NewActon Nishi

Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design

Commercial, Hospitality, Mixed-Use, Residential

Canberra

Photographer: John Gollings

The fourth and final major stage of the NewActon precinct is Nishi. A highly distinctive landmark on the Lake, Fender Katsalidis worked with Japanese architects Suppose Design Office to create an iconic and eclectic mixed-use building for Canberra.

Location

Canberra, Australia

Client

Molonglo Group

Cost

$100 million

GFA

75,800sqm

Completion

2013

Traditional Custodians

Ngunnawal and Ngambri people

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Awards:

Australian Institute of Architects ACT Awards, Sydney Ancher Award for Residential Architecture , 2017
Australian Institute of Architects ACT Awards, Commercial Architecture Award, 2017
Australian Institute of Architects National Awards, Commercial Architecture Commendation, 2017
World Architecture Festival, High Commendation - Mixed Use, 2016

Australian Institute of Architects ACT Awards, Sustainable Architecture Award, 2015

Building Awards (United Kingdom), International Project of the Year, 2015

See all

Photographer: Lee Grant

Photographer: John Gollings

The development contains 220 exquisitely designed apartments, an eight-screen cinema and an award-winning boutique hotel and restaurant.

The office component is cohesively integrated into the project, and houses the Department of Industry and Science and legal firm Clayton Utz.

Every aspect of Nishi’s originally Japanese-inspired design has been reconsidered so that tenants can benefit from its innovative solar heat retention principles. Nishi delivers an extraordinary 6 Star Green Star ‘as-built’ rating, in addition to an 8 star NaTHERs rating which was achieved by creating a building that responds to the surrounding environment.

Photographer: John Gollings

With its stunning design and cultural offerings, Nishi is the centrepiece of Canberra’s NewActon precinct.

Lobby interior design by March Studio. Photographer: John Gollings

Photographer: John Gollings

A sustainable Australian timber louvered façade provides shading to limit solar gains, and the largest field of photovoltaics in Australia is housed on the roof.

The building’s designs also include a sewage recycling plant, low energy fixtures and fittings, and lighting which responds to available daylight.

Molonglo Group, the developers of the precinct, very much wanted the building to be the best possible embodiment of the values they hold dear. Those values include the imperative of environmental sustainability, the desire to create a pocket of urbanity, tolerance, inclusiveness and richness in Canberra, and their love of the immersion of daily life in a milieu of culture and stimulation.