DCM is a studio-based practice that has grown internationally, Denton Corker Marshall’s body of work constantly explores the fusing of art, architecture and tectonics into a distinctive architectural language.

Denton Corker Marshall’s work is characterised by an uncompromising attitude to design quality. The ability to solve complex design problems is the hallmark of practice. From the world’s tallest building down to the scale of a coffee cup, the studio’s design approach consistently produces highly original solutions. As architects, the firm operates from a core of planning. Whenever designing projects the objective is to design beyond site and programme to embrace wider environmental and social concerns.

Denton Corker Marshall has won numerous commissions to design buildings of international significance, such as the Stonehenge Visitor Centre and Interpretive Museum and the Manchester Civil Justice Centre in the UK, the Australian Embassies in Beijing and Tokyo and The Melbourne Museum.

Denton Corker Marshall’s commitment to pursuing excellence in design has been recognised throughout the architectural and design professions. The office has received numerous awards from Institutes of Architects in Australia, Asia and Europe. In 1996 John Denton, Bill Corker and Barrie Marshall were jointly awarded the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ most prestigious and highest honour, the Gold Medal. The practice has been successful in a substantial number of design competitions. Its consistent success can be attributed to its commitment to design orientated outcomes via the design studio model.

The practice began in Melbourne in 1972 and is run by founding directors John Denton, Bill Corker and Barrie Marshall, together with Stephen Quinlan in London, Budiman Hendropurnomo in Jakarta and Adrian FitzGerald in Melbourne. It also has offices in Sydney and Brisbane. With 120 architects and design staff, the firm utilises advanced communications and is committed to a global presence with completed projects in 20 countries.

Melbourne Museum - Melbourne, Australia

Located on an extremely sensitive site, adjacent to the World Heritage Listed 1880s Royal Exhibition Building, the response demanded a building that would not overpower its older neighbour, but one that still had a presence in its own right. The brief called for “a campus of elements”, rather than a singular monumental object. All the elements are grouped around the north/south extension of the park and the Royal Exhibition Building. The Forest Gallery, a large lightweight enclosure housing trees, birds, insects and fish, waterfalls and other elements of a Victorian temperate forest, forms the centrepoint of this axis.
The distinctive blade roof at the rear of the museum is an architectural response to the dome on the Royal Exhibition Building – a complementary iconic skyline element. The canopy that slopes down towards the centre , another eye-catching element, serves to draw visitors from both streets on either side of the site.

02

With some Site context

Melbourne Exhibition Centre - Melbourne, Australia

Located on the banks of the Yarra River and on the edge of Melbourne’s Central Business District, the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, at 30,000 sq m, is the largest of its kind in Australia.
The 380m long rectangular building with its graceful winged roof adopts the appearance of an elegant shed.
The entrance, from Clarendon Street, is marked by a dramatic steel blade-like canopy propped up by two huge yellow steel sticks. Entry foyers, meeting rooms, theatrette, administration kitchen and plant areas are all located within this entry structure.
A verandah of angled steel columns and an angled wall of glass provide river views from within. Inside the building, a concourse runs for almost half a kilometre along the length of the exhibition hall, Within the hall, a flexible system of operable walls allows the number of halls to vary in size from 3,000 to 30,000 sq m. Ancilliary facilities including entrances, catering, toilets and hospitality aresa, service the variable hall configurations.
Positioned at a slight angle to the river, space has been created for a riverside park partly occupied by exhibits from Melbourne’s Maritime Museum. Goods delivery and servicing occur along the other side of the building. Basement carparking for 1,100 cars is augmented by a further 1,000 car spaces, landscaped as an integral part of the riverside park.

02 - Take a look at the tram! a real life tram!

Stonehenge Visitor Centre - Wiltshire, UK

A single level building, the visitor centre for English Heritage is conceived as an abstract form embedded in, and at one, with the landscape. Through exhibits and multi-media, it will provide interpretation of Stonehenge and the wider World Heritage Site.
A series of planes slides into the landscape to form the building proper. These curved, apparently random forms, read as powerful seams or layers extruded out of the earth. They carry with them the vaguest sense of geographical strata. They are metal clad; huge billets of pewter-toned burnished metal, establishing an image of solidity, strength and timelessness without recourse to stone, masonry or concrete, or direct association with Stonehenge. These abstract, planar, unadorned forms carry no connotation of the construction, scale, proportion or permeability of Stonehenge. They are of another language; yet one sympathetic and respectful of the integrity of the monument. There is no sense of the usual building imagery; no apparent windows or embellishment. Building volume is unable to be read; size is unable to be determined. The wall becomes a pure landscape form, certainly powerful and impressive in its unambiguous clarity, but carrying none of the pretension of architectural form-making.

This is a sketch from the competition, done by the firms main artist Barry Marshall. Very evocative... mmmmm :rock on:

Cape Schanck Residence - Ooh La la

Marshall House

Sheep Farm House

Spencer Street Railway

Melbourne City Link

Brisbine Square

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Bolt Bridge

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Home Page (http://www.dentoncorkermarshall.com/)

I recommend visiting their website. It is loaded with images of their projects including renderings of competitions, unbuilt works, and future projects.

Manchester Civil Justice Centre, more images HERE (http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3088232&c=0)

Manchester Civil Justice Centre, more images HERE (http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=284&storycode=3088232&c=0)

Wow, thats a beautiful building. Go the Aussies!:rock on:

Wow, thats a beautiful building. Go the Aussies!:rock on:

You mean you like big cantilevers?:poke fun:

There's a lot of good architecture firms in ppb that I've never heard about before. This is one of them, great stuff.

"Australia’s top award for international architecture has tonight (Thursday 25 October) been awarded to Melbourne-based architects Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) for the largest law court complex to be built in the United Kingdom in 115 years - the towering Manchester Civil Justice Centre in north-west England."

:craqueur:


Attached is a rendering, ITS GOOD TO SEE THE BUILDING TURNED OUT BETTER THAN THE RENDERING!

A construction photo.

cantilevers are great!

yeah, who doesnt like a good cantilever every now and then?

i think cantilever is a good way to express the ability of construction provided the construction is shown in the final render (just like how mies van der rohe's farnsworth house) however if the construction is hidden, it would become something like fantasy and anti gravity.