Sibling have been working on the exhibition design for the Science Gallery Melbourne’s inaugural show, ‘Not Natural’, which finally opened at the end of January.

The exhibition explores the growing fiction between natural and artificial systems, showcasing a number of speculative local and international projects dissolving the line between what is considered natural and not natural.

We will be sharing more about our approach to designing the exhibition for some of the weird and wonderful exhibits including live jellyfish and a machete-wielding houseplant! But for now, here are some pics from the opening event.

Not Natural is on show from now until June 29 at Science Gallery Melbourne.

We kicked off the year with exciting news: we were selected as recipients for the Creative Ventures grant funding!

Supported by the Victorian government, the Creative Ventures program provides two-year grants to small creative organisations to deliver a big impact.

Sibling received more than $180,000 in funding to support our research into sensorially-sensitive architectural design of spaces which cater to neurodivergent and sensorially diverse people.

This research has been a longstanding pre-occupation of Sibling, with earlier projects such as New Agency and Arts Project Australia establishing the groundwork for larger projects such as the recently completed Wangaratta District Specialist School.

We will be posting updates on our research as it unfolds, so keep an eye out on our socials.

Just in time for summer, we celebrated the opening of the new South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Bega, NSW.
Located on Yuin Country in the far south coast of NSW, the redeveloped gallery doubles the area of the previous exhibition spaces and provides state of the art facilities to accommodate both community and international touring shows.

Sibling first started working on this project in 2018, so it was especially rewarding to finally see it open and occupied by the public.
SECCA has been warmly welcomed by the people of the Bega Valley Shire and is set to enhance the region as an arts and cultural destination. If you’re traveling up the east coast over the summer, be sure to drop in and check it out!

A huge congratulations to Andrea and Isabella who were awarded the Christopher Procter research prize and David Lindner research prizes respectively!
The prizes were awarded at the 2023 NSW Australian Institute of Architects Honours and Awards celebration at the Ace Hotel, Sydney.

Andrea’s research is titled “Chinatowns are disappearing around the world – how can architecture ensure their future?”
Jury Citation:
Chinatowns around the world are unique cultural and urban spaces which make a rich contribution to our cities. Through the 19th and 20th century they became places to congregate for many migrants from China and Asia more broadly. They served as vibrant hubs of significant cultural and economic activity, attracting locals and tourists alike.

Changing demographics, post Covid-19 challenges of our inner cities combined with the virus’ origin in Wuhan have left Chinatowns across the globe struggling to regain that vibrancy. Andrea’s research will focus on San Franscisco’s Chinatown which is one of the largest and oldest of its kind. Her study will be about its distinct cultural, economic and physical characteristics, as well as which local renewal strategies may be translatable into an Australian context.

Growing up with regular visits to Sydney’s Chinatown and now working on its reimagination as an architect and urban designer Andrea’s proposal is personal and highly relevant. It meets the mission of the Christopher Procter prize to enable research and professional development with a focus on improving our cities.”

Andrea has also received a Byera Hadley Travelling Scholarship to further her research into this topic, where she will travel to the US, Europe and South Pacific.

Isabella’s research is titled “Soft Spaces: Designing for Pain in the Public Realm.”

Jury citation:
Isabella’s submission brings to the fore the high proportion of Australian’s living with the invisible experiences of chronic pain and disease and how good design within our built environment should consider people living with these conditions.

Her proposal builds on her previous research into this topic, where she catalogued how public spaces affect people living with chronic pain. The David Lindner Prize will enable Isabella to continue this research through establishing a set of recommendations in the form of a practical guide for future public buildings and spaces to palliate the effects of chronic pain. This research will be strengthened through collaboration with nominated industry leaders in this space as well as medical professionals.

Through highlighting the statistics around chronic pain and the impact of our environmental conditions on this, the jury considered that Isabella’s work could be a very poignant topic within the architectural profession about how we design our spaces with empathy and inclusion.”

Unprecedented is this year’s Australian Institute of Architects National Conference, hosted on Ngunnawal land, Canberra. The conference is an opportunity to ‘reflect on what has come before, focus on how we face the future and shape what is yet to come.’

Keynote speakers include Denise Scott-Brown, Stan Grant and Kevin Carmody.
Qianyi will be speaking on a breakfast panel on Tuesday 31st October, alongside Shoba Cole, Adam Haddow, Bradley Kerr and Kerstin Thompson on the importance of diversity to creating an equal playing field.
Hope to see you there for a thoughtful and engaging conversation, Tuesday 31st October 7am!

Sibling Architecture and ASPECT Studios has been shortlisted as one of four teams for the Griffith Park Precinct Design Competition for Canterbury Bankstown Council. The project is to envision a new masterplan for the Griffith Park Precinct in Bankstown, which will include the delivery of a new community centre building and park.

We are so thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Council on this and are well underway in developing some exciting concepts for the thriving and bustling centre in Western Sydney.

We’re so thrilled and humbled that our Box Hill North Primary School project has won the award for Educational Architecture at the Architecture Victoria awards!! Always a joy to see VSBA projects awarded a win.

Thankyou to the jury and Australian Institute of Architects, and all the stakeholders involved.

Jury Citation:
Box Hill North Primary School by Sibling Architecture embraces the opportunity to transform a simple brief for a primary school building into a spirited and playful set of spaces that hold opportunity in every corner. Sibling Architecture’s distinct hand has translated to a project that offers delightful day-lit and inspiring learning environments that will capture the imagination of students. The building, which is framed by eucalypts and brick villas, greets the community with a formal language that is borrowed from its context to create a familiar and homely space for the school community.

Sibling Architecture has demonstrated how small moves can deliver big impact. A conventional four-by-two arrangement of eight classrooms is enhanced by the rotation of each north-south pair. This gentle shift offers a generous result: what would ordinarily be a central circulation spine is transformed into a zigzag of layered pockets for retreating, making, and doing.
The jury were delighted by the expansive volume of the interior spaces as well as the playful geometry of the brick and metal building fabric. The project is exemplary in its careful articulation of all architectural elements to create a sorority of generosity within a small footprint.

On 11^th May, Sibling attended the Dulux 2023 Colour Awards where our Darebin Intercultural Centre was crowned the winner of the Grand Prix prize!

“The deliberate avoidance of any recognizable cultural representation placed greater importance on the form and material palette, and we applaud the strong tie to the brief, achieved through the push and pull of colour and texture,” said the judges.

Read all about the win on ArchitectureAU, along with a list of all the other winners at the 2023 Dulux Colour Awards.

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of welcoming delegates from the Regional Public Galleries NSW conference for a site walk through the nearly complete SECCA/Bega gallery 😀We also joined gallery director Iain Dawson, artist Liam Benson and Cayce Hill on a panel to discuss what it takes to create equitable and accessible cultural spaces. Looking forward to the gallery opening later this year!

“Rich in invention, the singular, socially minded homes of this practice are not only intensely personal to the clients, but also intricately connected to community.” Thank you Peter Davies for profiling us in this issue of Houses magazine !!!

Being profiled in Houses magazine is a real honour for us! Over the years it has been a go-to resource in our library for the best in residential architecture and design, so to be published let alone profiled as a practice in this publication is a real highlight.
Whilst we work across a diversity of public sector projects from education, arts and culture and community; we also highly value working on housing. The opportunities to test new ideas for dwelling come in many forms; from multigenerational living arrangements, to ageing in place, to how the private domestic spaces can engage with the surrounding community. In essence, these ideas are all about how we can live together, better. 

A big shout out to all of our clients, consultants and builders who we have worked with over the years to makeeach of these special residential projects come to life.