Madden's meeting 

Big News has covered the email schemozzle to death, so I thought I’d leave it to them. But I can’t resist this screenshot from ABC TV. Masterful composition. Here is an isolated Madden looking more like Jim Hacker than he would probably like. He had just gate-crashed his way into a very important inquiry into his own department’s pants-down on public consultation. The other lads appear to be leaving him out of their chat. But what on earth has that guy on the right drawn? A legless pelvis? In vivid and confident strokes. Great work for a pollie.

ABC TV

It is with great disappointment that I look a bit closer and realise that it is not a sketch at all, but instead a pair of upturned frameless spectacles. In meetings, upturned spectacles are a sign that things are drawing to a close.

Interpreting upturned glasses as a limbless pelvis means I should probably take the rest of the weekend off.

THAT EMAIL

13.03.10 in planning weird-wonderful

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Keating on the attack again  

At the Urban Development Institute of Australia national congress in Sydney this week, a Mr Paul Keating spoke with gumption, apparently shocking delegates.

News Ltd reports him as saying that, “Sydney’s “gormless” apartment blocks [which had] facades that look more like “ice cube trays” were depressing the city’s residents.. He said city units were a “mess on a pavement”.

“The community does not need instruction in architecture or design to know what is mediocre or bad, they know it instantly.”

“They are depressed by what they see and are forced to inhabit and buy and they resent it. They know they are living in these ice cube glass shapes with their unused little verandas, their eight-by-six ceilings, their gyprock walls. They say – is that all there is to it?”

11.03.10 in urban-design 

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Penthouse Mouse  

This could be the last chance to have a good look around the Naval and Military Club in Little Collins Street, Melbourne. The low-rise 1967 building with its distinctive arched windows is due to tumble soon, a new planning proposal having been approved for a Buchan designed 32 storey hotel and apartment complex.

The planning report ( PDF ) by the DPCD decided that the demolition of the building, “does not raise any issues relating to heritage.” Well that’s their point of view. Due to the proposal’s floor area, the decision was automatically referred to the Minister for Planning, bypassing council. The new building will cast shadows over the Melbourne Club’s nearby walled garden in the morning.

Penthouse Mouse is currently using the space for a, “temporary fashion store, arts and events space.” You can access most areas. The entrance is via the new (doomed?) building at the rear (on Coates Lane). The foyer is still being used by the Little Collins Hotel and can be entered from Little Collins Street.

PHM is open daily until 19th March, 11-9pm.

Many more slightly wobbly phone pics of the opening night here

As it is..

P.Johns 2010

H.Bui 2010

And as it will be..

11.03.10 in buildings heritage

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Adelaide wow  

SA treasurer Kevin Foley says it will take South Australia, “straight from boring to the wow factor”. Strange. Kevin Rudd unveiled the Woods Bagot-designed $200 million Health and Medical Research Centre on Saturday. Video at Adelaide Now . 3d people with faces walking around in the video make a nice change from translucent “threshold” people, though they do look a little claymation.

01.03.10 in buildings 

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Flinders Street - the sequel  

(James Fawcett and HPC Ashworth)

The completion of Melbourne’s Flinders Street Station is (once again) being discussed. But this time Ron Walker is on board, wanting to fund it with gambling dollars. Money was available when it was first built, but was rerouted into building an extra storey along Elizabeth Street.

HERALD SUN 28.02.10

01.03.10 in heritage 

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Process this Monday  

Process is on this Monday 1st March. They are having a spot of bother with their website, so you can find it here for the moment.

This month the theme is “The Architecture School”, and how we design for them. More info in this big version of the pic below.

28.02.10 in talk education

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Keating rustles feathers over hungry mile  

Always one with words, ex Prime Minister Paul Keating recently criticised colourfully the Sydney Morning Herald’s coverage of the dubious development at Barangaroo. The SMH was none too happy at being called “jaundiced” and “intellectually corrupt” and today lashed back at the Barangaroo “band master”.

“Keating has said that he wants public debate on Barangaroo. The Herald couldn’t agree more. So instead of attacking the messenger, address the questions.”

They go on, in yesterday’s lead editorial, to spell out the questions. Worth a read .

The letters page is on the SMH’s side. Here’s a good one from Gary Sullivan:

“It is unclear to me if Richard Rogers is referring to the hotel or the movement of the water when he says that ‘‘it’s very three-dimensional’‘.

“It would come as a surprise to me if either were not three-dimensional, but he implies that three dimensions is something unusual. His use of ‘‘very’‘ also indicates that there are degrees of three-dimensionality to which I was formerly ignorant. Architects obviously see the world differently from the way ordinary folk see it.”

As part of its return salvo, the SMH also attempted a visualisation of what the contentious hotel tower might look like from Darling Harbour. Why? Because there are, “no plans available to reveal what the tower might look like from the south.”

In the same issue, Elizabeth Farrelly questioned the dominance of Paul Keating in the process: “Top to toe, Barangaroo is now wholly Keating’s baby. If any doubts lingered as to his paternity, Tuesday evening’s packed performance removed them, Keating carrying on like a character in his own musical.” She then wonders how the proposed Midtown Manhattan model will com off given that there is but one developer, Lend Lease.

Anyways, in the minds of Paul Keating, Richard Rogers, and Kristina Keneally, it’s all done and dusted. “Lend Lease’s first stage commitment is to deliver at least 40,000m2 by June 2014.” Just some public consultation to get out of the way first. Until March 20th, locals will have a chance to see what it is all about at a public display centre on site.

I might wait for the opera.

Barangaroo press release
Banagaroo Delivery Authority’s letters to the SMH

26.02.10 in urban-planning 

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Food for thought  

Give ideas, get food. A new Sydney-based initiative from Thomas Rivard and Michael Lewarne .
“Part hot dog stand, part ticket booth, part puppet theatre, part Dalek, the kiosk serves free soup in exchange for the public’s specific written suggestions about what they’d like to see happen in and around the particular places in which the event occurs.”

Food for thought

26.02.10 in activists 

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Twitter on Barangaroo  

Tonight’s talk on Barangaroo, with Paul Keating and Richard Rogers: filtered live via twitter . A sample from John Demanicor: “they’re wearing us down with “soundbites” “place for people” “human scale” .. yawn hype yawn.”

23.02.10 in urban-planning 

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Emergency Architects in Haiti 

Yesterday I received an email from Emergency Architects Australia. The EAA fund is an alternative to the Architects for Humanity fundraising tomorrow at the many Pecha Kucha nights. The EA relief effort differs from the AfH effort by having people working on the ground in Haiti now, evaluating damaged buildings. The AfH fundraising is being directed to ready to go projects. Here are some excerpts from EAA’s mail, with minor edits.

“Louise Cox from UIA has asked for urgent help – the Director of the Haitian National Archives has asked Emergency Architects and other NGO’s for architects to assess destroyed heritage buildings, conservators to assist them with cultural heritage and for archival quality storage equipment for storage to preserve the few paper remnants and historical records that have been damaged and need immediate attention. Louise will also send out the ICOMOS and UNESCO requests for assistance next week…

The Australian Institute of Architects is supporting EAA’s Haitian fundraising appeal and the UIA directs their donors to EA for Haiti.

Our EA Haitian team (made up of EA Canada and EA France) is working collaboratively with the Haitian Architects/engineers group and also with Jamaican architects (all Creole/French speakers). For this reason the US Army has asked our EA team there to work for them doing building assessments because they haven’t enough military engineers to do this work… There is an urgent need for funds for this stage.”

Read more about Emergency Architects in Haiti
Donate via Emergency Architects Australia & Westpac
Donate via Emergency Architects

20.02.10 in groups 

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Architecture for an uncreative race 

[ Artist: Simon Fieldhouse ]

I have stumbled upon a curious article from 1935 expaining to Sydneysiders why the B.M.A. building should be awarded a medal by the RIBA – the first in New South Wales to receive one.

From the SMH, 20 May 1935 (next to an article reporting the death of Lawrence of Arabia in a car crash). Expect some typos.

“.. the civic aspect of architecture is one that should interest not only the architect, but every citizen who takes pride in the city of Sydney and wishes to make its appearance as attractive as possible. In this connection it is stimulating to find that the movement in England for the betterment of civic architecture has reached Australia, since next Thursday the Lord Mayor of Sydney will unveil at B.M.A. House a plaque designating the award by the Royal Institute of British Architects for a building of exceptional merit erected in this State during the period of three years up to 1933, whilst a medal is also awarded to the architects concerned, Messrs. Joseph C. Fowell and Kenneth H. McConnel, whose design was placed first out of the 60 submitted in the competition held for this building in 1928, and under whose supervision the work was carried out. This practice of awarding a medal and plaque was first established by the R.I.B.A. in London in 1922, and seven similar medals are now awarded triennially in various parts of England, and one each in Scotland, Wales, Ulster, Western Australia, New Zealand and New South Wales, but this is the first award in the State. It is stated that the medals and plaques have aroused public and professional interest overseas, especially in street architecture, the primary concern for the awards, and the plaques of honour have been affixed in London to the headquarters of the Underground Comany, to a small two-story residence in Clarendon Place, to two famous banks, a modern church, and to several office blocks.

New materials of construction have produced an evolution of new styles of architecture in modern times, since obviously a building of steel or iron will demand a different treatment from one whose materials are wood, brick, or stone. A steel structure, for instance, unlike a stone one, gives not a wall, but holes. Wood or stone or brick give in themselves a surface, which the steel does not. The B.M.A. building consists of fourteen stories, including the basement, and is of steel construction, with reinforced concrete floors. The problem of giving a surface has been met by the principal facade being faced with architectural terra-cotta. A stern critic may object that the ornamentation is a trifle too rococo, but the design of the building is distinguished be the recessing of piers behind the building line, the bays projecting in between, in order to gain that effect of verticality which is a special feature of the modern skyscraper, with its suggestion of “aspiration” reminiscent of the Gothic style. The recession of the piers is original in Australia, and helps to make the building successful in a departure from traditional styles to one more suitable for modern steel structures.

The presentation of the R.I.B.A. medal and plaque also draws attention to the Sir John Sulman medal, which will shortly be awarded for an ecclesiastical building. These medals should help to stress the importance of architecture in this country. Probably no other community needs the reminder more, since the appreciation of architecture in Australia is almost negligiblbe. On this point Mr. Hardy Wilson has written, “Englishmen visiting Australia have expressed amazement at the ugly condition of its architecture, and yet have not recognised that it is he uncreativeness of the race, seperated from creativeness, that is the cause.” He suggests that the enervating climate of Sydney is another reason why its people are indifferent to the ugliness among which they move every day. Whatever the cause, there is little doubt that Australia needs every assistance in making its people aware not only of their ignorance of and indifference to architectural matters, but of the common lack of interest in their own city. In this respect our cities and towns are very backward as compared to the strong civic spirit so noticeable in America. For architecture is only one aspect of the broader problem of town planning, and it is to be hoped that the R.I.B.A. award will succeed in all three of its objectives: “to envourage excellence in design, to stimulate public interest in and appreciation of architecture, and to foster a spirit of civic pride.”

BMA House photo gallery
BMA House map: 135 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia

19.02.10 in heritage awards

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Pecha Kucha for Haiti 

If you’re in Melbourne, see if you can reserve the 20th of this month to attend a Pecha Kucha fundraiser for the Haiti disaster, which has now claimed as many lives as the SE Asian tsunami – an estimated 230,000. Haiti’s population in 1998 was 9.7M.

DETAILS HERE

OR GO STRAIGHT TO PKN MELB

PKN GLOBAL HAITI CAMPAIGN

+++++++++++
UPDATE: 17.02.10
20×20 PECHAKUCHA Ayiti / Melbourne
Saturday night, 20th February, Entry 6.30, presentations from 7pm
Location: 1000 Pound Bend, 361 Lt Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000

Brought to you rapidly by:
Pecha Kucha
Architecture for Humanity
Architects for Peace
Urban Village Melbourne

13.02.10 in talk 

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John Portman's support  

“I try to never get away from the fact that I am first an architect and everything else is to support that”, 86 year old John Portman tells The Architect’s Newspaper in a “Recession Tales” interview that could do with a proofread.

“Everything else” is the development side of the Portman empire. He has been developing since 1956, getting his start with a small market place in Atlanta:

“My first development was the Merchandise Mart in Atlanta, which I started in an old garage that we remodeled. It opened in 1961, and has grown into the AmericasMart with eight million square feet today.”

AN: Do you own it?

“Yep, and that helps me get through the rough times.”

Times don’t appear too rough for Portman and Co. Though they build little in the U.S. these days, they are at work all over Asia.

———————-

I’ll always remember Portman for the Bonaventure Hotel, which has great fun with cylinders. Though it does connect badly to the city around it, and its foundations blocked L.A.‘s Pacific Electric Railway tunnel… There have been various proposals to make use of the rest of the tunnel for transport, but they came to a dead end with the construction in 2008 of an apartment building at its mouth. Very clever planning. Wander through the “dog park” at the back and you’ll find they’ve capped the end of the tunnel and painted a red trolley car on it. Not quite Magritte, but it does glow in the dark.

12.02.10 in architects developers

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Sparks 

Environment minister Peter Garrett is under fire tonight for not banning foil insulation from the $2.45B insulation rebate scheme. After the deaths of four young installers ( 1 2 3 4) became publicised, he did. It is still quite legal to specify foil-backed insulation and foil multicell, but the trouble has been the many unskilled installers who raced into the artificially-heated market – some failing to take the necessary precautions when fixing the foil to ceiling joists – ie check for electrical wiring and use non-conducting tools.

The opposition’s angle is that he should have seen this coming – an explosion in demand, and a lack of skilled tradesmen to satisfy it. And he was warned of the problems, but Garrett says he placed his faith in a Minter Ellison risk analysis, which he promised this evening to make public.

Comparing the government consumer advisories on home insulation in Australia and NZ, you could easily miss the problem reading the Oz version here . It only says you should keep insulation away from recessed downlights. In New Zealand, where foil was traditionally used underfloor, they go a lot further. Maybe because three people died fixing insulation in 2007.

Smarter Homes :
“WARNING: Installing underfloor foil insulation can be risky. Be careful not to pierce electrical cabling with staples. Existing foil insulation, if improperly installed, can be live. If you are unsure about anything, hire a professional installer or get an electrician to check things out.”

Energywise :
“EECA doesn’t recommend the use of underfloor foil and this product isn’t covered in EECA’s insulation retrofit programmes.This is because of the safety risks, challenging installation, dubious performance and possible lack of durability.”

Architects’ obligations under the heavy-handed Occupational Health and Safety Act (2004), Section 28, don’t extend to the design of the construction process or to single dwellings. An architect could perhaps become liable should someone die from electrocution in a house which has a “live” foil ceiling and if part of the dwelling contains a workplace. More likely, builders will become unwilling to put foil into old homes, unless it’s up North and don’t have much choice .

A more direct area of risk for architects is the measure-up. It is hard to do a renovation to an old house without at some point crawling about in the dusty ceiling space. If there is foil insulation, lead-sheathed wiring, or rubber wiring up there, back out and get an electrician to inspect. More safety tips can be found in this government PDF

In fact after reading the rest of that PDF (p 36 onwards) I am not sending anyone up into a ceiling space without turning the mains off first.

There remains the problem of how to inspect a roof that is more than two metres above the ground… but that’s another post.

========
Aircell have just released a Q’n‘A PDF in response to the ban on foil insulation from the HIP, which affects them. They state that their products are, “are acceptable for any application except for installation under the HIP scheme during the interim suspension period”.

12.02.10 in construction 

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Bark vs. bite  

From the Landcorp (Western Australia) website :

• “LandCorp is the Western Australian Government’s land and property developer.”
• Services include “Optimising triple bottom line outcomes from government-owned land.”
• “Sustainable development requires a different way of thinking about neighbourhoods in our cities and regions and involves identifying ways to demonstrate environmental leadership, community wellbeing, design excellence and economic health to produce integrated and holistic development concepts.”
• “We apply our sustainability vision to our work to bring a balance of social, environmental and economic outcomes for West Australians.”

From a tenders website:
Landcorp: “We’re looking for someone to develop a huge piece of land in Karratha. Within the Nickol West estate in Karratha sits approximately 24 hectares of land ready to be developed for up to 250 residential lots.
And for the first time, we’re asking private developers to take on a project of this size. There are no design guidelines, home density requirements or limitations on methods of lot sales, so you can hit the ground running and create a residential development exactly how you envisage it.”

Lucky Karratha. Context:

10.02.10 in urban-planning sustainability

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Graduate School of Arts  

Just realised that Bates Smart are in the midst of giving the Old Arts Building at Melbourne Uni a bit of a speedy spruce up . Construction started in November and it all has to be done before Semester 1 starts. Someone didn’t get a holiday. The project includes two new lecture theatres and three new collaborative learning rooms.

Collaborative what you may ask?
Teachers who use collaborative learning approaches tend to think of themselves less as expert transmitters of knowledge to students, and more as expert designers of intellectual experiences for students-as coaches or mid-wives of a more emergent learning process… Instead of being distant observers of questions and answers, or problems and solutions, students become immediate practitioners. Rich contexts challenge students to practice and develop higher order reasoning and problem-solving skills. [ PDF LINK ] ie a less lecturin’, a little more conversation. ie newspeak for tutorial rooms? Anyway, it’s probably a good idea in an age of under-resourced lecturers and easily-bored students.

WALKING MELB HISTORY

22.01.10 in education 

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Boxes, lanes, and frames  

BOXES
Architecture and Design, in its Breaking News section, last week profiled the Bates Smart design for 735 Collins Street, Docklands. The architects say it was inspired by shipping containers and the site’s industrial past.

These four buildings, originally to be constructed in 2008, continue the recent commercial trend in rather squat glazed boxes . BVN + Marchese’s original 2002 masterplan for the site was replaced in 2007 by Bates Smart’s more commercially loaded scheme.

LANES
At the time, Walker Corporation described the pedestrian experience:

“The project will be anchored by an innovative “Laneway-esque” podium featuring an expansive transparent light-weight roof offering patrons year-round weather protection. The concept design will focus on an enlivened and activated space reminiscent of Melbourne’s much-loved laneways with a 21st Century twist.”

The only photo I can find of this twist was in the A&D article:

This bears a resemblance to Wood Bagots rather sterile and monochromatic pedestrian lane between SX1 and SX2 on Bourke Street. (Note to self: find my pic of this).

FRAMES
While we’re looking at it, the Docklands complex unsuprisingly shares another trait with 2000s Bates Smart buildings, the protruding frame. I’ve never quite understood what this is about, and have assumed it was just their way to jauntily express the podium. But it appears not just in the podium… Here’s some previous Bates Smart frames.

181 Williams Street

The Age Bourke Street

Alfred Centre Stage 2, Prahran

Mercer Exhibition Street, which “folds up to frame a section of sky”.

In a random and unruly sunday evening effort to trace the origins of this frame, I found these siblings and ancestors. I’ve probably missed some obvious ones, so please suggest more below if you can be bothered.

Draughtman’s contract. Peter Greenaway in 2003 : “The notion of the frame as a filmic device, and also as a drawing device, is related very significantly to the notion of a frame-up. Though we imagine the draughtsman rules the roost and governs the action, he’s in fact slowly, scene by scene, being framed.”

Grande Arch, La Defense, by Johann Otto von Spreckelsen.

The Frame Hotel Dubai, by IAD ~2008. “The first step for this project consisted of defining a visual and constructive frame for the building. This frame would determine not only the exterior facade of the hotel but the physical limits of built-up areas. The response to such a simple formal approach was to create a complex dialogue between each separate architectural or landscaping element. “ ( WAN )

The Dubai Frame, Fernando Donis 2008
“Dubai is a city full of emblems, Rather than adding another one, we propose to frame them all: to frame the city. Rather than building a massive structure, the purpose of this project is to build a void. This void of 150 meters by 105 meters will continuously frame the development of the current and future Dubai.” ( bustler )

Rick Joy, Arizona

ML Museum Liaunig by Querkraft Architects

Eames and Saarinen House

RHS

and… of course there are many protruding frames by Sean Godsell and Lo-tek. But I’m getting tired and a tad bored with boxes and frames.

lastly…

Total House, Melbourne. Framed to perfection. Dang, who was the architect?

17.01.10 in buildings 

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Sticky carpet out  

Another live music venue fails / falls. A few years after the Punters Club’s deluxification into a.. cheap pizza bar, Collingwood’s Tote Hotel is to follow.

Tinnitus and Carlton Draught will get even harder to find.

The culprit is new Liquor Licensing “high risk” fees which lump late night pubs into the nightclubs category, according to the Tote’s licensee.

Bookface Protest
The Age today
Tone Deaf
The offending new law

14.01.10 in random-debris 

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