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Emergency Shelter - call for student proposals
added on Jul 14
Australian Modern Magazine - submissions
added on Jun 29
Canadian Competitions Catalogue
added on Dec 13
Hastings Civic Square Redevelopment Competition
added on Dec 04
Flinders St Station design competition
added on Nov 16
added on Nov 11
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EAA Jan 2012 Field Trip - Solomon Islands
added on Nov 11
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Pin-up Summer Residency Opportunity
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+ Victorian Government Architect and the Windsor Hotel sham by info on 21.01.12
+ Victorian Government Architect and the Windsor Hotel sham by peter on 13.01.12
+ Building for Terror by peter on 19.12.11
+ Portrait Buildings by info on 18.12.11
+ Portrait Buildings by greenhaus on 17.12.11
recent comments
+ crazy over skyscrapers in Panel drop
+ rohan in Panel drop
+ urban planners in Urban Troppo in Weddell
+ planning permits in Paul resigns
+ Mike Rose in Vernon Brown house to fall
+ planning appeals in New town, old ideas?
+ Blake in Clover Moore and the Cancer Centre
+ peter in Main Street malls
+ info in Venice pavilion shortlist yawner
+ shorn in Venice pavilion shortlist yawner
et cetera
The National Mutual tower in Collins Street (Godfrey & Spowers, Hughes, Mewton and Lobb) lost a marble facade tile today, clearing the plaza 10 storeys below. The Age has more, mistakenly referring to a fallen ‘concrete slab’, a scary thought.
30.01.12 in buildings
tags: façades
show comments
Yes marble a little friendlier than conc. but same effect. Funny how no-one recognises marble unless its a counter top. Not popular for building facades for a long time (except perhaps for despotic regimes). This has revealed to me (by rumours and net sleuthing) that the owners have a permit to fill in the plaza with a ten storey block, lower on the edges, thus eliminating the open space ! Lots of cafes / shops at ground level though. Buchans. Shocked that powers that be think losing the open space is ok, though admittedly its never been very user friendly – but it could easily be done over without an actual new office block.
by rohan on 1 February 12 ·#
What an amazing facade.
by crazy over skyscrapers on 3 February 12 ·#
books: Density Is Home - Housing By A+t Research Group
A+t Research Group (Editors)
A+t (2011), 400 pages, paperback.
A+T’s summary of a review of the book on RRR (Melbourne):
The book is “a great crossover between analysis and glossiness”.
“This is seriously good academic work, as well as being this really useful resource work”.
“The difference with the other (books of the Density series) is that Density is Home really looks what constitutes a good kind of house-home rather than just a crack apartment. Density is conditioned on residential being good”.
“A good mix of photographs, text and drawings, with nice little diagrams. Good layout, the drawings are great”.
“Some of the projects we think they’re great like IJburg in Amsterdam, which is a recent project, they criticise it quite heavily”.
“Some really detailed case studies”.
13.12.11 in books
call-for-papers: Homelessness Research Conference call for papers
Abstract submissions close on Friday 16 December 2011
“The Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) and RMIT University are pleased to co-host the inaugural Homelessness Research Conference in Melbourne on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 April 2012.
This is an important event for the National Homelessness Research Network, and will provide the opportunity to hear from many of Australia’s leading researchers. The conference will showcase current research, research methods and approaches that are being used, and also provide delegates with the opportunity to consider what further homelessness research is needed.
The conference will be an ideal setting for homelessness professionals and interested parties to further their understanding, exchange ideas and develop professional networks, and we invite you to contribute to this important event.
The Homelessness Research Conference 2012 is now inviting abstracts based on, but not limited to, the following themes:
- Cost-benefit evaluations of homelessness
- Longitudinal analysis of homelessness
- The use of administrative datasets to monitor changes in homelessness and * program interventions
- Concepts of homelessness
- Qualitative approaches to homelessness research
Review criteria for papers includes originality of ideas, significance of results, application of existing ideas in ways that provide new insights and progress, usefulness to audience, clarity and timeliness.
Abstracts should relate to research that is complete or where provisional findings can be presented.
The final decision regarding successful submissions will be made by the conference co-hosts following recommendations received from a review panel.”
See more at the website.
[via 5th Estate]
13.12.11 in call-for-papers
competitions: Canadian Competitions Catalogue
“The Canadian Competitions Catalogue (CCC) search engine is an initiative of the Laboratoire d’étude de l’architecture potentielle, in order to render public an essential portion of its documentary database.”
“The Canadian Competitions Catalogue is devoted to archiving, analysis and the history of contemporary architecture. It relies on the collaboration of architects. Please note that the chronological directory is under permanent construction and that the documents within the database are not all accessible to the public.”
13.12.11 in competitions
other-blogs: Canberra Lab
A bi-monthly online periodical with a focus on… you guessed it, Canberra.
“canberralab is … the actualisation of a latent desire of a group of young architects to establish a discourse within Canberra’s design community.”
Ronan Moss told the Canberra Times that… “one thing that needs to happen is we need to have more of an open discussion, outside of the usual conversations about Walter Burley Griffin and his plan, and the constraints of that plan.”
10.12.11 in other-blogs
furniture: Earl Pinto
“EARLPINTO is a Melbourne based design firm creating distinctive furniture, lighting and homewares pieces that combine new technologies with traditional craftsmanship.”
10.12.11 in furniture
architects: Sam Crawford Architects
video-clips: Talking Homes - Karen Burns
Dr Karen Burns discusses the home, the house, and housing. Touching on TV’s The Block, Ikea, homelessness, and the work of Simon Anderson in Perth, the video of this brief Melbourne Architecture Annual session in 2011 is worth watching. 11 minutes.
07.12.11 in video-clips
tags: homelessness, house, housing, karen burns, simon anderson
other-blogs: The Melbourne Urbanist
Dr Alan Davies: “The Melbourne Urbanist is a site for discussion about key issues in planning and development, particularly in my city, Melbourne, Australia.”
07.12.11 in other-blogs
tags: alan davies, housing, public transport, traffic
competitions: Hastings Civic Square Redevelopment Competition
This is a design competition to put forward how Civic Square can become an arts, culture and heritage hub of the future Hastings city.
The competition closes 27 January 2012 (NZ Time)
We are interested in exploring the idea of architecture as a vessel for cultural connectedness and evolution, an enabler and catalyst for social, cultural and economic growth.
We are calling for blue sky thinking that can lead the district forward, so that we may achieve our desire to create a cultural heart for our city which showcases our arts, culture and especially our mana whenua heritage in a way that symbolises a positive future, promotes civic pride and embraces cultural connection and integrity.
One of the key challenges in this project is for proposals to be both visionary and practical. We are promoting
the idea of visionary pragmatism.
To allow the wider community to appreciate the concept fully, design ideas are required. The outcomes of this design competition will be used as a primary vehicle for consultation and ultimately presenting to Council for consideration as part of the Draft 2012/22 Long Term Plan.
Only if Council adopts the Civic Square Project as part of the Final 2012/22 Long Term Plan, will the this project be progressed.
04.12.11 in competitions
On Tuesday night an ABC article popped up announcing that Troppo and another unnamed firm have completed their new town design in the Northern Territory. To house 50,000, Weddell is to be built about 40 kilometres from Darwin.
The population of Greater Darwin and Palmerston is currently 133,000, and this is expected to increase to 171,000 by 2030. They intend for most of this growth to happen in Palmerston (built in the 1980s) and in the new city of Weddell. Due to the expansion of Southern satellite cities and suburbs, they calculate that the population centre of Greater Darwin will in fact be 12km out of Darwin by 2030. Weddell will be as close to this point as Darwin.
A Troppo-designed house for Weddell
Weddell is being branded heavily by the Territory government as a Sustainable City. They have a document [ PDF ] explaining what they hope to achieve. Emphasis being on ‘hope’ as all the sustainability initiatives have question marks next to them. Given the sprawling nature of the new Greater Darwin, and the lack of commuter rail, you’d have to raise your eyebrows at the hope of having 20% of the population getting around on bicycles and public transport by 2030. Maybe they’ll all become triathletes. The long distance railway station is a 20km drive from the CBD – but at least it runs through Weddell.
In this document, they cite, “reducing car dependency by creating a compact city” as being the first in the list of trait that define a sustainable city. They have taken the liberty of applying this condition to Weddell itself, rather than to Greater Darwin.
“In Weddell, the following practices will be important to drive transport decisions: creating a self-contained, compact city that avoids the need for commuting to work and provides local services and facilities…”
Their hopes are that (with a question marks next to them): “80% of trips by Weddell residents are within Weddell by 2030… [and] a minimum of one person per household is employed locally in Weddell”. To get this rolling they are thinking of establishing a “hub of excellence for sustainability training”, local business clusters based on the horticultural industry, and a virtual office hub. And yet there are only eight small blocks labelled commercial along the “Village Square”.
It will be interesting to see the plans develop, if the government is serious about all its aspirations, and if Troppo really do get to design all the buildings. If it comes to pass that these aspirations vaporise once the town is built, and the project home builders have their way, then Weddell will be yet another dormitory suburb in eco city clothing.
Darwin’s Mayor Graeme Sawyer is pessimistic about the plans, saying in 2010 that, “Weddell is an absolute nightmare and shouldn’t happen… If you look at all of those criteria around public transport, around energy efficiency, around travel time, around all of those sorts of things, probably if you set up a matrix and ticked off those things against Weddell you probably wouldn’t build it.”
Just for interests sake, here are same-scaled Google maps of Greater Darwin (133,000), Melbourne (4M), and Auckland (1.5M). Despite being destined to sprawl, Darwin can at least take heart that it is Australia’s most Sustainable City, according to the ACF. This appears largely due to high rankings for air quality, employment, and biodiversity.
Weddell is on the lower right.
An exhibition of the proposed design is currently on at the Art Gallery, Chancellery Building, Charles Darwin University, Brinkin until December 16th (10am to 3pm).
More at ABC Darwin
Weddell home page
01.12.11 in urban-planning sustainability
tags: apartments, ecological urbanism, housing, sprawl
show comments
I think city planning and town planning is the physical and economical development of city and town. City planning and town planning is the important aspect of plan’s present and future of city and town. Thanks for sharing this great style regarding urban planning.
by urban planners on 25 January 12 ·#
“Trapped in an Elevator” is possibly one of the dullest documentaries I’ve ever endured, but it may be of interest to lift buffs out there. I guess it proves that lifts are about as boring as they look. The doco scoots quickly over the much more dramatic elevator stories of the 19th Century, preferring to focus on an office worker’s worrying weekend stuck in a lift in Manhattan. There is a sneak peak at the up and coming magnetic elevators, which are starting to become necessary as cables are just getting too long in the new super tall skyscrapers.
“So what’s up with elevators?” Narrator
To add to the excitement, the TV edit is a mess, with black spots and six minutes repeated. The video expires December 7th, Australia only.
30.11.11 in video-clips
tags: vertical transportation
architects: Luigi Roselli
29.11.11 in architects
magazines: The Atlantic Cities
An online offshoot of the The Atlantic magazine, this website groups together articles urban.
“The Atlantic Cities explores the most innovative ideas and pressing issues facing today’s global cities and neighbourhoods. By bringing together news, analysis, data, and trends, the site is an engaging destination for an increasingly urbanised world.”
28.11.11 in magazines
video-clips: Under 40 Japanese architects
This Masters thesis movie by Vincent Hecht about young Japanese architects, suggesting the start of a new generation in 2010. Includes interviews with architects and internal tours.
U-40 Japanese Architects from Vincent HECHT on Vimeo.
via archinect
28.11.11 in video-clips
The Australia Council yesterday announced its shortlist for the Venice pavilion competition. As expected, they are playing it safe, with just a couple of smallish practices. Given the level of discontent surrounding the competition, it’s surprising and provocative of them to play it this safe. It’s the competition you have when you’re not having a competition. All blokes who graduated before 1986, so a total lack of Gen X, Y or Z, or XX chromosomes. Of the 67 expressions of interest, the jury of five chose:
- Bud Brannigan Architects
- Denton Corker Marshall
- John Wardle Architects
- Johnson Pilton Walker
- Peter Stutchbury Architecture
- Sean Godsell Architects
I’m sure any of them would do a fine job, but so would many lesser knowns, if given the chance. Rose Hiscock of the Australia Council describes the conservative assessment of the first round entries:
We received 67 Expressions of Interest (EOI) as part of the first stage of the selection process – an open call to all Australian architects for credentials. From this, a panel selected six practices on their demonstrated capability, suitability, experience and skills to undertake this project,”
The big firms with capability coming out their ears, and the architects with decades of experience naturally float to the top. Brian Zulaikha, the sole architect on a jury of arts administrators, discussed the weeding down process:
“There was an incredibly diverse range of interest, from sole practitioners to large Australian architectural organisations, and the selection of a shortlist was difficult. We believe we have chosen a truly talented group of firms which represents a breadth of architectural excellence.”
Perhaps more revealing is a response to a question from the first round.
Q: We have not undertaken a project off-shore. Would this eliminate us from consideration at this stage?
A: Respondents are requested to demonstrate their experience in areas such as projects in an off-shore location as one of the criteria that will help demonstrate suitability and capability for this project. It is envisaged that the EOI stage will be a very competitive selection process, so whilst this is not the only criteria in assessment of suitability and capability ( see Part A Section 1.4) it will be included in the panel’s decision making process.
When I put that through Google Translate it says, “You can try, but you’d be lucky.”
24.11.11 in buildings
tags: biennale, brian zulaikha, denton corker marshall, johnson pilton walker, john wardle, peter stutchbury, sean godsell
show comments
as usual your missing the real story.
by info on 24 November 11 ·#
At least I can spell. I did hear a rumour, but I try to keep closer to fact.
by peter on 24 November 11 ·#
looks like a who’s who of the pensioners club.
some of them are even too old to drive anymore.
by cabbie on 25 November 11 ·#
Why anyone would bother to enter this without being one of the ‘top’ established architects at the moment I have no idea – it was always going to be a waste of time for everyone else. Wonder what the Flinders St Comp holds in store for us…?
by STARCHITECT on 25 November 11 ·#
great! venice pavilion yawner to gen x whinger.
i ‘d take the borarchitect list over the up and coming gen y tossers like super colostomy et al any day. playing safe just avoids a demonstration of how threadbare and overated local design is – then again it would have been good to see how crap you neutered deadbeats are if you were given a chance.
by sod on 26 November 11 ·#
Gen y love going on the bottom for a bit of the old nepotist in out.
by japanese cricket tragic on 26 November 11 ·#
Are denton corker or marshall still alive?
by shorn on 30 November 11 ·#
Last word from s. mordant’s missus on mexico’s X Y & Zs.
…. she’s got a point?
.
http://www.whyallanewsonline.com.au/news/national/national/general/giving-till-its-gone/2371475.aspx
by info on 30 November 11 ·#
cities: The Elegant Shed - The Extroverts
An Wellington-focused episode from the important 1984 documentary series on New Zealand architecture, hosted by David Mitchell. Included are interviews with Wellington architects Ian Athfield and Roger Walker. Includes footage of John Scott’s Futuna Chapel and Ernst Plischke’s Massey House.
23.11.11 in cities
tours: Tokyo and Kyoto Tour 2012
Tokyo, Kyoto & Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture Tour
[Site supporter]
Next tour April 2012.
October 2010 tour description:
Tokyo is a city where you will find some of the world’s most unique and fascinating architecture set in an eclectic mix of ancient and modern, east and west. This tour will provide an excellent snapshot of amazing Tokyo and it’s remarkable architecture.
The tour also includes several days in Kyoto visiting some of the historic and famous Japanese Temples and Gardens with day trips to Meiji-Mura and Hyogo to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel and Yamamura House. This is a 9 day experience that offers visits to some of Tokyo’s newest contemporary buildings,
fine classic buildings as well as famous and not so famous architecture and design galleries.
This is not just the typical sight seeing tour, but a definitive display of Japanese architectural expression that also affords the opportunity to meet with local Japanese architects and share a Japanese dining experience with them. The tour
will visit significant buildings, galleries and other interesting tourist spots across the vibrant metropolis. Places and sights such as Prada Building (Herzog and de Meuron), National Art Center Tokyo (Kurokawa), Mikimoto 2 Building
(Toyo Ito), Omotesando Hills (Ando), 21-21 Design Site (Ando), National Museum of Western Art (Le Corbusier), Nezu Museum (Kengo Kuma).
Conducted and guided by Architect and former resident of Japan, Robert Day, the tour will also include several days in Kyoto visiting some of the historic and famous Japanese Temples and Gardens with day trips also to Meiji-Mura and Hyogo to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Imperial Hotel and Yamamura House. For more information contact robert AT rdayarch.com.au
23.11.11 in tours
brick: Glenthompson Bricks
A small independent brickworks able to make custom bricks.
22.11.11 in brick
Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu let the Herald Sun in on his top ten Melbourne buildings last weekend. While it’s hard to argue with any of the individual choices, it is more interesting to look at the list as a whole. What an elderly bunch of edifices it is, all built before World War II. Even Burley Griffin misses out on a nod. His favourite is Marcus Barlow’s 1932 Manchester Unity building. He apparently hates a lot of buildings too, but we aren’t told which ones they might be.
Putting down the tabloid down and digging through the web for something more substantial, a lecture turns up [ PDF ] from Baillieu’s time as Shadow Minister for Planning. Here are a few excerpts. Possibly he’s had an architectural blood transfusion since then.
I was educated architecturally thirty years ago. My education started at Melbourne University in 1971, where I studied European and American architectural history. At that time, of course, the credo was ‘less is more’. That credo certainly got into my architectural blood…
In my final year at university, I did a thesis piece on art deco architecture in Melbourne, which in many respects is quite contrary because it’s about ornamentation — architecture as entertainment — and that, for me, is the other side of things when it comes to materialism and architecture: there is a role for entertainment. The role of the architect is to be the provider of joy in the architectural sense. To balance the two is not always easy, but it’s part of that role…
I just love the Manchester Union Building on the corner of Swanston and Collins streets. Most people walk by and don’t really look. For me, it’s amazing. Federation Square was something that didn’t move me, I’m not quite sure why. Lots of people thought it was extravagant. But they use it.
Manchester Unity at Walking Melbourne
Photo: P.Johns 2011
22.11.11 in buildings
Out Yonder
- How Mussolini Influenced Qaddafi's Vision for Tripoli
www.theatlanticcities.com - PROFILE: Wojciech Pluta from Denton Corker Marshall
architectureanddesign.com.au - The structure as sculpture
A small, flattering piece on Wood Marsh in Domain.
theage.domain.com.au - What is it with architects?
It appears we architects don't know how to address the street. Melbourne's Victoria Gardens is held up as an example.
blogs.crikey.com.au - Windsor gets final go-ahead
2013 start date...
www.theage.com.au - Designing for disaster - CSMonitor.com
'Defensive' architecture isn't always hard. via archinect.
csmonitor.com - Somebody Drew That…
Byron George on WAF 2011: "the final winner in this case probably says more about the difficulty of judging such a diverse range of projects... it is natural for us to gravitate towards what we know."
melbournereview.com.au - Grocon new Westpac state headquarters in Collins St
Peddle Thorpe glass box to replace first car park building in Melbourne.
heraldsun.com.au - Built environment, stand up and take a modest bow
Recent built environment statistics.
thefifthestate.com.au - New fitout for heroic building
Muller: Where's the "fabulous blue gum chandelier hanging in the lobby?''
www.smh.com.au
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