The paper discusses the Sirius apartments located in Sydney’s historic Rocks precinct. It is informed by personal communication with the building’s architect, Tao (Theodorus) Gofers. The paper situates the building in the context of the 1970s redevelopment plans for the Rocks, its critical reception as an urban eyesore and its re-evaluation as an iconic Brutalist...

The Sydney Exhibition Centre by Philip Cox was conceived as an iconic building and recognised by the Sulman Award for its innovative steel technology, logical response to function and distinctive roofscape. It was one of a number of buildings constructed at Darling Harbour for Australia’s Bicentenary in 1988, intended to showcase the best in Australian...

In 1972 artist Robert Ingpen, writing of Swan Hill’s Pioneer Folk Museum, suggested that “seeing how our forebears lived, we discover how they fitted themselves into the new land and established a balance which we must maintain for the sake of future generations.” For fifty years, the Museum has been a key element of the...

This paper explores the question of how urban parks function as urban icons. It examines Bicentennial Park in Homebush Bay, 12 km west of the Sydney Central Business District (CBD) as a case study. Bicentennial Park was planned and designed between 1983 and 1988, a time when Australia, and its cities in particular, grappled with...

Planning is a cultural activity, with the way we represent the spatial structure of cities reflecting our worldview. Within Aotearoa New Zealand, planning traditions and approaches practiced by indigenous Māori have been marginalized by colonial planning practices based in Western epistemology. However, Māori are promoting their planning traditions through strategic planning documents.