Students have designs on Le Cornu site

One of the student concept designs for the old Le Cornu site.
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Wednesday, 7 November 2007

One of the most controversial development sites in Adelaide is the focus of a major architecture exhibition being launched by the University of Adelaide from November 15-18.

Many of the University's final-year architecture students will showcase their ideas to redevelop the old Le Cornu site in O'Connell Street, considered a blot on the North Adelaide landscape for the past 20 years.

The 2007 Final Year Architecture Project, to be exhibited in the Drill Hall on the Torrens Parade Ground next week, will feature an array of design projects for the Le Cornu site, including proposals for offices, car parks, apartments, retail shops, libraries, a concert hall and community centre.

Many of the students have chosen the Le Cornu project because it is directly relevant to Adelaide and its residents.

Lecturer and co-ordinator of the project, renowned Australian architect Professor Ian McDougall, says the redevelopment of the Le Cornu site offers students the opportunity to explore new city types and also the possibilities for public space.

"The project offers the opportunity to propose a new life for this main street in North Adelaide. Sites of such significance and scale can accommodate the span of urban functions, retail, residential and public. It is valuable for the next generation of Adelaide architects to stretch the boundaries of design, imagining alternatives to what are often uninspiring city developments," Professor McDougall says.

Professor McDougall is a director of Ashton Raggatt McDougall, one of Melbourne's leading architectural firms specialising in cultural-sensitive design resolutions. He is also the newly-appointed Professor in Architecture and Urban Design at the University of Adelaide.

Other students have selected different sites with a range of scales and uses, including schemes for new train stations, several schools, and development along the Torrens and Festival Theatre.

The free exhibition, organised entirely by the students, gives local residents an ideal opportunity to consider new ideas for Adelaide and to also get a better understanding of the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design.

Students will be available at the exhibition during opening hours from 10am-4pm to answer questions and show their work.

To listen to the podcast of an ABC 891 interview with Professor Ian McDougall regarding this project, please go to www.adelaide.edu.au/podcasts/interviews/

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