Big Names Vie for Melbourne Southbank Development

The shortlisted teams:

• BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group with Fender Katsalidis Architects
• Coop Himmelb(l)au with Architectus
• MAD Architects with Elenberg Fraser
• MVRDV with Woods Bagot
• OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture with Conrad Gargett
• UNStudio with Cox Architecture

Chances are good that the winner will be realizing their first project in Australia. Only one lead architect among the six teams has completed a building in the country: OMA, which built the temporary MPavilion last year and is also, as ArchitectureAU points out, realizing a new building for the Western Australian Museum, set for a 2020 completion.

ArchitectureAU also tells us (our emphasis): "The shortlisted practices will present to a yet-to-be-named seven-member jury on 17 May. The jury will select a winner in July. The developer has appointed Ross Clark, former chief operating officer of the Australian Institute of Architects, as competition advisor."