Gresley Abas amongst a host of other Flinders Street Station Design Competition entries have gone on exhibit in Melbourne last week.

Ahmad and Mim attended the opening.

Follow these links to check out more info.

Architecture & Design – Architecture rebels reveal Flinders Street Competition entries

The Red and the Black Architect – Flinders Street Designs Set Free

Check out our entry here…

The Victorian Government is currently running an international ideas competition for Flinders Street Train Station, to ‘re-energise the station and its surrounds, preserve its heritage and improve transport functions.’

118 entries were submitted from across the globe, including one from Gresley Abas, in association with Tim Pardoe and Luis Schilling.

Check out our entry below, the result of a pizza-fueled late night or two.

Our proposition aimed to consolidate the site as the principle public transport hub for city commuters, so we reconfigured the streets to optimise the precinct as a pedestrian-friendly civic and transport hub. At the same time, we introduced a range of public and private uses, civic accessibility and activation at all scales. We brought new life to both sides of the Flinders Street Administration Building, preserving the existing qualities that currently exist over, under and alongside the current station operations, and introduced new uses and development opportunities at the western end of the site.

Our strategy was simple. The Station Precinct was opened up to public access, offering its potential to the same urban revolution that has occurred elsewhere in Melbourne. Our proposition aimed to create the conditions that would allow the existing urban momentum to grow into the spaces that are offered by the redevelopment of the site.

The solution was based on:

• Transport transfer efficiency – improved access and egress to all train platforms, particularly from the western approach
• Permeability – pedestrian access created across the site to reconnect the precincts and attractions distributed around all sides of the station: particularly the north-south connection between Southbank and city centre.
• Activation – the Station precinct established not just as a public transport transit hub, but as an activated iconic destination in its own right. This would include the introduction of activation and adaptive uses to existing buildings, and the creation of new development at all scales along the edges and over the top of the site.

In order to achieve all this, an elevated ground plane was draped across the site to extend a pedestrian trajectory that commences at the existing eastern concourse. Moving westwards, this new podium performs as Precinct entrance, Station concourse, public open space, and mixed-Use development podium.

Along this east-west trajectory, numerous connections were established to the north and south, allowing complete permeability across the precinct. These will be key in unlocking the existing ‘separation’ between the Hoddle Grid, Southbank and Federation Square.

Congratulations and good luck to the 6 shortlisted entries!

Gresley Abas recently completed a proposal for a sculpture on the ground at St George’s Catherdral in Perth.

This proposal for the Sculpture Project draws inspiration from the symbolic abstraction of St George and the Dragon. St George is represented as a grounded landscape element – using form and light to represent St George’s Cross. The Dragon is represented as a ‘dismembered’ assemblage – made of specially treated aluminium scales that hover over the base of the grassy bank.

Some images of the proposal…

This project was the entry submitted by Gresley Abas for the Shinkenchiku Residential Design Competition run by Shinkenchiku-sha Co. Ltd in conjunction with the Japan Architect Journal. The competition was to honour the memory of architect and educator John Hedjuk and his three by three grid (nine-square) by designing four houses in a hypothetical four by four (sixteen-square) ‘Garden City’ grid.

The brief included strict spatial requirements for the houses as well as the requirement to consider issues such as orientation, contiguity, privacy and the construction of the scheme as a whole.

Using the projects proposed grid, Hejduk’s original grid was transposed into the sixteen-square-grid field. A series of geometric steps initiated by the original transposition created a field of possible conditions: interference, interruption, intersection, rotation and overlay, allowing for the creation of the core footprint of the proposition. Point and line where drawn into a generative ‘pinwheel’ arrangement of possible dwellings.  The ghost(s) of Hejduk’s nine-square-grid emerged at points where the geometric juxtaposition of the two grids manifests.

Through the dialogue between the two principles (dis)ordering the site, an armature for the proposition was extracted. The armature defined the structural backbone for the proposition. The contiguity between the dwelling modules enabled further breakdown and the redistribution of boundaries. The proposition was able to re-present itself as a complex of 2, 4, 6 or even 8 dwellings of various sizes. The mix recognised the decreasing predominance of the nuclear family as the basis for organising the hierarchical nature of domestic space.

As a typology to be extended over a larger area, the proposition was a flexible variant with multiple possibilities.  The courtyard principle provides an inner sanctum to each cluster of dwellings distributed within the greater expanse of a ‘Garden City’.  Meanwhile: variations in the type, number and configuration of dwellings within each sixteen-square-grid cluster provide a rhythm and variance pattern within the framework of the established typology.

This project was the entry submitted by Gresley Abas for the annual Reece Bathroom Innovation Award. The brief was to design either a single or series of bathroom products or bathroom furniture items.

The entry, named “The Heart of Gold” is a unified bathroom core incorporating WC, shower  (with water usage meter) and vanity as well as associated hot water system and cistern.  Another key goal was to adress sustainability issues such as water use, minimising material use and costs when installing a complete bathroom and associated services.

This project was the entry submitted by Gresley Abas for the Taipei Performing Arts Center International Design Competition run by the Taipei City Government. The competition was to develop a scheme for a performing arts centre to serve a variety of large scale performances including dramas and operas.

The brief included requirements for three theatre spaces of differing scale and function located in a central performing arts complex. The three theatres are contained under a “green roof” which also houses meeting rooms, a resteraunt and the fly towers.

The site has strong links with the local market and shopping district and is located adjacent to a rail station. The requirements of the site program and the strong connections with the city provided opportunity to create a new cultural and social hub for the City of Taipei.

Some images from the submission.

Gresley Abas undertook the Murray Mews Competition which looked at activating the Murray Mews / Wolfe laneways of Perth.

Gresley Abas with Simon Anderson Architect recently completed the Extreme Housing Competion for Sustainable Housing. Located in the city of Cherepovets, Russian Federation, the aim of the competition is to advance the use of steel in sustainable housing through the identification and application of best practices and innovative approaches.

‘….design a building for the site, the brief and budget: avoid the grand gesture, the
imperial, ‘walking cities’, fashion, déjà vu. Build it a bit, but not too much, like an oil rig
on its side.

Use pre-fabricated steel framing, built off site on concrete or steel piles..’

‘…Focus on the site, its horizon, expansiveness, smells, winds, flora, fauna, sky, and
rain..’

‘Use [one] big form to respond to the landscape.’

‘Make it a large house not a small resort. Kitchen the heart. Make a place to share the
experience.’

We make homes for shelter and retreat. We bury them where we can for climatic
stability. Where we cannot, we raise the earth over the buildings like a blanket.
We create shared semi-enclosed spaces to mediate the climate and to create
communal places that are protected from the weather.
We vary scale and density for diversity, to achieve accommodation targets, to
create community.
We are a long way from town: for now, we will need cars.
There is a lot to do and make: we propose a system.
A system that can enlarge and shrink as required.
A system that is a flexible supporting framework for sustainable technologies
A system with variations that can be mixed and finely tuned.
A system that is adaptable, modular and infinitely extendable.
[One] big form….1, 10, 100……