Articles by Valentina Villa

The Gateway Building sits prominently along Melbourne University’s historic circulation artery, the Tin Alley precinct. The new building forms a dramatic visual connection to the University from the centre of the Trinity College campus. The brief given to McIldowie Partners, was for the Gateway Building to serve as a new interface between Trinity College and the University. Affiliated with Melbourne University since 1872, Trinity College is home to the prestigious and successful Foundation Studies program – an academic ‘gateway’ that prepares up to 1,800 international students for entry into the University’s undergraduate courses each year. According to Director of McIldowie Partners, Steven McIldowie, the Gateway Building seamlessly reflects Melbourne’s history in brick and bluestone masonry whilst being contemporary and innovative in its own right. “Where traditionally, education buildings look inwards, we aimed to showcase Trinity College to the pedestrian flow linking the College and the University,” says McIldowie.

This detached house is situated on a hillside dotted with houses with sea views. It is a building of the 70’s with a strong character. The distribution, which was highly subdivided, was not suitable to the needs of the customers. Besides living in the house they wanted to work in it, and also to have an area with certain independence and privacy for their teenage children. The project basically was focused on the interior refurbishment that intended to adapt the existing space to the new functional program.

Fitzroy Loft is located inside the 125 years old MacRobertson Chocolate Factory in Fitzroy, adapted for mostly residential use in the early 90s. With original concrete floor and sawtooth roof structure, the space that our project occupies is a strata title on the first floor, with its own entry door at street level.

With over 10 million inhabitants, Bangkok continues to grow into its urban form. Architectkidd’s approach for The Street Ratchada project attempts to introduce public and urban characteristics into a newly developing neighborhood outside of the central metropolitan area.  Comprising of cafes, restaurants and other retail and commercial functions, The Street Ratchada creates new exterior and semi-interior urban spaces to engage with the surrounding people and community.

Five years ago our studio has won the Warming Huts competition in Winnipeg, Canada. The main task was to design shelter for skaters on the worlds longest skating rink.

Peter Pichler Architecture, in collaboration with Arch. Pavol Mikolajcak, won a competition to design a new mountain hut at 2.000m in the Italian Dolomites in 2015.

NiGiRi sushi design: SEKI by JUNSEKINO A+D town in town Bangkok Nigiri is the sushi restaurant which was originally a food truck. To build this restaurant, it takes 45 days of designing and constructing. It is 60 – square meter restaurant which is located next to the main road in Bangkok. Our intention is to preserve the original steel structure as much as possible. Besides, we decide to utilize the lightest materials as well as dry installation method for the convenience of the construction process.