Sustainable buildings take out top honours at state property awards
Efficiency in energy and water use, as well as a sophisticated approach to adaptive reuse in commercial spaces prove to be winning combinations
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Heritage preservation and sustainability concerns have won out at the Property Council of Australia’s state awards.
Brookfield Place in the heart of Sydney’s CBD took out the NSW Development of the Year award. With direct access to Wynyard Station it offers more than 6,300sqm of lettable retail space and 27 floors, while providing expansive views across Wynyard Park. While it represents an attractive commercial opportunity, Brookfield Place has achieved a 6 Star Green Star Office Design & As Built v3 rating as well as WELL Health/Safety accredited in 2022. It is also targeting NABERS ratings for energy and water.
In further signs that sustainable building practices have gained ground, the state honours in Queensland went to the Midtown Centre, where two 1970s buildings have been reimagined to create a commercial precinct including office spaces, a retail laneway and wellness destination. As the hybrid working model becomes the norm, office spaces are outward looking towards green vistas.
The building also has a 6 Star Green Star Design & As Built v1.1 rating and 5 Star NABERS energy rating. It also works as a celebration of the past, with the older buildings on show, contrasting with the new work.
Other state winners include the BHP workplace in Adelaide, which took the top state honour in South Australia, and the cantilevered 405 Bourke Street in Victoria.
The state winners will now go through to the Property Council’s National Innovation & Excellence Awards with winners to be announced in Sydney later this year.
Property Council of Australia Chief Executive Mike Zorbas said the winners represent the pinnacle of property innovation, design and construction in Australia.
“Our winners have created incredible places for people to enjoy and to thrive in. I congratulate them for their extraordinary rolemodelling and their dedication to the communities they serve,” he said.
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Odd Culture Group brings a new kind of after-dark energy to the CBD, where daiquiris, disco and design collide beneath the city streets.
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Sydney’s nightlife has long flirted with reinvention, but its latest arrival suggests something more deliberate is taking shape beneath the surface.
Razz Room, the new underground bar and disco from Odd Culture Group, has opened in the CBD, marking the group’s first step into the city centre.
Tucked below street level on York Street, the venue blends cocktail culture with a shifting, late-night rhythm that moves from after-work drinks to full dancefloor immersion.
The space itself is designed to evolve over the course of an evening. An upper bar offers a more intimate setting, suited to early drinks and conversation, while a sunken dancefloor anchors the venue’s later hours, with a rotating program of DJs and live performances.
“Razz Room will really change shape throughout a single evening,” says Odd Culture Group CEO Rebecca Lines.
“Earlier, it’s geared towards post-work drinks with a happy hour, substantial food offering, and music at a level where you can still talk.”
As the night progresses, that tone shifts.
“As the evening progresses at Razz Room, you can expect the music to get a little louder and the focus will shift to live performance with recurring residencies and DJs that flow from disco to house, funk, and jazz,” Rebecca says.
The concept draws heavily on New York’s underground club scene before disco became mainstream, referencing venues such as The Mudd Club and Paradise Garage. But the intention is not nostalgia.
“The space told us what it wanted to be,” Lines explains. “Disco started as a counter culture… Razz Room is no nostalgia project, it’s a reimagining of the next era of the discotheque.”
Design, too, plays its part in shaping the experience. The upper level is warm and textural, with timber finishes and burnt-orange tones, while the sunken floor shifts into a more theatrical mood, combining Art Deco references with a raw, industrial edge.
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