Research-informed design thinking has led to several competition-winning projects, and Melinda’s PhD focuses on sustainable house size and occupant satisfaction in Canberra. She strongly believes that sustainable cities and architecture holds the key to solving many of the frustrations of our cities. As an Institute Life Fellow, and member for over twenty-five years, she served as ACT then National President, running on a platform of sustainable cities and architectural equity. Melinda is an active contributor to advisory panels, juries, boards and occasionally teaches. Through architectural practice, industry participation and public advocacy, she remains passionately engaged with broader contemporary issues that inform quality, climate-wise environments. Conceptually derived from one of the client’s own artworks, the screen has been designed to support a dynamic array of foliage – a (vertical) garden serving to not merely conceal, but to mediate light and view.ĭeeply considered and highly responsive to the client’s needs, CCJ Architects has delivered an impressively clever and memorable project.ĭr Melinda Dodson is a research-driven architect who has dedicated her career to tackling pressing issues such as sustainable cities and climate change. Balancing concealment with connectivity, a timber screen, located to support a new entrance threshold, cloaks the length of the existing facade. The architect’s approach to the provision of privacy is a true delight – a gesture as bold as it is quirky. The more apparent aspects of the interior fitout – presenting as a series of enticingly subtle insertions – complete a revived interior in which every detail demonstrates astute consideration and restraint. Reflecting adept ability, skilful detailing of the internal walls has resolved the underlying construction issues whilst judiciously retaining the integrity of both structure and building footprint. With the original house having succumbed to significant condensation issues, an ambition to repair without material removal of the original structure was mutually established. The Secret Garden House is a modest monocrete house that has been transformed into a delightful and comfortable home charged with a new lease on life.Ĭentral to the client’s brief for the project were the requirements for repair and for retreat. It is a gift to the ANU which is not merely useful and beautiful but also poetic in that it captures the optimism of the establishment of the campus but also projects forward a positive and exciting future. This is architecture which synthesises programmatic, aesthetic, technical and pedagogical requirements with consummate skill. In providing these outcomes, each impressive on their own, the greatest achievement is the balancing of so many competing requirements into a singular, seamless whole. establishment of an internal planning logic which is nurturing, legible, subtle, flexible, and relevant to contemporary use.provision of a setting which supports contemporary education and research with best-practice utility and a thorough understanding of human habitation and use.transformation of an interior to radically improve amenity, comfort, and energy use with a nuanced understanding of the full range of uses for the building.restoration, celebration and interpretation of a significant heritage place demonstrating a detailed and thorough understanding of the importance of the building.The work by Hassell on this significant and very large ANU building operates at the highest level in distinct ways: I cannot look away.Hassell is awarded the Canberra Medallion for the ANU Birch Building Refurbishment – a project of an exemplary standard. "If anybody comes out and finds a dent in their car and my name on their windscreen, they'll know why. "Even today, I have to be careful when I'm driving, that I actually watch the road rather than watch the houses the number of times that I've almost hit a parked car. "I would go up and down streets on the way to work just gazing at the houses and taking photographs," he said. When Mr Rolph first moved to Darwin in 1991, he would spend his mornings riding to work through these inner-city suburbs. The remaining examples are mostly found in the suburbs of Stuart Park, Fannie Bay, Ludmilla and Parap, where they stand resolute like old men on crutches. Many of these styles have also disappeared from the Darwin landscape, primarily due to the cataclysm of Cyclone Tracy in 1974, which wiped out most of the city's northern suburbs. The number of times that I've almost hit a parked car. I have to be careful when I'm driving that I actually watch the road rather than watch the houses.
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