Build Architecture Awards

Build Architecture Awards 2015 18 he practice has become one of Syd- ney’s leading small to medium sized architectural firms specialising in the architecture, urban design and interior architecture of institutional, residential, education, and aged care projects. The practice has a broad client base encompassing a wide range of commercial clients as well as Syd- ney’s major seniors and aged care providers. The aged care and seniors housing projects of Campbell Luscombe Architects are informed by a strong appreciation of architectural culture, context and sustainable design. Every building and project reflects a distinctive resolution of these themes. Every new building, every adaptive reuse and every site must address and acknowledge a pre-existing context. At the same time, every structure and every intervention, whether radical or reverential, ultimately changes the context. The only question then, is whether the inevitable change will be for better or worse. We are sensitive to the nuances of place and prece- dent. We are deeply responsive to content, material and to a building’s cultural, historical and physical environment. We value the past as an inspiration to invent the future. We are committed to a philosophy that seeks to reinterpret the familiar and to explore the unfamiliar. We maintain that excellence is time- less and that the fundamentals of form and space transcend the bonds of fashion and style. Perhaps the most important element in de- sign for the aging resident is the need for greater attention to the residents’ quality of life. This need has had an impact on every level of care including architecture. In our designs the resident has been placed at the centre of the care giving community. The level and intensity of care adjusts as the health of the resident changes. This adjustment can now take place in a single facility which accommodates life changes without the resident needing to leave their existing situation. The drive to break down the institutional model in aged care is already common within “low care” accommodation. It is based on the “house” model with groups of private rooms opening onto or closely related to a small common domestic living and dining room area with an open attached domestic kitchen. This model is beginning to permeate into the thinking of higher care operators and conveniently accommodates the percep- tion of “ageing-in-place” where all rooms are essentially the same. As one passes, subject to assessment, from one level of care to the next there is the possibility to remain within the same room. This retains a level of independence and individual identity for each resident’s space. An alternative solution, with the shortage and cost of appropriately sized urban sites and the growing desire by seniors to maintain existing links within a community is the re-use of obsolescent buildings for new seniors’ communities. This is rare in Australia, and not easily achieved, because of the specific planning requirements of aged care buildings. Our particular knowledge base in this field has developed generally from experience and anecdotal reports on features that have succeeded in other facilities. We generally Award for Excellence in Aged Care Architecture – Australia Campbell Luscombe Architects Pty Ltd Campbell Luscombe Architects was established by Leo Campbell and Desley Luscombe in 1977. Professor Luscombe is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Design Architecture & Building at the University of Technology, Sydney. The mix of the academic and the practitioner has enriched our architectural practice. T