news
State of Design
This starts this week – I have looked through the pickings and list most of the architecture-related ones below. Lots to do. Tried to post in the events forum but it broke under the strain (must fix that..)
The thin end
This is the last week for public submissions about the Victorian Government’s proposed changes to the Urban Growth Boundary. You can have your say to them here, before July 17th.
11.07.09 in urban-planning cities
ARM get gonged
Not unpredictably, Ashton Raggatt McDougall grabbed the Gold Logie at the Victorian Architecture Awards for the Melbourne Recital Centre. A good rundown of last night can be found, oddly enough, on the American Bustler website.
11.07.09 in awards
Architect / protaganist:
Plumin awful
The Infrastructurist mentioned a study done recently by UCLA. All had thought that the pollution effect of a freeway extended to about 300 metres downwind. Not so, pollutants spread up to 2.6 kilometres downwind, that’s a vulnerable 5.2 km belt along all our freeways. This is what it looks like for Melbourne:
10.07.09 in sustainability cities
Less roads = less traffic
Add more roads and drivers will flock to them. Take roads away and they disappear! INFRASTRUCTURIST
10.07.09 in urban-planning
Off topic: Opening links
To the person who requested anonymously that all links open in new windows:
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Nagakin still endangered
The Nagakin Tower in Tokyo is even more endangered than it usually is. Residents want it replaced and Kisho Kurakawa is no longer about to defend it. The recession is the only thing holding back redevelopment, according to the NYT.
10.07.09 in buildings
Architect / protaganist:
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Melbourne Design Guide
The new edition appears to be out , with a whole new look. It is officially launched at next week’s State of Design opening. The last one was a pretty good guide to some of the edgier characters and emporiums.
09.07.09 in guides
Portrait Gallery - gong
The ABC’s website just announced that The National Portrait Gallery won the top gong in the ACT architecture awards. You’d think from this that the building designed itself. Johnson Pilton Walker don’t even rate a mention in the article. So I’m mentioning them here.
05.07.09 in buildings
Architect / protaganist:
Daniel Watt
Daniel Watt, jetsetting architect of Wellington, Singapore and Bangkok, passed away a few days ago in Auckland aged 41. Thanks Daniel for living your life to the full, and serving as a bit of a model during Auckland Uni days to a nervous kid like me.
05.07.09 in architects
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RMIT Design Hub shovel ready
Sean Godsell’s Design Hub is on the verge of construction. After many failed schemes on the old C.U.B. site in Swanston Street, this one appears certain to proceed. According to 5th Estate , it, “will feature a “smart skin” – a translucent outer skin made up of over 16,000 sand blasted glass cells, some of which have photovoltaic collectors to harness solar power. This outer skin will control the building’s temperature by rotating with the sun’s movements, which will be tracked via a computer.”
04.07.09 in buildings
Architect / protaganist:
Life in a heritage overlay
An Albert Park resident is having the usual problems trying to demolish his “bog standard” deco house, and has gone to the press with it as consultant fees top 150K. “When we’ve put extensions to [the council] previously they said they didn’t like architecture that mimicked previous periods… Then we bring in a contemporary design and they say it introduces new elements. I thought they were a bunch of megalomaniac tossers.”
3 cities
In a rather sprawling article The Oz tries to join the dots between the public architectural cultures of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Expert witnesses include Howard Tanner, Richard Johnson, Philip Cox, and Kim Dovey. Upshot: Brisbane is the young upstart, Melbourne’s got tickets on itself, and Sydney is resting comatose on its laurels.
04.07.09 in cities
SANAA in Sydney - again
Ryue Nishizawa has been terribly polite on his visit to Sydney to launch an installation (at the Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation). In 2000, SANAA’s Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were booted from the MCA competition that they’d won, but now they’re OK with that. MCA head Liz Ann Macgregor opened the show, and Nishizawa is saying nice things about Sam Marshall’s newish design for the MCA (3rd time lucky?). Nishizawa and Sejima must have gotten the MCA out of their systems after doing the New Museum in New York.
03.07.09 in architects galleries
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Architecture terribly exclusive, except for the pay
Flying around twitter… “Architecture is the most socially exclusive profession in the UK, ahead of law, medicine and accountancy, according to research by the Cabinet Office… Documents released by the Cabinet Office’s panel for Fair Access to the Professions show it costs more to qualify as an architect — over £60,000 — than any other profession. The panel also found newly qualified architects earned just over £20,000 a year, one of the lowest starting salaries in the professions.” BD Online
30.06.09 in practice education
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Luna Park, QVB get heritage listing
Luna Park, the Queen Victoria Building and Sydney Town Hall finally get state heritage listings. They didn’t have them already?! Its making me wonder if they’ve gotten around to the Opera House and Harbour Bridge yet?
30.06.09 in heritage
Iranian Lamborghini
I haven’t really taken much notice of car design since I built up a large collection of Matchbox cars and Daily Mail car annuals in the ’70s. My favorite was a Pininfarina – I can’t find a pic but here’s one of their concept cars from the 1970 Geneva Motor Show to give you an idea.
26.06.09 in random-debris
Moonlight Head
Buy one of Glenn and Wendy’s houses on the Great Ocean Road here for $3M, or perhaps here for $2.2M. You’d better read this first though. Maserati not included.
26.06.09 in real-estate buildings
Melbourne Uni building - tonight
Just heard this, a little late: Shortlisted teams for Melb Uni’s new architecture building competition have been in Melbourne this week to, “attend a briefing session, and as part of their visit they have each been invited to give short presentations as follows”:
26.06.09 in competitions