SPRESSER

Winning competition scheme for a new permanent public pavilion on Sydney Harbour in Australia.

Made of recycled Sydney oyster shells, the Pavilion references human gathering by the sea. It acts as a meeting place, a site for events, and a memorable part of the city.

The Pavilion celebrates elements that compose the site: land, sea and sky. Land is expressed through a democratic gathering space under a landscape canopy; its curved envelope analogous to neighbouring coves. Sea is experienced via materiality; Sydney Rock Oyster shells are mixed with white concrete, which is then honed to reveal the shell. Sky is understood through a large oculus puncturing the canopy, its perfect circle free of earthly geometries.

The Pavilion is intended to remain for a long time, and become indivisible from the place. It will figure in people’s memories as they grow: from child to teenager, to adult and elderly person. The design’s distinctive shape, qualities of light, compelling spaces, and oyster texture will all live on in the mind over time. The Pavilion seeks to attach itself to memorable occasions in people’s lives.

Credits/images: © SPRESSER, Peter Besley

Winning competition scheme for a National Memorial for Victims and Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.

The Memorial was one of the recommendations of a Royal Commission. It is located next to the National Museum of Australia on Lake Burley Griffin, at the centre of Canberra. It is a permanent structure, to remain in perpetuity.

The scheme consists of a series of catenary arches made of glass blocks with a meandering path encircling a meadow of perennial grasses and wildflowers. Rather than an object-monument, the Memorial is designed as a landscape to move through as well as a composition to behold from afar.

Thematically, the design seeks to hold in balance an acknowledgement of strength and vitality on the one hand, and recognition of trauma and loss on the other. The individual pieces of cast glass carry immense loads yet together create forms of exceptional grace and lightness, representing both fragility and great resilience.

Model and Photography: Make Models
Credits/images: © SPRESSER, Peter Besley

A competition entry for a non-pavilion.

Here is arranged a series of irregular reflection pools amongst a dense stand of thin vertical rods. The pools and rods are reflective: in them the viewer sees sky, trees, and occasionally themselves. Visitors may wander among the reflection pools, and occupy small tables and chairs located in scattered clearings.

Field is a work about continuity of landscape and space, and the provisional human occupation of it. Form is dissolved: landscape flows in and through. The statuses of “pavilion” and “architecture” are deconstructed: there is no object, no thing to possess, only a series of provisional environments in which to occupy temporarily.

The pools mirror the sky, tree canopies and the rods that protrude from them, as though they descend deep into the earth. These reflections draw attention to landscape: above, around and below. The Pavilion is a reminder of spatial continuity and our connectedness to the natural environment.

Credits/images: © SPRESSER, Peter Besley

This speculative project formed part of the COVID-Retrospective Exhibition, organised by the Architecture Et cetera Lab. The exhibition was held at Brickworks, Brisbane in 2022, with Houses Magazine as Media Partner.

A Post-Pandemic Dwelling in the Multi-Nodal City.

“The nomos (Greek law - the walled city) limits actions and prevents them from dissipating into an unforeseeable, constantly expanding system of relationships, and by doing so gives actions their enduring forms.” Hannah Arendt, The Promise of Politics (1993).

A once single-family dwelling of 445m2 is transformed into three independent spaces, each with a separate point of entry. This retrofit caters to varying demographics, promoting diversity in what is currently a dormitory suburb in Brisbane.

Pandemics encourage the decentralisation of inner-city occupants, resulting in the formation of smaller enclaves which do not rely on a city centre to operate. Former dormitory suburbs are transformed into mixed-use urban places in which commuter fluctuation is greatly reduced.

Collective Praxis is a prototype for an unconventional yet productive multi-dwelling household, from which occupants can live and work in a post-pandemic environment.

Exhibition Photography by Nikolas Strugar @ravensatodds

Credits/images: © SPRESSER

Original design:
Appia House (2019): © Peter Besley and Jessica Spresser

A studio for four ceramicists with a gallery space at ground level. The studio is connected to a large, wood-fired kiln via a steel gantry.

The diagram is a series of concentric, rotated squares, which accommodate utilities and circulation in interstitial zones. The inner square is positioned such that primary views are captured through a number of protrusions. Building materials reflect this place of tactile production; insitu concrete and handmade tiles form the primary walls. The studio is then cloaked in a fine steel mesh.

The project demonstrates the way in which productive typologies can invigorate and permeate dormitory suburbs. It is the result of an introduction of easements to suburban lots on the fringe of the CBD. Laneways are introduced into the centre of blocks, allowing for subdivision and rear lot access for small businesses. The result is a network of active, pedestrianised laneways, mindful densification and a decrease in commuter congestion.

Credits/images: © SPRESSER

This freestanding house holds a commanding position over the city’s river, and features white concrete elevations, struck through with deep horizontal masonry projections. It is composed in the vein of a palazzo in which the heavy fabric is punctured by a series of deep openings made saw-toothed by the projections. Secondary elements include structural terracotta columns set into the window reveals and high-level planters. The overall effect is idiosyncratic yet restrained.

Located in a flood plain, habitable spaces are elevated while ground surfaces are allowed to flow freely through internal/external thresholds. The scheme contrasts with the vernacular architecture’s convention of light-weight construction and deep eaves, calling for a more robust approach.

Credits/images: © SPRESSER, Peter Besley

A project for a chapel on a mountaintop plateau in northern Rwanda.

The site is littered with conifers and consists of an existing cloister housing local ‘Clare’ nuns. The response was to design a pilgrimage chapel that was representative of Christ in nature, with formal references to Asplund’s Woodland Chapel. As an addition to the brief, a ‘Calling Tower’ was proposed, crowned with an illuminated cross. The tower works both as a radio mast from which church messages and readings are broadcast to far away villages, and as a visual sign guiding the approaching pilgrim to their destination.

Credits/images: © SPRESSER, Peter Besley

Referencing Archizoom’s No-Stop City, ‘No-Stop House’ is a dystopian projection of future living conditions. The setting is Sir John Soane’s Museum as a deliberate provocation. It touches on the paradox between technological connectivity and feelings of extreme isolation; the occupant has no requirement or desire to leave.

Graphite on paper.

Credits/images: © SPRESSER