Laura Harding is an Australian architectural practitioner and critic. Harding works across architecture and

urban design Urban design is an approach to the design of buildings and the spaces between them that focuses on specific design processes and outcomes based on geographical location. In addition to designing and shaping the physical features of towns, city, ...

, with a particular focus on the public realm. She is also an architectural critic and an active participant in the public culture of architecture. Harding regularly contributes to architectural education as a visiting critic at the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...

and the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

. From 2006 to 2012, she taught with

Glenn Murcutt Glenn Marcus Murcutt (born 25 July 1936) is an Australian architect and winner of the 1992 Alvar Aalto Medal, the 2002 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the 2009 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the 2021 Praemium Imperiale. Glenn ...

in the third year design program at the University of New South Wales.

Biography

Harding was born in Sydney in 1975. She studied architecture at the

, graduating with a Bachelor of Science (Architecture) in 1995 and a Bachelor of Architecture in 1998. She has worked at the Sydney-based practice Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects for eighteen years, having joined the practice in 1996 as a student.

Criticism

Harding began writing architectural criticism in 2004, first for ''

Architecture Australia ''Architecture Australia'' is a national magazine covering the practice and works of architects and architecture in Australia. It is published bi-monthly by Architecture Media, and is the journal of the Australian Institute of Architects. Histo ...

'', the journal of record of Australian architecture, and subsequently for a range of professional publications and mainstream media outlets. She was appointed a contributing editor to ''Architecture Australia'' in 2005, a position she continues to hold. Harding has had criticism published in

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

and is a regular contributor to

The Saturday Paper ''The Saturday Paper'' is an Australian weekly newspaper, launched on 1 March 2014 in hard copy, as an online newspaper and in mobile news format. The paper is circulated throughout Australian capital cities and major regional centres. Since i ...

. Harding was guest editor, alongside Philip Thalis, of a special issue of ''

'' on Urban Housing (''Architecture Australia'' (May 2014).

Architectural work

Harding's project work crosses architecture and urban design, with a particular focus on multi-residential and urban projects. Her work includes the award-winning project Substation No. 175, which converted a remnant substation building in Surry Hills into a 'tiny urban tower'. This intensified the use of the tiny site and aimed to show that "no lot need be too small to be used effectively". Harding was project urban designer on the winning entry in the international design competition for East Darling Harbour (

Barangaroo Barangaroo ( – ) was an Aboriginal Australian woman best known for her interactions with the British colony of New South Wales during the first years of the European colonisation of Australia. A member of the Cammeraygal clan, she was the wi ...

) by Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects, Paul Berkemeier Architects and Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture. This proposed a new urban street pattern, waterfront park and urban grain for the Millers Point wharves. The scheme did not go ahead.

Selected projects with Hill Thalis Architecture + Urban Projects

Crystal Housing – adaptive reuse located in the city's inner west, which accommodates seven diverse affordable housing units within the old shell and structure of a modest factory building. Lennox Bridge Portals – a project for making key urban connections that reveals the complex archaeology and layering formerly hidden within the State-Heritage-listed Lennox Bridge in Parramatta. Scheduled for completion 2015. Studios 54 – a commercial and residential building in Surry Hills that explores what one shop and four apartments can add to the life and vitality of the city. Completed 2014. This won the Aaron Bolot Award for Multiresidential Housing at the 2015 NSW Chapter

Australian Institute of Architects The Australian Institute of Architects, officially the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (abbreviated as RAIA), is Australia's professional body for architects. Its members use the post-nominals FRAIA (Fellow), ARAIA (Associate Member) an ...

Awards. Mountainside House – a holiday house on a beautiful South-Coast mountainside that subtly orients itself to a landscape elements through a series of multiple long and cross axes that can be opened and closed within the building. Completed 2013. Horizon House – a coastal holiday house Little Bay Master Plan – a 13 hectare residential subdivision on the former UNSW site adjacent the Prince Henry Hospital. The plan reconnects the site to the surrounding urban area, preserving important site features in a system of memorable parks and landscaped spaces. Scheduled for completion 2015 Green Square Library competition – a proposal for the Green Square Library, undertaken with Hill Thalis and McGregor Westlake architects.

Public activities

Laura was a juror for the Public Architecture and Urban Design categories of the NSW Chapter

Awards in 2011.

Awards

Adrian Ashton Award for Architectural Criticism, 2013, Australian Institute of Architects NSW Awards. Commendation, Australian Institute of Architects NSW Chapter Award for Multi-residential Architecture (2005) NSW Master Builders Award for Adaptive Reuse (2005)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Harding, Laura Australian women architects Australian architecture writers 1975 births Living people Architects from Sydney 20th-century Australian architects 21st-century Australian architects Architecture critics 20th-century Australian women 21st-century Australian women University of Sydney alumni Academic staff of the University of New South Wales