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Green Square Library - a look in the dust bin
Someone tweeted to me the other week that the Green Square Library entrants are online. Must admit I was barely aware of the competition. The 167 entrants have been whittled down to a shortlist of five by the jury… here is the list for anyone who missed the coverage elsewhere.
06.11.12 in competitions
Tall skinny stories
Tower Melbourne (left and middle), Abode 318 (right). Elenberg Fraser
29.10.12 in buildings urban-design
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Flinders Street shortlist
The shortlisted entrants for the Flinders Street Design Competition were announced on Sunday. Many of Melbourne’s larger more established practices are represented. Only ARM and NH chose to go it alone, with the other Melbourne practices partnering with well known offshore companies. The odd one out is the fledgling Velasquez/ Pineda/ Medina partnership. Eduardo Velasquez and Manuel Pineda have just completed their Masters at MSD. Santiago Medina is still a student in Colombia. No doubt they will be freaking out right about now – in a good way.
15.10.12 in competitions
Debating architecture
Melbourne has a series of architectural debates running at the moment. I’m aware of this because I was in one. That is part of the reason it’s been a little quiet here – lots of things waiting to be written, but all for others. That’s what happens in careers sometimes – the hobbies start to take more of a centre stage. I write about architecture a lot and produce it a little.
12.10.12 in events
Not ornate enough?
Can anyone spot the glaring error? Apart from labelling all Post-WWII buildings “plain”.
03.09.12 in heritage
Dreamers
Until the end of September 2012, the ABC is showing its Dream Build series online. This is like a little brother to Grand Designs, six minute snapshots of completed projects revolving around interviews with delighted owners. It is an engaging watch, and is able to focus on aspects of the representation of architecture missing from the magazines, namely a sense of the third dimension, and a sense of the owners behind the designs.
19.08.12 in television
Windsor Hotel - the ongoing saga
2011 rendering, Windsor Hotel with lowered corner building, DCM
29.07.12 in heritage
Architect / protaganist:
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JJ Clark, wunderkind
[ Old Treasury Building, Melbourne. Gil Meydan ]
20.05.12 in exhibition heritage
Gallery fatigue
I finally got to the William Kentridge exhibition at ACMI last weekend, with a friend. It closes at the end of May. It is worth every cent. Etchings and drawings of characters in his films take up most of the space. He has a particular way with blotchy skin that reminds me of the late Lucian Freud’s work. The self portraits – William as “Felix” and “Solo” – move about within ghost like bubbles that remind me a bit of one of Freud’s models, Sunshine boy Leigh Bowery.
10.04.12 in galleries
Shades of green
This morning’s Background Briefing on RN examined the flaws in home energy rating systems. The show was unsurprising: they found many houses with low ratings and high performance, and vice versa. No prizes for guessing that architect-designed green homes suffered in the ratings department for not under-glazing, and not air-conditioning. The software wasn’t designed to be used like this and it encourages a conformity of design that suits standard project homes. From my experience, it is a bit of a lottery what the software will think of a custom-designed house.
01.04.12 in sustainability
Accent e-book
Hyundai Australia has just published an e-book covering their six blogger-lead tours around Sydney and Melbourne in August last year. I was one of them, and get a double page spread, thankfully with no mugshot. They seemed to like the Ashton Raggat McDougall buildings I showed them the most. Click the image below to view the book.
25.03.12 in books
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Life Architecturally on telly
Life Architecturally (trailer) from Britt Arthur on Vimeo.
22.02.12 in films
Architect / protaganist:
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Panel drop
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
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