that for so long stifled Sydney’s nightlife have come to an end, and the city is busy rediscovering its late-night offerings. Indeed, hosting World Pride (17 February-5 March 2023) is sealing Sydney’s reputation both as an LGBTQIA+ destination and as a city that takes culture, hospitality, and partying seriously. Discover the city’s highlights, as selected by Elias Redstone, artistic director of Photo 2024 in Melbourne and Wallpaper’s Australia editor. 

Sydney: what to see and do

Sydney Modern

The stunning new Sydney Modern extension to the Art Gallery of New South Wales is the most significant new cultural project in Sydney since the Opera House opened in 1973. The standalone building by SANAA includes a 1,100 sq m column-free gallery and the Tank, a 2,200 sq m former Second World War naval fuel bunker. New site-specific works have been commissioned by artists including Yayoi Kusama, Lisa Reihana and Francis Upritchard, while the landscape design by McGregor Coxall with Kathryn Gustafson includes over 8,000 sq m of green roof and landscaped areas planted with Australian native species.

artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Kiln

To create the new Ace Hotel Sydney – the first in the southern hemisphere – the chain tapped up some of Melbourne’s hottest design talent. Flack Studio designed the hotel, while Fiona Lynch Office was tasked with the new rooftop restaurant Kiln. A trip to the roof is recommended for Lynch’s evocative design palette inspired by the Australian landscape, the menu by head chef Mitch Orr, and stunning views of downtown Sydney. ‘From the outset, Ace wanted it to be an Australian take on what an Ace Hotel could be – one that would reflect Australia’s culture, colours, and design language,’ says Lynch.

kilnsydney.com

The National 4: New Australian Art

The National is an ambitious biennial celebration of contemporary Australian art, launched as a collaboration across the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in 2017. The 2023 edition, which opens at the end of March, welcomes Campbelltown Arts Centre to the party and features new work and commissions by 53 artists and collectives including Abdul Abdullah, Hoda Afshar, Brook Andrew, Brenda L Croft and Reko Rennie.

the-national.com.au

The Commercial

Since opening ten years ago in Redfern, The Commercial has built a strong reputation as a commercial gallery representing early and mid-career artists such Archie Moore, Lillian O’Neil and Amanda Williams. In 2018, the gallery moved to a large industrial space in Marrickville and has established itself as a destination in its own right. Stop by for shows such as new paintings by Archibald Prize-winner Nigel Milsom (until 8 April 2023), inspired by the artworks he would spend time looking at when he worked as a security guard at Art Gallery of New South Wales.

thecommercialgallery.com

Oxford House

Conceived as the first lifestyle hotel in the Paddington neighbourhood, Oxford House (or OH! to its friends) takes its design cues from the muted tones of Palm Springs, but with local design elements such as Double Rainbouu custom-made bathrobes and Marc Newson crockery. The artwork has been curated by designer and Ksubi co-founder George Gorrow, featuring work by local and international artists including Lena Gustafson, Adam Turnbull and Niah McLeod, and the experience is rounded off with the vibey outdoor pool and bar.

Pellegrino 2000

In just over a year, the team behind Potts Point’s Bistrot 916 has established Pellegrino 2000 as a go-to neighbourhood trattoria in Surry Hills with an eclectic following. To complement the modern Italian food, the joyful brand identity was conceived by Sydney’s SCCO Studio as an homage to the imagery of restaurants in Italy, with a colour scheme inspired by AS Roma. Downstairs, a wine cellar doubles as an intimate candlelit dining room.

pellegrino2000.com

The Porter House Hotel

Sydney’s skyline has reached new heights with the addition of a new 37-storey mixed-use tower by Angelo Candalepas and Associates, the practice recently appointed to design NGV Contemporary in Melbourne. The building is composed of a geometric grid of arches and apses, and features a 335 sq m abstract mural on one façade designed by Candalepas in collaboration with Colombian-born artist Maria Fernanda Cardoso. The Porter House Hotel, part of the MGallery group, spreads across the first ten floors of the new building and the adjacent heritage-listed Porter House building.

porterhousehotel.com.au

Dance at Sydney Opera House

The dance sector is having a renaissance in Australia with a new generation in charge, and it’s coming to the Sydney Opera House this autumn. Yuldea is the first work choreographed by Bangarra Dance Theatre’s new artistic director Frances Rings, with music by Indigenous electronic music duo Electric Fields. Showing as part of double bill called ‘Identity’, THE HUM is a new dance-theatre work created by Daniel Riley of Australian Dance Theatre (and notably the first Indigenous artistic director to lead a non-Indigenous dance company in Australia) in collaboration with the Australian Ballet, now under the direction of ballet superstar David Hallberg.

sydneyoperahouse.com

William Kentridge has been a global creative powerhouse for the best part of two decades, yet it feels like he’s only just entering his stride. South Africa’s most influential contemporary artist is the subject of a major exhibition at London’s Royal Academy of Arts, which fills its Main Galleries with works spanning Kentridge’s wide-ranging practice, from drawing, etchings, collage, printmaking, film and sculpture to tapestry, theatre, opera, dance and music. Kentridge’s performative, poetic and literary output mark him out as a Renaissance man, but in a distinctive sense that is at once African – he identifies simply as African – but which also bears traces of his Lithuanian Jewish heritage. 

Kentridge was born in Johannesburg in apartheid South Africa in 1955. His father, Sydney Kentridge, became a leading defence lawyer for Black South African leaders in the political trials that dominated international news media during the late 1960s through to the late 1970s. He represented Nelson Mandela during his 1958-1961 treason trial, and in 1978, he gained worldwide acclaim for representing the family of the anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko. Of his performance, Lord Alexander of Weedon wrote: ‘Through remorseless and deadly cross-examination, sometimes with brilliant irony, Kentridge established that the founder of the Black Consciousness Movement had been killed by police brutality. The verdict of accidental death was seen as risible.’ 

Watching his father in court sparked in the young Kentridge an early interest in dramaturgy, politics and history. It led him to acting school, but after graduating, he realised his talents fell short of what was required. When we speak over Zoom in late July 2022, I point out that he always seemed to find success by embracing failure. His response is characteristically blunt: ‘It’s not so much embracing failure. I understand that I’ve always been saved by failures. But each time, it has been a painful failure. It’s not that at the time, I think, “Oh, this is great, it’s failing”. When I couldn’t be an actor, that was very painful. I really thought that’s what I wanted to do, but I was no good at it. When I couldn’t do oil painting, it wasn’t something I celebrated.’ Kentridge still credits his training as an actor for a lot of his success as a visual artist, but only because it crystallised for him that failure is a definite form of knowledge. ‘I can say that a person’s biography shows how one is saved by thorough failures. If you fail a little bit, that’s hard, because you’re not sure whether you should stop or keep going. If you fail thoroughly, then the decision is made for you. It was very clear I was not going to be an actor. It’s not going to be. I became an artist.’

The world is grateful for those saving failures. Acclaim for Kentridge’s work has long since crossed continental boundaries. Indeed, it seems as if there is a museum show on Kentridge every month in some major European, Asian or American city. Suzanne Ackerman, a South African collector who has been collecting Kentridge’s work for the past 25 years, says ‘the versatility of Kentridge’s work is extraordinary and adapts to the relevance of our distressing past, as well as to the hope for a better future on our African continent.’ As leading Nigerian artist Victor Ehikhamenor puts it: ‘William Kentridge is your quintessential polymath. He is an artist who is not limited to a particular material or genre. His dance with both heavy and light art material, as well as his fusion of traditional and technological practice, makes his body of work unique.’ Even Dutch artist Renzo Martens, a gadfly to the art world establishment, whose film and museum projects in Congo have been called ‘ethically troubling’ and ‘politically problematic’, approves of Kentridge. He says, ‘I could say that, in his early animations, he was able to analyse and put to trial the horrors of the apartheid system, not as if it were some outside phenomena, but as something he was part of.’ 

There cannot be many more erudite artists than William Kentridge. During our nearly two-hour conversation, I was reminded of his keen interest in literature, history and music, his philosophical prowess and scientific rigour. The wordsmith in Kentridge has many aphorisms but only one diktat: ‘Art must defend the uncertain’. You do not need to be a Freudian psychologist to diagnose the reason for his love of this epigram. Apartheid South Africa was propagandised with the certainty that the utopia enjoyed by white South Africans would be at risk should freedom be granted to Indigenous South Africans, yet its fanatical last-stand resolve always concealed a corrosive kernel of doubt. 

During this era, Kentridge was inspired by another vision of utopia – or of a sanctuary, which he has come to see as the inevitable consequence of all attempts to build human utopias. For a brief period, Black and white South Africans would interact in the context of theatre. He recalls ‘the great days of South African theatre, from the early 1970s to the 1980s. One of the things that happened was this meeting of people who otherwise you would not have met in apartheid, with their racial separation. The theatre, in its very limited way, was a kind of utopian space, where, for those hours, there was a meeting. Obviously, once the evening finished, Black people went home to very different lives. But it became a way of seeing how people could work together and live together in a different structure.’

Uncertainty is vital to the curiosity that drives Kentridge. It has led him to interrogate the convictions of political and ideological utopias, and expose how quickly ideology morphs into authoritarian dystopias. His work holds a mirror to the limits of human intervention in society, not just in South Africa but across the world. Kentridge connects geographies through thematic explorations of how history is written. For example, his work with South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found resonance in Berlin with the reunification of West and East Germany, and the subsequent opening of the Stasi archives; similarly, in Colombia, with the Civil War and FARC reconciliation after the pronouncement of an end to hostilities and the declaration of amnesty. All of Kentridge’s work that deals with these grand issues begins with a line, a drawing. I had the pleasure of curating his seminal 2019 solo exhibition in Cape Town, ‘Why Should I Hesitate: Putting Drawings to Work’, his most revealing to date. Kentridge turned three large exhibition floors of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art into his studio. Was it a case of the magician revealing his tricks? To experience the exhibition, you realise it is not magic, but the very opposite: it is sleepless nights ruminating and staying with an idea. Image making through a process that begins with mark making or drawing to construct a visual history of the world. 

Kentridge’s solo exhibition at the RA is in a similar vein. ‘It’s very much a view from the studio outwards... the studio is the central point. The animated films [have] never been shown this way before, we’re showing five screens in one room. So you can almost construct your own film by the frames you look at, on the different screens around the space. Even though I’ve made [them] over a period of 30 years, they have a kind of coherence because of the same technique of charcoal drawing.’ Kentridge absorbs ideas from his experiences and harvests these ideas through sheer physical exertion. The combination furnishes him not only with the creative energy required to overcome timidity in addressing the void beyond (the greatest fear of many artists), but also with the stamina to see through to fruition work that explores political and social themes while his own story continues to shift and develop.

Given this thematic complexity, the media and materials called into service in Kentridge’s work are necessarily wide-ranging and protean. The RA exhibition spans a vast array, including two-dimensional artworks in India ink, charcoal, linocut and silkscreen print on paper; kinetic sculptures that evoke the Duchampian readymade tradition; several multi-channel video artworks comprising dozens of projections; and a large-scale installation in the form of an operatic model complete with mechanical puppet actors, titled Notes Towards a Model Opera (2015). The erasure technique adopted for his animated films involves using charcoal to make subtractive and additive drawings on the same sheet of paper, in a way that makes clear that what is being projected is a succession of drawings which retain faint traces of what has been erased. This contrasts with traditional animation, whose seamlessness projects a fantasy verisimilitude. By allowing traces of previous sketches to remain visible, Kentridge maintains the focus on his perennial theme of time and change, and reinforces the protean immediacy that he considers essential to faithfully communicating meaning and quickening the viewer’s memory.

In Notes Towards a Model Opera, my personal favourite, and the work with the most acute relevance for the present global moment, Kentridge uses the form of the revolutionary operas performed in China during Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution to encourage viewers to make a revolutionary imaginative leap across continents and social, political and economic systems, until they are finally able to establish a personal and granular connection. It is rooted in extensive research into the intellectual, political and social history of modern China that Kentridge undertook in preparation for the exhibition when it was originally shown in 2015 at UCCA Beijing. The three-channel projection explores the dynamics of cultural exchange and transformation through the strict formal prism of the Cultural Revolution’s eight model operas. 

Among the eight are two didactic ballets, considered both as cultural phenomena in themselves and in the context of a continent- and epoch-spanning history of dance that traverses Paris at the court of the Sun King, Tsarist Moscow, belle époque Shanghai and Kentridge’s native Johannesburg in the 1950s. Notes Towards a Model Opera strips out the didacticism of its model, but nonetheless pays homage to this element in the accompaniment of calligraphic India ink drawings on paper from Chinese books. As in other pieces in which he eschews plain paper for almanacs or documents, Kentridge here underscores his intent of being a cartographer and archivist, enhancing the world’s common store of knowledge. Ancient maps charting the course of this cultural diffusion hint at the historical complexities running alongside this exercise in ‘peripheral thinking’. The dance of Johannesburg mixes with the ballet of China’s revolutionary model operas set to The Internationale, a song which emerged from the defiant squalor of the 1871 Paris Commune. Notes Towards a Model Opera explores the concept of utopias. It is, thematically, quintessential Kentridge.

Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward campaign was the precursor of the Cultural Revolution, and both failed utopias are embraced in Kentridge’s work. The sparrow cull during the Four Pests campaign as part of the Great Leap Forward caused locusts to proliferate and destroy harvests, leading to a huge decrease in food production and contributing to the famine that led to the death of an estimated 35-45 million Chinese people. In Notes Towards a Model Opera, Kentridge superimposes sparrows in unceasing flight onto pages of the Shuowen Jiezi, a dictionary from the second century. The urgent tapping in the background evokes the banging of pots and pans by ordinary Chinese citizens to prevent the sparrows from landing, which ensured that sparrows that were not shot got no rest and eventually died of stress and exhaustion.

The juxtaposition of China during the Great Leap Forward and South Africa at the inception of apartheid makes the theme of failed utopias and their corresponding sanctuaries hauntingly resonant. Utopia – meaning ‘no place’ – is by definition an unattainable ideal. The fanaticism and certainty that united the instigators of apartheid and the Great Leap Forward are counterbalanced by the uncertainty that shapes the sanctuary Kentridge has created in The Centre for the Less Good Idea, in Johannesburg – an interdisciplinary incubator where doubt and failure can be entertained by artists seeking sanctuary. 

The idea of utopia precedes the coiner of the term, Thomas More. Plato’s Republic was a utopia, as was Bacon’s New Atlantis. The People’s Republic of China, like most nominally socialist countries which call themselves republics, is – wittingly or not – saluting Plato. The United States, the world’s capitalist hegemon, also a republic, was founded in line with Bacon’s Great Instauration, as a New World in which Plato’s lost Atlantis would be revived to spur a revival of arts and sciences that would lead to a universal golden age of peace, plenty and prosperity. Kentridge’s work explores the topical confrontation between China and the US, which are failing in contrasting ways. On 8 August 1963, Mao said, ‘I wish to take this opportunity to express our resolute support for the American Negroes in their struggle against racial discrimination and for freedom and equal rights.’ The New York Times described his statement as ‘a formal bid by Peking for leadership of the world’s colored people against the whites’.

Kentridge’s work does an expert, impartial and non-didactic job of showing how words and images are distorted in the beauty parade of contending failed utopias. As we emerge from the current dystopia of the pandemic and live in such uncertain times, Kentridge’s exhibition at the RA seems like a momentous occasion to embrace uncertainty in the hope that it might unearth less perfect ideas to guide our present and future.

INFORMATION

A version of this article appeared in the October 2022 Legends Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

• Kentridge’s exhibition is on show from 24 September-11 December at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. royalacademy.org.uk 
• 'In Praise of Shadows' runs from 12 November 2022-9 April 2023 at The Broad, Los Angeles. thebroad.org

kentridge.studio

Fisherman's House not only has an unbeatable view of Sydney Harbour, but it’s also a testament to the masterful blending of old and new, bringing together a 19th-century fisherman’s cottage with a contemporary concrete addition where minimalist architecture meets brutalism. The new home, set on a steeply sloping site in Birchgrove, on the land of the Wangal and Birrabirrigal People of the Eora Nation, is the work of Studio Prineas, a young and energetic architecture and design firm founded by principal Eva-Marie Prineas. 

The house design mixes minimalism with rough, textured surfaces that offer intricate patterns against the region's bright sun. Openings towards the water bring the outside in and frame striking vistas of the harbour – a view also celebrated in the property’s infinity pool.

This balance of richness and simplicity is the result of a close relationship between the architects and the owners – Prineas has worked with them already in two other projects. 'The homeowners knew that achieving their forever home on this unusual but incredible site would take some inspired thinking,' the architect recalls.

The architecture team's aim was not to copy the historic cottage's character, but to elevate it through a powerful juxtaposition – thus, the modern concrete tower extension was born. A glazed courtyard connects gently the two structures, uniting two eras through a comfortable semi-open space. '[It] allows each structure to breathe,' explains Prineas. Meanwhile, the new element contains all the contemporary residential programme needed for a modern home. 

Inside, textures and a range of quality materials add definition and functionality to the concept. There are bespoke, leather-clad sliding walls, to help rooms expand or contract; mirrored surfaces for an illusion of depth; joinery to enhance the minimalist approach through the creation of extra storage; and a dramatic, solid stone bath that doubles as a bedhead in the master bedroom. 

A sense of layered, carefully orchestrated spaciousness prevails throughout in this project that is all about making the most of what's there and bringing it to the 21st century through careful contemporary design. Considered interiors meet a strong architectural overall approach and long views of nature in Fisherman's House –Studio Prineas' inventive domestic design. 

studioprineas.com.au

Sydney Modern opens its doors this week, following its contemporary and considered transformation by Japanese architecture studio SANAA. In an in-depth story published in our November 2022 issue, curator Kate Goodwin reported from the site, offering a sneak peek at what the Art Gallery of New South Wales has been up to – namely, preparing for the launch of its brand-new Sydney Modern wing, which is now complete and ready to receive its first, art-loving guests. 

Sydney Modern opens

Sydney Modern is, in the words of director Michael Brand, ‘a transformation and expansion’, adding a new wing and extensive landscaping, while updating the gallery's old structure, Goodwin wrote. The architects flagged the connection the new complex of volumes offers to its surrounding city and nature. ‘It is a building that breathes with the city, the parkland and the beautiful harbour,’ SANAA’s Kazuyo Sejima. 

Inside, indoors and outdoors blend at many points, following SANAA's signature architecture approach of lightness and openness. Large openings and swathes of glass underscore this, helping connect the galleries with their context and crafting a unique site-specific approach. Meanwhile, the building's programme is updated too. There is a relocated Yiribana Gallery on the ground level, which places the deep continuity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art and culture at the heart of the new building; and the extraordinary new Tank space, which will become the home of many future commissions. 

The new expansion ‘is more than just a treasure house with collections’, Brand said to Goodwin. SANAA's ethereal addition, with its well-calculated architectural space and civic dimension, promises exciting times and immersive art experiences for years to come.

Sydney Modern opens to the public on 3 December 2022

artgallery.nsw.gov.au

sanaa.co.jp

Our sneak preview into Sydney Modern was included in the November 2022 Art Special Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

Sydney has welcomed some endearing new arrivals on its sunny shores. Three pairs of giant long-limbed fantastical creatures by New Zealand artist Francis Upritchard are now inhabiting the entrance court to Sydney Modern, a soon-to-open glass building designed by SANAA, a new addition to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. 

Embodying inspirations that mix Quentin Blake, mythology, folklore, science fiction, and the local Moreton Bay fig trees, it’s as though these enchanting beings have stepped out of a magical storybook with an invitation to all, to play. As curator Justin Paton says, ‘we wanted there to be a sense of humour, humanity and heart to welcome the visitor’.

From a distance the coloured bronze sculptures are monumental, reaching to the underside of the 7m-high undulating glass canopy. Figures with elongated arms sit on the backs of long-legged figures, entwined in action – one gripping the slim canopy column, another building a tower of boulders, the third playing with a dinosaur-like creature on the ground. Up close they prove intimate and captivating, with fleshy, textured skin that invites touch. Hands and feet are expressive with long toes and defined toenails; small reptilian-like creatures make homes on a foot or a buttock; an outstretched hand offers a palm for children to sit. There is fun everywhere, but the co-dependence of the figures is also a more serious reminder of the state of humanity. 

For London-based Upritchard the commission for the large-scale public work ‘felt like an enormous and scary task at the beginning’ especially as handcrafting is central to her work. But with the support of project manager Donna Walker, studio assistants and collaboration across the globe, she found a ‘process that I can really keep my hands involved at most levels’. 

Upritchard has been working with balata rubber since discovering it in a market while on a residency in Brazil in 2004. A precious natural material that is sustainably harvested, it is malleable when heated and quickly hardens in a cold-water bath requiring more than two hands to manage. After working on a 1:20 sketch model she moved to 1:5 balata maquettes where the figures could gain form and character, through a material process where hands, imagination and intuition all combine at speed. These were then 3D-scanned and scaled to create 1:1 versions in foam onto which balata is hand-moulded to give the final texture to be cast in bronze. It was a process that she mastered with a bronze-foundry team and as she says ‘the feeling of joy and fun with the material is much more apparent’. 

It is one of nine commissions across the Sydney Modern project that as Paton says ‘each tells a different story of place and the potential of art’. A large panel set in the niche above the entrance of the late 19th-century sandstone building by Wiradjuri artist Karla Dickens speaks of the ongoing trauma of colonialism and patriarchy. Seen from the new entrance court is a 20m collection of narrbong-galang (many bags) made from salvaged metal by Lorraine Connelly-Northey. On a wall in the vast internal court, fellow New Zealander Lisa Reihana has created a monumental sci-fi moving-image work that speaks of the deep connections across the Tasman Sea. And to open later next year is bíal gwiyúŋo (the fire is not yet lighted), a space of performance and cultural engagement in the territory between the old and the new building, by Wiradyuri and Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. 

Many of the works, including Upritchard’s, can be seen from the surrounding neighbourhoods, promontories, and expressway.  As the title of her work Here Comes Everybody attests, accessibility is vital to Upritchard. ‘Everybody should be welcomed everywhere, especially to a gallery’, she says, adding of the artwork, ‘no one should feel that they don’t understand’ – it can mean ‘whatever you want it to mean’. These new sculptures are a gift to people and the city.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales' Sydney Modern Project will open to the public on 3 December 2022. artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Quay Quarter Tower cuts a fine figure near the Sydney waterfront, all twisted forms and contemporary high-rise dynamics; but this tall building stands out for more reasons than one. Its sculptural physique is certainly eye-catching, but this is also an impressive feat of sustainable reuse, hailing a new era for its genre in Australia and beyond. Its accolades now include a prestigious International Highrise Award 2022, which has just been announced today. Sustainable architecture, urban innovation, striking aesthetics; there's a lot to be said for this new-era high-rise.

Quay Quarter Tower’s sustainable reuse

Its architects, 3xn (in partnership with BVN) celebrate the project as ‘the world’s first adaptive reuse skyscraper’. Gone are the days when height and volumetric gymnastics alone could impress the global architecture scene. Now, every building needs to work hard to make the most of its challenges and opportunities in order to have a positive – or, at least, neutral – impact, environmentally speaking. Quay Quarter Tower was designed to do that, not least through its very basis as a redesign of an existing tall structure – as the client, AMP, opted for a clever reimagining, instead of demolishing, its 40-year-old bones. 

Spanning 206m and 50 storeys high, Quay Quarter Tower – previously known as AMP Centre – was in need of a refresh. In 2014, its owners decided to act, appointing 3XN through an international competition – the Danish studio is well known for its progressive approach to environmentally friendly design and jumped at the opportunity for a proposal, winning the bid (and developed in partnership with BVN). 

‘They could have knocked it down, but they didn't. It was also a clever financial decision as if they’d done that, due to local planning regulations, they couldn't have built as high as this,’ 3XN founder Kim Herforth Nielsen explains. 

The site is a stone's throw from the Sydney Opera House, another Danish design in the Australian metropolis, so the architects knew they had to make this a truly spectacular one in order to follow in Jørn Utzon’s footsteps. 

Now, Quay Quarter Tower is composed of five stacked and shifted volumes; the lower floors face Young Street and Sydney Harbour Bridge. The building's volumes then fan out eastwards towards panoramic views of the Royal Botanic Gardens, the Sydney Opera House and the wider harbour. This twisted shape was especially conceived for the design to be as site-specific as possible, adding dynamism to the arrangement – the form achieved not as a goal in itself, but rather resulting from the careful orchestration of vistas and light orientation.

Meanwhile, internally, the spaces are built around large-scale atria on various levels, which create hubs of activity and underline the sense of community in the building – opening up view lines and communication between floors and functions. 'We wanted to create a campus, and work with the idea of an atrium to get as much daylight and [as many] views as possible inside,' Herforth Nielsen says. ‘We wanted to create a strong sense of where you are, whenever you stepped out of a lift.' 

3XN partner Fred Holt adds: 'It was designed from the inside out, it’s all around the user experience, it has a sculptural shape but it’s not really about the shape.' Quay Quarter Tower represents a 'vertical village' the team explain, as they hoped to strike the right balance between 'intimacy and connectivity'.

This project also has a huge economic benefit to it, the team say. 'It’s a great sustainability story; we are pushing transformation of existing assets and by doing so, we saved about nine months of work in the process, so as an asset owner you can fill up the building quicker,' says Holt. 

And this is despite the design adding approximately 45,000 sq m of new tower floor area, primarily on the north side of the building (the architects achieved this by grafting on new floorplates to the existing slabs). 

The smart façade helps with climate control inside the building; its cladding, a series of external sunshade hoods, reduces heat loads, making internal blinds redundant, and cutting overall energy needs. 

The tower’s social aspect – the 'vertical village' concept – meets environmental elements such as this, which combined with the upcycling of a large-scale, existing building add to the project's sustainability credentials. At the same time, with an open ground level, Quay Quarter Tower also feels powerfully connected to its neighbourhood, helping to transform the whole urban locale. 

Quay Quarter Tower's International Highrise Award 2022 win highlights its success in creating a coherent design that does many things with one fell swoop. 'Sydney has high-rises with a lot more textures – look at Harry Seidler's work for example – and we wanted to do something in that world, we wanted to solve issues through the form,' Herforth Nielsen concludes. ‘It was a lot about how [a] building lands in the city and we wanted to make sure we connect it and animate it as much as possible. And its initial renders look just like the end result – even better!'

3xn.com

quayquartersydney.com.au

bvn.com.au

While Australia’s other major cities – Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide – bring together buildings for the arts in dedicated precincts that spatially declare their commitment to culture, Sydney’s such landmarks are scattered across the city. Among them is the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2021, and sits adjacent to the Domain, a park that edges the central business district and the Royal Botanic Gardens. The area has special significance for the Gadigal, the First Peoples who lived and conducted cultural ceremonies there for tens of thousands of years. 

In the late 19th century, architect Walter Vernon was instructed to design an art gallery in the colonial image that was ‘as strictly classical as possible’. The grand sandstone building, inspired by the Scottish National Gallery, encased an earlier brick ‘art barn’ and was constructed in stages between 1896 and 1909. In the past 50 years, the building has seen several elegant modernist extensions, and in 1994, for the first time, included a dedicated gallery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, albeit on the lowest level. The Art Gallery’s newest building project, Sydney Modern, is, in the words of director Michael Brand, ‘a transformation and expansion’, adding a new wing and extensive landscaping, while updating the old structure. 

In 2013, Japanese architecture practice SANAA won the international competition for the new building, its second win in the city after a 1997 design for a new cinematheque for the Museum of Contemporary Art at Circular Quay (the first collaboration between Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) failed to go ahead. Fortunately, Sydney Modern, with A$244m in state funding supported by a further A$100m in private money, is confirmed to open its doors this December. 

Brand admits that it was a challenge to create an appropriate building for the spectacular site. SANAA’s solution is a series of spaces that link art and views, inside and out, celebrating vertical and horizontal movement through and across the site. ‘It is a building that breathes with the city, the parkland and the beautiful harbour,’ Sejima says. Visitors will enter via a glass box from an art garden between the old and new buildings. The eye is drawn across the space to varying views, from the glistening city skyline to lush trees and the harbour’s converted wharfs. ‘The atmosphere changes as the sun rises and sets, or with the activities of visitors and commuters alike,’ Sejima adds. 

As with many SANAA projects, the floor gently undulates – sloping upwards towards the shop to the side and across to the lifts and a bridge to an outside terrace. On this prominent entry level, in its rightful place, is a gallery for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in the first of three limestone-clad boxes, with a new installation featuring narrbong-galang bags in found steel by Wiradjuri artist Lorraine Connelly-Northey. This sits next to a large window overlooking the Art Garden with a new commission by Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi artist Jonathan Jones. 

The vista downwards from the entrance level reveals cascading floors below, with two further enclosed galleries and generous public spaces, cafés, sculpture courts and education rooms. Beneath all, unseen and unexpected, is a large Second World War naval oil tank containing a dense sea of 7m-high columns, a space that instantly excites the imagination. The inaugural commission here will be by Argentinian artist Adrián Villar Rojas.

Brand describes a fruitful two-year-long process, where ‘SANAA’s design was influencing our thinking about what we might do when it’s open, but also our thinking was inspiring the way they were designing’. A section of the column-free contemporary exhibition space will house an epic version of Archive of Mind by Korean artist Kimsooja, where audiences can meditatively shape clay while taking in a spectacular view of the gardens. Similar connections between art, spaces and landscape occur throughout, with a series of site-specific commissions. New curatorial positions in film, performance and music further open up possibilities for innovative programming. 

SANAA’s ethereal glass architecture often seems to float in the landscape, so this building, dug into the side of the escarpment, may come as a surprise. Roofs on slender columns hover over limestone-clad galleries while vast textural rammed-earth walls are built into the stepping site, evocative of Sydney sandstone, one of the city’s building blocks. Here, SANAA’s work complements the material palette and feel of the original building.

As Brand says, the new expansion ‘is more than just a treasure house with collections’. It celebrates the value of art on a civic scale and promises to be a delight to explore, by offering new perspectives of the city and its architecture, as well as the artworks themselves. The building has a generous public spirit that calls on the art gallery’s curatorial and management team to create bold, inclusive programming to match. 

INFORMATION

Sydney Modern opens to the public on 3 December 2022

artgallery.nsw.gov.au

sanaa.co.jp

A version of this article headlines the November 2022 Art Special Issue of Wallpaper*, available in print, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today.

With international travel to Australia back on the cards, there’s no better time than the present to head down under. In Sydney, the recent arrival of the Ace Hotel, which opened in Surry Hills, is a sight for sore eyes for visitors and locals alike. Designed by the Melbourne-based Flack Studio, Ace Hotel Sydney’s warm and provocative interiors not only hark back to pre-pandemic travel, but resonate well beyond the surface level. Designed with recurring nods to the neighbourhood’s cultural history and Australia on a larger scale, the hotel brings a renewed thoughtfulness to Ace’s expert melange of creature comforts. With a lobby bar and lounge, cafe and restaurant and a hefty programme of culture, music, arts and food assembled at the ready, Ace Hotel Sydney appropriately marks the brand’s first property in the Southern Hemisphere.

Sydney’s Surry Hills may today be known for its rich cafe culture, independent boutiques and hip bar scene, but it also carries historic weight - the hotel’s site is where Australia’s first kiln was discovered, where the country’s first domestic pottery was produced in the 1820s. It subsequently became the Tyne Building, which housed a factory and distribution centre for Washington H Soul Pattinson Chemists in 1916. 

In ode to this heritage, the building has preserved the warehouse’s original facade as well as other architectural features throughout the hotel. Flack Studio’s homage to what came before draws from the site’s legacy for ceramic and pottery making, the paintings by the Indigenous Australian artist Albert Namatjira and architect Robert Boyd’s book ‘The Australian Ugliness’. An ochre-red marble staircase, and the burnt orange sunken lounge on the ground floor recall the rich palette of the Australian desert, while furniture and other accents have been purposefully chosen to reflect the easygoing vibe of living in the Australian suburbs during the 1970s.

‘Ace Hotel is fueled by a love of the hyperlocal, marrying the pragmatic with the romantic, the private with the collective and the old world with the future. Nothing about the space takes itself too seriously, embracing different dichotomies, it’s grungy and polished, subtle and bold all at the same time, which is how we see Surry Hills,’ says David Flack of Flack Studio. ‘The expansive art collection spotlights and celebrates First Nations artists, and a range of stories and histories. Essentially, we wanted this to be home for the Surry Hills community while welcoming new friends.’

He adds, ‘The neighbourhood has long served as a home to the most resilient voices of modern Australia, from the razor gang wars and underground liquor trade of the 1920s and 1930s, the modernist art boon of the 1960s and through to the Gay Solidarity Group protests of the 1970s. The history of Surry Hills and the broader cinematic colour palette of Australia was the inspiration for the hotel's look and feel, foreseeing a demand for lifestyle-driven hotels which place a greater emphasis on experience, culture and art. The creativity and renegade energy of the space are preserved through the design. Each space, public and private have been designed for activation, in turn allowing guests to experience a genuine sense of place.’

As in all Ace Hotels, the guestrooms are treated as sanctuaries. Filled with window seating, textured straw walls as well as a turntable, curated vinyl collection and a guitar for the musically inclined, each room’s eclectic design evokes a home away from home, albeit with grandiose views of Surry Hills. In contrast, the public spaces continue to be where the synergy happens. The lobby has been built for both working and socialising, and  divided into a conversational lounge and a more intimate library, depending on what guests fancy. Finished off by the hotel’s restaurant, Loam, which touts a seasonal, vegetable-forward menu, Ace Hotel Sydney is set to follow in the footsteps of its fellow siblings and became a local favourite.

INFORMATION

acehotel.com/sydney

ADDRESS

47-53 Wentworth Ave
Sydney

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Architect Lachlan Seegers designed the Erskineville House around an unusual focal point – a native spotted gum tree that now takes pride of place in the courtyard at the heart of this suburban dwelling, in the Sydney suburb of Erskineville. The site is narrow (just 4.8m wide) but long (nearly 36m), and the house with its minimalist interior is designed behind a fairly traditional façade. 

At ground-floor level, the house presents a conventional period frontage, complete with arched windows, a covered porch and a corrugated metal roof.

Inside, however, the linear plan has been conceived to incorporate pockets of function amidst long vistas and spaces, with a special emphasis on verticality in what is still a two-storey property. 

The house is effectively cut into two sections by the new courtyard, above which towers the 20m spotted gum tree. The tree’s origins date back to the 1970s, when Sydney’s town council gave native saplings to anyone who wanted one as part of a programme to reinstate the city’s lost vegetation.

Hardy and striking, the tree creates an ever-changing centrepiece, with its distinctive mottled bark and dense canopy. 

From the entrance lobby, one passes a ground-floor bedroom, then into the main space, a sequence of a sunken living room, a kitchen, and a dining room wrapped around the glazed courtyard, with the cooking area occupying a galley-style space alongside the edge.

A utility space, bathroom, and garage occupy the far end of the plan. 

Two separate staircases, one at each end of the property, lead up to two independent, self-contained bedroom suites, each with its own terrace and views into the branches of the tree.

A raised roof above the galley kitchen is punctuated by three large rooflights with yellow-painted walls, enhancing the sense of space and bringing more views of the tree. The bathrooms also have lightwells, lined with dark blue tiles to create an underwater ambiance.

The gum tree isn’t just a constant presence; the colour of its bark informed the tint used on the joinery, and spotted gum was used for the stairs.

Lachlan Seegers speaks of ‘fine-tuning’ every view and aperture, creating a living space that is alive with subtle colour, rippling light, and warm materiality.  The house was shortlisted for a 2022 Australian Interior Design Award.

INFORMATION

lachlanseegers.com

Nestled within Sydney’s Botanic Gardens among towering trees and robust bamboo, Botanic House supports a lofty natural order with refined modern arrangements. With an interior scheme of soothing pigeon grey and whispers of pale terracotta among lime wash-finished oak – together with bursts of greenery and feature pendant lights sprouting delicate transparent canvas petals – it’s a streamlined oasis with the all accoutrements of cosmopolitan convenience.

‘The finishes touch the space lightly and sit in harmony with the gardens,’ suggests Kathryn Thompson, director of the Sydney-based Five Foot One design firm, which re-imagined both the upper and lower levels of the original Gardens Restaurant building. ‘It was designed to take on a polished and clean aesthetic to complement the fine food offering,’ she adds regarding the fusion Chinese/Thai/Vietnamese dishes devised by the illustrious chef, Luke Nguyen.

Rattan panelling adds cosseting texture to the entrance’s bar alcove, subtly nodding to the menu’s Asian origins, whilst a levitating arrangement of dried leaves created by Design by Booshi references the nearby Palm Grove and inclusions of native Australian ingredients in the dishes (including tempura saltbush adding textural crunch to grilled prawns and the fish curry’s lemon myrtle-infused coconut milk). Melbourne-based artist Jack Devereux’s single line portrait murals further compliment the offering with their curves echoed upon the Terrazzo stool outlines, arched joinery elements and atrium windows.

‘Downstairs in the Farm Cove Eatery, a more organic and earthy aesthetic was applied to create a more casual dining experience,’ enthuses Thompson of the cafés soft-edged robustness and darker timbers. The veined grey Quartzite service and bar tops plus polished brass and bronze lighting fixtures upstairs surrender to a rich soil-toned Terracotta counter and assorted hand-made ceramic pendant lights, whilst cement stools sporting deep dusty Eucalypt pink shades recall upturned garden flowerpots. Combining these elements, Botanic House is a triumph of raw beauty, authenticity, sustainability and materiality.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

Mrs Macquarie Road

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Sydney’s Candalepas Associates has brought a slice of brutalism to the city’s Punchbowl suburb with an orthogonal new mosque. The concrete structure provides a new home for the Australian Islamic Mission, and its various educative and community facilities can host up to 300 worshippers at once.

The mosque forms the first of a two-part project for the local Islamic community. The second stage of the plan will see the development of new community buildings that will orbit the place of worship, in turn bringing the local faith closer together. Candalepas Associates was resultantly driven to give the mosque a unique architectural vernacular, so to help it stand separate and distinct from its future sibling spaces.

The development is arranged around a quadrangle that forms two interconnected yet distinctly isolated courtyards. The two open spaces provide ample space for the mosque’s primary daytime functions, and grant privacy to community members making use of the facilities inside. The second of the two, located further towards the centre of the development, can be opened up to the building’s interior, catering to larger events and festivals across the year.

Heading inside, natural light forms a central element of the core prayer space. The vaulted ceiling features a funnel-like skylight that looks upwards, out of the concrete. The feature rises to a second tier of rounded wooden rings, climbing in gradually constricting waves to reveal a circular orifice above.

The natural light provided by this centrepiece is supplemented across the interior. A two-tiered transparent wooden façade filters in light above the main entrance. Additionally, over 100 muqarnas – the archetypal patterned motif of Islamic architecture – all feature 30mm diameter holes that welcome in slim rays of sunlight. This combination produces an interior lighting experience that evolves as the day’s prayer services follow one another.

Elsewhere, a splayed off-form wall juts from the mosque’s main entry doors, breaking the visual language and concurrently positioning worshippers towards the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Muhammad.

INFORMATION

candalepas.com.au

Stepping inside this house renovation by Luigi Rosselli Architects in Sydney is a bit like a time-travel forwards. While the architects preserved the 1920s house, worthy of a Great Gatsby style party with its charming classical facade and surrounding garden, inside there is a clear departure to 21st-century elegance with an impressive new staircase, and materials including brass metalwork and bronze finishes.

While the house – which sits pretty beneath the canopy of a 100-year-old Pepper tree at the summit of Bellevue Hill, Sydney's very own West Egg – wasn’t listed, the architects were aware of its architectural contribution and wanted to tread carefully with the renovation. The villa belongs to a movement of Mediterranean-inspired classicist villas that were designed in the 1920s in rebellion to the functionalist, modern movement sweeping Europe.

Architect Luigi Rosselli observed the merits of the property’s grand loggia and portico, its fireplaces and large rooms, yet there were some enhancements necessary for contemporary living. He opened up the plan to create more flow through the rooms, and added a new basement garage, an attic room and a swimming pool. Existing timber framed windows were replaced with larger steel framed windows that open up wider views of the garden (newly designed by landscape architect Myles Baldwin).

A new statement staircase marks the ‘rebirth’ of the house – the architects describe it as a ‘suspended sculptural ribbon’ that twists through the villa’s heart. Entirely detached from the stairwell, the staircase was an element that delighted the clients with its technical and artistic feat, so much so that Rosselli had to demonstrate its strength by jumping up and down on the treads.

Interior designer Romaine Alwill was behind the architectural finishes inside that confirm the new design’s signature elegance, complementing the existing classicism. Dense, heavy and rich materials such as stucco lucido (polished plaster), brass metalwork, solid timber panelling, resin-based wall claddings and bronze finishes on the cabinets create the same sense of refinement that the original villa exuded.

INFORMATION
luigirosselli.com

Seamlessly transitioning from a café and tea house serving exotic blends to a gin den by sundown, G&Tea reconstructs an immersive natural environment through a lavish futuristic lens. Located beneath Sydney’s Astral Hotel, the gilded venue with its gently curved furnishings and polished brass joinery pairs retro 1960’s space age design sensibilities with modern technology.

A panelled kinetic LED screen dominates the rear wall bringing a verdant rainforest landscape to life, whilst the magic of moonlight and fireflies provide the atmospheric backdrop for sipping an array of botanical cocktails at night. ‘Reactivating the windowless dark space, our gaze was set on the notion of Sydney as an Emerald City oasis. So we drew the outside in,’ enthuses Stuart Krelle, co-director of design practice Luchetti Krelle. Fluid turquoise-lacquered walls mingle with amoebic velveteen lounges and chairs in virile sapphire and coral shades capturing the glow of native wildflowers – an organic theme further explored via floating spherical terrariums cradling petrified greenery.

Pattern-play is highly considered. The marble floor’s cloud-like swirls combined with the smokey-hued chevron-panelled oak bar and service areas reference steam rising from prestige brews during mesmerising GongFu ceremonies conducted by tea masters within. A Midas touch permeates the bar area. Come evening, its oblong screens (a shape repeated on micro and macro levels) pivot outwards revealing rows of neon halos framing bottles of gin beside the glass teapots permanently on display. Above, a panoply of tilted circular mirrors reflect the high gloss surface finishes to dazzling effect.

ADDRESS

80 Pyrmont Street
Pyrmont
Sydney

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House Burch, Sydney, designed by THOSE, selected for the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2019

The traits of an architectural site can either play into the hands of an architect, or work to their detriment. For Australian firm THOSE Architects, the site is where the creative spark is lit, and carves out a path for the design to follow. ‘Our work is unequivocally influenced by its locality,’ says co-founders Ben Mitchell and Simon Addinall, who met while studying architecture at the University of Sydney.

Six years after graduating and working in smaller firms, the pair reconnected to lay the foundations for their own practice. In 2013 they opened up shop in Sydney taking on mainly residential and commercial projects. Three years later they expanded to the coastal town of Byron Bay to the north.

Byron Bay plays host to a case in point of the firm’s passion for site-sensitive design. In 2018, THOSE was selected to renovate House Burch, a beachside bungalow in Suffolk Park dating back to the 1980s. Whilst a perfect seaside retreat during the Australian summer, the home had nothing to give during the winter, when its covetable outdoor spaces were rendered unusable.

When brought in to renovate the property, the firm first closed up partitions of the original building to insert a brand new two-storey volume. It then whitewashed brick walls and produced an earthy interior palette, forming a Modernist-inspired vernacular complementing the exterior spaces. Finally, they created a series of new courtyards in the garden, now linked to every room by a flowing interior breezeway connecting the two volumes.

Through excellent communication with the client, the home now overcomes the subtropical climatic paradigm, looking and functioning all the better for it. ‘Being invited to design someone’s place of residence is actually an honour, so we take the responsibility very seriously.’

INFORMATION

thosearchitects.com.au

WALLPAPER* ARCHITECTS’ DIRECTORY 2019

A corridor of disorienting darkness, pebbles crunching underfoot and an ambient mist of strings reworking a contemporary interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons arouse the senses. Moments later, an apparition appears – two classical white sculptures wielding British product designer Lee Broom’s ‘Orion’ lights, reflecting from black acrylic mirrors, giving the impression of water. They guard the entrance to an opal-white Polycarbonate lightbox, glowing in an empty concrete car park beneath Space Furniture’s flagship Sydney showroom.

Broom has gained a reputation for creating conceptual installations showcasing his designs in immersive and experiential ways – a testament to his earlier career in theatre. ‘Park Life’ is his largest and most ambitious exhibition to date, celebrating the launch of his ‘Eclipse’ lighting range’s new mirror-polished golden finish (including the chandelier, pendant, table and surface lights). Staging it in Sydney is telling of the brand’s success in the southern hemisphere. ‘I like the idea of presenting in cities we haven’t ventured to before – countries that have supported us over the years,' Broom explains. ‘Australia has always been a very responsive market’.

‘I took the urban surroundings of the car park and created a contemporary interpretation of a traditional 18th-century British pleasure garden instead,’ the designer continues. These gardens were known for their waterfalls, fountain displays and ponds, plus dedicated buildings for musical concerts among other performances. The private parks were places for the aristocracy to mingle and experience the latest in art, music and architecture.

Taking the form of a maze, ‘Park Life’ guides visitors through passageways, over stepping stones, and through a secret door with tableaus and vignettes showcasing the brand’s lighting, furniture and accessories. It includes over 100 individual lights hung in glittering constellations, cascading like waterfalls, and presented solo (as with the ‘Eclipse’ range, to accentuate its seamless technology and halo-like glow) – among theatrically scaled classical busts, bodies and heads. The gazes from these heads strategically guide pathways to new cavities, connecting narratives between more of Broom’s designs: a ‘Drunken’ side table, ‘Podium’ vases, ‘Split’ mirrors, and ‘Fulcrum’ candlesticks. ‘Some areas are very dramatic, some more playful and other areas quite surreal,’ he continues.

A recurring theme in many of Broom’s installations is reflection. Within the maze, mirrors distort the pathway towards the exit, while showcasing designs from multiple angles. Symmetry also plays a key role. The compelling central chamber represents a human-scale chess set, where rows of softly lit ‘Lens Flair’ pendant lights hover above chequered pavers, like a Newton’s Cradle awaiting activation.

Due to the timing and the scale of the Sydney installation (which will not be replicated elsewhere), Broom will refrain from presenting at Salone del Mobile in Milan this year, although a soon-to-be-released short film will capture the essence of the exhibition, aiding international reach.

In line with the brand’s continuing expansion, Broom began a tour of Australasia earlier this month, presenting a series of design talks within Space Furniture’s showrooms in Singapore, Brisbane, and Melbourne, coinciding with Singapore and Melbourne Design Weeks. ‘Lee understands that the Australian design community really does operate at a global level – the tour has sold out in each location,’ comments Michelle McEwen, the group marketing manager of Space Furniture Sydney.

INFORMATION

‘Park Life’ is on view until 22 March. For more information, visit the Lee Broom website and the Space Furniture website

ADDRESS

Space Furniture
84 O’Riordan Street
Alexandria
NSW 2015
Sydney

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Danish structural engineer Povl Ahm worked on some extraordinary projects in his lifetime. After joining the London office of Ove Arup & Partners in 1952, he collaborated on Coventry Cathedral with Basil Spence and St Catherine’s College in Oxford with his countryman Arne Jacobsen; later the pair worked together again on the Danish Embassy in London.

One of Ahm’s greatest, though lesser known, achievements is his own house in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, which has won a Wallpaper* Design Award for Best Remastered. Ahm built an exceptional home designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, whom he got to know during the early design stages of Utzon’s Sydney Opera House, which also involved Ove Arup & Partners. Ahm asked Utzon to design a house in England and the architect obliged, sending his plans over in the early 1960s for his friend to work with.

The original Ahm House – Utzon’s only completed project in the UK – was gently pushed widthways into the modestly sloping suburban site. From the street, the house is enigmatic, with the garage and entrance forming a buffer between the public and private realm. But as you step inside the entrance hall and ascend a series of steps, Ahm’s pavilion dramatically unfolds. This linear lodge of brick, concrete and glass turns its back upon the neighbours to one side but opens itself dramatically to the rear gardens.

The relationship between the living spaces and adjoining terraces is reminiscent, along with the materials, of Utzon’s own family house near Helsingør in Denmark, which the architect completed in two phases during the 1950s. The highlight of the Ahm House – which reveals itself as you step around the central brick hearth and chimney breast – is the generous sitting room. Here, floor-to-ceiling banks of glass connect with the gardens and throw natural light on the brickwork, the tiled floors and the coffered ceiling, which combines concrete beams with strips of pine.

‘We loved the character of the materials as soon as we saw the house,’ says its new owner, who shares it with her husband and their young child. ‘For us it was also about the connections to the greenery and the trees. It does feel like a secret garden.’ Having acquired the house and immersed themselves in Utzon’s history, the owners approached architecture and design studio Coppin Dockray to work on the interiors and a super-sensitive restoration. Founders Sandra Coppin and Bev Dockray have experience of heritage commissions such as apartments in Berthold Lubetkin’s 1938 Highpoint buildings in London, and a 1960s house in Wiltshire, designed by architect David Levitt for another Arup partner.

‘Anyone who comes into this house responds to it in a very intuitive and emotional way,’ says Coppin of the Ahm House. ‘You don’t need to know the back story to realise that it is special. The building was in good condition, so for us it was more about the interiors. The main challenge was responding to the living room as a space, and furnishing it in a way that gives you that all-important primary reading of the house.’

Coppin Dockray saw the room as a combination of ‘a major and a minor space’. The major area is around the  replace, where they created a snug seating zone around the hearth. The minor is at the opposite end, two steps up, where they created a secondary seating area looking into the garden, partly defined by a bespoke circular rug by Michael Boyd and a selection of Danish pieces, including twin ‘Egg’ chairs by Jacobsen. ‘Because the house is orthogonal and linear we wanted to introduce curved elements that read within the grid,’ says Dockray, ‘curves that the eye can glide around.’

The Danish theme continues into the dining area and kitchen, where the table and chairs are by Hans Wegner. The kitchen itself is largely original, with Coppin Dockray having taken the gentlest of touches to lighting updates and occasional restoration. The same is true of the spaces beyond, including the sequence of four original bedrooms, where any missing joinery was carefully reinstated.

Coppin Dockray also worked, in a similar vein, on the wing that Ahm added in the 1970s to a sympathetic design by Ulrik Plesner. Creating an L-shaped formation, orientated towards the garden, Ahm built this part of the house for his two teenage sons. It now houses the master bedroom and bathroom, complete with a sauna, and a dressing room. An underground link between the two portions of the house, added by the previous owners (the house was sold by Ahm’s widow a few years after his death in 2005), has been redesigned as a playroom and a library.

Warm and welcoming, the Ahm House now serves as a family home once again, a place where architecture and nature coincide, as they do in the best of Utzon’s work.

As originally featured in the February 2019 issue of Wallpaper* (W*239)

See more from the Wallpaper* Design Awards here

INFORMATION
For more information, visit the Coppin Dockray website

The bar has been raised quite literally at Sydney’s Manly Wharf. Already a dining magnet with its cluster of restaurants presenting impressive waterfront views across the harbour, it now offers a refined al fresco option with Saké Restaurant and Bar crowning its rooftop.

The sixth iteration of the fusion Japanese restaurant brand from Rockpool Dining Group, this outpost is distinguished by a reflective sense of harmony and an intertwining of nature, artistry, balance and flow. ‘It takes inspiration from Japanese craftsmanship and the art of wabi-sabi – the ancient approach to appreciating and celebrating the imperfect,’ notes Rachel Luchetti, the director at Sydney-based Luchetti Krelle, the firm behind the design.

A quartet of private dining chambers run through Saké’s central axis, surrounded by formal dining areas, an open kitchen and bar, and a 40-seat sushi counter. A shimmering two-tonne anthracite boulder guards their circular gateway, its combustible properties subtly referencing the menu’s robata grill offerings. A live edge Blackbutt timber service counter hovers above it, further celebrating nature’s raw beauty.

Directly behind, a cantilevered timber table straddles the adjoining private dining rooms, each ably separated by woven fabric screens (shoji) that gracefully fill the circular window framework when in operation. Other elegantly engineered details include timber dowel sliding screens inspired by sushi rolling mats that can be fashioned to section each room from the surrounding restaurant. Suspended above (and on feature walls) are tactile arrangements of magnolias, grasses and cotton stems by Loose Leave Design Studio, taking their cue from the ancient ikebana practice whilst subtly introducing native Australian elements.

Within the main light-filled dining area, delicately crafted Illuminate pendant lanterns float above polished concrete floors, balancing the precise geometries of square Oak tables and Andreu World dining chairs with their spindle and solid board backrests with minimal fuss. Customised circular tables with deep plum-stained ply bases together with dusty pink leather banquettes gently introduce tonal warmth amongst the furnishings while judiciously referencing the magnolias.

Diners can take their pick of bite-sized sashimi cones and casual izakaya-style nibbles through to robust robata renditions of shiokouji lamb chops and Saké’s take on Japan’s traditional hamburger steak served on a sizzling hotplate. Desserts including Coco Loco – coconut ice cream with yuzu granita, caramelised popcorn and fresh berries, and chocolate tart with decadent deep-fried milk balls continue to blend East and West to bold effect.

INFORMATION 

Website

ADDRESS

Level 1, Manly Wharf Sydney

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Dwarfed under a five-tonne crystalline cloud dripping with glowing chandeliers and cascading beads, a sense of magical awe suspends your imagination. Twelve metres long and six metres wide, it forms the centrepiece of American artist Nick Cave’s Until, a monumental, multifaceted installation occupying just over 1,700 sq m of Sydney art space Carriageworks. His fantastical landscapes require journeying up steps to menagerie wonderlands, weaving through forests of twirling wind chimes, channeling through a tunnel of kaleidoscopic curtains intricately woven with plastic beads and immersion within kinetic Rorschach patterns.

Yet, upon closer inspection, the rainbow connection is deeply awry. ‘The challenge was creating work that is accessible while also amplifying a political overtone. It’s ultimately about crime,’ states Cave in relation to the work’s exploration of entrenched racism, gender politics, gun violence, and the issue of gun control in America. Three and a half years in the making, it was co-produced by MASS MoCA (where it was exhibited in its first incarnation last year), Carriageworks and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (where it will be exhibited in 2020).

Since Cave conceived his colourful Soundsuits over 20 years ago, his agenda has intensified, manifesting itself through sheer scale. He describes the experience of navigating his most ambitious project to date as being inside the belly of one of his Soundsuits, wearable sculptures that were initially created as peaceful and protective armour in protest to police brutality against African-Americans. His intention now is to illicit discomfort and ultimately action. The very term ‘until’ indicates continuance of an action or condition to a specified time and incites the notion of change coming.

Sinister tones taint components of the exhibition. Stark outlines of revolvers, bullets and teardrops mingle with some 16,000 abstract metallic mobiles twinkling under skylights surrounding the cloud, rupturing the experience of child-like enchantment. ‘Their reflections on the cement floor dart about like searchlights,’ observes Cave. In an adjoining space, the immersive 14-channel video Hye-Dyve snaps viewers into an agitated state fuelled by preying notions of surveillance and racial profiling against a backdrop of jarring sounds. The site-specific projected floor component of thrashing waves filmed along Sydney’s coast amplifies this nauseous momentum of entrapment.

Four ladders grant access to the garden landscape above the celestial Crystal Cloudscape where a bricolage of salvaged Americana including glass fruits, metal flowers and ceramic animals adorn swathes of crocheted and beaded blankets. Blemishing this cornucopia are black-faced ‘ornamental’ lawn jockeys with golliwog-like forced grins. With the addition of Cave’s beaded dream catches in their hands, they grasp for a better life.

‘There is an optimism in the work,’ insists Cave. Entering another warehouse chamber, a giant rustling waterwall comprising strips of blue Mylar spelling ‘FLOW’ acts like a purification agent to cleanse people’s actions. Beaded nets woven from plastic hair pony beads on shoelaces suspended from the double-height walls spill onto the floor like camouflage nets in war zones. Originally displayed in clusters of undulating outcrops, here they hang flush, allowing visitors to walk between the web-like curtains. Their abstract patterns recall urban graffiti, whilst one wall spells out ‘POWER,’ inciting activism to change.

‘I view this work as a theatre set, or an elaborate community forum, as much as a work of sculpture,’ says Cave regarding its rich civic context. Ten local artists and collectives including Romance Was Born fashion designers Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett, singer/songwriter Ngaiire and visual artist Bhenji Ra will create responses to the work over the exhibition period in the form of performances and musical events in addition to panel discussions and community forums within the space. Cave hopes some innovations will take on their own life after the exhibition.

‘I’m a messenger first, artist second,’ insists Cave, who incorporated a window frame with broken glass from MASS MoCA in the exhibition. The impression was caused by a red-tailed hawk (believed by some as an agent of the divine) smashing through it during the installation period and occupying the space for several days. ‘Most would assume it’s a large bullet hole, but I see it as a hopeful, prophetic sign,’ adds Cave.

INFORMATION
‘Nick Cave: Until’ is on view until 3 March 2019. For more information, visit the Carriageworks website

ADDRESS

Carriageworks
245 Wilson Street
Eveleigh NSW 2015

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The Sydney Fish Market is currently one of the Australian city's biggest attractions – both as a local shopping spot for the community and a destination for tourists. Now, as part of the city's plan to revitalise the Blackwattle Bay district, the city has decided to relocate the market there, to a new design by celebrated Danish architecture firm 3XN. 

The Danish team collaborated on the new design with local architect BVN, GXN Innovation, and landscape architect Aspect Studios, which has just been unveiled to the public. The project’s ambition was two-fold; to bring life to the neighbourhood with an healthy injection of visitors, and to bring the waterfront to the local public in that particular part of town.  

‘This building will be many things when it is done: a working fish market, an amenity for the city, a cultural destination, an urban connector, and an inspiring icon along the world-renowned Sydney Harbour', says 3XN founding partner Kim Herforth Nielsen. ‘The natural value of the water’s edge should not be underestimated and should be accessible to everyone.'

The architects worked with the traditional fish market archetype for their design solution with a series of stalls, which are open to the air but sheltered by a large canopy. This creates the impression of a big public plaza, where everybody is welcome, encouraging informality and that ‘authentic market feel’, say the architects. The sculptural canopy will give the new market its iconic form, but the aim is to preserve a certain level of intimacy, they stress.

At the same time, integrating public accessibility with an operating harbour was also key to the architects' strategy. So here, there are visual connections between the market's different operations, keeping the public engaged in how a place like this works. Adding the building's environmental sustainability to the picture – water bio-filtration systems around the building ensure a natural habitat for local birds, for example – and this is a project that brings together architecture, man, flora and fauna in one fell swoop.

INFORMATION

For more information visit the website of 3XN

In an era when libraries are facing changes such the digitalisation of knowledge and privatisation of public space, a new city library in Sydney is making its mark by combining traditional function with flexibility. The new library and plaza project in Sydney’s Green Square neighbourhood has been designed by local architects Stewart Hollenstein, in association with Stewart Architecture. 

The library facility is semi-submerged underground, featuring a series of jewel-like shapes peeking above ground level and hinting at the activity below. The glass volumes take on primary shapes – rectangulars, circles and triangles – making for a sharp and carefully composed whole that combines from reading rooms to serene urban gardens. ‘The geometry of the design is intentionally loose and informal – establishing a sense of shared territory for multiple uses’, say the architects.

The square is expansive and delineates the plot, spanning some 8,000 sq m. By placing the library mostly subterraneously, the architects created a generous plaza that was designed to be open and flexible to accommodate a variety of events.

Sustainability was another key element in this project. Underneath the square’s paving, there is a system that collects rainwater, which is then recycled and reused in the library. Inside the building, a low-energy displacement ventilation system is embedded within the library bookshelves. 

The complex is set to become a key focal point for the area, which is predicted to grow in the next years – an added 60,000 new residents are planned to move into the district over the next 15 years, say the architects.

‘The project is a celebration of the potential of public space and public architecture and what it can mean to an emerging community’, says Matthias Hollenstein, director at Stewart Hollenstein. ‘Libraries play a unique role in our cities as highly democratic spaces. Here we designed an urban living room for all to share and to come together to tell stories.’ 

INFORMATION

For more information visit the Stewart Hollenstein website

A lost haven for cabaret acts and shimmering sequins that was once a favourite haunt for drag queens and their admirers in an inner city Sydney neighbourhood has returned to the hospitality stage for its triumphant second act. The Imperial Erskineville – a curvaceous 1940s corner pub – hosted performances from the 1980s for the LGBTQI community before retiring in 2015 in a dilapidated state. After an extensive makeover, she has been given a theatrical flourish worthy of her storied past by local firm Alexander & Co.

Downstairs, behind the main bar where a buxom Hugo Weaving crooned to Charlene’s ‘I’ve never been to me’ in the cult Australian film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, the namesake restaurant, Priscillas, and adjoining Garden Cocktail Bar are irresistibly tactile. Against a backdrop of stripped-back walls revealing flashes of old skin, rich jewel-toned marble, velvet and leather furnishings plus gilded trimmings, ruffles and tassel embellishments nod to the flamboyant costumes that once graced the space. ‘It’s a reclamation of the venue’s past theatre and hedonism reformed into something beautiful… a lost palace,’ explains Alexander & Co's Principal, Jeremy Bull. The menu’s pledge of ‘Drag ‘n’ Dine’ is honoured every evening, with several performances occupying an alcove as guests sip on cocktails named after infamous drag queens and sup on Baja California fare offering an additional layer of spice.

Upstairs, at Imperial Up’s cocktail lounge and open-air courtyard serving casual Italian, the mood swings from a weighted baroque decadence to a lighter, cheekier affair. ‘It’s like an arts social club. Think quirky collector with an art deco flair – a contemporary version of Gertrude Stein’s salon,’ adds Bull. Pastel wall murals (‘funtown Matisse’) spill onto painted floorboards, and retro candy-shaded dining chairs mingle with custom leather seating atop a riotous graphic Memphis revival-style carpet, also designed by Alexander & Co, to complete the rainbow connection.

Vintage finds including a marble console sprouting palm tree legs plus a bronzed cubist lamp and golden nude statue (‘an icon repurposed from the lower floor’) gracing the mirrored island bar add high chrome appeal. The courtyard’s pizza oven clad in glistening mosaics is the perfect mega-watt contemporary counterbalance.

Both upstairs and down, The Imperial Erskineville is a kick up your heels, no ifs all struts entertainer. Whilst Australia’s first open air same-sex chapel is set arrive on the rooftop in the near future, it’s by no means exclusive. Here, everyone’s welcome.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

35 Erskineville Rd

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The Returned Service League – better known by its acronym RSL – runs a series of social clubs across Australia. In most cases, the vibe is an unapologetic mix of old country clubs and a scene straight out of Muriel’s Wedding. Which might explain why collective eyebrows were raised when Sydney-based designers Tom Mark Henry unveiled its latest project – a swanky café and bar in the RSL’s Rooty Hill outpost in the city’s outer western rim.

Altis Architecture cleared out the physical accretions of the past 50 years, leaving a spacious, light open volume into which Tom Mark Henry have injected a liberal jab of Scandi-chic by way of soft neutral colours, soft canvas and wool, and stone. Studioilse benches with high slatted backs act as transparent room dividers, their silhouette mirrored in the Thonet Arka armchairs, and striated wall panels. These are matched with oak and walnut table tops, two-toned banquettes, and indoor greenery that drip from lamp-shades.

The food is disarmingly casual ranging from wheels of pizzas topped with San Marzano tomatoes and Italian meats, and sharing plates of salt and pepper calamari, and veal arancini, to great stacks of burgers dripping with hot sauce mayo and stuffed with buttermilk fried chicken and even a macaroni and cheese pattie.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

55 Sherbrooke Street
Rooty Hill

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The Old Clare
The Old Clare can be found in Sydney’s hip Chippendale neighbourhood, where it is housed over two heritage buildings – the Carlton United Breweries and a former pub – that have been joined to include 62 rooms, a cool rooftop pool and three restaurants, including Automata, by local superstar chef Clayton Wells, and one from Michelin-star chef Jason Atherton. Inside the hotel, the industrial bones of the building have been softened with vintage furnishings and bespoke joinery.

1 Kensington St; tel: 61.2 8277 8277; www.theoldclarehotel.com.au

The Park Hyatt
Smack-bang on Sydney’s harbour, with killer views of the Bridge and the Opera House, The Park Hyatt’s flawless location means there really is no reason to leave. If you do head out, make sure to come back for a bite to eat in the Dining Room for the mammoth six-course Feed Me Menu, which comprises a selection of the chef’s favourite dishes of the day. Follow this with a post-prandial tipple in The Bar and work off any overindulgence with a few laps in the rooftop pool the next morning.

7 Hickson Rd; tel: 61.2 9256 1234; www.hyatt.com

Paramount House Hotel
The upper floors of the former 1940s HQ of Sydney’s Paramount Picture studios  and its connecting film storage warehouse in the Surry Hills neighbourhood has finally opened as a new hotel. There are 29 rooms, a wellness space on the rooftop, and the newest outpost of Ester, one of the city’s most popular restaurants, joins the already existing Paramount Coffee Project – a buzzing café on the ground floor – a co-working area called The Office Space, and the basement-located olden Age Cinema & Bar.

80 Commonwealth St; tel: 61.2 9211 1222; paramounthousehotel.com

Sofitel Darling Harbour
Next to Sydney’s new International Convention Centre, on prime waterfront territory in Darling Harbour, this is the city’s first newly built luxury hotel in 20 years. Its home inside a glass-fronted skyscraper means wrap-around views, while its location is a short 15-minute stride away from main shopping areas such as Market Street. After a day spent soaking up the city’s sights, make sure to come back for a dip in the infinity pool, followed by a pre-prandial glass of bubbly at the Champagne Bar. With The Atelier serving up delicious French-inspired fare, and a host of restaurants just on your doorstep, you certainly won’t go hungry but, for those in between moments, if you plump for a room that has access to the top-floor Club Millesime Lounge, snacks and drinks are served throughout the day against a backdrop of city vistas.

2 Darling Dr; tel: 61.2 8388 8888; www.sofitelsydneydarlingharbour.com.au

Ovolo Woolloomooloo
One of two Sydney properties from hip Hong Kong-based hotel brand Ovolo, the Woolloomooloo property occupies a century-old heritage building that runs the length of the historic Finger Wharf. Inside, the industrial bones of the property are offset with vibrant colours and sleek bold furnishings that give off a quirky glam vibe. Just 10-minutes from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, and with an abundance of bars and restaurants on your doorstep, you won’t be short of things to see and do. But we do suggest staying in to sample chef Matthew Kenney’s plant-based dishes at Alibi.

6 Cowper Wharf Roadway; tel: 61.2 9331 9000; www.ovolohotels.com.au

Spicers Potts Point
Located mid-way between the city and Bondi Beach, in the affluent Potts Point neighbourhood, Spicers is a homely 20-room hotel that can be found within three heritage-listed Victorian terraces that have been seamlessly stitched together. After a day spent out and about, the hotel’s slick and cosy design provides the perfect haven to return to. And if you can’t be bothered to head out again, five of the top local restaurants handily also offer room service.

122 Victoria St; tel: Tel: 61.1300 525 442 spicersretreats.com

Shangri-La
Its home might not be the prettiest of buildings in Sydney, but what it lacks in architectural qualities, is more than made up for by its faultless location just steps away from the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Make the most of these jaw-dropping views with a preprandial cocktail at the Blu Bar, on the hotel’s 36th floor, followed by a meal at the adjacent Altitude restaurant. Here, modern European dishes, like the cobia sashimi served with blood orange, horseradish and buttermilk are made using fresh, local and organic ingredients.

176 Cumberland St; tel: 61.2 9250 6000; www.shangri-la.com/sydney/shangrila/

QT Sydney
QT Sydney has made the most of its home within the former Gowings Department store and The State Theatre by taking its cues from the buildings’ history with a quirky and eccentric design featuring fun, cheeky details like the bowler hat lamps in a vibrant palette of yellow, magenta and royal blue. The restaurant, Gowings Bar & Grill serves up scrummy crowd-pleasing classics like steak frites served with shoestring fries and tarragon butter, while the spa is the best spot to wind down after hitting the shops, just outside the front door.

49 Market St; tel: 61.2 8262 0000; www.qthotelsandresorts.com

They are behind some of Australia’s hippest micro roasters and cafés and now Russell Beard, Ping Jin Ng and Mark Dundon are gearing up to debut their first hotel project, the Paramount House Hotel.

Set within Sydney’s Surry Hills neighbourhood, two buildings – the original 1940s former headquarters of Paramount Picture Studios and the adjoining film storage warehouse – have been stitched together by Melbourne-based architects Breathe, to house 29 rooms, a new restaurant, and a wellness space to the already existing residents which include the Paramount Coffee Project Café, the Golden Age Cinema & Bar and chic co-working area called The Office Space. 

A newly added rooftop copper-clad extension to the warehouse creates visual drama from the outside, while inside, it functions as a privacy screen casting strips of sunlight into indoor-outdoor terraces. These lead into the guestrooms, where an industrial palette of concrete ceilings and bare brick walls are softened with colourful wool rugs, tactile low-slung furniture, and terrazzo-lined bathrooms. 

Coming soon will be a curb-side dining room from the team behind the city’s hottest restaurant, Ester.

INFORMATION
Website

ADDRESS

80 Commonwealth Street

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TELEPHONE

61.2 92 111 222

RATES

From AUD $240

It took two years for Australian jewellery brand Sarah & Sebastian to find the snug location for its first flagship store in Paddington, Sydney. ‘We knew we wanted something small scale with a lot of light,’ says co-founder Sarah Gittoes of the narrow floor-to-ceiling glass space, once destined to be a café or dessert bar.

Obsessed with the intricacies of retail design – like the cupboards and shelves which would be used to display Sarah & Sebastian’s handcrafted pieces – Sarah Gittoes and co-founder Robert Sebastian Grynkofki, who established the brand in 2011, teamed up with Sydney-based architect Mark Landini to realise their retail vision. ‘I remember leaving our first meeting feeling so excited,’ Sarah Gittoes says. ‘He turned all of our ideas on their heads.’

The brand’s preoccupation with the physicalisation of product was deftly inverted, with Landini suggesting Sarah & Sebastian use two-way mirrored cabinets to display their designs, inspired by disparate influences including Olafur Eliasson, Sol LeWitt, Fred Sandback, and deep sea diving. On entry, customers are simply faced with walls lined with mirrored surfaces. Only when they request their areas of interest – price point, a bespoke commission, an engagement ring – do the mirrors turn to glass, revealing the designs within.

‘When you walk into the store everything is concealed’, Grynkofki says. The concept, which is controlled by a bespoke lighting system, encourages an immersive customer experience, inspiring them to interact with the space and unearth the secrets of its design. ‘We didn’t want the boutique to reveal all everything at once, which you get with e-commerce sites,’ Sarah Gittoes says. ‘When we had a pop-up store in our Sydney showroom we found that customers had already researched online exactly what they wanted to buy.’

The duo was motivated to open their first flagship after they opened their local studio to the public, and found that customers were reluctant to leave. ‘They were so fascinated to see our jewellers at work,’  Sarah Gittoes explains. The brand’s boutique aims to bring the wonders of the workshop in. Its copper inlay custom built sales desk doubles up as a jewellery bench. ‘It's that level of exploration which really enhances the customer experience,’ confirms  Sarah Gittoes.

INFORMATION

For more information, visit Sarah & Sebastian’s website

ADDRESS

Kiosk 261/265
Oxford St
Paddington NSW 2021
Australia

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Far from being a standard airport hotel, the 150-room Felix in Sydney raises the bar for layovers and transits with a light-hearted design, by local studios Fox Johnson and Space Control, that takes it cues from the 1960s golden era of air travel. 

Hard timbers, metals and concrete form the base for clean lined furnishings and standout features such as beehive floor and wall tiles and patterned curtains in bubble gum pastel shades. 

Rooms are quirkily named in accordance with their level of luxury from Economy to First Class, while the sky-high penthouse lobby is crafted with the nomad in mind. Here, wicker chairs dangle beside a cocktail bar and a 24-hour self-serve shop that sells everything from flying essentials to food. If weather permits, head up to the rooftop cinema to unwind, or watch aircraft as they touch down on Aussie soil.

INFORMATION

Website

ADDRESS

21 Baxter Road

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As part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of architect Jørn Utzon’s birth, the Utzon Center in Aalborg, Denmark, follows the international travels of the Danish architect who designed the Sydney Opera House through personal photography, architectural  models and ephemera. The Utzon Center, which was Utzon’s last building project, also happens to be celebrating its 10th anniversary. Hence, there is plenty to celebrate.

While Aalborg was the place of Utzon’s birth, he left his hometown early in his career to build a home for his family just north of Copenhagen. He then travelled extensively for commissions or with travel grants to places such as Morocco and the US, rellocated to Sydney with his family for the Opera House project and then returned to Mallorca to set up a family home. Curator Line Nørskov Eriksen, who has a PhD in the architect’s work and had access to the Utzon Archive held by the city of Aalborg and the Utzon family, pieced together this journey through Utzon’s photographs, travel diaries, models, sketches and letters tracing the influence of his travels on his landmark works and the concepts that drove him.

Walking around, the exhibition lights of up a pathway of sound, colour and video, triggered by your footsteps. Utzon’s photographs are projected onto the walls in sets and his Super 8 films capture animated stories of diverse cultures, people and landscapes.

This visual and experiential approach to understanding his work suits Utzon very well: ‘Utzon wasn’t the type of architect that enjoyed labels. He never formed a theory or said “my work is phenomenological” or “my work is semiological”. He was more interested in the work itself than the stuff around it,’ says Nørskov Eriksen.

‘In his photos you can see he was looking and searching, not just recording his surroundings,’ she says. ‘When you talk with people that knew him and his family, the one thing they always say is that he had this extremely amazing ability to look at the world around him and see countless lessons for architecture. His ability to observe and turn observation into an art form was really key to his work.’

Housing

Utzon began work in the context of post-war Scandinavia – described by Nørskov Eriksen as a time of scepticism of technology when there was an interest in returning to a simpler way of life. Utzon’s humane approach to architecture and sensitivity to the relationship between man and nature can be seen in the first house he built for his family, Hillebech house. It was a single-storey, low volume that stretched across a terrace on a sloped piece of land in a forest.

Linne explained the lack of drawings on show in the exhibition were due to the fact that the house was built on site with poles and canvasses. In tune with modernist principles of architecture and life, the house was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe and a travel scholarship to the US allowed him to visit Tallesin West and Falling Water – ‘He was quite interested in Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. He worked with similar themes – the relationship between architecture and nature, drawing on primordial architecture in a modern sense,’ says Nørskov Eriksen.

Utzon’s daughter, Lin Utzon, lived for four years at Hellebæk house, and then later in Can Lis, the house in Mallorca Utzon designed for his family on their return from Sydney. She currently lives in Can Feliz, another house in Mallorca designed by her father. ‘We lived a different life,’ she says. ‘My parents were gearing towards a new world, they weren’t interested in living in the past. As a child, I grew up thinking things were possible, and that’s a fantastic gift to have been given. In his houses, I feel very surrounded by him and my mother, who was very much part of it. They were a team and she was indispensable – she was like a rock whatever was there.’

The family house in Mallorca was named after Utzon’s wife, Lis, and Nørskov Eriksen made an effort to include her presence in the exhibition. It was Lis who typed up Utzon’s travel diaries that he would dictate to her. ‘I made sure to include lots of pictures of her because she was there all along. It takes two,’ says Nørskov Eriksen, who wanted to demonstrate their ‘immense love’ and partnership in life and work.

As well as single family homes, Utzon’s travels to Morocco in 1947 visiting rural communities influenced his communal housing design in Denmark – the Fredensborg and Kingo housing complexes in Denmark were informed by houses in – their layered plans, in tune with the topography of the landscape, tempered too a level relationship between privacy and group living.

The Sydney Opera House

Heading to Sydney for the Opera House commission was another opportunity for travel: ‘It was an adventure for the whole family,’ says Lin Utzon. ‘Our parents gave us a fantastic trip to Australia, stopping in different places – the Bahamas, Florida – we drove through the States seeing different architecture – and then we arrived in Sydney.’

The exhibition places importance on the anticent platform temples of Mexico, an influence for the design of the Sydney Opera House and its strong base from which the iconic sails were placed. Nørskov Eriksen describes this moment as a turning point, and how it became clear that due to his travels and continued architectural observation, his work evolved into an accumulative combination of archetypes, a unique and personal style that made his work so distinct. ‘In the beginning, Utzon was very much interested in variation – how buildings could adapt to different contexts, different times, cultures, landscapes; and then eventually he became more and more influenced by this idea of permanence – that there are certain things in architecture that stay the same. At one point he talks about it as a seed that architecture has an innermost being, so that no matter where the seed is planted or at what time, it has a core substances,’ says Eriksen.

‘He was very interested in the platform and these floating roofs as a way of installing a more existential dimension to architecture. For him it’s not just how the building operates on a daily basis, it’s about the relationship of man to the surroundings he is given.’ Utzon acheived this through other techniques, such as progression from the ‘cave’ to the ‘courtyard’, working with windows and capturing the horizon.

A wooden model of the Sydney Opera house on display, of which Utzon made 10 for each board member of the Sydney Opera House committee, belongs to Utzon’s son, Jan, also an architect. It’s one of the few pieces that he retained for himself instead of placing it in the Utzon Archive. For him, each of Utzon’s buildings have a human quality, no matter on what scale: ‘I feel walking through my father’s buildings there is a sense that you belong here – I can stay here. It’s not strange, or made of steel or granite, or a building where you say “its very interesting, but I would like to go home now”. The way the light comes in and the are materials chosen – he would always endevaour to create something with a human scale.’

From Sydney to Aalborg

The Utzon Center in Aalborg holds many similarities with the Sydney Opera House – from its waterfront location that changed the urban focus of the whole city, to its triangular peaks that add new shapes into its context. The centre accomodates working studios for architecture students from the local university and an experimental gallery space filled with heaps of lego bricks for building, constructed models and a full-sized boat parked for teaching students and visitors about timber constructuon, which Utzon saw as key to understanding architecture. From the pebbled courtyard, to the corridor galleries with interactive screens and the auditorium that eclipses views of the water, industrial horizon and sky – it offers opportunity for education, leisure and architectural appreciation.

‘The Opera House did on a different scale what this building [the Utzon Center] did to Aalborg’, says Lin Utzon. ‘At night time, when the full moon is reflected on the building and the water is smooth like glass, you become so aware of everything. It has that significance on all the surroundings to make that effect – and to make Aalborg a better place to live.’

Take a look at Jørn Utzon’s greatest architectural hits here

INFORMATION

‘Horisont’ runs until 21 October 2018 as part of the ‘Utzon 100’ programme. For more information visit the Utzon Center website

Three years in the making, chef and restaurateur Matt Moran’s Barangaroo House – a multi-level dining hub – has opened on the edge of Barangaroo, Sydney’s rejuvenated waterfront district. 

In the hands of local architects Collins and Turner, the building has been configured into three curvaceous bowl-shaped tiers that will house each of the destination’s restaurants. For the cladding, Accoya timber, was selected for its sustainable and durable properties necessary for the restaurant’s location at the edge of the waterfront.

The surface of the facade gained its distinct charcoal colouring from the Japanese charring technique, Shou Sugi Ban, and with its unconventional shape, hue and the rings of green vegetation planted around the edges, the restaurant certainly provides the glass skyscrapers of the nearby CBD with a new eye-catching landmark.

Inside, the overall look is modern sophistication, providing an appropriate setting for chef Cory Campbell’s upscale menu. Start the evening with an aperitif cocktail and a snack in the ground floor House Bar, followed by modern Australian fare in the mid-level restaurant, Bea. End the experience with a glass of champagne and a tasting plate of caviar at Smoke, soaking up the scenic backdrop of Darling Harbour.

INFORMATION
Website

ADDRESS

35 Barangaroo Avenue

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