Feathering their nest

I love architects who blog. Whether it be about their work, what inspires them, things they are doing both inside or outside or comment on some architectural related news item, it often gives a valuable insight into the practice itself. One such blog is by my good friend Emilio Fuscaldo over at Nest Architects, who regular updates his blog with all manner of interesting reading. Personally I love his latest offering  “10 reasons to build a shed”. Also his work is pretty good as well and you can check it out here.

It’s all up in the air

Jason Reitman latest’s offering, Up In The Air, whilst not as good as his first offering, Thankyou for Smoking but slightly better than Juno provides us architects and urban designers with some brilliant eye candy in the form of aerial photography of American cities and landscapes. The aerial photography is worth the ticket price online. There are some glimpses of the brilliant work of the movie’s Aerial Director of Photography, Dylan Goss in the trailer below but for the full package you’ll just have to see the film. Also if you want to know how some of the shots were done check out this site.

For what it’s worth I gave the film 3.5 stars.

Swanston Street U-turn

The population of Melbourne will surely be breathing a sigh of relief with the announcement today by Lord Mayor Robert Doyle that Swanston Street will become a car-free zone by 2012. Doyle, who has part of his mayoral campaign for election was pushing for bringing cars back to Swanston Street, has obviously bowed to the pressure of his fellow councillors on his remarkable about face even being a spokesperson for the latest proposal. Cr Doyle said the council did not want people driving into the city.

‘‘We would rather see people take public transport into the city, if they can to walk into the city and lots more people are cycling – we have seen huge increases in people cycling into the city in recent years, so no city in the world wants to bring more and more cars into its heart – that is exactly the opposite of what great streets do.’’

The $25.6m proposal includes four new “city square” type developments at tram superstops on Swanston Street and improved cycling access. It is certainly a pleasing outcome for all and it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks.

Those crazy people in Adelaide

Whilst reading the article relating to my previous post, I stumbled across this article that is a few weeks old regarding a reported secret heritage list prepared by Adelaide City Council, which is pushing for a fifty per cent increase in the number of heritage-listed properties in the CBD to prevent developers from knocking down ageing buildings of interest. What grabbed my attention was the inclusion of The Crazy Horse Strip Club in Adelaide’s Hindley Street on this now not-so-secret list.

I was fascinated by the possibility of there being an architecturally significant strip club in Adelaide of all places. However, looking at it from the Google Street View you would hardly call it a shining architectural example, so it must have some cultural significance. To ascertain whether this is the case I paid a visit to it’s website (solely for research purposes) to see what the fuss is all about. On it website it reads:

The Crazy Horse Revue was first opened in May 1979, and the same owners still operate the business today. The original format was based on Paul Raymond’s Revue Bar in London and further inspired by the Crazy Horse in Paris with magnificent sets, costumes and props, and not forgetting the most beautiful dancers that were available in Australia.

The Crazy Horse Revue in Adelaide has always set the standard for adult entertainment in Australia and has been awarded Internationally as the best striptease venue in Australia.

Again I was disappointed, that’s hardly any reason to list it on a heritage register, unless thirty years with the same counts. So like a dog with a bone I did some further research and delved further into the website. Maybe it had some kick arse interiors, perhaps it had some awesome Art Deco inspired interior that belied the nondescript external facade. But alas, its just looks like any other seedy strip club but with more neon lights.

So after all that research and like most paying customers to the venue there was no happy ending. I just can’t figure out why this venue would be significant heritage-wise so I guess in the near future we could be seeing Goldfingers, Spearmint Rhino and Bar 20 all making an appearance Melbourne’s heritage registers.

But in the end maybe it just boils down to the fact that Adelaide City councillors just don’t want it to disappear because it is good place to go after a hard night’s debating in the council chambers. And that’s why it was on a secret list.

Lonsdale House to be demolished – update #3

It looks like the days are numbered for Lonsdale House, with the people’s paper reporting in a somewhat impassioned article that:

With the backing of Melbourne City Council and Planning Minister Justin Madden, demolition of this unique and much-neglected Art Deco building at the corner of Lonsdale St and Caledonia Lane is expected to be completed by early February.

In the aforementioned article, reporter George Lekakis takes a swipe at both the State and Local governments, with Melbourne City Council coming under the harshest criticism as he writes:

Instead of doing the right thing by engaging with people who wanted to prevent the demolition, no councillor was prepared to publicly acknowledge they were signing off on the trashing of another signpost of Melbourne’s past.

With the future of Lonsdale House seemingly destined to be at the wrong end (is there a right end) of a wrecking house, both the State and Local Governments surely need to come up with a better way to handly inner city retail development.

Jump into history

Two guys think it will be a great idea to be the first people to basejump off the still under construction Burj Khalifa (or the Burj Dubai as it was known then).

(via @ballardian)

A bridge too far

Took this photo (not sure if it that’s clear) just after last night’s match between SydneyFC and Melbourne Victory at Etihad Stadium and noticed that the remaining part of Wood Marsh’s Bourke Street footbridge is slowly starting to disappear. A bit of a shame really.

Listing from one list to another

The team behind Australian pavilion’s 2010 Venice Biennale today come up with a shortlist of teams for inclusion in their NOW + WHEN exhibition. The list below features no real surprises but at twenty-four it can hardly be called a shortlist.

• Richard Goodwin, Art/Architecture, TERRIOR, Andrew Benjamin, Ingo Kumic, Dan Hill, Sydney 2050: Fraying Ground
• Steve Whitford, University of Melbourne, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning + James Brearley BAU Brearley Architects and Urbanists, Adjunct Professor RMIT, Symbiotic City
• Justyna Karakiewicz, Thomas Kvan and Steve Hatzellis, Urban Life Without Fear
• Edmond & Corrigan, A Future Australian City
• Colony Architects, Mould City
• Brit Andresen and Mara Francis, Sedimentary City
• NH Architecture with Andrew Mackenzie, Not all Arrows hit the Target
• John Wardle Architects & Stefano Boscutti, Multiple Cities
• Alanna Howe, Alexander Hespe (ARUP), biomimetic city
• PDJ Architects, Fiona Dunin, Alex Peck, Martina Johnson, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Woodhead, Dr. Doris McIIwain, Ross Honeywill, Greer Honeywill, Love and Movement
• A collaboration between BKK Architects, Village Well, Charter Keck Kramer, Survival vs Resilience
• HASSELL, Professor Mike Young (University of Adelaide) & Holopoint, Food for Thought: e-agora 2059.
• Michael Lewarne + Tom Rivard in association with house of Laudanum, Dr Lian Loke & Dr Anne Arquit Neiderberger
• ARUP, Cities of Resilience in the wake of Climate Change
• Room 11 + Scott Lloyd and Katrina Stoll, Island Proposition 2100
• Lacoste + Stevenson Architects, Six Degrees Architects, FROST Design
• Harrison and White with Nano Langenheim, Implementing the Rhetoric
• Ben Statkys (Statkus Architecture), Daniel Agdag, Melanie Etchell, William Golding, Anna Nguyen, Joel Ng, How Does it Make Your Feel?
• McGauran Giannini Soon (MGS), Bild + Dyskors, Material Thinking
• Billard Leece Partnership, A Tale of Two Cities 2100
• Innovarchi, The Mangrove occupying the Now and WHEN of the waters edge
• Design Research Institute RMIT (CRI) + Minifie Nixon Architects MNA, Cloudnets
• Dr. Beth George, A. Professor Jon Tarry, A. Professor Rene Van Meeuwen, Speciation City

Speaking of lists, The Guardian has come up with its list of what it considers to be the top ten buildings of the decade. It’s a very British-centric list and is rather uninspiring although my favourite of this list is the European Southern Observatory Hotel by Auer and Weber, partly because I am an unashamed latinophile.

• Millennium Dome, London by the Richard Rogers Partnership and engineers Buro Happold
• Blur, Expo 02, Yverdon-les-Bains, 2002 by Diller + Scofidio
• Serpentine Pavilion, London, 2002 by Toyo Ito
• 30 St Mary Axe, London, 2003 by Norman Foster (aka The Gherkin)
• European Southern Observatory Hotel, Cerro Paranal, Chile, 2003 by Auer and Weber
• Beijing National Stadium, Beijing, 2008 by Herzog and de Meuron
• St Pancras Station, London, 2007 by Alastair Lansley
• Le Viaduc de Millau, Aveyron, 2004 by Michel Virlogeux and Norman Foster
• Neues Museum, Berlin, 2009 by David Chipperfield
• Burj Dubai by SOM

It must be the season for the lists as The Age’s (melbourne) magazine compiled its list of Melbourne’s most influential people. Nik Karalis, Hamish Lyon and Denton Corker Marshall all made the list under the Society category under innovation.

Combined train of thought

You would have to say that in recent years Cox Architects’ Melbourne office sure has stepped it up a notch in terms of design and have or in the process of putting some serious landmarks on the city’s landscape. I am a massive fan of the under construction Rectangular Stadium (partly because I am a football nut), but their recently completed redevelopment of North Melbourne railway station is also worthy of mention. Since I have moved to Yarraville I get to experience the station on a daily basis and I have say that I am very impressed. It is an excellent blending of the old and the new which I hope my poor photography skills illustrate. If not, go have a look yourself. This successful upgrading of a tired station surely puts pressure on the State Government to seriously consider upgrading Melbourne’s other “gateway” station, Richmond, which now is definitely the poorer cousin.

Home is where the architecture is

Almost a year ago, my girlfriend Caroline and I purchased our first home, a 1940s Californian bungalow in the western suburbs of Melbourne. However, due to it being under lease we didn’t get to move in until early November this year so we only been in it for just over a month. At the moment the house along with the garden requires a bit of work here and there plus I want to add my (if I’m allowed) architectural touch. So as what I hope will be one of my most exciting and challenging architectural projects progresses I’ll keep you all updated on how it’s going.

So far, we have had the house re-stumped and some free insulation installed before we moved in and we are currently looking to get the ceiling replaced in the master bedroom as apparently it is only being held up by the cornices. After that our next projects will be the creation of raised vegetable patch in our backyard and a repaint of the interior of the houses.