Kicking off the year on site is our new technical campus building for Rushworth P-12 College!
Located on Taungurung Country, 180km north of Naarm/Melbourne, the former gold-mining town is now a small community of little more than 2000. The new campus building will provide new technical learning and community spaces that will be utilised by the wider public, whilst creating opportunities for primary and secondary students to interconnect.

Looking forward to sharing construction progress throughout the year!

Over the last 12months we have been working closely with Transport for NSW and Right Angle Studios on the place activation and strategy for the Eddy precinct at Central Station. Watch this space for our latest project updates!

To launch the precinct, Right Angle hosted the Place Debate, on site at Eddy with Rob Stokes, NSW Tranport Minister opening the event.
Qianyi Lim on behalf of Sibling was invited along with five other city makers to debate the topic ‘ A great city should never sleep!’
Appointed to the negative side of the debate with Sacha Coles, Director of Aspect Studios and Sam Davison, Creative Director at Right Angle; we argued that quite simply, cities, like all living organisms, need to take rest and be restored in order to function. Whilst it is valuable for our cities to offer a myriad of spaces for entertainment, for leisure, for work, for learning– there is a danger that our cities become places focused around constant consumption and production. Places where commercial values take priority over social, community and emotional wellbeing. It is crucial that our cities are balanced with spaces for turning off; for rest and respite; spaces where we can retreat and do nothing.
As cities across the globe move towards 24hour connectivity, we need to make sure that the city, with its own circadian rhythms, offers a diversity of spaces, that are inclusive, safe and accessible for all of us, to turn off for a bit and retreat throughout the day.

Arguing for a great city that never sleeps was Jess Miller, Michaella Sola March and Barrie Barton, who emphasised the importance of night time economies in supporting essential workers with services as well as harnessing the cultural capital that a 24hr city can bring.
The winners of the debate were decided by crowd cheering and needless to say, we won! However both sides could agree that  a great city needs to accommodate and provide space for a diversity of communities, uses and programming across a 24hour day, whether that be for work, rest or play.

We love to see the progress on our delicious brick layer cake at Wangaratta District Specialist School.
When complete this learning hub will provide space for students to develop skills that encourage independent living through carefully crafted spaces and sensory design devices. It’s so exciting to see the new school building, landscape and sports court come to life, Watch this space!

P.s
Really looking forward to seeing the rest of our Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) school get on site!

Sibling Architecture is searching for an outstanding and passionate project architect with 7+ years experience to join our team in Melbourne.

Why work for Sibling?
Sibling Architecture is one of Australia’s freshest design practices founded in a spirit of collaboration. This social desire to engage in open debate, and with contemporary architectural practice, is reflected in our strong mix of projects in the educational and cultural sectors, and underpinned by our experience in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture and interior design. We are seeking someone interested in leading a variety of projects in scale, type and sector: from educational and civic buildings, to urban design, residential architecture,design research and exhibition design.

You will be responsible for and have experience in:
• Leading and coordinating the design and documentation of multiple projects at various stages of a project lifecycle
• Overseeing projects during the contract admin phase, including responding to RFI’s, EOT’s and progress claims.
• Planning and managing the documentation fl ow of projects and the team
• Managing the exchange and coordination of documentation with the consultant team.
• Producing documentation models with a high degree of accuracy
• Effectively managing clients and have excellent communication skills
• Conducting regular reviews and quality assurance with your project team
• Nurturing graduates to grow their skillset
• Working closely with the leadership team to contribute to business development and advocate for Sibling Architecture
• Contributing to our studio culture of research and learning

Skills & Experience
• Degree/s in architecture with a vast knowledge of building codes and standards
• Registration with the Architects Registration Board of Victoria, or equivalent 7+ years experience post-graduation in an architectural practice, including the delivery of projects
• Rights to work in Australia
• Proficiency in Revit and Rhino is advantageous

About You
• Highly proactive and self driven
• Strong time management skills including the capacity to work across multiple projects at various stages
• Keen design eye with attention to detail

The Offer
• Flexible working conditions
• Convenient Swanston St Studio location
• A dynamic, driven and inclusive working environment
• Salary commensurate with experience
• Professional Development opportunities

To apply for this position, please forward your CV and portfolio with ‘Project Architect’ in the subject heading to sister@siblingarchitecture.com prior to Friday, September 9th 2022.
Interviews will be held up to and after this date.

In July Sibling Co-director Qianyi Lim was awarded the NSW Emerging Architect Prize! We are so proud of Qianyi and are thrilled for the recognition of Qianyi’s immense contribution to our studio and the profession through practice, education and advocacy.

Jury Citation:
Amongst a group of highly talented nominees, the jury considered that Qianyi’s impressive and rounded career portfolio that spans across private practice, education and advocacy made her the ideal candidate for this prize. Qianyi has used her reach in the profession to champion diversity and advocate for women in architecture through invited panels and talks. Further to this, her built work puts Sibling’s research into practice exploring relevant societal themes such as models of home ownership, ageing and multi-generational housing.

Qianyi’s contribution and esteemed expertise to the wider profession is through her involvement co-chairing the AIA NSW Education and Research committee, award juries and as panel member on the State Design Review Panel. Most notably, after years of teaching at various universities in Melbourne and Sydney, her appointment as Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Building and Planning sees Qianyi contributing directly to the development of the masters curriculum and shaping the next generation of architects.

The jury congratulates Qianyi Lim on this well deserved recognition of her extensive contribution to the profession.

We are excited  to share that Stable House has received the prestigious Wilkinson Award at the AIA NSW Awards!

To be awarded the highest accolade for new residential architecture in NSW, and recognised amongst architects we deeply admire and respect is truly humbling. we are so grateful for the Jurors and all the team involved to make this project a reality!

Jury Citation:

Stable House is a small family home that pops with joy and colour. Sibling Architecture has created an incredibly adaptable house with an eye to the future, without losing sight of the past.

​It belies its small footprint, with a series of overlapping spaces, artful voids and curated views of greenery. The house weaves within the skin of the existing stable wall creating a delightful quality of natural light and depth of texture. The folded roof form is both a sensitive design response to neighbours and a delicate canopy of light.

​Central to the home is the kitchen. Designed with memories of extended family gathering around for meals – the space is perfectly proportioned to fulfil this function in a small footprint.

​Jurors agreed that the house is an inspirational model for how pockets of forgotten space in densely populated areas can be transformed into calm sanctuaries for living

We are thrilled to share that Arts Project Australia has received a Commendation for Small Project Architecture at the AIA Vic Awards!

This unique project for a wonderful client, Arts Project Australia, was completed during the pandemic; so it is great to see it be recognised for its clever use of space and uplifting design.

Jury Citation:

Small only in its scope and budget, Arts Project Australia achieves a lot with very little – leveraging its smallness with a humble material palette that cleverly references past utility, and by carving a new entry that meets requisite DDA compliance and provides a clear sequence of arrival and departure that was previously absent. In so doing, what was an underutilised car park is now transformed into a delightful undercroft that is immediately welcoming to both artists and the public.

Read more about the project here. 

Last month Amelia and Nicholas joined Dave Sharp on The Architecture Firm Marketing podcast. They shared some insights into Sibling’s research based practice, how we keep things interesting with a diverse of project typologies and most importantly having fun with our brand 🙂

Listen to the interview here.

Queer space is a term that has recently rerisen in popularity in the architectural profession. So, what’s up with queer space? How can we make buildings safer and symbolic for the LGBTQI+ community? And the big one: How do we challenge the world view that heterosexuality is the norm in how we construct the world? Sibling’s Timothy Moore and Nicholas Braun recently wrote about the conception of queer space in their review of the Victorian Pride Centre in the January 2022 issue of Architecture Australia. These musings developed from Sibling’s experience working on a shortlisted entry for the Victorian Pride Centre with BKK Architects.

Read the review below:

The making of “queer space”: Victorian Pride Centre

“On 24 May 2016, Victorian premier Daniel Andrews stood in front of the state parliament to deliver a historic apology for a law that had made homosexual acts punishable by a maximum jail sentence of 15 years up until 1980. He noted, “It is the first responsibility of a government to keep people safe. But the government didn’t keep LGBTI people safe.” This was a watershed year for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) rights in Victoria. Along with the apology, pledging to continue the Safe Schools program, and granting adoption rights to same-sex couples, the Victorian government committed $15 million dollars to build Australia’s first purpose-built Pride Centre as a symbol of the freedom of expression and diversity of LGBTIQ+ communities.

A two-stage competition was organized in 2017 to create this landmark project in Melbourne’s seaside suburb of St Kilda in the City of Port Phillip. Brearley Architects and Urbanists (BAU) and Grant Amon Architects (GAA) won the commission for their design that, as competition jury chair Dimity Reed stated, “promises to provide a building with a memorable and exuberant identity.” With the spectre of the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey looming over the competition throughout 2017, an “exuberant” building to champion the rights and freedoms of LGBTIQ+ communities felt as urgent as ever.”

Completed in 2021, the Victorian Pride Centre holds – within its 6,200 square metres – symbolic and safe space for members of the LGBTIQ+ communities. It achieves this by providing tenancies for a spectrum of civic organizations alongside co-working, commercial and cultural spaces. In giving form to this rainbow coalition, BAU and GAA avoid tropes of LGBTIQ+ representation. A game of subtraction unapologetically drives their architectural approach, with extruded ellipses, or tubes, punched through the maximum building volume on one axis across the 58-metre-deep site. (The positioning of the precast concrete columns, arches and blade walls that mark the extracted tubes is regulated by the practical force of the carparking grid below.) Echoing the ornamental arches marking St Kilda’s faded palatial hotels and pleasurescapes – including Luna Park, Catani Arch and the Esplanade Vaults – the ellipses are a sign that the architects know this raffish neighbourhood well (they live and work here). The holey game, read in the Fitzroy Street facade, also shouts difference.

Read the full article at ArchitectureAu

Sibling director Dr Timothy Moore bunkered down during COVID to complete his PhD at the University of Melbourne, which investigated temporary projects within longer-term urban development. He traversed Amsterdam, Athens, Christchurch and Melbourne to evaluate how temporary architecture contributes experimentation, innovation and place-making to large-scale urban development projects, or how the pop-up has a legacy after it pops-down. This research has contributed to Sibling’s work in temporary-use, adaptive re-use and urban design, including the temporary ateliers at Beulah and Over Obelisk at the Vic Market. He has also written widely on the topic, including on The Conversation.