Cox Architecture

Development of Canberra’s Australian War Memorial

Customer Success

Canberra's Australian War Memorial
Canberra's Australian War Memorial [Image courtesy of Cox Architecture]

Innovation and cross-team design collaboration behind expansion of Canberra’s Australian War Memorial

Situated in the heart of the nation’s capital, in line of sight with Parliament House, the Australian War Memorial (AWM) stands as a shrine, a world-class museum, and an extensive archive. It commemorates the sacrifices of Australians who have lost their lives in war or on operational service, as well as those who have valiantly served the nation during times of conflict. In 2021, it was announced that the AWM’s galleries and buildings would be modernised. Designed by the award-winning team at COX Architecture, the new Anzac Hall and Glazed Link base building expansion of the AWM is set for completion in late 2025, the Anzac Hall exhibition fit out is due for completion in late 2026, and the entire project – comprising four separate projects – is set to be completed in 2027. Innovation with cutting-edge technology and cross-team design collaboration through the use of tools including Autodesk Construction Cloud and AEC Collection were behind the expansion project, enabling COX to achieve their goals of finding a solution that wasn’t overly complex, provided best value for money, and wouldn’t threaten the integrity of the heritage building.

A design-led architectural team

AWM
The atrium radiates around the main building framing a spectacular view of the full face of the heritage north elevation [Image Courtesy of Cox Architecture]

A design-led contemporary architecture firm with offices across every major Australian city and Auckland, COX is built around designers who collaborate with clients, stakeholders, and communities. Working on projects of international significance, the team brings experience and enthusiasm to every new project and client, showcasing a commitment to research and delivering successful design solutions on time and on budget.

COX is “By the Many, For the Many”, seeking to do more with less by tapping into resourceful Australian culture to build value through ingenuity. The pursuit of design excellence is ingrained in their approach, aligning with their values of empathy and diversity. COX integrates culture into its designs, dedicating time to listening and understanding cultural context and social impacts.

COX continuously seeks out the brightest minds to innovate design, process, and typology, inviting contributions from both traditional and disruptive sources to enhance their designs. COX’s history in Australian architecture began in 1963 with the transformative Tocal Agricultural College in New South Wales. A deep and sensitive understanding of context and place, blended with honest and expressive structure and craft, has informed their work ever since.

According to COX Director Pete Sullivan, “our history has established the key principles the firm continues to prioritise today. One of these is the planning of cities and design of buildings that are adaptable to change – cultural, social, technological, and economic. The other is the creation of sustainable spaces, including environmental strategies embedded within our designs.”

COX’s innovative technology and structural design solutions place emphasis and value on the design of core elements. For them, structures are seen as destinations to unite people, providing spaces for communities to share experiences that are distinctly tied to their time and place.

“At COX, we are in a unique position. Traditionally architecture practices can be enterprise-driven and hierarchical. Here, everyone is approachable, and we operate as one global studio. Everyone brings different angles and expertise through our culture of collaboration, enhanced across teams by technology such as BIM 360, Autodesk Construction Cloud and the AEC Collection. This collaboration positively impacts our projects,” said Mr Sullivan.

"Navigating multiple architectural firms, engineers, and teams across four projects within a tight timeframe required a tailored design technology strategy. Implementing the Autodesk platform, with the support of Autodesk team, we facilitated seamless collaboration across diverse teams."

Ashley Beckett, Senior Architect and National BIM Coordinator at COX

The Anzac Hall and Glazed Link expansion set to modernise the world-class Memorial

design and make
Anzac Hall and Glazed Link model – connection through Main building [Image courtesy of Cox Architecture]

Designed by COX, and set for completion in late 2024, the new AWM Anzac Hall base building will provide over 7,000 square metres of dedicated gallery space with the construction of a new two-level gallery building. It will display exhibitions and house artefacts from the AWM’s National Collection that currently cannot be put on display for the public. It is one of four AWM buildings being modernised with designs by various architecture firms.

The Glazed Link will make use of the area between the main building and new Anzac Hall. It will provide a space to pause, reflect and recharge, and will house non-light-sensitive large objects from AWM’s collection, a café/restaurant, and space to support the Memorial’s educational programs.

The decision to rebuild Anzac Hall was made following a comprehensive study and rigorous analysis of possible alternatives. The new designs will improve experiences for visitors with impaired mobility, improve spaces for education programs, and create new areas for private functions and public programs.

A complex architectural challenge

architecture, design
New Anzac Hall and Glazed Link [Image courtesy of Cox Architecture]

COX was honoured to design a new and modernised Anzac Hall and Glazed Link expansion that captures the imagination of the client, has a clear rationale and functionality, and respects the integrity of the heritage building.

They overcame several challenges in the process, including the selection of common data environments, working collaboratively across all studios - sharing, coordinating, and communicating designs across teams. Due to the scale of their projects, COX was an early adopter of Autodesk BIM 360 technology.

According to Mr Sullivan, “With international projects, our team was already working remotely and collaborating using BIM 360 across locations, so it was a seamless process to share and collaborate across our studios for this project. During COVID-19, our team was fortunate to already be operating remotely and able to access common data environments from any location, so we were able to continue work as usual even during the pandemic.”

Mr Sullivan said the project had a very complex atrium structure. “The roof across the main galleries themselves look simple but have gentle and variable curvature to mediate the existing Memorial building. This required a complex geometry software to design.”

Senior Architect and National BIM Coordinator at COX, Ashley Beckett, said, “We employed Autodesk Revit and Mcneel Rhino to resolve complexities. This included in the glazed connection between Anzac Hall and the existing heritage building, the creation of a curved wall, and maximising available space. Navigating the complexities of a vast, column-free space demanded sophisticated design and architecture, modelled through Autodesk Revit and McNeel Rhino, and shared using Autodesk Construction Cloud.”

“The journey through the project, Anzac Hall in particular, is purposely internalised to maintain focus on the exhibits. As you come out into the glazed link you connect with Country, crafting an opportunity for pause – a moment to absorb the information you’ve traversed, allowing for reflection and contemplation.,” said Mr Beckett.

A cutting-edge solution helping to enable the delivery of globally significant architectural projects

awm
Cross-team design collaboration enabled delivery of globally significant architectural projects [Image courtesy of Cox Architecture]

According to COX, Autodesk is a part of the standard suite of tools the firm uses every day for their operational processes, enabling them to address complex design projects and collaborate from a single source of truth. Autodesk enables easy access to common data environments, collaborative working across all their studios, and the ability to share, coordinate and communicate complex designs.

“We use McNeel’s Rhino and Grasshopper to generate the forms and workflows for a lot of our complex geometry, which streamlines into Autodesk Revit seamlessly using Beam by MKS Dtech,” said Michael Ferreyra, Project Lead, COX. “Autodesk allows us to bring in complex geometry from other platforms, sync it up and coordinate with all the other disciplines. It can still be updated relatively seamlessly with other software.”

“Autodesk Revit has allowed us to update and build forms and geometries as part of the design process to view where any clashes are and coordinate with other disciplines. It opens a world of complex geometries where we can build and push the limits with what we design. Revit is a great documentation tool,” said Mr Ferreyra.

Complex architectural projects require market-leading software

design cad collaboration
COX’s Design Technology capability elevates their design [Image courtesy of Cox Architecture]

The design solutions utilised by COX for the AWM project include Autodesk Construction Cloud for document management, design collaboration and model coordination; and AEC Collections including Revit and AutoCAD, Recap Pro, BIM Collaborate Pro and Navisworks.

Mr Beckett said, “We chose BIM360 and Autodesk Construction Cloud, because it was, and still is, the leading software of its kind in the market.”

Having already invested in and tested technology solutions on several projects, COX worked closely with their client at the AWM, to help choose the best systems and processes for the project team.

“Design Technology at COX supports our ‘total design’ mindset, advocating for the assembly of integrated design teams equipped with advanced technologies. This enables us to effectively address the human condition through architecture and design by using the most appropriate design tools, aligned with superior craftmanship and shaped by our ‘by the many, for the many’ ethos,” said Mr Beckett.

COX’s ethos acts as the glue to unify its four Design Technology ‘stacks’, which are building information modelling (BIM), computational design, creative media, and content. Each stack has a symbiotic relationship with each other and augments the firm’s overall ethos.

“BIM enables processes, procedures, collaboration and delivery; computational design facilitates the testing of complex ideas that push the boundaries of innovation; creative media expresses our art and passion for craftsmanship; and content ensures quality and compliance, and is integral to all stacks,” said Mr Beckett.

COX’s Design Technology capability elevates their design approach by enhancing both efficiency of processes, and effectiveness of outcomes. It adds value to the firm’s clients by providing better visibility, cost-effective optioneering with superior visualisation, in addition to better quality and resource control throughout the end-to-end process of complex design tasks.

“We were quick to recognise the potential benefits of BIM. As an early adopter of Autodesk BIM 360, our clients and projects have benefitted from improved team collaborations and workflow efficiency throughout design and construction, and for data to be leveraged during the lifecycle of a building project. Using our extensive experience in BIM tools, projects are better managed – allowing project teams to provide consistent coordination methodologies, cost, and resource savings, with greater efficiency and shorter delivery timelines,” said Mr Beckett.

Advanced processes for superior project outcomes

Ribs of the dome radial lines picked up through the atrium and new hall roof
Computational design enables designers to organise and translate large and complex digital datasets into coherent design solutions [Image courtesy of Cox Architecture]

COX integrates computational design thinking and processes within all stages of their projects. As project complexities increase, computational approaches support the team as they develop and deliver projects of exceptional quality, performance, and efficiency.

“We see computational thinking as an integral part of our practice, supporting and complementing the art of crafting buildings. It empowers us to seamlessly integrate tailored, client-centric, and stakeholder-focused solutions at the inception of design, extending through the construction phase. Our approach encompasses considerations of site, geometry, structure, environment, energy, and human behaviour, ensuring a holistic and responsive design process,” said Mr Beckett.

Computational design enables designers to organise and translate large and complex digital datasets into coherent design solutions. They extent beyond geometry and visual representation into the analysis of environmental and spatial effects, exploring alternative modes of design cognition, engaging in iterative processes, leveraging generative design techniques, and embracing advanced manufacturing and assembly methods.

“Navigating multiple architectural firms, engineers, and teams across four projects within a tight timeframe required a tailored design technology strategy. Implementing the Autodesk platform, with the support of Autodesk team, we facilitated seamless collaboration across diverse teams. This approach not only enhanced communication but allowed us to address and educate on concerns such as data sovereignty,” said Mr Beckett.

Mr Beckett said information was issued weekly via Autodesk’s cloud solutions, so the teams didn’t have to spend hours uploading or downloading gigabytes of data.

“It’s a much more efficient method when you can ‘consume’ or grab a set of information, put it in a package with ease, and communicate regularly with the teams,” said Mr Beckett. “When dealing with large quantities of data, you need to be able to view and work through it quickly to isolate and address any issues that arise,” said Mr Beckett.

“We utilised BIM 360 (later renamed to Autodesk Construction Cloud) to deliver the project and ensure all stakeholders had visibility and could track and coordinate changes. It ensured our modelling was transparent and available to everyone on the project team,” said Mr Beckett.

COX used the 3D cloud environment in Autodesk Construction Cloud to proactively identify clashes, troubleshoot potential issues, and conduct comprehensive checks. This approach significantly mitigated risks, saved time, maximised project efficiencies, and seamlessly connected workflows, teams, and data at every stage of this pivotal project.

"Everyone brings different angles and expertise through our culture of collaboration, enhanced across teams by technology such as BIM 360, Autodesk Construction Cloud and the AEC Collection. This collaboration positively impacts our projects"

Pete Sullivan, Director at COX