2021 Rugby World Cup Dates Confirmed!

2021 Rugby World Cup Dates Confirmed!

SCENE SET FOR SUPER-CHARGED RUGBY WORLD CUP AS NEW DATES IN 2022 CONFIRMED

→ Matches will take place between 8 October–12 November, 2022 in Auckland and Whangārei

→ RWC 2021 tournament window increases from 35 to 43 days

→ Match schedule prioritises player welfare with five-day minimum rest days

→ Revamped format with all fixtures to be played on weekends with triple-header matches scheduled per day

→ New Rugby World Cup 2021 brandmark unveiled, including bespoke te reo Māori version for tournament promotion in New Zealand

Rugby World Cup 2021 will feature increased rest periods for all teams following World Rugby’s confirmation of the revised tournament dates which will now see New Zealand host the tournament between 8 October and 12 November, 2022.

With the ambition of super-charging the schedule for players, fans and the host nation, the tournament window will be extended from 35 to 43 days resulting in all teams having a minimum of five rest days between matches. This aligns with the approach recently approved for the men’s competition.

The extension of the tournament window, also allows for a revamped tournament format that will see all matches take place on Saturdays and Sundays, with no overlap, meaning fans will not miss a moment of the first women’s edition of a Rugby World Cup to be hosted in the Southern Hemisphere.

With the tournament starting later in the year players and fans will benefit from warmer weather and longer daylight hours. The pool phase will be played on the weekends of 8-9, 15-16 and 22-23 October, 2022 at Eden Park, Northlands Events Centre in Whangārei and Waitakere Stadium.

The quarter-finals will take place on 29-30 October followed by semi-finals on Saturday, 5 November. The bronze final and RWC 2021 final will be played on Saturday, 12 November, with Eden Park set to create history by becoming the first stadium to host both the men’s and women’s Rugby World Cup finals.

A detailed match schedule and broadcast timings will be announced at a later date.

In addition to the revised tournament dates, World Rugby has also unveiled new tournament brandmarks retaining reference to 2021, the year the tournament was originally intended to take place, while conveying to fans and audiences that the tournament will now be played in 2022. A bespoke te reo Māori version of the new brandmark has also been designed for tournament promotion in New Zealand. This reflects the importance of te reo as an official language of Aotearoa, New Zealand and to signify the desire to celebrate the unique Māori culture for all those connected with the tournament.

World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said: “We are fully committed to accelerating the women’s game at all levels and while the postponement was disappointing for everyone, it has provided the unique opportunity to review every aspect of the event to ensure it is the best it can be for the players, fans around the world and the wonderful and enthusiastic New Zealanders.

“Longer rest periods between matches for all teams is further commitment to delivering comprehensive player welfare standards at RWC 2021.

“I would like to thank all stakeholders for their support and open-minded approach to this process and we can now look forward to a truly spectacular Rugby World Cup 2021, playing in 2022.”

International Rugby Players appointee to the RWC board, Melodie Robinson, said: “While it’s disappointing that the 2021 tournament had to be postponed, the positive is that we’ve been able to ensure the 2022 event and subsequent Rugby World Cups will have a minimum 5 day turnaround for players.

“Just like the men’s tournament, this will hopefully help to level the playing field for all sides and see an increase in competitive matches.”

Rugby World Cup 2021 Tournament Director Michelle Hooper saidWe are delighted that together with World Rugby we have been able to further super-charge the women’s game here in New Zealand with the confirmation of the new dates in 2022 and the amendments to the tournament format. We are excited to be hosting Rugby World Cup here in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

“The momentum for women’s sport is continuously building and we look forward to demonstrating this to the world through the unstoppable energy that will be on display during Rugby World Cup in 2022. We can’t wait to welcome the world’s best women’s rugby players to our shores and share the Manaakitanga so intrinsically linked to our people and our place and rugby in Aotearoa, New Zealand with them and their fans.”

In a commitment to delivering an outstanding Rugby World Cup 2021, playing in 2022, earlier this year World Rugby announced a £2million funding package to support a Rugby World Cup 2021 high-performance preparation and competition programme for qualified teams and teams still competing in the qualification process.

The programme will focus on providing teams with additional monetary support with deliver additional team training camps and coordinating international competition to give them the greatest opportunity to be at their best in New Zealand next year. Further details will be announced at a later stage.

 

2021 Rugby World Cup Dates Confirmed!
2021 Rugby World Cup Schedule – playing in 2022

[EVENT] Third Place – Transforming Everyday Public Spaces

NGV Melbourne Design Week 2021 + 106 Architects

106 Architects + NGV Melbourne Design Week 2021

How will design transform and shape life in the future development of community facilities?

Designers are rapidly reimagining our built and social environment. From speculative structures to breakthrough approaches this theme explores new wave design-thinking in the context of our community and sporting infrastructure.

From the platform of Third Place thinking, our mix of creative professionals will share, build, then intersect their perspectives for how we might transform our community places and spaces.

Each presenting speaker will unpack their interpretation of the impact of design in shaping our social infrastructure of the future. Participants will be encouraged to transform their own community ideologies, as they imagine within the fields of our presenters’ perspectives.

Presenters:

Simon Madden
Sports and Business Leader

Tiffany Cherry
Sports Media Commentator & Active Board member with SEA – Sports Environment Alliance

Dion Gosling
Sports Architect & Director, 106 Architects

James Mant
Urban Planner & 20-minute Neighbourhood Lead, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning

Martin Sheppard
Strategic Thinker & Founder of the National Sports Convention

Nikki Langman
International Speaker & Emotional Intelligence Specialist

Join us as we discuss the future transformation of community spaces with Third Place thinking.

→ Date + Time – Wednesday, 31 March 2021, 11:00am – 1.30pm AEDT.
→ Location – Moonee Valley Racing Club, McPherson Street, Moonee Ponds.
FREE tickets via Eventbrite.

This event is part of Melbourne Design Week 2021, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV. It is also supported by Parks & Leisure Australia – VIC/TAS chapter.

NOTE: We realise with COVID restrictions and with the fragile nature of events that not everyone can attend and participate in person. For those who purchase FREE tickets, we will also make available a recording of the presentation. Complimentary car parking for those who do attend will be provided in the Centre Car Park at MVRC.

The 1st Step to Building – Understanding your Needs and Options

first-step-to-building

Summer. Wasn’t it glorious! A great time to think and relax. And be inspired.

As summer has drawn to a close so we thought it is a good time to share some insights to what we’ve learned from our sports projects, and how they could apply to your house and home project.

What’s the problem?

It is not uncommon for people to know they want to do a project – and have given it quite a bit of thought – but just don’t know how best to start…

Or worse, launched into an expensive design service without establishing the client-designer relationship, or worse still, not carefully established the groundwork for the project.

In recent months, we’ve seen the number of building permits and consents being processed by Council reach new highs. This has helped us get more feedback on what the market is doing, and what thinking people are doing at the moment.

The Scenario:

We’ve found an initial Needs and Options Review is the architect’s best ‘pencil’ for good early groundwork. It works as a diagnostic tool for your project – and can save a huge amount of heartache. It allows you to start with an exploration designed to precisely understand your requirements and potential roadblocks are, and gives you:

→ Needs-based findings and recommendations;

→ High-level design options;

→ A Plan to move forward;

→ A Timeline and rough order of cost for budgeting.

The Process

We’ve used this process on a much larger scale while doing our sports projects – which typically involve a large number of groups and a diverse range of people. We saw an issue in these projects, of people starting design and construction before they had fully done their research and homework. BEFORE they had critiqued their ideas and assessed their needs.

These projects can have several conflicting groups – all locking heads on which way to go. So what better way to bring them together and moving in the same direction, than each understanding what the other needs?  It’s on this basis that everyone sees a different perspective, and actually, the group gets a much better outcome.

Our view is this applies across the entire construction industry – it’s not limited to designing sports facilities. It also happens in residential projects … People are trying to run before they have mastered the walk or set the training programme (sports pun intended!).

The consequence of inadequate upfront research and discussion of needs and options is like… building a house on bad foundations.

The foundations are the most important part of the whole house because everything is built on top. It’s very expensive to change the foundations once you have started to build. But it’s very easy to change them if they are simply lines on a plan.  It’s amazing what comes from sketch lines and diagrams, rather than hard-and-fast computer models.

Ultimately, a little more time spent upfront on research and assessment will yield a better result – economically and design-wise – long-term. Be careful about entering the design phase too early.  There are snags if you’re not prepared, and you might just pull a hamstring on the final straight!

What makes a good brief?

A good brief is gold.

There are five important steps in building:

→ Needs and Options Review – which is the first step

Design phase

→ Construction Document phase

Building and Contract Management

→ Completion phase

If you want to learn more about our Needs and Options Review and how we can move you through the five important steps of building seamlessly, get in touch today with the 106 Architects residential experts!

106 Architects | Your Residential Build Road Map

Third Place – Sport & Community

What Is The Third Place At The Intersection Of Sport And Community?
In traditional sport, we have marked edges, lines, and boundaries.  These can be circular as well as straight or hard and can offer direction as well as containment.  In design, we take edges and boundaries to present pathways, ideas, and vision ideals for people. For us, it is the meeting of people and the gentle collisions that can occur that interest us most.  The blurring of these traditional edges allows an opportunity to weave a much wider community, whether that is for various sports groups or the non-sporting community who are touched by adjacent activities and sites.

Whether we are designing local community facilities or large-scale stadia, we see the integration of the Third Place concept as opportunities in our design work. From nationally driven infrastructure based on legacy and the ‘mega-event’, regional/state facilities driven by identity and public sharing on a commercial basis; to local community-based facilities and our personal and intimate homes, founded on domestic understanding.  The narrative is that if we can implement those qualities with which we mostly understand in our own homes, into our larger-scale facilities, we will have a better chance of creating a Third Place in our sports infrastructure

The Design Narrative – Who Cares About It Anyway?  Is It Important?
106 Architects cares because we see sport and community projects as unique projects.  In the sense that they are not just a civic hall, a commercial office space, retail, indoor/outdoor, a pub or café, or education space.  They are all those things, but not just slight manifestations of each.  There is not one typology that fits the description.  They – sport, community and leisure facilities designed for local communities – are in their own category of design, primarily due to the complex arrangement of the users, inhabitants, the function, purpose, and relationship to their sites and community.  As such, we should all care, and it is important.

Where Can We Go From Here?
Through our work, we have learned that there is another basis at play in our sports facilities that informs the Third Pace.  It is an extension of the in-between place whereby our facilities must serve and be regarded as ‘fit for purpose’.  That is, the ability to balance as a place between two distinct groups – the high-performance elite and grassroots community levels.  We are constantly challenged for the social and financial balance between these two modes as they look to co-exist in our sports facilities.  We are constantly challenged to consider the tension that is between these two groups of users.  This tension is created when addressing access rights, functionality on design, specification requirements, hours of operation, rental return, pay-for-use, and of course, the priority of during day-activities and event mode.  Each brief and facility are different.  However, the way in which we design for history, tradition, site, culture, and the partnering of high-performance and grassroots goes a long way to releasing much of this tension.

“How do we scale for it, and how do we design for it” are the two biggest questions that 106 Architects seeks to answer.

For us, to design successful sports and community facilities, we look for fit-for-purpose outcomes that can occur for both day-to-day and event mode operations. Why? Because this will ensure an embedment of the Third Place into the economic and social plan – leveraging social capital for financial viability. This is about transition and interchange.  The more interchange, the more we heave between modes, the more often we can achieve, and the more sustainable the facility will be.

Discover The 106 Architects Approach To Your Community Or Sporting Facility
We’d love the opportunity to introduce you to our Third Space thinking and show you how through collaboration, we can engage your passionate community to craft a unique facility that has its own successful unique identity and function.  A place that leaves its users free to explore the opportunity to make it a place of their own, shaped by their personal memories and most importantly, a place where users can enjoy the emotionally charged in-between places, not just the endpoint.

Join us at NGV Melbourne Design Week 2020 where 106 Architects and friends will discuss the future transformation of community spaces with Third Place thinking. Tickets are FREE via Eventbrite.

Date: 19 March 2020
Time: 3.30pm
Location: The Spotted Mallard, 314 Sydney Road, Brunswick VIC Australia

[EVENT] Third Place – The Influence of Design

106 Architects + NGV Melbourne Design Week 2020 presents

How is Third Place design impacting the future of our social infrastructure and community interaction?

In a challenge to re-define social culture, Third Place design is about injecting the familiarity and intimacy of human connection into built environments. This event will explore this new wave of design-thinking in the context of community-sporting infrastructure.

Introduction:
Simon Madden – Sports and Business Leader

Facilitator:
Michele Frey – Environmental Consultant

Panellists:
James Mant – Urban Planner
Emily Mabin – Landscape Architect
Dion Gosling – Sports Architect
Martin Sheppard – Strategic Thinker

Join us as we discuss the future transformation of sport and community spaces with Third Place thinking.

Date and Time → Thu, 19 March 2020, 3.30-5.00pm AED

Location → The Spotted Mallard, 314-316 Sydney Road, Brunswick VIC 3056

FREE tickets via EventBrite.

This event is part of Melbourne Design Week 2020, an initiative of the Victorian Government in collaboration with the NGV.

Third Place Series 1 – Life In-between

Meet ‘Third Place’ and what it means to 106 Architects, past and present
A personal reflection of ‘life in-between’ through the lens of our Founder and Principal Architect, Dion Gosling.

The early days
A good place to start is by telling you the true story of how this all came to be; through my eyes. After all,  this is about storytelling – but we’ll get to that soon.

I was quite young when I would run to primary school – I got sick of waiting for the bus.  I would spend time on my bike; with no helmet, of course!  Yes, those were the days.  I had complete freedom.  Freedom to explore; freedom to play, freedom while wandering between home and school; and exploring the in-between.  Expressing myself and finding out about the world around me.

I found the places I explored more exciting than being at either endpoint.  I was always on the move; looking for something to see and experience, looking for something to discover and challenge me.  This remains true today.

How youthfulness has influenced my today
Yes, while as a youngster I often got up to no good (mischief stories for another day!)  Since then I’ve come to realise that my inquisitive nature, to seek out those in-between places, has influenced my views on what a community is, and the opportunities that exist when we look for them.

Sport, or an active ‘something’ – as it was back then – gave me eyes to look at things, places, and people; and see how they interacted, how they intersected.  On reflection, it is these experiences that have shaped my professional career, as an architect that specialises in speciality sports, community, and leisure facilities.

The internal question that raised within me some years ago, centred around our social surround, what it is, and how can it be crafted or improved through our sports and community facilities.

The ideas of freedom, play, belonging, exploration, informal play, and yes, the making of stories – appeared to me to be a reasonable basis for defining our social surroundings and designs: As opposed to our usual social environment, which seemed harder, less attainable.

Out of a young life spent exploring, playing training and travelling the world, I have been shaped by memories and the places I made them in. My proposition, as an elite sportsperson, and now architect is that the success of sports and community facilities is ultimately dictated by how people use them to create their own story and make their own memories. Why? Because people are drawn to the emotional connection of what’s familiar; the in-between places they connect with and the impact these places have on their lives.

The definition of ‘Third Place’
The idea of Third Place is not mine.  It came from the writer of The Great Good Place (Third Places) – Ray Oldenburg – out of post-war, mid-century USA; developed off the platform that Americans were looking for something more to life.  Suburban sprawl and development needs created an unsatisfactory social environment where a lack of social centres reduced opportunities for informal gatherings and, as Oldenburg propositioned, relieve stress.  Oldenburg believed that community and social celebration was essential to our daily work-life balance.

Oldenburg characterises Third Places as both neutral and inclusive social centres. As accessible and accommodating places where conversing is the main activity. As low-key, low-profile, joyful places; with the feelings of comfort and support found in our homes.

These same qualities were the very characteristics – now defined – that I was experiencing during the rural days of Auckland’s 1970’s.

The refreshing re-introduction to Third Place
While the notion of Third Place, has always influenced my career, I was reminded of it when I was approached to prepare a presentation to the World Stadium and Arena Congress in Sydney in 2016.  I was asked to explore the role of our community facilities, as they related to stadia and arena design.  It was when I was researching the topic that I was reminded of the concept of Third Places – the idea of an ‘in-between’ place.

These days, I find narrow inner-city streets and laneways particularly intriguing third places; people always in transit, on the move and between destinations. Today, the integration of art and public architecture brings city streets to life, transforming middle-grounds into active conversation areas, public art installations and social attractions; the in-between, now the new destination, the interim, now a Third Place.

What Third Place means to 106 Architects today
So, what does Third Place mean to us at 106 Architects? Our masterplans and designs are all about the journey, the stories, the freedom of expression, and how the community identifies with the project.  It is the intersection of sport and the community and how it shapes truly unique facilities.

On that basis, the Third Place for us is about finding our place as architects to investigate the intersection of sport and community. And ultimately, how they are unique to every space, we are privileged to be asked to design.

It is about collaboration and sharing, flexibility and freedom to explore.  It is about facilitating community engagement and interaction through design; founded on functionality and intimacy.  Because with functionality and intimacy, comes stability and familiarity.

There is a basis for the design of these unique facilities and social places to have a method that has a clear philosophical, social basis, and rationale.  And from this, we believe, stories are created.  For with stories, comes belonging and the knowledge that binds us.

At the time of defining Third Place, Oldenburg likens that there was a sense and transition occurring whereby one’s ideal vision for the idea of ‘home’ had been substituted or transcended by chasing a vision for an ideal ‘city’. [1] In my mind, this is a scale and intimacy issue.  People know and understand their domestic homes and the pathways to find them.  As such, they feel comfortable and far more engaged in these spaces, when compared to larger-scale buildings or city developments.

So at 106 Architects, we like to explore what happens when we tip some of the characteristics and qualities of our home into the design and development of larger-scale projects; like our sports and community facilities.  For us, designing at the intersection of sport and community allows us to craft not only what we consider a unique building typology, but also the wider site and fields of play – the laneways and access points – providing us with a platform to explore what the Third Place looks and feels like, not only as a building but as a social hub.

#ThirdPlace – the series
Over the next few weeks, we will publish a series of articles that will further explore the influence that Third Place has on our designs. We’ll introduce you to our Third Place thinking and show you how through collaboration, we can engage your community to craft unique facilities that have their own successful identity and function.  A place that leaves its users free to explore the opportunity to make it a place of their own, shaped by their personal memories and most importantly, a place where users can enjoy their stories created by in-between places.

[1] The Great Good Place (Third Place) Chapter One – The Foundation. p7.