S U MME R JA N 201 3 I S SUE 1
The Official Journal of the Australian Institute of Architects: WA Chapter
04
President’s Message
05
Manager’s Message
07
Curator’s Introduction
09
Paper Architecture
10
Armstrong Parkin Architects’
Trade Training Centres
14
Belmont City College
Trade Training Centre
16
Westbury Crescent Residence
ARCHITECTURE MONTH
National Architecture Awards
31
Curtin AIA Exhibition
32
Two Feet and a Heart Beat
32
Open House Perth
32
34Seminars
DIA Awards
35
Box City
35
Governor’s House Open
36
UWA Exhibition
36
Dots on Top
36
How Much Does Your Building
37
Weigh, Mr Foster?
37
3 Over 4 Under
MERGE Small Bar Stop
37
MERGE Photo Competition
38
18
Marsala House
39
Francisco Mangado lecture
20
Iwanoff Bicycle Tour
40
Perth Samplings
24
Peter Hunt Travel Prize
42
In Progress
30
WA Architecture Awards
& Exhibition Opening
43
Local Finds
44
Flashback: Waterfront Schemes
46
UWA News
47
Student Projects: UWA
52
Student Projects: Curtin
56
Opinion: Our Studio Culture
02Editorial
1
TH E A RCH ITECT S UM ME R 2013 IS S UE 001
This Issue
The Official Journal of
the Australian Institute of
Architects: WA Chapter
Editor
Hannah Gosling
E: wa.editor@architecture.com.au
Publisher
Australian Institute of Architects WA Chapter
Advertising
Kim Burges
Australian Institute of Architects WA Chapter
T: (08) 9287 9900
E: kim.burges@architecture.com.au
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
2
Editorial
A few of us came on board shortly before
Andrew’s departure last year, and we
have been operating under a new model
for the running of The Architect.
Produced for
Australian Institute of Architects WA Chapter
33 Broadway Nedlands WA 6009
T: (08) 9287 9900
E: wa@architecture.com.au
www.architecture.com.au/wa
There is a curator for each issue, who
selects a particular theme to explore as
feature articles. The editorial committee
help commission articles based on this
theme, as well as covering the usual
Institute activities. Having a well sized
editorial committee (that keeps on
growing!) has allowed us to share the
load and give The Architect the time it
deserves.
Cover Image
Shaun Tan
Fifth Avenue, Mount Lawley, 2004
Oil on canvas, 1160 x 1330 mm
Courtesy of the artist
Photographer: Bo Wong
We identified a lot of enthusiasm from the
architectural community in being involved
but lacking the time for The Architect.
We hope this new model will encourage
more involvement from members.
AS ISSN: 1037-3460
Many thanks to the Institute for their
support. I would also like to thank the
many individuals who contributed to this
issue in various ways, and in particular the
following who contributed their time to
the Editorial Committee:
Warranty: Persons and/or organisations and their
servants and agents or assigns upon lodging with the
publisher for publication or authorising or approving the
publication of any advertising material indemnify the
publisher, the editor, its servants and agents against
all liability for, and costs of, any claims or proceedings
whatsoever arising from such publication. Persons and/or
organisations and their servants and agents and assigns
warrant that the advertising material lodged, authorised
or approved for publication complies with all relevant
laws and regulations and that its publication will not give
rise to any rights or liabilities against the publisher, the
editor, or its servants and agents under common and/
or statute law and without limiting the generality of the
foregoing further warrant that nothing in the material
is misleading or deceptive or otherwise in breach of the
Trade Practices Act 1974.
Important Disclaimer: The material contained in this
publication is general comment and is not intended as
advice on any particular matter. No reader should act
or fail to act on the basis of any material contained
herein. Readers should consult professional advisors.
The Australian Institute of Architects, its officers, the
editor and authors expressly disclaim all and any liability
to any persons whatsoever in respect of anything done
or omitted to be done by any such persons in reliance
whether in whole or in part upon any of the contents of
this publication. All photographs are by the respective
contributor unless otherwise noted.
Brad Ladyman - Curator
Mary Ong
Susan Nguyen
Byron Last
Millicent Taylor
Alexandra Mackenzie
Lucy Fuchsbichler
Kathryn van Vugt
If you are interested in curating an issue,
or being involved in some way, please do
not hesitate to contact me.
This issue of The Architect is a review of
2012. Featured on the cover is a painting
by Shaun Tan titled Fifth Avenue, Mount
Lawley. This painting was one of a few in
an exhibition of Shaun Tan’s work titled
Suburban Odyssey, held earlier in the year
at the Fremantle Arts Centre.
Tan is most well known for his illustrated
books, but this exhibition showcased
a range of paintings and sketches that
gave viewers an insight into his studies
and process.
The finished paintings of suburban
landscapes were like no other I have
seen before. Like the illustrations in his
books, he depicts a world that is strangely
familiar yet with a touch of magic and
beauty that can’t quite be described.
Many of the paintings were done in Tan’s
formative years and the scenes clearly
form a basis for his work since then. It
is a poignant reminder that an everyday
landscape often disregarded can still
provide inspiration.
Hannah Gosling
State President’s Message
contact the office to register your interest
in participating.
2012 has been a fulfilling year. Some of
the activities of the WA Chapter that
stand out for me are:
Last year a number of members assisted
a working group to lobby BMW for
improved contract conditions under
the new BMW Architectural Services
Panel. I thank BMW for entering into
negotiations in good faith and I believe
we made some good progress on behalf
of our members. There are a number of
important outstanding issues that the
working group intends to keep pursuing
in 2013.
The World Premiere showing of Life
Architecturally where we invited the
stars of the show Debbie Ryan and Rob
McBride to join us and to participate in a
live interview after the show.
Our inaugural Awards Presentation
Day held at UWA where we had the
opportunity to listen to architects
describe their projects that had been
entered into the state awards program.
I am convinced that this will become a
highlight of our annual events calendar
over years to come.
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
4
Another successful awards program
generally with excellent participation.
This year we are planning a new format for
the awards presentation evening, to be
held at the wonderful Perth Concert Hall.
The new format responds to feedback
from many of our members who have said
they want an event that better reflects
the unique position our profession holds
in our community. Our awards committee
is working hard to develop an event
that appropriately acknowledges the
excellent work of our members, is an
enjoyable opportunity to celebrate our
achievements with colleagues, and that
reflects the creativity and innovation that
makes our profession so special. If you
have ideas and time to help out, please
Great attendance by members at a wide
range of CPD events run by the Institute.
These events are an excellent opportunity
for members to get together on a regular
basis, to learn something new or to be
inspired. If you have suggestions for
CPD events, or if you have a particular
area of expertise that you can share with
your colleagues, please contact the office
to help make our CPD programme even
better.
For the first time, last year I took the
opportunity to go to Venice to attend
the Architecture Biennale. This is an
experience that should be on all architects’
bucket lists, and I am pleased that due to
the generosity of Jenny Nicol our young
WA members will have the opportunity
to win a trip for two to the Architecture
Biennale by submitting for the biannual
Gil Nicol Prize. Details will be available
soon.
Excellent support from our members for
national events being held in Perth. Last
year we backed up our continuing calls
to have WA included in as many national
events as possible by attending in large
numbers National Seminar Series events,
two International Speaker events, and
the National Architecture Awards event
recently held at the Midland Railway
Workshops.
Based on the evidence
that the WA architectural community is
vibrant and engaged, National Council last
November had no hesitation in endorsing
the proposal to hold the 2014 National
Conference in Perth. So put Thursday 8 to
Saturday 10 May 2014 in your diaries and
stay tuned for more news on how you can
be involved.
Thanks to our Institute staff, Meino, Kim
and Voula, for all of your achievements
in 2012. Thanks also to our committee
members and other volunteer members
who help to organise and run events and
who contribute to submissions and policy
papers etc. It’s important that we all
continue to recognise the contribution
that our sponsors make to allow us to
deliver the programs we all want as
members – so thank you again to our
sponsors.
Thanks to our Chapter Council and in
particular to our retiring Councillors
Maxine Canning and Tony Ednie-Brown
for your contributions over many years. Congratulations and welcome to our
incoming Chapter Councillors, Kelly
Rattigan and Paul Edwards.
I look forward to sharing another busy
year with you all in 2013.
David Karotkin
Hello everyone, it’s lovely to catch up with
you again. The second half of 2012 has
been very busy with a number of activities
occuring during the year.
On 5 July 2012 we held the Architecture
Awards at the Burswood Hotel with over
700 people attending. Quite an amount
of time was allowed for networking
which the members enjoyed. I won’t go
into detail as the Awards issue of The
Architect covered it all.
Next year the Architecture Awards
Committee is organising a new format
for the Awards night to be held at the
Perth Concert Hall. It’s a wonderful venue
and the new format will bring with it
opportunities to create a unique and
enjoyable event, so put Friday 5 July in
your diaries now.
Members are showing a great interest
in the CPD programme especially since
it is mandatory to obtain 20 CPD points
per year. The courses held in the year are
listed following.
If there are any particular topics that you
would like the Institute to run please
contact Kim Burges at the Chapter office.
Your idea may be the exact one that other
members want but are reluctant to let us
know.
Besides the various CPD courses we also
held Architecture Month in November
2012. This coincided with the National
Architecture Awards, Open House and
Heritage Week. We certainly had a surfeit
of all things architectural; and gained a lot
of publicity (thank you Detail Marketing
Communications). A special thanks to
the Committee organizing Architecture
Month, they embraced the event with
great enthusiasm to ensure a fabulous
month.
2012 CPD PROGRAMME
February
Life Architecturally
Sarawak Legislative Assembly Building
Tour of Perth Arena
PD Awards Presentation/Jury (Fred Chaney)
National Seminar Series: Fee Negotiation/Client
Architect Agreements/Project Briefing
March
Tour of Perth Arena
Alberto Campo Baeza
(International Speaker Series)
Timber Design Detail & Durability
AECOM – Ferrari World
April
Lavan Legal – Building Legislation Reforms 1 & 2
- sponsored by FMC
May
Tour of Fiona Stanley Hospital
Lavan Legal – Building Legislation Reforms 3
June
Lavan Legal – Building Legislation Reforms 4
Tour of Fiona Stanley Hospital
New Futures for Heritage Buildings (National
Seminar Series)
Building Commission – Reforms
July
9/11 Revisited – Fire Safety
Lavan Legal Engagement of Consultants and how
to limit liability - sponsored by FMC
Lavan Legal Residential Contracts update
August
Gold Medal Presentation
Risk & Insurance Protecting Your Practice
(National Seminar Series)
BIM in Practice Introduction to Documents
September
Extensions of Time and Liquidated Damages
Climate Driven Design (National Seminar Series)
October
International Speaker: Francisco Mangado
November
BIM (National Seminar Series)
National Steel Seminar
Lavan Legal Update Copyright
- sponsored by FMC
We are very pleased to work with our
sponsors who contributed a great deal to
the Institute events.
They are:
Colorbond – BlueScope Steel
Mondoluce
AECOM
Total Project Solutions
Corporate Theatre
Scoop Publishing
Homeguard
The Laminex Group
iGuzzini
Dulux
Badge
Austim
Public Brand Design Consultants, and
Bravvo
Without their assistance we would not be
able to hold the events we do - so many
thanks for your support.
Naturally, these events required a lot of
organisation. Besides all the committees
my thanks go to our hard working State
President, Chapter Councillors and
particularly our staff Kim Burges and
Voula Kaplanis. Thank you, thank you,
thank you.
I wish you all the very best for a wonderful
2013.
Meino Mirkva
5
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Twelve months have passed now since
we saw the reintroduction of hard
copy issues of The Architect magazine. Whilst there are only two issues per year
(this one which wraps up the year just
complete, and the awards issue mid year)
it has certainly been a welcome return for
our local record. Thanks to everyone that
has contributed to so far and I encourage
everyone to think about how we can
continue to develop the magazine by
providing feedback, articles and letters to
the Editor.
State Manager’s Message
Curator’s Introduction
Coffee, Communication and Distraction
In this issue we momentarily pause to look at
appropriate and meaningful architecture and
begin to question the legitimacy of seductive
strategies, drained of any content. As
Nicolas Bourriaud outlined in his Tate Modern
lecture and manifesto ‘altermodernity’, the
end of postmodernism seems paradoxically
to be either quite close or very far away;
however the pursuits of new singularities in
architecture are driving new methodologies
in both practice and research. We can also
acknowledge the impact of the ‘archi-blog’,
‘face-book’ and the way in which students
are communicating ideas, expressing
experiential qualities and critiquing the
built environment. These trans-dimensional
realms are somewhat hard to examine,
penetrate and quantify for the architectural
historicist or the pedagogical critic. Professor
Christine Hawley recently pointed out in her
public lecture at UWA that these current
issues pose problems for educational
institutions as a certain level of perceptual
fragmentation is now occurring from a
young age as the result of an increase in
the inhabitation of online gaming such as
Minecraft and virtual worlds. Our mind-body
connectedness is variable and constantly
changing and igniting opposing arguments
regarding the long term effects of hyperarousal, caffeine and evolving internal
dialogues. Meditative techniques based on
‘body-awareness’ are becoming popular,
especially amongst the younger generation
in the form of new anchors for positive
feeling, relief and well being. Relational
aesthetics, encounter cultures and didactic
methodologies such as hand drawing,
performance art and model making seem to
be the return to ‘safe place’ and reflective
practice, and evident in some of the work
in this issue. So take this mag to your local
coffee shop, read it – and leave it for the next
avatar.
Brad Ladyman
7
TH E A RCH ITECT S UM ME R 2013 IS S UE 001
Above: ‘The Helmet’ taken from Tim Porter, ‘How
Architects Visualize’, (New York, Studio Vista
1979) 101.
The important question about representation
has become that of intent. The lifespan of
communication has been reduced in the
consciousness of the profession to a coffee
break, image search, or a single post. What
kind of world are we intending to create,
and how do we define architecture in such
fleeting conditions? Since the invention of
the “dark chamber” in the early 16th century,
artists and scientist have used technology
to make xeroxed observations of reality.
Images pass through the light hole of our
imagination to become once again real. This
issue of The Architect presents the current
work of Western Australian architects,
but what about the future? Today the
discussions of future communities are not
without consideration of the role that digital
technology plays in reshaping architecture
and the possibilities for its representation. In
the early 1960s, Marshall McLuhan presented
his groundbreaking ideas, later published in
Laws and Media examining the effects of
technology on society and the pedagogical
effects of communicative media. Today we
see a range of modes of representation.
Static and active computer generated
environments, cyber-communities and
virtual reality are all the product of generative
diagrams, digital representation and dubbed
imagery. Meaning is blurred in the flow
of communication and, perhaps as in the
cover shot of this issue, the interpretation
of architecture can be polarizing amongst
society and the profession. Dialogue
regarding the consequences of the
growing preoccupation with the image
has been ongoing. Originally expressed by
philosophers and cultural theorists such as
Walter Benjamin and Jean Baudrillard, the
debate is also extended with authors such as
Neil Leach who argue that the preoccupation
with the digital image can induce a sort of
numbness. The saturation of information
floods the senses and obscures the deeper
concerns traditionally reliant on visual
representation.
Procuring an Architectural Influence in
Western Australia
The architectural practice of CODA has
once again highlighted its ability for
applied pragmatism and innovation with
its new design handbook for an area the
size of Spain. Kieran Wong and Emma
Williamson established the practice in
1997, and have since developed a rich
and compelling body of work. CODA’s
recent vade mecum simply titled ‘Pilbara
Vernacular Handbook’ was commissioned
by Landcorp as part of the Western
Australian Government ‘Pilbara Cities
Vision’ and outlines the contextual
foundations and future possibilities for
community development and growth
in the face of rapid change. The Pilbara
region is experiencing a massive surge of
growth demanding a long-term view of
the Pilbara communities. This 400-page
handbook (perhaps for the back pocket
of Goliath) begins with a comprehensive
overview of the Pilbara, planning and
housing vernacular.
The handbook
then follows on with a summary of the
important objectives for high quality
design of buildings and public spaces,
outlining a range of considerations such
as appropriate materials and suitable
construction techniques which are not as
intuitively ingrained into ‘place-making’
thinking as most architects would like.
HANNAH GOSLING
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
8
Pilbara Institute, South Hedland
This handbook is a very good tool for
enabling a common focus for people
from industry, commerce, government
and community who are instrumental
in the ongoing development of the
Pilbara. The task of identifying a Pilbara
vernacular is a unique and unprecedented
The handbook begins with an overarching
analysis and strategies for appropriate
responses for the urban realm, housing
and built form. The handbook provides
a springboard for ideas and encourages a
deeper level of thinking about the design
and construction that is appropriate
to the place.
Identified values are
expressed and respond to climate, natural
landscape, character, identity, liveability
and mobilisation for change. Four towns
were nominated and the same analysis
and strategic principles were applied to
each, unearthing the particularities of
place and providing strategies for specific
conditions.
The Pilbara Vernacular
Handbook is the first comprehensive and
detailed review of existing built fabric of
towns in the region. The manual presents
a case for high quality, regional and place
specific design responses at a variety of
scales. The document has been designed
to be read by a broad range of users and
is set out in an easy to understand format
using colour coding to guide the user
through the categories of reference.
CODA entered the Pilbara Vernacular
Handbook into the recent state
architecture
awards.
However
after making it through to the jury
presentation, the submission was
controversially stripped of eligibility as it
was not a building and/or did not meet
the relevant criteria for any category whoops! Kieran pointed out that research
and publication forms a major part of their
working methodology and architectural
practice research and publication should
be recognised further in formal awards
categories.
This handbook is a compelling read, and
there may also be future opportunities
to provide additional research on specific
building and planning topics such as
multiple dwellings and medium density
development for the Pilbara in the future.
The true value of this document will be
seen as architects and builders develop
its guidelines into tangible outcomes
and quality spaces to be appreciated by
generations to come.
Brad Ladyman
9
“We worked with engineers, planning
consultants,
retail
and
economic
consultants, planning and land agencies
to ensure that the work met the strategic
goals of government whilst balancing
practical, credible and viable design
scenarios. We worked closely with
local builders and developers to ensure
the validity of our strategies in the
marketplace and test the effectiveness of
our communication.”
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Project
Pilbara Vernacular Handbook
challenge given its vast area of 502,000
square kilometres. Many Pilbara towns
were established to provide short-term
accommodation for mining companies
and do not have the distinctive built form
that defines a typical local design context.
This handbook also strives to encourage
a contemporary design response to
the Pilbara context, evoking a sense of
place to reflects the local landscape,
environment, climate and culture.
CODA STUDIO
Practice
CODA Studio
INTE RVIE W
Paper Architecture
Hospitality & Catering Training Centre,
Mirrabooka Senior High School
Metal Fabrication Training Centre,
Kent Street Senior High School
Light Automotive & Metal Fabrication
Training Centre, Sevenoaks Senior High
School
Light Automotive Training Centre,
Leeming Senior High School
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10
For the purposes of this review four
recently completed projects will be
discussed individually.
This body
of work will then be discussed as a
collection whereby common threads
and unidentified preoccupations begin
to surface.
It’s important to state
that while there is much to be said for
the programme, its teaching and the
specialisations it encourages, this review
will address only the architecture of those
learning environments.
These buildings are what they are; large
working sheds laid out via carefully
orchestrated workflows that provide
economy and maximum efficiency. I have
no doubt however that APA’s flair for
compact planning is one of the means
by which they enable architecture to be
afforded; a good thing as it takes these
places beyond replication of the industry
standard factory unit found anywhere
in light industrial Perth and into the
creation of nurturing and joyous places
for personal advancement. A constant of
the site visits was extremely high client
satisfaction regarding both facility and
levels of service by their architect. APA
are true professionals - no corner cutting
here, just committed, sound practice
based on time honoured traditional
processes.
These are the very places where the
best architects can excel, where, via
intelligence and attuned spatial thinking,
something can be eked out of almost
nothing. APA has now proved their place
within the profession fifteen times over,
and it seems that their clients are in accord
with this view. With two WA Architecture
Awards (Small Project category) hanging
in the ‘pool room’ this should come as no
surprise.
P ROJEC T R EVIE W
Each building typically contains the trade
based areas of learning - workshops,
kitchens, office environments and the
like. These are accompanied by discrete
classroom areas complete with the
technology one would expect in modern
classroom environments and are familiar
in layout allowing individual, group and
targeted learning. The trade-based areas
are large shed-like rooms packed with
industry-level equipment, machinery
and fittings. In all cases these spaces
have high levels of mechanical extract,
far exceeding that which I’ve ever seen
within the industry (with the exception
of commercial kitchens), clearly placing
the health of the young students at
the forefront of concern. These trade
spaces gleam, are filled with marvellous
‘kit’, are naturally ventilated, airy,
flooded in daylight, and in regards to
the composition of their mechanical and
electrical systems, are highly composed.
In one case, the welding booth area of the
Kent Street facility has the quality of an
almost luscious courtyard interior.
Apart from building type, programme,
operational performance and the
dominance of workflow planning, what
is at play as individual works, and what
can be learnt by observing the body of
work collectively? What can this tell us
about this practice, and how can such
knowledge benefit both this practice and
those who study their work?
I have on multiple occasions had the good
fortune to hear APA present their work at
Curtin University and it occurs to me that
their central project is that of technical
refinement. Include the term ‘builderly’
(as the practice directors do) and this is
further qualified - an approach to technical
refinement that understands the limits
and the possibilities within local building
practice and knowing how and when to
coax more from a project at all stages for
maximum return. Extending this a little
further, their contract documents can
only be described as exquisite. But this
is only a partial explanation of the work
individually and collectively.
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TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Projects
In the years since the launch of the
Federal Government’s ingenious Trade
Training Centres educational programme
Armstrong Parkin Architects
(APA)
has completed fifteen throughout
metropolitan Perth and regional Western
Australia. Administered through the
Department of Finance (BMW) each
is situated within a designated State
Government high school campus. High
Schools were encouraged to partner with
others in the vicinity so as to increase grant
funding allocations and ultimately share
in and maximise the use of the resultant
building. Each facility was to be affiliated
with an existing TAFE or private tradebased training organisation, with that
training body offering support, guidance
and ‘certificate three’ qualification upon
graduation. The base intention of this
programme is to extend the education,
literacy and numeracy of those students
who would have traditionally completed
year ten and then entered trade-based
apprenticeships. It also offers a headstart in their chosen trade apprenticeship.
This pioneering educational programme is
grounded in competency-based, practical
simulations of real-world environments
that provide added focus on extending
students’ core competencies in literacy
and numeracy relating to these training
applications.
APA
Practice
Armstrong Parkin Architects
APA
P ROJEC T R EVIE W
Armstrong Parkin Architects’ Trade Training Centres
APA
Light Automotive Training Centre,
Leeming SHS
Collectively certain common or recurring
strategies seem to emerge, however
this seems less orchestrated than the
very deliberate acts which arise within
the confines of each project individually.
Mirrabooka and Kent Street could be
These inevitably truncated observations
of the practice’s broad conceptual project
suggest that there is much more going
on than just the constant pursuit of
technical refinement. These four works
are plastic endeavours easily placed in
two camps (tent or shell and cave or
monolith) and while each shares common
urban or civic devices they are conceived
and executed in fundamentally different
ways within the practice. While primary
authorship by one of two partners
partially accounts for this, it doesn’t
always hold true with other schemes in
the office. I would suggest that there are
a set of rules at play within this practice
that attest to the consistency of the work
but are themselves under-acknowledged
in the act of designing, documenting and
building. Interestingly this was raised
briefly with Stephen Parkin who recently
APA
oversaw the construction of the practice’s
website and who acknowledged that the
process offered some insight into the
broader conceptual project with which the
office is engaged.
Hospitality & Catering Training Centre,
Mirrabooka Senior High School (SHS)
Light Automotive and Metal Fabrication
Training Centre, Sevenoaks SHS
As mentioned there is something deeply
Perthian going on within this body of
work but it extends well beyond the
limited descriptive capacity of ‘builderly’.
These works, as well as others within
the practice’s oeuvre are almost always
partially linguistic, referential or collagebased. I am surprised by this assertion
but find it inescapable within the work as
I continue to view it, quietly hiding in the
background but too consistently present
to be mere accident. Is this partly because
both Armstrong and Parkin studied
architecture at the time of international
post-modernism – not the oxymoronic
kind but of the lingering genius of Rossi
and Venturi Scott-Brown? Is this taking
place as a result of where the authors
live and work - Perth, the Autopian [1]
paradise where this process of collage is
almost inescapable; partly due to the love
of the car and beach but also because
of an absence of an intact collective
spatial history (the kind we expect of
Europe)? The question will linger but
the presence of these references lies
playfully, sometimes stoically within
the body of work. I have already made
mention of the most expressive of the
group - Sevenoaks with its dusting
in
Palandri-Petrol
Station-Meisian
references. Kent Street, the stoic of the
group; enjoying the compositional poise
of its local brick, a gigantic expressed
lintel and a wonderfully chunky central
brick pier; each a play on the language
of the existing campus. At Leeming this
collagic process is more trace-like with its
highlighted, cranked red fascia/beam and
its golden bulkhead. Mirrabooka seems to
be unadorned with applied references but
a quick scan of other APA projects and one
finds the borrowing of local pattern in the
surfaces of their Kalgoorlie TAFE project
and the caravan-like husk at Woodvale’s
Hospitality Training Centre.
The role that each of these examples
serves within the projects themselves
remains unexplored, and the act of
technical refinement is inadequate in
accounting for the presence of these
designerly decisions. I find this exciting
as an observer of APA’s work; work I had
always admired but had unconsciously
pigeonholed as technically motivated and
indeed builderly. I say exciting because to
find new pursuits within an existing body
of work outweighs random acts of novel
invention (unless of course random acts
of novel invention happens to be your
project, which for APA it is most certainly
not). If I was to suggest anything to this
very fine practice it would be to review
their body of work, to find what resides
within, to account for the things that
they do but can’t clearly articulate and
to project new pursuits outwards from
these current leanings. And at all times,
to consider the role of this work in the
contribution that it makes to, but how it
is also deeply affected by our region.
Simon Pendal
Simon Pendal is co-founder of the architectural
practice Pendal and Neille, a lecturer in Architecture
at Curtin University and curator of a monthly
newspaper column focusing on architecture and our
city in the West Australian Newspaper.
[1] Autopia- See Banham, R- Los Angeles: The
Architecture Of Four Ecologies. Harper and Row.
1971.
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described as taut monoliths with carved
undercover open-air spaces located
neatly within the body of the monolith.
Leeming and Sevenoaks are light sheds
with projecting, scaled and shady
edges; clipped-on elements are put to
uses that their monolithic cousins are
denied. Mirrabooka and Leeming are
formally shell-like extrusions which are
not resolved but abruptly cut to length
intentionally expressing the act of
extrusion. The monolithic surfaces of
Kent St and Mirrabooka are resolved as
singular, deep material surfaces of relief
which hold light and shade within their
patterned faces. In contrast Sevenoaks
and Leeming are additive as opposed to
subtractive (as seen in the monoliths) and
are the result of layering multiple parts,
skins and objects - in some sense they
register their process of being physically
modelled in thin card. All projects, with
the exception of Sevenoaks, present
their primary, deeply rutted surfaces
perpendicular to one’s arrival conferring
a civic scale, importance and drama upon
this moment.
APA, TONY NATHAN
APA
Metal Fabrication Training Centre,
Kent Street SHS
Individually each project employs clear
strategies; formal, technical and material.
Generally speaking each site has been
re-phrased by their buildings rather than
the alternative, suggesting that the
environments for which they have been
designed are difficult and offer little as
referential starting points. Consistently,
the site response is urbanistic in the
sense that the projects reconfigure spaces
between buildings, streets, landscapes
and offer multiple site addresses, clarity
of entering, delivering shade and external
occupiable areas. Of the four projects
visited only Kent Street builds upon or
manipulates an existing language and
is fundamentally interesting as a result,
configuring a formal working courtyard
back to the school proper and holds a
somewhat luscious interior. Leeming is
finely wrought, crisp, edgy and the most
generous of the group and benefits from
its setting within an ancient Banksia
woodland. Mirrabooka is the glamour
project of the group and employs a fluid
manipulation of its section, drawing in
balancing daylight to enrich all affected
interiors - both public and service and, like
Leeming it accentuates the moment of
arrival at the campus proper. Sevenoaks
benefits most from being well scaled, sits
within possibly the most awkward of the
four sites and re-makes its northern end
into a considered landscape interface.
This project is particularly expressive and
reads like a cross between Donaldson
and Warn’s Palandri Winery and a petrol
station. And here, out of nowhere,
appears a lone Miesian column holding
the petrol station roof - stripped of its
chrome casing it is dabbed in bright yellow
paint. Yellow - Perthian chrome.
The beginnings of this project anchored
themselves with the fundamental
requirements of the commercial teaching
kitchen, namely the extensive mechanical
system that would be required. A
conceptual section was generated for
the project commencing at the linear
cooking spine in the kitchen where the
lowest ceiling height was required for
the exhaust systems. The ceiling planes
to either side were then folded upwards
to allow natural light into the teaching
space, with a particular focus on south
light. A more gentle fold was applied to
the restaurant ceiling so as to continue to
draw in natural light while still providing
adequate shading at the required times
with the external overhang.
Additionally, beyond the western services
end of the building, none of the external
walls touch the ceiling. Instead a glazed
perimeter frees the ceiling/roof volume
from the lightweight wall structure
creating both a sense of light and
lightness.
This Upside Down Landscape of the ceiling
was finished in a pale green and is the
only colour applied to the project. During
different times of day the reflected colour
The restaurant, bar and the seminar
spaces are located front of house, and
are designed to be a singular function
space, or independent spaces with
closure of an operable wall. They embrace
northern light, and the seminar space
also has southern teaching light. All light
can be mediated at the perimeter with
motorised blinds providing additional
control throughout the year. A burnished
concrete floor enables thermal massing
and provides a durable surface with a
natural patina.
The restaurant space is extended out
under the overhang through large
sliding glass doors and beyond into the
organically formed insitu paved areas.
The insitu concrete planter boxes are for
a future produce garden, and aspire to
connect the students with the elemental
aspects of food. It also promotes a
positive exchange between patrons of the
restaurant and students emerging from
the kitchen to collect items such as herbs,
tomatoes or fruits.
A central linear zone has been articulated
with a plywood cabinetwork spine housing
a variety of functions including a reception
counter, bar, and elongated storage unit.
A heavy curtain creates softness and
warmth, while also providing effective
acoustic absorption for the restaurant
space.
With a modest material palette, the
articulation of simple qualities of space
and light have aspired to create positive
teaching and learning spaces that are
open, communicative and connected.
Natalie Hill
Project Architect
P ROJEC T R EVIE W
is borrowed by the internal finishes and
softened.
BEN PRICE
Project
Belmont City College Hospitality
Trade Training Centre
The design approach for the Belmont City
College Hospitality Trade Training Centre
is focused on providing an effective
operational environment for the delivery
of Hospitality training packages. The
facilities are laid out to accommodate
skills training style classes, with a
demonstration bench facing work areas
that accommodate up to 16 students in
a class. The facilities also accommodate
A La Carte training and service which
interfaces with a restaurant environment.
Primarily the intention was to create a
functional and comfortable facility that
also provided engaging, flexible spaces
that energise students, teachers and the
community.
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Practice
Gresley Abas
BEN PRICE
P ROJEC T R EVIE W
Belmont City College Trade Training Centre
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Project
Westbury Crescent Residence
“Charlie’s asleep so let’s go around the
back,” David suggests as we step out of the
car we leave lying on the front verge. “Ok,”
I respond as we begin to wander up the
driveway-cum-courtyard that runs down
the side of the old, red-brick Federation
house. Half way up, we pass through a
white picket gate onto a rug of astroturf,
a somewhat kitsch moment that is boldly
terminated with an earnest strip of rough
limestone blocks. The blocks form a step
up to the jarrah deck of the new addition
that has been tucked into a tight site at
the rear of the block. Towering over the
deck, is the impressively tall north face of
the addition that lunges toward the sky
in an attempt to scoop light over the high
neighbouring wall built hard up on the
northern boundary. The limestone slides
between this new giant window frame
and the old house, guiding me to the side
entry door. Through the glass panel of
the door I can see down the length of the
addition and out to the other side, a vista
that is accentuated by a thin recessed
strip of artificial light in the ceiling that
runs the full length of the addition, and
combining to clearly express the junction
between the new and the old.
Inside, the owner is perched at a large
dining table with the newspaper spread
out, making the most of the north light
being funnelled into the room. As we
exchange pleasantries, David pulls back
an almost impossibly large timberframed glass sliding door to reveal the
deck we passed upon entry. Inside and
outside seamlessly become one until an
identically proportioned slider of taught
translucent sail cloth is drawn across the
threshold, shielding the interior from the
glare of the summer sun and blocking
entry to unwanted creatures.
Noticing my struggle with the Perth
summer heat, I’m offered a much-needed
glass of water. We make our way over
to the kitchen where a ‘flick’ in the wall
drenches the benchtop with northern
light grabbed from the adjacent service
court. Glass in hand, I turn and view
down the central corridor of the old
house. It’s dark down there. A peaceful,
private domain, contrasting with the
open, light filled addition we’re gathered
in. I remember that Charlie’s sleeping
and refrain from crossing the threshold
that has been cleverly articulated on the
floor through a change in board direction.
Instead, I decide to explore the back of the
addition where I find two doors concealed
in a wall that reads as an extension of
the kitchen cabinetry. Behind the first
door is the laundry where light is filtering
in from above, softening what would
otherwise be a fairly utilitarian space.
Behind the second, I find the bathing
room that is being washed in natural light
from a generously proportioned southfacing clerestory window. The window
also frames a view of the tree canopies
beyond which, in dynamic contrast to the
calmness of the space, are swaying in the
recently arrived ‘Fremantle Doctor’.
P ROJEC T R EVIE W
Practice
David Barr in association with
Brett Mitchell
Like the trees outside, Charlie’s beginning
to stir. It’s time to go. As we head out
of the other side door, I look back at the
bathroom window from which I had just
gazed. The detailing is a clear ‘nod’ to
Lewerentz’s St Peter’s Church. I wonder if
something is being suggested about the
spirituality of bathing? Upon returning
from my visit, I look up the church and
learn that Lewerentz completed his
masterpiece at the age of 81. It was
his final built project. The Westbury
Crescent project however, is at the other
end of the careers of its authors who
have announced themselves impressively
with this small, refined project, one that
negotiates the complexities of site and
occupation through the careful sculpting
of space and light.
Ross Brewin
Ross Brewin is a Melbourne-based architect whose
practice spans architecture, art and writing. He is
a Lecturer of Architectural Design in the Faculty of
Art Design and Architecture at Monash University.
www.rossbrewin.com
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P ROJEC T R EVIE W
Westbury Crescent Residence
What led you to commission Donaldson &
Warn as your architects to undertake the
restoration for the Marsala House?
Project
Marsala House Renovations
Recently in Perth there seems to have
been a resurgence of interest in the
architectural works of the late Iwan
Iwanoff. Known for his innovative use of
concrete blockwork and for pushing the
boundaries of residential architecture
with his strong Brutalist style, his
buildings were often ahead of their time
for Perth.
We considered a few architects, however
when Geoff Warn visited us, he mentioned
that the ‘circle would be complete’. Geoff
was referring to his junior years as an
architectural student when he visited
Marsala House with Iwan during its
construction. Thus given Geoff’s early
connection with Marsala House and his
enthusiasm for its preservation, the
decision to engage Donaldson and Warn
was obvious. It was very important to us to
have passionate people who connect with
the house involved with the project.
In the wake of the publicity received
by Marsala House in recent years for its
heritage status and extensive restoration
works completed in 2011, it came as a
surprise that the owners, Mark Etherton
and Christopher Beer, who bought the
property back in 2005 in a state of
disrepair, sold it shortly after completing
the restoration to the property. We
interviewed Mark to ask him to reflect on
his time at the Marsala House, his views
on its post-occupancy and the laborious
process of bring the amazing house back
to life.
Susan Nguyen & Mary Ong
We greatly appreciated the various wings
of the house and their orientation; it had
a soothing and secure feel. Much of the
restoration and renovation ensured that
modern facilities improved everyday living
and reduced power consumption.
Personal circumstances (arrival of our two
baby daughters!) forced our hand and thus
after deliberating and agonising for months,
we decided to attempt to find another
worthy custodian for our incredible home. It was gut wrenching to see it listed, the
thought of severing our relationship with
our iconic home into which we had injected
an incalculable amount of love, blood, sweat
and tears. I can clearly recall the night when
the prospective new custodians were given
access to our home, the feelings of anxiety
and grief were overwhelming. Many
questions raced through our minds, who
would be interested, would they be worthy
and capable carers of Marsala House, would
they cherish and love the home and ensure
it was preserved, as we had done!
What is your fondest memory of living in
the house?
Why do you think there is a sudden growing
interest in Iwanoff and his buildings?
There are many fond memories of our
time and relationship with Marsala House,
be it connection with the original owners
Serg and Tina Marsala, who along with
their family kindly visited on a number of
occasions to share their memories and
happiness (not to mention attending our
disco parties). Throwing a few incredible
parties and enjoying seeing our family and
friends being entertained by Cher, the Disco
Diva and ABBA - wow, what an era! We
also reminisce on the sense of tranquillity
and peace that emanated throughout the
house and many guests would comment
on these feelings when visiting. Whilst
thinking about this question, I have a flood
of fond memories of joyous times with
friends and family, be it a coffee and chat, a
beautiful evening on the balcony absorbing
the views or fun times in the pool. Ahh not
to mention the comical times when party
guests have taken unexpected dunks in the
pond or spa! I always recall people dropping
in for a few minutes and staying much
longer.
I believe that Perth is maturing as a city and
the citizens are taking a greater interest in
the built environment and its preservation. We have been and still are passionate
Iwanoff fans (and fans of all mid-century
architecture). So many wonderful buildings
were lost in the ‘60s and ‘70s and I believe
many people remember this period and
still grieve the loss of these icons. Even so
there are still plenty of amazing structures
that are at risk and it is incumbent on us
all to ensure their preservation. We were
stunned to see that we as citizens and
the government allowed the demolition
of the Perry Lakes Grandstand, another
incredible loss!
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What initially attracted us was the unique
blockwork exterior and the impression
it conveys almost of a living breathing
structure rising out of the hillside. We
felt compelled to buy the house and to
ensure its existence for future generations
to appreciate Iwanoff’s amazing insight
and creativity. The Marsala House has an
imposing facade and an incredible internal
feel. How did it feel to leave the Marsala house
after your time spent there and all the effort
in restoring it? Has living in the Marsala
house changed your lives in any way? Do
you feel an attachment or concern for it how would you feel if new owners were to
make changes to it?
On the day when the names of the potential
new custodians were revealed to us, I felt
an enormous weight lift of my shoulders. Although still numb from the fact that we
would have to relinquish custodianship we
had a sense of joy and peace of mind as we
knew the new caretakers were wonderfully
passionate and respectful of Iwanoff’s work
and they would elevate the property further. This is a great consolation to us! We feel
that living in Marsala House has been a gift,
and will always feel a sense of connection
to the place.
Ellie Brusasco
With Iwanoff’s Marsala House recently
being added to the State Heritage
Register and the recent restoration work
by architects Donaldson and Warn which
earned them a 2012 AIA Architecture
Award for Conservation or Restoration of
a Heritage Place, Iwanoff’s popularity is
only set to rise.
TIM STILES
In the past year or so, many of the houses
he designed have been put up for sale,
attracting much attention from architects
and the wider community alike. His
popularity amongst non-architects has
also increased with an Iwan Iwanoff Bike
Tour taking place earlier this year, that
visited some of his residential projects
within the suburb of Dianella.
What attracted you to the Marsala house in
the first place and other Iwanoff buildings
in general? How does it fit in with your
lifestyle, and were there any works to it that
improved on your lifestyle?
INTE RVIE W
Practice
Donaldson & Warn
TIM STILES
INTE RVIE W
Marsala House
Iwanoff Bicycle Tour
The idea for the tour came from Simon
Gauntlett and Margaret Dillon whom I’d
recently met via some mutual friends
of ours and who very graciously allowed
me to host the send birthday party for
my bicycle group, Bike Jam, at their
studio Concreto. The party was planned,
and I came over to Concreto the week
before the party to talk to them about
it and of my interest in holding events
that mix bikes in fun and creative ways.
While I was telling them about past
events that I’d hosted they suggested
the idea of an architectural bike tour. I
immediately loved it and thought it
was something that hadn’t been done
in Perth before (as far as I was aware).
Bike-related
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Around the same time the Department
of Transport were seeking applications
for bike events as part of Bike Week for
the following year. I had hosted an event
with Bike West the year before and with
the idea fresh in mind I thought this
might be the perfect opportunity to bring
it to fruition. I contacted Simon and
asked him if he wanted to do the tour.
He was in! - and so the team was formed.
Simon would supply the inspiration for
the architectural theme and I would plan
the route and bike related logistics. I
submitted the event application which
was successful and the event was
scheduled.
The big day
As the idea of the tour was developed
a few themes were explored before
settling on a survey of the houses of
Iwan Iwanoff. We decided there were
some really compelling reasons to make
him the subject of the first tour such as
the enduring popularity of his work, the
information from fans of Iwanoff that
was available online and the possibility of
arranging talks with some of the owners.
The response to the tour was great and
35 people took part on the day. It was a
beautiful sunny day and the group began
the ride at Concreto. Our first stop was
the Golovin house where the owner Jane
Gray greeted us and gave us a small
presentation. We then made our way
to Breckler Park to take the main part of
the tour including the Marsala, Bursztyn
and Kessell Houses. We were fortunate
to have the owner of the Bursztyn house,
Mark Baxter, also greet us and give a
short talk where he pointed out some of
the features and design elements of the
residence.
Having settled on our theme we decided
that the tour should focus on Dianella
as there was a nice concentration of his
work there and a ride from the city would
be relatively easy. So I set to work on
the route while Simon tapped into his
contacts to enquire about the possibility
of arranging for speakers.
A few weeks later I had a draft route
planned and we went on a practice run
during the evening to try it out .
The route was designed to allow a certain
amount of flexibility for the participants.
I planned for a stop at the carpark in
Breckler Park to allow people to drive
there and ride most of the tour but nearly
everyone ended up riding the entire tour
with us. A food stop was also included at
Novembars for post-tour Burgers before
the ride back to Concreto.
Satisfied that the route would fulfill our
expectations, a flyer and stylised route
map was produced to hand out to the
participants as well as serving to promote
the event.
After our final stop at the Feldman House
the sun was setting as the group made its
way to Novembars for some well-earned
nourishment before the ride back home.
Post Iwanoff Tour and Part 2
To cater for those who could not make the
tour on the day I planned to make the tour
map available to the public. Those who
wish to take the tour DIY style may do
so by following the route available online
here: http://www.bikejam.net/Iwanoff.
html
21
Just allow about 3-4 hours to ride it at a
leisurely pace.
Based on the interest and fun in hosting
the first tour, there has been talk of
staging another which would take in the
Iwanoff residences in Floreat and City
Beach. Stay tuned for part 2!
Herman Ragan &
Simon Gauntlett
Herman is Herman is an IT professional, fan of
architecture and founder of Bike Jam. He loves
bikes, art, creative people\communities, having
fun and believes all these things have a lot in
common.
Simon is the founding member of Concreto and
works as a public artist.
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The Idea
Iwanoff and the route
CHANGHOON KIM
The bike tour was held as part of Bike
Week on 18 March 2012, hosted by Simon
Gauntlett and Herman Ragan. The main
idea behind it was to gather fans of
architecture and the work of Iwan Iwanoff
in particular, and spend a nice sunny
afternoon riding to various residences
bearing his designs.
PHTP 2011
The Peter Hunt Travel Prize was modelled
after Peter’s own experiences as a
recipient of the Morawetz Prize upon his
graduation from Perth Technical College in
1961. During his time away, Peter worked
in architectural practices in London while
also travelling through Europe, visiting
places of particular interest to him.
Reconnecting Designing and Building
For a fresh graduate, the opportunity
to travel outside isolated Perth was
rare. Peter believes that, as overseas
travel becomes more common, travel
in the manner of the Grand Tour is not
so significant to architects nowadays.
Instead, he believes value can be found in
becoming acquainted with a mix of classic
and contemporary works, and exposing
ourselves to different methods of working.
Travel is important to our profession
- it broadens our understanding while
making the world ever smaller, lessening
the sense of isolation.
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Peter, together with the Department of
Architecture and Interior Architecture
at Curtin University, have developed the
prize into what it is today. No longer is
there a requirement to spend a minimum
of one year overseas, and consistent
academic achievement is not a primary
requirement. Instead self-motivation,
dedication, leadership as well as team
skills are sought.
Any graduating student could be forgiven
for finding the interview experience mildly
terrifying. Not only are you presenting
a $10,000 idea to a panel consisting of
representatives from your university,
future profession and sponsor, but
importantly, you discover your personal
skills are being tested. Will you be the
right person for the prize?
Peter has been making a significant
investment in those entering our
profession for the past 12 years. He seeks
individuals who are passionate about a
personal area of interest. Peter and the
Department have challenged the notion
of going overseas to travel and work, and
instead encourage graduates to develop
experiences that will stimulate the start
of their careers, whatever form this takes
and with the freedom to follow where the
path leads.
The Prize gives graduates the opportunity
to undertake intentional and meaningful
travel. It is an unconditional investment,
but by selecting the right individuals,
Peter and the Department hope these
individuals will return to enthusiastically
give back to the students and staff of the
university, as well as the profession.
Hannah Gosling
The term design-build is not well
recognised in Australia, which is curious
because it embodies the essential
meaning of the word architecture derived
from the Greek chief builder, where the
architect was traditionally both the
designer and the builder.
In spite of this, schools of architecture
and the architectural profession focus
primarily on the design process and
leave the building to others. This
separation and demarcation between
two complementary professions denies
a richness that can come from one better
understanding the other.
My quest has been to explore designbuild culture where it is well established.
The Peter Hunt Travel Prize has allowed
me to travel overseas to reveal a rich
plethora of design-build activity in the
form of design-build student programs in
the United States and self-build housing
in Brazil.
In the United States I visited ten designbuild programs at schools of architecture,
which included the Neighbourhood Design
Build Program in Seattle, the Design
Bridge Student Build Program in Eugene,
MIT Digital Fabrication Workshop in
Boston, the Vlock Building Project in New
Haven, Yestermorrow Design-Build School
in Vermont, the Rural Studio in Alabama,
Tulane Urban Build Program in New
Orleans, the Graduate Design Build Studio
in Houston, Studio 804 in Kansas and the
University of Colorado in Denver.
These programmes demonstrate a means
for rigorous architectural education
that also produces buildings that are
imaginative, innovative, well-crafted
and finished to a professional standard.
Students are able to experience the creation
of architecture from the initial design
process through to the finished building.
During the second half of my trip I
travelled to Brazil to work alongside local
builders in the informal settlements, or
favelas, of Rio de Janeiro.
The absence of any regulations within the
favelas as well as the economic limitations
of the residents permits a unique, organic
and tightly knit built environment. My
interest was to understand the dynamics
of the building process that creates this
environment. This led to involvement
with a local architectural office who were
proposing a major social project within
the favela and intended to engage a local
building co-operative for the construction.
I undertook a small design-build
experiment for a local restaurant as a
means to work with local builders and
understand the local building culture. This
experience revealed many interesting
low-tech construction methods as well
as the builder’s perspective. The findings
from this experiment were able to assist
the architecture office in developing
appropriate methods of documentation,
design details and contract methods.
Upon reflection, this trip has revealed my
underlying interests, on the one hand to
empower architecture students to become
better designers by understanding
the building process, and on the other
to empower builders in developing
communities through an understanding
of design. This trip has reinforced my
commitment to pursue practice in the
design-build field which is, after all, the
one process.
Michael Phillips
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Peter Hunt Travel Prize
PHTP 2009
Having a look around
The Peter Hunt Travel Prize sets one on a
quest to discover an international view on
architecture and gives you a compelling
motivation
to
encounter
unique
architectural experiences. For me the
unique experiences included discussing
current projects of Oscar Niemeyer while
taking in the famous view from his
Copacabana office, judging a university
architectural competition, attending
the Chilean Architectural Biennale, and
working in both Brazil and Chile. These
experiences were complemented by the
opportunity to explore great architecture
in the new world of South America.
Having just returned last month with a
head full of impressions, I will try to do
justice to the experience of the past 14
months.
With Berlin as ‘base’, the year unfolded
as a series of approximately month long
journeys out from there, followed by a
month back. Structured loosely around
nine architecture projects, under the
theme ‘new works in old places’, selected
before I left, I was curious to hold the
projects, known only through 6 years of
reading and study, up against the physical
(or real..?) encounter with them.
The nine projects became simply itinerary
anchor points, as my interest shifted
more toward architects I admired, and
the chronology of their work. In Norway
I saw Sverre Fehn’s works; in Portugal
and Spain I visited Alvaro Siza projects;
in Switzerland, Peter Zumthor projects;
in Italy, Carlo Scarpa’s interventions and
projects; in France, Le Corbusier’s, and
in Sweden, Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd
Lewerentz works. I kept costs fairly low
by hitchhiking when it was safe to do so,
and staying on the couches of friends, and
couch surfers, when they were available.
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Highlights while ‘out from Berlin’,
included: a long walk along a peninsular
to Sverre Fehn’s Hedmark County
Museum; a long bike ride up the coast
from Porto to Matosinhos to Siza’s Leça
Swimming Pools and Boa Nova Tea rooms
at dusk; a foggy morning’s hike with my
parents to find Le Corbusier’s Chapel
of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp; a
balmy, still day and night spent in silence
at the Monastery of Sainte-Marie de
La Tourette; a steep hike in the snow to
Zumthor’s chapel in Sumvitg; and a day
at the Brion-Vega Cemetery.
Highlights ‘in’ Berlin were; sitting in
Tiergarten in the ‘fall’; fixing an old 1980’s
Peugeot bike for night rides around the
Reichstag (bombed in WWII, wrapped in
sheets by Christo in 1995 and ‘domed’ by
Norman Foster in 1999); jogging around
Tempelhof, the decommissioned airport
of West Berlin; Museum Insel; monthly
Taize services by candlelight in the
Berliner Dom; perching on the Pergamon
altar; inside the plinth of the The Neue
Nationalgalerie, lingering by the Picassos;
attending free rehearsals in the Berliner
Philharmonie, and tracing Karl Friendrich
Schinkel’s works.
Over the course of the year I was by turns
surprised, delighted, elated, disappointed,
confused and inspired by the encounters.
In visiting them I also became interested
simply in the process of documenting. I
bought myself a digital SLR, a decent
lens, and a good sketch book.
On reflection, one of the most valuable
aspects of the prize, was its openendedness which forced me to justify to
myself what I considered the best use of
the time and money. I value also that the
prize afforded me autonomy - a time to
briefly step away, to hear my own opinions
and to bring them into focus. The wordy
brief that I set out with was reduced to
a few simple explorations. Through the
course of the year I also developed a
reverence for the weather, for light and
shadow, and materials that goes beyond
words. It is one thing to read about
these phenomena, but another to watch
them, be with them, and be moved by
them. Sincerest gratitude to Peter Hunt
for this priceless experience. If anyone is
interested to chat more, or to see some
sketches, please contact me.
Alexandra Mackenzie
Exploring the great architectural projects
was like walking through the pages of
journals – only now, the experience went
beyond imagining as I was able to search
out the views not shown in the journals,
to feel the tactile qualities and gently
smile knowing I had made it there.
To follow are some snippets of my
time away, these now form precious
memories and experience that begin to
create a knowledge of architecture, one
that informs the way I create and shape
spaces.
Brasilia – the bold and deliberate vision
intended to be a nation’s capital. Costa
and Niemeyer created a monument
city. The expressive modern buildings
of Niemeyer sit on a plinth of concrete
and red earth, they are placed apart like
sculptures in a gallery framed by bustling
freeways and the super blocks beyond.
It is a city created in only a few short
years, lacking a refined development; to
me it expresses a naivety in the design a
singular idea prevails. Space is abundant
both in, and around, the buildings of
Brasilia - reinforced by the vast distances
covered by foot in exploring this city!
However, Brasilia captures and preserves
the ideas of the architect at play.
SESC Pompeia – Lina Bo Bardi created
many modern masterpieces like the
MASB in central Sao Paulo, however, it
was the SESC Pompeia that captured my
imagination. This collection of disused
factory buildings is knotted together
by its design and the incredible cultural
arts program delivered within. Reused
industrial buildings preserve the area’s
heritage, their adaptable frames open
out to create spaces for play, theatres
and internal lakes. Two new brutalist
towers are erected at the end of the site;
signposts responding to the scale of the
city in the distance. This labyrinth of
buildings creates a place to get lost, a
world away from the chaotic city outside.
27
Casa Modernista – Gregori Warchavchik,
a Russian migrant, brought modernism
to Brazil. His own house captures his
experimental ideas; the house begins to
open up to the garden, a wall dramatically
pivoted – an architectural gesture to the
garden beyond.
The time spent travelling provides the
solitude to be immersed in architecture,
walking the streets, visiting numerous
galleries and museums, soaking in the
ambience of cafes and the occasional bar
- experiences that inform our perception
of space and how we inhabit it. I now
have the opportunity to create using
these spatial memories, remembering
and reflecting on amazing experiences
abroad.
Adam Reynolds
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
PHTP 2010
PHTP 2007
Describing Encounters
The Peter Hunt Travel Prize kick-started
my PhD research project. In a year across
2008 and 2009 I stayed for a while
in Berlin, Barcelona, Manchester and
London. I wanted to see what it was
like to live in places that seemed to be
influencing the way Perth’s development
was discussed. I’m still interested in the
influence of familiar places around the
world on our everyday participation in the
built environment. My solo show at the
AUDRC in October 2012, “Postcards for
Perth,” explored this through large scale
participatory photo-montage works. The
images were montages produced with
pairs of my photos of urban streets and
settings from Perth and the four cities I
visited as part of my travel prize itinerary.
Upon lying in bed and thinking of a place,
Georges Perec was able to visualise any
bedroom he had slept in. Within these
moments, the finest details would
enter his memory – from the position of
doors and windows to the arrangement
of furnishings – each recollection
contributing to produce a sensation of
being in that very room once again [1].
I moved to Berlin in the autumn of 2009.
Since settling here I have spent my time
working and travelling, making frequent
architectural field trips throughout the
city, country and continent. This travel
has presented an opportunity to explore
architectural works in reality that had for
a long time been confined to the pages
of journals, monographs and websites.
Familiarising myself with the concept of
a project I take along a sketchbook and
photographic camera, and I approach each
work with a certain confidence of feeling,
allowing the qualities of a building, place
& location to be slowly and truthfully
revealed.
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
28
Visiting architecture has been a
reaffirming experience; it’s been part of
an extended personal process connecting
the concepts of selected projects with
actual perceptions. Exploring architecture
that was once confined to my imagination
reveals a variety of lived moments,
some anticipated and many unexpected.
Definite experiences replace expectation,
preconceived notions become grounded in
personal reality. I’ve encountered a living
language of architecture, established
broader understandings of contextual
relationships, and joyfully witnessed
traces of use, material and structure that
define the architectural works.
As I move across a landscape, through
a place, towards a building, I gain a
broader contextual perspective, spanning
focus from the general to the specific.
My encounters are guided by intuitive
feeling, informing how I approach a
building, move around a room or take in
a location. I attempt not to judge what
is before me but allow impressions come
to me, enabling architectural moments to
etch into memory.
The pages of my notebooks collect
impressions
and
detail
feelings;
“...the smell of drying herbs emanates
from the inner confines of Herzog & de
Meuron’s Ricola Storage Building” &
“...the silence was broken by the ringing of
bells, calling parishioners to Lewerentz’s
Markuskyrkan”.
Photographs expose
and chart architecture directly, defining
a moment in time; “...just after dawn I
observed the play of light and shadow
across the brick exterior walls of Aalto’s
Heilig-Geist Kirchengemeinde”. Within
an experienced moment “inhabited space
transcends
geometrical
space”[02],
producing lasting images in my mind.
Each of the five works was printed
across 400 postcards, hung on a 2x3m
grid of nails. Visitors to the exhibition
were invited to participate in re-making
the images by moving and removing
fragments.
Their interactions added
further layers of meaning to the works,
and brought into focus my enquiry into
the ways in which we carry fragments
of other places about like postcards. My
visual exploration of this idea suggests
that we can and do use these memories of
other places to help reproduce or critique
the urban settings we inhabit.
Now, as I describe an encounter, I reconnect
to the experience – each recollection
contributing to produce a sensation of
being in that very place again.
My gratitude and sincere thanks extend
to Peter Hunt.
The subjects of these five works were
in many ways banal (streets I have lived
on, or frequently walked along), but the
images become interesting through the
specificity created in the interplay of the
two places, and in the unusual installation
of the works. The viewer was able to make
comparisons between here and there
– finding similarities and differences,
and exploring the connection between
these distant places in the context of my
everyday life – perhaps bringing to mind
similar relationships in their own lives. In
a world of global and mobile individuals
this kind of thinking, and these kinds of
spatial experiments, are significant to
architecture. Now in the last months
of 2012, I am enjoying drawing threads
of the project and contemporary urban
design discourse together in the final
chapters of my PhD exegesis.
The research process catalysed by the
Peter Hunt Travel Prize’s mandate to (in
gist) ‘go away, come back and contribute’
has fed my interest in communicating
and facilitating creative explorations of
important ideas. I have been working as
a sessional academic within the School of
Built Environment at Curtin University for
the last three years and have been able
to bring both my travel experience and
developing practice of rigorous visual and
textual exploration into my collaborative
research projects, supervision of Masters
theses and undergraduate teaching.
Robyn Creagh
Shane Winter
[1] Perec G. Species of Spaces and Other Pieces.
Penguin Classics, London, 1999. p.20.
[2] Bachelard G. The Poetics of Space. Beacon
Books, Massachusetts, 1994. p.47.
29
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
PHTP 2008
Our National President, Shelley Penn,
offered the ceremony’s introductions with
the assurance that what we were about to
witness would provide an immense sense
of optimism through its demonstration
that architecture of exemplary quality
could still be realised even in such
economically uncertain times. It is an
aspiration that is of course difficult to
remember when consoling those recently
redundant, or with the disappointment
of promised jobs lost. There is perhaps
an appropriate connection between place
and event, given the volatile times in
which we find ourselves.
BYRON LAST
BYRON LAST
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
30
Of course though, the promotion of
optimism amongst members is not
the purpose of the awards, but rather,
and as Shelley conceded, it serves to
promote the fruits of our services to
those outside the profession. It is, in
large, an unusual mode of self-promotion
which requires some sort of professionwide consensus to determine what it is
we wish to advertise. It is, as with any
advertisement, a form of communication
that is inherently reductive and simplified.
And it is, at least in 2012, a consensus
overwhelmingly in favour of the romantic.
Indeed, notions of social challenge or of
humour would have been entirely absent
from the night’s stern reverences if it
had not been for a few light-hearted
acceptance speeches, and for the Master
of Ceremonies and star of Channel Nine’s
Underbelly, Guyton Grantley, who giggled
his way through the proceedings.
John Wardle’s modest yet humorous
acceptance speech of his well deserved
Robin Boyd Award for Residential
Architecture for his Shearer’s Quarters,
was one better received by the audience.
Nonda Katsalidis offered one of the
more interesting speeches when he,
while describing the self-contradicting
personality of their client David Walsh,
offered his own contradictory and at
points, deprecating account of MONA in
his acceptance of the Sir Zelman Cowen
Award for Public Architecture.
The
gracious acceptance of Life Fellowship of
the Australian Institute of Architects by
Brian Zulaikha was one of humility and
excitement, and a pleasure to listen to.
But what of the optimism Shelley assured
us the awards would provide? Were these
exemplars intended to provide a beacon
of hope, or does this advertisement leave
a particularly narrow framework to which
to conform? Can we not reward the new,
the exciting, and perhaps the rebellious?
The answer is; it appears not. That would
be sending the wrong message.
If optimism is what we are after, it was
abounding in the series of events that
were to follow. They represented a great
faith in the future of our profession and of
its potential diversity, of emerging talent
and their visions for the distant and not
so distant future, of young entrepreneurs
with an absolute belief in their ability to
create local opportunities, of commitment
to developing the technical components
and technology to further the profession,
and of passionate and tireless advocacy for
the diverse potential of our services and its
products.
31
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Midland’s early industrial Railway
Workshop was the spectacular setting for
the 2012 National Architecture Awards,
the first in the event’s 31-year history to
be held in Perth. The complex offered a
unique glimpse into Perth’s industrial
history which, during its 90 year
operation, marked the epicentre of social
and community life for a generation of
railway workers, some 4000 at its peak.
The inevitable transitions of the industry
forced its workforce to seek employment
elsewhere and hence this significant
industrial complex was left to waste.
Architecture
Month
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
National Architecture Awards
KIM BURGES
WA Architecture Awards & Exhibition Opening
BYRON LAST
BYRON LAST
BYRON LAST
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
32
The highly anticipated inaugural Open
House Perth saw the general public and
creative professionals alike, pack their
itineraries with as many destinations and
events as time would allow, often requiring
a brisk walk or even a jog between the
destinations to fulfill their schedules. Such
was the enthusiasm of many navigating
the streets of Perth, that heads were being
poked through any door sporting one of the
many red Open House flags with the hope
for a behind-the-scenes glimpse, and once
entered, to probe attendees for answers to
their inquisitions. Indeed it appeared that
this curiosity was innate in Perth.
There were of course a few significant draw
cards on the weekend’s program. The Perth
Arena featured strongly, reportedly breaking
‘Open House’ records, while Alan Bond’s
former, and much mythicised, penthouse
provoked much public fascination. Rumours
of opulent gold plated fixtures, spa bath
and sauna with amazing views, proved to
disappoint - but only slightly.
“The weekend was a wonderful first
Open House and very much in the spirit
of international Open House cities
across the globe. It was very easy to see
real value that it will bring to Perth.”
Open
House
London
Founder,
Victoria Thornton.
“As Lord Mayor of our City I felt so truly
proud that people ‘seized the day’ and
took advantage all weekend of being able
to see inside our buildings and admire
them from another perspective.
The
inside view provides a sense of ownership
of one’s city and lessens the mystery. I
look forward to Open House becoming
an annual event. From the feedback
I have had there is no turning back.”
City of Perth Lord Mayor, Lisa Scaffidi.
HANNAH GOSLING
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
The Arena has received a tremendous
amount of attention, much of it highly
critical, during its construction. Indeed its
physical presence and media attention
made it impossible to ignore. However,
throughout the process, from the multicoloured ‘Trimdek’ sarking that covered the
once intimidating steel structure, to its slick
tessellated skin, and the eventual ignition
of interior lighting that revealed the depth
of its foyers, the tide of public opinion has
steadily been shifting.
It appears to be a shift ARM has relished.
Their exhibition ‘My Beginning is my End’,
showcased the design and construction of
the Arena, provocatively and somewhat
humorously playing with such reactions.
Ken Adam’s passionate commitment
to the ideal of Perth (singular!) was not
immune to a tongue-in-cheek admittance.
The exhibition seemed to contemptuously
boast that they had known better the entire
time. Hilarious!
The public debut of the Arena, opened for
just the second half of the second day of
Open House, stirred an almost unbelievable
response. The rain did not curb the
enthusiasm of the crowds with a block-long
line forming prior to doors opening and a
heavy stream passing through thenceforth.
With some 25,000 visitors moving through
its complex geometric voids, it is reportedly
the single most visited building in the
history of Open House internationally.
33
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Two Feet’s contribution to Perth and
Fremantle is not limited to an additional
engagement with our urban surrounds
and its narratives, but also through their
breaking of new ground by challenging
the status quo of regulatory authorities
to have their contribution realised. In
doing so, they are not only sustaining our
rich cultural heritage but are contributing
to its enrichment.
And it goes without saying that Open House
itself has offered a fantastic platform from
which to show off Perth’s hidden treasures.
Huge congratulations should be offered
to all those involved in the organisation
and coordination of the weekend’s events,
particularly to its Creative Director Carly
Barrett.
Perth has successfully been
included in the great world cities on the
Open House repertoire, on this, the 20th
anniversary of its London inauguration.
BYRON LAST
Their passionate advocacy for the places
they are presenting is evident in their
tours. Groups of any size are lead quickly
through the itineraries, offering plenty of
interesting, humorous, and sometimes
quite unbelievable ‘tit-bits’ along the way.
Perth Arena (OHP Building Destination)
BYRON LAST
Having gained a reputation as the party
counterpart to its UWA alternative, the
Curtin Exhibition Committee, comprising
third year students, under the guidance
of architectural party extraordinaire,
Nic Brunsdon, did not disappoint. So
much so that a successful viewing of the
exceptional work was rather challenging in
the dimly lit and poorly ventilated spaces
of the former 78 Records store where it
was held. It was well worth returning
to the exhibition to view the exceptional
quality of student work at a later, and less
packed, date.
Our curiosity was not just limited to these
big ticket venues but also to those discrete
contributions and the teams responsible
for them. Young entrepreneurs like Aimee
Johns who, along with partner Paul Dennis,
pursued their contribution to the urban
fabric when they opened Keith & Lottie,
later to form The Butcher Shop and the
William Street Collective; or Deso Litis,
half of a duo who procured the diversely
programmed Venn; or the ever expanding
Pigeonhole enterprise with Johann Kim at
its helm; and potentially one of the more
applicable inclusions in the weekends
program, the passionate pair of urban
advocates in Nic Brunsdon and Beth George
who are attempting to open to the once lost
spaces of our city through Spacemarket.
BYRON LAST
The sombre reveries of the National
Architecture Awards were to be quickly
dispelled, and with vigour, with the
opening of the Curtin University
Architecture Exhibition and subsequent
parties.
47,643 attendees, with 700 guided walking
tours, 56 destinations, 18 buildings, 14
design studios, and 24 ‘Love your City’
designations, 1 weekend.
HANNAH GOSLING
‘Two Feet and a Heart Beat’ is a business
conceived from the passion of travel, the
enjoyment of the people and the relaxed
atmospheres experienced along the
way. It was an afternoon in a pub when
two travelling friends decided that they
would share these experiences locally.
It is an idea that they have passionately
pursued and successfully implemented,
now providing a variety of standard and
custom tours throughout Perth and
Fremantle. Always willing to customise
their tours, they popped up all through
Architecture Month at destinations not
offered in their usual itineraries.
Open House Perth
BYRON LAST
Two Feet and
a Heart Beat Walking Tours
HANNAH GOSLING
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
Curtin
Architecture
& Interior
Architecture
Exhibition
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
34
Understanding
the
opportunities
Spacemarket had to offer and not being
the type content to sit back and wait for
others to take advantage, the development
and design wing of the pair’s practice soon
followed in the form of the aptly named
Post-. Three such projects now feature in
its repertoire, including Nic’s original cooccupation space on King Street, The Ward
studios, and the beautifully refurbished
Moana Chambers.
These projects
demonstrate Post-‘s architectural agenda
and a co-occupation developmental formula
that has proved successful and mutually
beneficial for all parties involved.
Spacemarket and Post- both featured in
‘Open House’ along with their latest project
‘Moana Chambers’, demonstrating the pair’s
desire to contribute to the development of
a prolific and exciting Perth - one with a
creative program occupied by people willing
to do likewise. Their optimism is something
to aspire to, believing that Perth has
reached a critical mass that marks the dawn
of a generational change in the industry.
With so much in common with Open House,
we are bound to see Spacemarket and Postfeature strongly in future programs.
www.spacemarket.com.au
nicbrunsdon.com/MOANA
BIM in Practice
The Butcher Shop
(Love Your City Destination)
The first of the National Seminar Series
talks of Architecture Month, ‘BIM in
Practice,’ was an extremely sobering
follow-up to the architecturally inebriating
weekend of Open House. Presented by
AEC Connect partner and authority in BIM
systems, Dominik Holzer, the seminar
revolved around the introduction of the
Institute’s recently published ‘BIM in
Practice’. The almost-full lecture theatre
was guided through the many legal and
implementation challenges and practices
faced when attempting to procure BIM
facilitated projects.
Open House Perth featured a strong
showing of young creative entrepreneurs.
They are a rapidly emerging group perhaps
aptly exemplified by Aimee Johns who,
not wanting to follow her peers eastward
after graduation, saw the potential in the
local creative scene and artistic heritage
of William Street. At the age of just 21
along with partner Paul Dennis, she opened
Keith & Lottie; later to form The Butcher
Shop; from which to provides a unique
range of urban art supplies and designer
goods. They pursued their own significant
advocacy of the Northbridge creative scene
by initiating the William Street Collective.
Like many others featured in Open House,
the duo pursued their ventures on the basis
of personal interest, artistic merit, and
passion for place.
In the 8 years since The Butcher Shop
opened its doors, they have witnessed
a tremendous increase in the number of
young, creative entrepreneurs willing to put
themselves on the line to pursue satisfying
careers and businesses locally rather than
contributing to the inter-state exodus.
www.thebutchershop.com.au
It will be well worth everyone’s while
to visit BIM/IPD online (http://bim.
architecture.com.au/)
for
reference
materials and guidelines, which will
be most beneficial for any practitioner
attempting to utilise BIM in practice.
Designing and Specifying Architecturally
Exposed Structural Steel
The engaging tag-team duo of Terri
Meyeer Boake and Sylvie Bouulanger,
unlike that of the BIM seminar, spoke the
language of architects. They dynamically
guided the audience through the design,
specification and erection of steel
structures, with the assistance of the
texts, ‘Architecturally Exposed Structural
Steel’ (AESS) and ‘Guide to Architecturally
Exposed Structural Steel (for Architects)’
(AESS-A); both available through the
Australian Steel Institute (ASI) Bookshop.
Additional information can be found on
the ASI website: http://steel.org.au/keyissues/steel-in-architecture
As the title suggested, the presentation
covered a broad but basic conceptual
overview of, and issues surrounding,
intellectual
and
moral
property.
Essentially it boiled down to the
producer’s right to exploit his or her own
work for benefit, and of the requirement
for third parties to seek approval before
they utilise such work. Basic!
On 8 November, 22 architects were taken
on an educational tour of BlueScope
Steel’s manufacturing facilities in
Forrestfield, WA.
Participants were also given a brief
presentation on the most significant
product development from BlueScope
Steel for 35 years – Next Generation
ZINCALUME® Steel.
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
With inspiration from an existing
program in Boston, Jodie Sanders has
successfully designed and organised ‘Box
City’ - a unique hands-on opportunity to
learn about urban planning, design and
construction of our urban surrounds.
Children were guided through a
building design process in the ‘Planning
Department’, the buildings of that design
utilising cardboard boxes and other craft
materials in the ‘Building Department’,
and its eventual inclusion in an urban
setting via the ‘Urban Design Department’.
There was a notable sense of optimism,
not purely a result of the extraordinary
recognitions of the future designers, most
notably the recipient of the Emerging
Student and Award of Merit for his ARC
Chair, Aaron Leahy. But perhaps it can
also be a result of the broader banner
of ‘Design’, which appears to inherently
possess an independent entrepreneurial
spirit and optimism seemingly diminished
in its architectural counterpart.
Bluescope Steel Processing Centre Tour
It gave the participants an overview
of how products such as ZINCALUME®
and COLORBOND® are manufactured,
processed and then distributed across the
supply chain network, to ultimately be
installed on their projects.
It was great to see such recognition of
Perth’s emerging design talent at the
DIA Awards, with the inclusion of student
prizes in all the award categories. Indeed,
these awards were in stark contrast
to the ‘National Architecture Awards’
sombre and reverent atmosphere,
instead offering a very casual, social and
sometimes, even disinteresting awards
presentation.
The event also offered a unique
opportunity for a multi-generational
learning experience, engaging the
youngsters for whom the event was
aimed, to architectural students and
graduates attending from the various
staged departments, and professionals
and parents who were supervising the
children. The enthusiasm on the day was
so great, it was difficult for the parents
and guardians to remember that the
exercises were in fact intended for the
children.
35
With the success of this year’s tour there
are plans to make this an annual CPD Tour
event.
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Their ventures were born of a somewhat
serendipitous encounter with the Economic
Development Department of the City of
Perth and the identification of ‘Forgotten
Spaces – Upper Floor Activation’. Taking
matters into their own hands the pair
quickly attempted to implement the
report’s recommendations and designed
and developed a platform with which to do
so. Spacemarket, in its first incarnation,
was launched in March 2011, and acted as
an interface through which individuals could
activate the City’s under-utilised spaces.
Lavan Legal’s Robert Shaw offered a
somewhat dry but relatable presentation,
which was brisk enough to retain
everyone’s attention. Mr Shaw touched
on a couple of the concerns raised at the
earlier BIM seminar, as brief and as noncommittal as it may have been.
Box City
BYRON LAST
Spacemarket and Post-, headed by
Nic Brunsdon and Beth George, are
organisations synonymous with many of
the principles and missions of Open House.
They seek to open spaces usually closed
to the public realm and through principles
of advocacy attempt to promote an
understanding of our rich cultural heritage.
Basics of Copyright
DIA Awards
BYRON LAST
Spacemarket, Post-, Moana (OHP
Practice, Speaker & Building Destination)
BYRON LAST
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
Seminars
The Attic, Bannister St, Fremantle
Architect: Brian Klopper
It would be a great shame to have the
month’s program revert to its former
week long incarnation as Rod Mollett
suggested may be the case in 2013.
As for the film, there were plenty of
moments of spectacular natural and built
beauty which demonstrated a particular
dimension of the extreme character
the film was examining. Captivated for
almost the entirety of the film, I was lost
at his Doha Prison. Watch for it!
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
HANNAH GOSLING
MERGE
Small Bar Stop
37
Byron Last
with additional contributions by
Jason Walker and Nick Casson
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
BYRON LAST
STUART ACKLAND
Introducing the film, the chair of
the
Architecture Month Organising
Committee and WA Chapter Immediate
Past President, Rod Mollett took the
opportunity to declare the month an
outstanding success. And indeed it was,
kicking off with the National Architecture
Awards and the hugely successful Open
House, the smaller events that followed
were by no means less significant as a
collective. They have demonstrated the
diverse value our profession does and can
offer and the capacity of the emerging
generation of practitioners to bring about
change and face significant challenges.
HANNAH GOSLING
BYRON LAST
As with the Curtin Architecture
Exhibition, it was well worth heading back
to the exhibition at a later date to fully
appreciate the fantastic work on offer
without the distractions of its opening
party. The quality of presentation was
most certainly something to admire.
BYRON LAST
BYRON LAST
BYRON LAST
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
With formal introductions by the
exhibition’s curator Patrick Beale, the
Dean of the School, Simon Anderson,
proceeded to offer his congratulations
and praise to all students contributing
to the exhibition, prior to presenting this
year’s Gus Ferguson Travel Scholarship to
the well-deserved Tom Hobbs.
Marking Architecture Month’s finale, the
screening of ‘How Much Does Your Building
Weigh Mr. Foster?’ was a good way for
all those involved in the organisation
and facilitation of Architecture Month to
celebrate a job well done. However small
the turnout may have been, it was a group
that was willing to take full advantage of
the generous drinks catering prior and
following the documentary’s screening.
HANNAH GOSLING
Four teams of young architects as well
as members of the public took part in the
event, which saw fantastic recreations of
Villa Savoye, Schröder House, and Perth’s
own Council House. A team of UWA
graduates, building Frank Lloyd Wright’s
“Falling Water”, came in first place.
3 Over 4 Under:
On Rejuvenation
How Much Does
Your Building
Weigh Mr Foster?
HANNAH GOSLING
The first ‘Dots on Top: Lego Building
Competition’ was a great success. The one
day, fast-paced collaborative event was
hosted by the architectural networking
group ‘Connect The Dots’. The event is to
be held annually.
Visitors had the pleasure of exploring the
house’s gothic arcading, grand ballroom,
and council rooms, or while relaxing in
the picturesque grounds, admire its
bonded brick, heavily mullioned windows
and the unusually capped turrets of
this beautifully restored Hillson Beasley
treasure.
36
Dots on Top
BYRON LAST
The pristine picturesque garden setting
was matched by an equally pristine day,
for this, the annual public opening of the
usually restricted Governor’s House and
gardens. The Consulate and Governor’s
House staff provided the opportunity
to take self-guided tours through the
public rooms of the house, picnic within
its grounds, and enjoy the plethora of
multi-cultural entertainment and cuisine
on offer.
UWA Exhibition
BYRON LAST
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
Governor’s
House Open to
the Public
Francisco Mangado lecture
Brad Ladyman was in the audience for the
Francisco Mangado lecture to discover
his “search for beauty as an ethical
dimension”, and his “perception of time”
as a key ingredient for the undertaking of
architecture.
Following on from the successful
International Speaker Series with Alberto
Campo Baeza, the Institute once again
provided an outstanding lecture by
Spanish architect Francisco Mangado.
Born in 1957 (Navarra), Francisco
Mangado is recognized as one of the most
prominent and prolific Spanish architects
of his generation. He graduated from the
School of Architecture of the University
of Navarra obtaining a teaching position
at the school in 1982. He has also held
various teaching positions at Harvard
University and Yale University.
Mangado began with an informal
discussion regarding his thoughts about
Perth, the Australian audience and some
commentary on his involvements with
academic institutions. He went on to
discuss his general approach and the
theoretical ideas informing his work. It
was his last lecture in Australia, however
he seemed to convey a willingness
from the outset to draw personal and
connective lines with both the audience
and its remote city. The selection of
projects and array of images, photos and
models left no doubt of his mastery and
it was a pleasure to be taken on a journey
through his quiet and consistent portfolio
of works.
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
38
Various EMaGN committees held photographic competitions across Australia in early
November 2012. MERGE (WA) set the local competition brief which was to describe the
narrative of Perth in ‘Open House’ mode. The above photo is one of a set of five taken
by Michael Rogers, winner of the competition.
Mangado shared his observations about
architectural practice in Spain, images of
competitions, and a detailed summary
of his finished works. These included
Baluarte Congress Center, Pamplona; the
Spanish Pavilion at the Expo Zaragoza;
the Archaeology Museum in Vitoria;
the Municipal Exhibition and Congress
Center in Ávila; the Congress Center and
Auditorium Baluarte; and his most recent
project - the Municipal Auditorium of
Teulada (Alicante) which was Mangado’s
first built work for the Mediterranean
coast. His prominence was highlighted
in 2006, when he held an exhibition titled
‘On-Site: New Architecture in Spain’, at
the MoMA Museum of Modern Art in New
York.
He concluded by reading out some
personal thoughts as follows;
“Do we live in a world characterized by a
lack of hope and aspiration? Is ours a world
where market loss is the last reference?
We communicate continuously, but do
not stop to think about the poetics. Time
is the key material in the undertaking of
architecture; the search for beauty has an
ethical dimension in architecture; shape
in architecture, can only be understood as
being subject to content; architecture has
a civic dimension and is a social discipline.
The correlation between nature and art
can inspire us in a way that it is unique to
our culture.”
Some members of the audience found
it hard to see the night through,
perhaps falling asleep to the lullaby of
neo modernism whispering her sweet
and familiar melodies. However it was
worthwhile to participate in the following
question time and hear further stories
and commentary behind his most widely
published and acclaimed works. While
I absorbed the richness of his lecture,
I could not help but wonder about the
modern day processes of urbanization in
Spain, and the comparative complexities
of our own systems here in Perth. The
hurdles of ideological politics often divide
the architectural profession into differing
paradigmatic
alliances
circulating
authority and knowledge.
Mangado
conveyed a robust understanding of
the contemporary social forces that eat
away the spine from our sketchbooks.
His architectural resonance seems to
transcend social construct, its inexorable
laws of physics, economics and buildability.
In this time of global economic austerity,
it takes a strong architect to achieve such
quality in architecture.
Brad Ladyman
The Francisco Mangado lecture (part of
the AIA International Speaker Series)
was held on Thursday 4 October at the
University of Western Australia.
Archaeology Museum of Vitoria,
Francisco Mangado (2009).
Photo used with permission from
Francisco Mangado.
39
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
A RC H ITEC TUR E M ONTH
MERGE Photo Competition
Perth Samplings
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
40
Perth Samplings attracts a wide and
varied audience. Our RSVP list this year
has included parliamentary senators,
architects,
landscape
architects,
urban designers, planners, engineers,
developers, local and state government
representatives, local business people,
property sector representatives, and of
course students from both the universities
and TAFE. Interest in design issues
extends well beyond the profession,
and the breadth of our audience is a
testament to this.
Each ‘Sampling’ addresses a particular
theme reflecting a topical issue relevant
to Perth and explored through public
projects.
The year began with a talk entitled
‘Macro | Micro Cities’ (PS12.01) and saw
presentations by Winthrop Professor
Richard Weller and Dr Anthony
Duckworth-Smith. Anthony presented
his doctoral research dealing with the
problem of urban intensification along
road- transport corridors. Principles of
PS12.02 ‘Green Tactics; success factors
for sustainable urbanism’ featured local
practitioner
Fred
Chaney
presenting
the award winning Katitjin Centre; and
Deputy Government Architect of NSW
Helen Lochhead discussing her research
into innovative sustainable cities globally.
Fred paid tribute to the vision of his
client in pursuing an exemplary model
of sustainable building.
An exchange
during question time highlighted that
there is still debate surrounding notions
of sustainability, and Fred emphasised
the functional successes of the building.
The final talk for the year was PS12.03
‘Design and Community; creative
outcomes in Fremantle’, covering a range
of projects which had impressed the OGA
this year. The speakers were Bernard
Seeber, whose practice won the George
Temple Poole Award this year for their
Hilton Community Centre; Michael Patroni
of Space Agency, the lead architect on
a large multi-residential project for
Landcorp underway on the fringe of
Fremantle’s centre; and the winning team
of a local competition to design new bike
shelters for the city centre – landscape
architects
Aysen
Jenkins,
Annika
Korzeniewski and Hannah Pannell.
Helen then took the audience through
her research for the AV Jennings Churchill
Fellowship, which saw her visit London,
Copenhagen, Stockholm, Malmo, New
York, Boston, Chicago and Vancouver.
With compelling statistics she made the
case that urban regeneration is vital for
sustainable cities of the future.
The competition winners took the
audience through their design rationale
to develop the delightful concept of
‘bike trees’, made from recycled bicycle
parts. Bernard followed and gave a
graceful account of the development of
the Hilton Community Centre. Bernard’s
appreciation of the site’s original fabric
and his considered approach to design
was evident to all listening, and it was
charming to hear of the centre’s warm
reception from the local community. One
sharp audience member enquired why
the project hadn’t been entered into the
public architecture award category, and
Bernard’s answer was humble – he had
assumed the project was ineligible, and
the practice couldn’t afford the submission
fees anyway – a disquieting disclosure
about the pressures of the current
practice environment. Michael concluded
the night with a thorough overview of the
Knutsford Precinct residential project.
The project regenerates a degraded
brownfields site, is highly responsive
to its Fremantle location, and reflects a
highly tuned and fine-grained approach to
detail. It will be interesting to follow the
progress of this innovative project.
41
Kirsten Bruce
The Perth Samplings series has an
ambitious program emerging for 2013,
and will trial a new approach of presenting
a suite of talks with one overarching
theme. We hope to see you all again next
year and as always welcome suggestions
for speakers and topics.
Kirsten Bruce currently works for the Office of
the Government Architect. Since graduation she
has worked in Vancouver and London, tutored in
design and history in the architecture school of
the University of Western Australia, and has made
written contributions for the Architects Journal in
the UK.
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
The Perth Samplings lecture series
coordinated by the Office of the
Government Architect has concluded
after another successful year. The series
has been a regular feature of the Perth
architectural scene since 2007, and it is
pleasing to see a number of similar events
developing. There is evidently much local
enthusiasm for exposure to new ideas,
current work and innovative practices,
and we look forward to seeing this culture
continue to develop and grow.
acoustic attenuation were utilised as
design generator of the facades and
attention to the public realm ensured
a quality residential environment
within a high-density setting. Richard’s
presentation bluntly assessed the current
parlous state of Australian cities while
providing a powerful, highly-legible visual
language for the overwhelming volume
of data which underpins his strategic
planning propositions. The enthusiastic
crowd response showed why Richard will
be sorely missed in taking up his new role
at the University of Pennsylvania.
OFFICE OF THE GOVERNMENT ARCHITECT
Perth Samplings: discussions about
architecture
and
urban
design,
coordinated by the Office of the
Government Architect and supported by
the Department of Finance’s Building
Management and Works business, and
the Australian Institute of Architects
Practice
iredale pedersen hook
Project
Jindalee Beach Cafe
Project
Nannup Holiday House
The Jindalee Beach Café is being built as
part of the developer’s “contribution” to
public facilities.
The Nannup Holiday house forms part of
a wandering path through the landscape
from Perth to Nannup. This path dialogues
with the landscape of intense forest,
meandering river and rolling hills, each
experience is carefully choreographed
to enrich the occupancy of the house.
A Jekyll and Hyde experience of the
landscape is carefully controlled through
oscillating vertical (forest) and horizontal
(horizon) openings and the contrast of
grounded and floating experiences. While
the exterior dialogues with the numerous
fallen trees, the interior is revealed
through a sequence of ‘growth rings’
coded and extruded in relation to the
building program.
The local authority prepared the
accommodation brief, but the developer’s
design brief called for an iconic building,
obviously to make a bold statement in a
very exposed location.
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Although any shaped building could
achieve this and stand out, it seemed
appropriate to adopt a form which
appeared as though it ‘grew’ from the
coastline topography. (ie dunes and
shells)
Logically, building the walls from rammed
earth would produce a natural palette,
and allow some free form curves as if it
had been carved from a dune.
A shell- shaped roof, (with a “fluted”
whale-belly texture), would give the
impression that it too had grown out of
the seascape.
Juanita’s
134 Rokeby Road, Subiaco
PRINT HALL at Brookfield Place
125 St Georges Tce, Perth
PICCOLO’s CORNER
58 St Leonards Ave, West Leederville
On recommendation from ‘that’ work
friend with the cool sweaters, a good
friend and I found our way to the corner of
Rokeby and Heytesbury Roads in Subiaco.
We discovered a sign saying Juanita’s in
the window of an art supply and gift shop
called Gill and Hille Merchants. The shop
acts as an unexpected threshold - as we
heard music and walked through a side
entrance, we were suddenly in a small
crowded bar of densely packed tables. We
ordered the special, two Margaritas ($18
each), which were of a slushy consistency,
tart with a kick and served with a healthy
amount of salt on the rim of the glass.
There were a range of beers and wines
and whilst the place serves tapas, on
Sunday their only dish is a platter of
olives, chorizo and bread.
Those working near and around the city
would have by now heard of the latest
bars and restaurants in Brookfield Place
to join Perth’s ever-growing list of eating
and drinking establishments.
Nestled in the heart of West Leederville,
surrounded by quaint cottages with their
white picket fences, sitting comfortably
along tree lined streets, this locally owned
cafe is quintessentially Perth. Upon
crossing the unpretentious threshold
the room immediately embraces its
occupants, only revealing the outside
world through a few portals. A handful
of unique mismatched tables and chairs
invites people to stay a little longer. As
our eyes wander, drinking in the space,
I notice the groceries; eggs, polenta,
bread and fresh fruit line the brick walls.
I momentarily settle on a range of lolly
jars filled with treats from my childhood.
Finally my eyes settle on the glass cabinet
filled with delicious homemade tarts,
focaccias, frittatas and cakes.
The less you know about Juanita’s the
better, all you need is a sketchy set of
‘where to’ instructions and a good friend
or few. The bar is an eclectic and homely
variety of tables and chairs and the bar
itself appears to be made up of foraged
kitchen furniture. Add in a few knickknacks, some art deco light fittings,
vibrant oil paintings by the owner and the
place felt like a whole world away from
the deserted streets of Subiaco, Sunday,
5:30pm.
Many guests like myself, were involved
in engrossing conversations amidst
the soulful Sarah Blasco-esque sounds
of a talented musician in the corner
of the room. The place is reminiscent
of the small bars found in abundance
in European cities, through the casual
atmosphere, homely interior and replete
with the owner’s wife, Juanita, talking
animatedly to a friend at the table behind
us.
Amanda Hendry
Print Hall, together with The Trustee,
The Heritage and Grill’d are the newest
insertions into the beautifully restored
existing buildings within this plaza.
Print Hall, situated at the end of an
internal street, features a variety of
spaces - from outdoor seating, to bar
areas, restaurant areas, and to a secluded
rooftop bar section.
Each zone has its own character and style,
yet overall does not subtract anything
from the appeal of the older, established
building it sits in.
Print Hall features a comprehensive wine
list of Australian and imported wines,
for prices one would expect from a citylocated bar.
The highlight of this bar was the rooftop
area (Bob’s Bar) - the perfect location for
a quieter drink and conversation, where
you can also try something from their
Spanish-inspired menu.
My tip: for those interested in going for an
after-work drink; avoid the Friday queues
and go on another weeknight.
Herarn Perera
Take a wander around the corner and a
welcoming courtyard appears in full view.
Only in Perth are we treated to weather
where it is acceptable to sun yourselves
during winter. The lounges and coffee
tables provide places for people who
are looking for a lazy coffee and a chat,
whereas the intricate iron tables and
chairs provide a place for those wanting a
catch-up meal with friends to sit. Sitting
in the centre of the courtyard is a fragrant
Frangipani which provides shade to those
who don’t want too much sun.
All of the produce which makes up this
delicious spread is locally sourced, so
much so as the home grown beetroot in
the beetroot and goat’s cheese frittata,
something I had my eye on. Suzie
indulged in the pumpkin, chorizo and feta
tart, complete with homemade shortcrust
pastry. Both meals arrived with a fresh
garden salad served on antique china
plates, each set us back $14.50, a small
price to pay for quality produce. If you
did feel like something more decadent,
their fruit smoothies are rich in flavour
and could probably suffice as a meal on
their own. Their cakes and other baked
goods are also a must try. And if you
are in the area, or not, Piccolo’s unique
breakfast menu is available for the more
adventurous foodies or those looking to
try something a little different.
Mary Ong
43
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Practice
Finlay + Rumble Architects
Accommodation includes Café / Kiosk,
Ambulant and Disabled public toilets /
change rooms, and space for a Surf Life
Saving Association sub-centre.
42
Local Finds
IPH
PAUL RUMBLE
In Progress
Flashback: Perth City Foreshore
Urban Design Competition
The
Assessors
unanimously
and
enthusiastically selected the entry
registered as No 78 [Carr Lynch Hack &
Sandell; Cambridge, Massachusetts] as
the winning design concept.
“Waterside Perth” is a realisable design
concept, restrained in its call upon public
resources and capable of being staged in
a measured way. Within the framework
of the major strategic decisions it
embodies, there is the opportunity to
develop sensitive and detailed design
proposals for each element and area of
the foreshore.
In our view, the making of good cities
and good places calls for a plan for the
key elements - the buildings, water,
roads, paths, the activities and spaces,
the planting and the services that will
meet the city’s needs and its dreams in a
memorable and achievable way.
The latter echoes the form of Mounts
Bay as it was and has the potential to
reveal from the water a new remarkable
panorama of the city and its setting.
“Waterside Perth” commanded our
attention not only for the coherence and
diversity of the “place” it proposes, but
for the evident and relative ease with
which its proposals can be implemented.
It embodies the option of taming (and
where appropriate, realigning) Riverside
Drive rather than the much more
demanding and costly option of placing
a length of Riverside Drive underground.
It is a concept which lends itself to easy
staging of both the road and landscaping
improvements. The concept enhances the
value of existing public assets such as
Barrack Square and the Historic Precinct
and it brings real benefits to adjacent
areas of the city such as Terrace Road.
We also see in “Waterside Perth” a
distinct, exciting and understandable
concept that has the potential to capture
the imagination and inspire the Perth
community.
Commended Schemes
and Assessors’ Comments
General Comment on
Entrants’ Proposals
The Assessors identified four design
concepts for commendation because
each has ideas of special interest. These
ideas have qualities and attributes for
consideration in the design development
phase.
There were many fascinating and well
thought out schemes and the majority
showed a good understanding of Perth’s
needs.
Pradeep Tilaye, Los Angeles, California
Used traditional and formal geometries
to achieve an attractive setting for
people and buildings by the water. The
Assessors felt that this entry reflected
an understanding of excellent urban
spaces in and around the civic precinct
and deserved special mention for this
concept.
Gary Banham, West Perth,
Western Australia
Demonstrated the adroit use of water/
land edge to create places of interest
and use.
Perry Lethlean and Andrew Thomas,
North Fitzroy, Victoria
Promoted the celebration of Australian
flora in an ordered manner which is
related to the city grid.
In the opinion of the Assessors, the
criteria set out for this competition
present an urban design problem of great
complexity. Its solution needs planners,
architects, engineers and landscape
architects to work together.
They need to work with ecologists
familiar with the local situation and fully
cognisant of how the local vegetation
can be used to create appropriate natural
habitats. They also need to work with
hydrologists who understand the river’s
flow and can ensure that any changes in
the water’s edge or addition of lakes and
creeks result in healthy water bodies.
It is the act of working together, using the
expertise of different professions, which
produces results satisfactory to the user
need for diverse experiences and diverse
activities within the constraints imposed
by the physical and natural environment.
Werner Haller, Zurich
Created a rich and memorable delight
along the foreshore walk.
45
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44
The design concept proposed in
“Waterside Perth” is just such a plan.
In a broad sweep from east to west, it
provides for a natural landscape adapted
for recreation at Point Fraser, a landscape
celebrating the beauty and culture of
Western Australia on a new island, a new
waterway which traces the path of the
old shoreline, a preserved and enhanced
historic landscape in the civic precinct,
a renewed centre for portside activities
around Barrack Square, an idea for the
development of the interchange area
for environmental learning and the bold
sweep of a new boardwalk and jetty.
TH E A RCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
Winning scheme and
extracts from the Assessors’ Report
Spring 1991 Vol 31 No 3
Summer 1991 Vol 31 No 4
Christine Hawley lecture
Richard Weller’s departure
Christine Hawley is without doubt a
global figure in architectural circles with
built projects as far afield as Germany,
China, Japan and Austria. Following
recent speaking engagements in the
USA, Europe and the Far East she was in
Perth in October for a public lecture at the
University of Western Australia. It was
fitting that this, her first visit to WA for
twenty years, allowed a mix of students,
academics and practitioners personal
insight into her working method, which
combines multivariate threads of practice,
pedagogy and theoretical research in a
seemingly non-hierarchical way.
Winthrop Professor Richard Weller, is
leaving Western Australia to take up
the role of Martin and Margy Myerson
Professor of Urbanism and Chair of
Landscape Architecture at the University
of Pennsylvania, one of the preeminent
schools of Landscape Architecture and
Urbanism in the United States.
Hawley used her theoretical Shadow
House project which has been ongoing
over many years to anchor a talk that
touched also on her recently built social
housing in Gifu, Japan and competition
entries of varying success. It was her
current role as Dean of the Faculty of the
Built Environment and Head of School at
The Barlett at University College London
that resonated most strongly with the
audience, allowing Hawley to discuss
several innovative student projects whilst
elaborating on the importance of teaching
within her own working method.
TH E ARCH IT ECT S UM M ER 2013 IS S UE 0 01
46
Student Work: UWA
Much of the audience response centred
around
Hawley’s
comments
that
graduates with traditional hand drawing
skills are in increasing demand by London
practices, but it seems that the real value
in her talk came from the dual reminders
of the necessarily long gestation period for
some ideas, and the intrinsic architectural
value in projects like Shadow House which
will never make it off the drawing board.
Hawley’s
new
book
Transitions:
concepts+drawings+buildings is due to
be published later this year.
Mark Sawyer
Since the establishment of the
Landscape Architecture programme at
UWA with Craig Burton, he has had an
enormous impact on his students, the
design profession, and on politicians
and planners. He has been relentlessly
promoted through articles, interviews
and lectures for his vision for the
future in which Landscape Urbanism (a
combination of landscape, architecture
and planning) tackle the key challenges
facing the ecology of human settlement,
at a micro- to macro-scale. Many of these
ideas were explored in polemical fashion
in his well-known book, Boomtown 2050:
Scenarios for a Rapidly Growing City
(2009).
In his time at UWA, Richard has been
an inspiring teacher, motivating his
students to be ambitious in their global
and local perspectives, his impact being
reflected by several UWA Excellence
in Teaching awards. In his time at the
University of Western Australia, he rose
to prominence with projects such as ‘The
Garden of Australian Dreams’, at the
centre of the ARM-designed National
Museum of Australia, and the successive
projects for the Perth Foreshore, again
in collaboration with ARM. Richard’s
design work has been widely recognized
and internationally awarded, and was
published as a monograph by the
University of Pennsylvania Press in 2005.
Richard’s departure is a loss that will prove
impossible to completely fill, but we wish
him great success in his new position, and
thank him for his great contribution.
The following is an adaptation of a research
paper undertaken as part of the Master of
Architecture program at UWA.
SENSORY LOGIC:
Establishing a diagrammatic basis for
‘experiential’ architecture.
Ferguson Travel Scholarship winner
UWA final year Master of Architecture
student, Thomas Hobbs, is the 2012
winner of the prestigious Ferguson Travel
Scholarship. Chosen from a shortlist
of five impressive candidates, judges
Gus Ferguson, Philip Goldswain and
Marco Vittino awarded the scholarship
to Thomas based on his proposal to revisit Denmark (where he spent a year on
exchange working and studying at The
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts) to
photograph Scandinavian architecture.
He is particularly interested in the study
of architecture’s relationship with light,
context and identity in the region. The
scholarship will allow Thomas to explore
architecture as both a producer and
expression of cultural identity and as
a field where collective narratives are
reflected in form, materiality and space.
The prize of $10,000 will be used to fund
his trip.
Brad Ladyman
Is the diagram capable of playing a mediating
role between an objective architecture
of ‘data’ and a subjective architecture of
‘embodied experience’? By building on
Deleuze’s understanding of the paintings of
Francis Bacon as ‘diagrammatic,’ this paper
establishes a case for the consideration of
form-generating diagrams as efficacious
tools in the development of experientially
rich architecture.
DIAGRAMMATIC PRAXIS
It seems reasonable for the sake of this
argument, to consider diagrammatic praxis
to be one of the prevailing paradigms
of contemporary architectural theory.
Developed and critically endorsed around
the turn of the 21st Century, OMA’s noncontextual functional urbanism, MVRDV’s
datascapes and the non-Euclidean
topological complexities evident in the
work of Foreign Office Architects and
UNStudio are identified by many as a neoModern rejection of the subject-author in
favour of a process driven automism. The
‘diagrammatic’ eschews the expressionism
of design authorship, promoting instead
indexes, data and relationships as the
components of architectural design. With
the discipline’s brief affair with postChomskyan structural linguistics decidedly
on the wane1 and an exhaustion with both
the megastructures of late modernism
and the neo-historicist mannerisms of
postmodernism, it seems timely to consider
whether, within the new functionalism
of the diagram architects, there remains
a place for the privilege of individual
experience.
THE ABSTRACT MACHINE
Eisenmann’s understanding of diagrams
as “graphic shorthand” is one that spread
rapidly throughout the architectural
discipline but it was with the introduction
of digital processes to architecture in the
1990s2 and the subsequent ubiquity of
information that diagramming became an
efficient and necessary way of compiling
multiple strands of data related to site
and project. Some practices, those that see
themselves as ‘working diagrammatically,’
have taking the potentiality this information
offers further, using the computer as a way
to introduce unprecedented complexities in
the generation of form.
If diagrammatic thinking is to remain a
predominant paradigm of the 21st century,
how best to understand multisensory
architecture in terms of the diagram? The
answer may lay with Gilles Deleuze and
his casting of the diagram as an ‘abstract
machine.’ In 1994 Deleuze wrote an
influential monograph on the work of British
painter Francis Bacon, of whom he was a
collector and keen admirer. It is in this work
that he elaborated on the diagrammatic
basis of Bacon’s work. Frichot, amongst
others has referred to this text to develop
the idea that the ‘abstract machines’ of
diagrams do not by their nature require an
optical basis, but can be, as is in the case
of Bacon’s painting, deeply haptic and
centred in embodied experience.3 Somol
has described the diagrammatic painting
of Francis Bacon as “overcoming the
optical bias of abstract art as well as the
manual gestuarality of action painting.”4
Considering the phenomenologist’s efforts
to displace the ‘hegemonic eye’ with a
broader base of sensory experience, it seems
apposite to test the conceptual diagrams
of experiential architecture against the
consideration of the diagrammatic as
applied to Bacon’s painting.
DIAGRAMS OF EXPERIENCE
For the sake of comparison it is useful
to consider the Knut Hamsun Centre
(Hamaroy, 2003) and Stretto House (Dallas,
1993), both by Steven Holl, as projects which
are derived diagrammatically yet achieve
complex multiplicities of experiential quality
in the final built work. In both projects a
non-immanent narrative or logic has been
‘mapped’ or superimposed on the project
to generate form and multiplying the
potentialities of meaning. In Stretto House,
Holl used the score of Hungarian composer
Bela Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion
and Celeste, as the conceptual ‘diagram’
for the building5 and in the Knut Hamsun
Centre, elements from the controversial
Norwegian author’s own narratives, Hunger
(1890) and Mysteries (1894)6 have been
superimposed onto the project. What
is clear from the initial sketches of the
schemes is a phenomenological diagram is
at play. Ignore the mode of representation,
substitute UNStudio’s hardline computer
wireframe for Holl’s evocative watercolours
and the difference becomes one of stylistic
representation rather than fundamental
difference. Both are working with variations
of Eisenman’s diagrams of ‘exteriority’
acting as an operative device to generate
form and induce meaning. Like Bacon, Holl
is aware of the “necessity of preventing the
diagram from proliferating, the necessity of
limiting it to certain areas of the painting
and certain parts of the act of painting.”7
By
understanding
phenomenological
architecture as not mutually exclusive to
diagrammatic generation of forms we
gain the ability to expand the boundaries
of contemporary critical discourse in
architecture to include both subjective
experience and data driven functionalism.
After all, if the diagram is an ‘abstract
machine’ the role of the author is expanded
from direct manipulation of matter to the
perceptive selection of inputs to fuel its
operation.
Mark Sawyer
[1] Betsky, Aaron, “MVRDV: The Matrix Project.” In Reading
MVRDV, ed. Veronique Patteeuw (Belgium: NAi Publishers,
2003), 15.
[2] Winy Maas, “Architecture is a Device,” in Reading MVRDV, ed.
Veronique Patteeuw (Belgium: NAi Publishers, 2003), 145.
[3] Helene Frichot, “Drawing, Thinking Doing: From Diagram
Work to the Superfold,” Critical Perspectives in Communication,
Cultural and Policy Studies 30, No.1 (2011): 2.
[4] ibid, 90.
[5] Joel Barna, “Stream and Consciousness,” Progressive
Architecture 73, No. 11 (1992): 55.
[6] “Knut Hamsun Centre,” Architectural Review 226 (2009): 61.
[7] Deleuze, Bacon: The Logic, 10.
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UWA News
Student Projects: University of Western Australia
Symbiocity:
Rethinking prison design
Alexandra Quick
Khem Aikwanich
The Romantic image of a ruin, as
portrayed so often by Piranesi, is able
to convey both the evocative power
of buildings from the past and the
destructive strength of time and nature.
As described by Nieto & Sobejano
architects, the themes of construction
and deconstruction together evoke the
memory of the disappeared buildings
and act as a trigger of the imagination
to mentally reconstruct both past and
future architectures. When building and
landscape remain together untouched
the poetic synthesis between the order of
building and the fluid order or nature is
revealed.
The late Roman archeological ruin: Felix
Romuliana, The Palace of Galerius,
conveys exactly this. Situated in the
agricultural region of Gamzigrad, eastern
Serbia, this World Heritage site is in
need of a visitors’ centre and museum
to display the artifacts found at the ruin
site.
The design concept is based on the
idea of a prison as a living organism,
as prisons exhibit many characteristics
of a living organism. For example, the
prison is made up of units of cells, and
is able to generate its own food (through
photosynthesis) and is able to grow.
The development of a new museum
located within the archaeological grounds
is set to increase tourist numbers to the
area as well as better engage with the
high school students who visit the site.
In such a vast expanse of land still waiting
to be excavated and with strict protection
measures already in place I decided to not
build a new structure inside, on top of,
or over the ruin but rather away from the
ruin, below ground.
Siting the new museum away from
the ruin creates a third element in the
existing dialogue between the ruin and
mausoleums - a third element to provide
I chose to disappear, burrow into the
ground, thereby forgoing the inherent
idea to create an object with a 360 degree
vista and monumental facade.
The
building barely appears in the landscape
and does so only by way of a nonarchitectural element - a dense forest of
Serbian pine trees.
Prisons have always been the subject
of debate, mostly by sociologists,
regarding their effectiveness, especially
during the past few decades. While the
architectural profession is directly related
to the construction of prisons, the topic
is often overlooked by the architectural
community. This is due to the fact that
prison architecture does not contribute
much to the development of architectural
style.
The cuts into the ramp roof project light
into the entry tunnel. The movement of
the sun, and the light that shines from
within at night, convey the shadows of
what lingers above ground and what
moves below.
It is the goal of this project to identify
key issues and propose solutions in order
to create a completely new prototype for
prisons of the future. It is imagined that
the project will take place in the future,
fifty years from now in Singapore.
a certain clarity.
It is possible to compare a prison to a
city as its occupants spend most, if not
all, of their daily life confined within the
prison space. Therefore the prison must
provide most of the facilities needed by
the inmate, thus becoming a city where
the inmate lives. A city, in turn, can be
thought of as a living organism. By
locating a prison within a city we can look
at this as two living organisms interacting
with one another.
The traditional relationship between a
prison and a society is a parasitic one, as
the prison benefits, whilst the society is
harmed. This project aims to propose a
model of a prison that will change this
relationship into a symbiotic one, where
both benefit.
The structural system of the prison I
have designed represents the skeletal
system and the body of the organism.
As this project aims to allow the prison
to be flexible and expandable, a modular
system is implemented. The Voronoi
structure allows the building to expand
organically into any shape as the structural
system if free from the restriction of the
conventional post and beam system.
The organs inside all living organisms are
located at optimum positions within the
body to allow them to function at their
best. Similarly, the position of each prison
organ is determined by factors such as
natural light, natural ventilation, or view.
For example, vertical farms are located on
the east and west sides of the building to
maximize sunlight during the day. Living
areas, such as inmate cells are located on
the northern and southern sides in order
to be naturally ventilated.
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Interpretation and Engagement:
Gamzigrad Felix Romuliana Palace
Student Projects: University of Western Australia
The Ancient City of Harran
Transport City 2050:
Victoria Quay, Fremantle
Janie Green
Georgia Taylor-Berry
This project consisted of three key
interventions on the site, the ancient city
of Harran in Turkey.
This project proposes a transport hub on
Victoria Quay, a reaction and answer to
Perth’s sprawl that should not only reduce
car use, but socially change the face of
Fremantle into a public transport oriented
city. This Hub will be supported by a 40
year master plan for the City of Fremantle,
focusing on infill interventions and public
space activation. The hub is to cater to all
forms of public transport.
The first intervention was to place a
barrier line on the site developing a
coherent pathway through the site from
one set of ruins to the next, as not only a
way-finding tool but also to protect areas
of excavation and importance.
A new hierarchy of public spaces are
determined by the staged development
plan.
These public interventions
will interconnect and invigorate the
surrounding residential climate.
The
development is derived from elements
of the existing urban fabric, specifically
focusing on its corridors and height
limitations offering opportunities of
landscape gateways, spatial familiarity
and views.
A public waterfront strip
along the whole of the quay will remain
open and undeveloped.
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Social spaces are planned to bring people
together to interact. Reducing the need
for private gardents and forging a public
dialogue and distinct transport city
identity. Parking on site will remain as is,
with parking complexes to be proposed as
the development progresses.
The community bridge and restored
passenger terminal:
short and long term stay apartments and
student accomodation.
The bridge condenses activities of
meeting, physical recreation and work
into one structure that bridges the divide
of the railway.
A housing typology:
A neo urban outlet:
The two pavillions are a variety of
lightweight expressions adding dynamic
life to the overall residential space. The
elongated quality emphasises the axis of
Fremantle’s existing streets to the water.
Student accomodation:
It is proposed the poorly utilised ‘slips’
become revitalised into a new bar/bistro
district which would be supported by a
24 hour population consisting of a hotel,
This typology focuses on the port
authorities residential buffer zone
requirements such as the utilisation
of ceiling light filters and metal mesh
screens that block inhabitants from
explosive disasters and prevailing winds.
The open plan ground and first floor allows
for a greater level of social interaction and
semi permeable public space.
A cultural realm:
This stage offers opportunity for a
series of social and cultural facilities,
conveniently wedged between proposed
residential buildings and the port.
The third intervention was to address
the ruin of the Qal’at as a site for a small
museum and display of the four historical
layers of the fortress. Through inserting
lightweight footbridges the circulation
looks to move the user through the
periods of construction, beginning from
the western corridor which highlights
the most recent additions of the
crusader brickwork. The pathway then
circumnavigates the two turrets at the
south of the castle from the period of
Islamic Fortification. The pathway opens
into the largest space within the fortress,
and finally into the heart of the building
which dates back to the Babylonian
occupation of the site.
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Specific interventions along the site
of Victoria Quay have been chosen
throughout a 40 year period to support
these theories.
The second intervention was to construct
a series of pavilions within the site. The
pavilions become important as markers in
the site, the last points on the journey of
the pilgrim or as the refuge for the tourist
and resident as they journey across
the site. The pavilions do not restrict
movement from any of the user groups
of the site and provide places of possible
interaction, rest and contemplation,
contextualizing the ancient ruins and
hinting at a mysterious sympathy
associated with the eventual decay of
these new forms.
Student Projects: Curtin University
Renditions of Belonging:
using renditions of belonging to inform
medium to high density insertions in a
Perth inner suburb
Architectural Spatialism:
space-claiming through sculptural
morphology and phenomenology
Realino Tan
Olivia Chetkovich
Sited in an abandoned and disused
petrol station on the edge of the City
of Fremantle, the site is a modern ruin.
What was essentially image-driven,
commercial and functionalist is now
derelict; its abandonment leading to
dysfunction and disrepair, its bitumen
cracked and weeds grow within it, its
graphic signage stripped and its walls
vandalised with graffiti.
This research and exploration leads to
another question, how then are these
architectural consequences of a reading
of place and belonging written back into
the studied context?
As the insertions are multiplied, the suburb
is enriched spatially and behaviourally
through responsive architecture. Many in
between houses highlight the particular
relationships along these strips; many
shop houses add activity, engagement
and connection through the network of
the suburb; and many lookout houses
mark particular precincts and locales
across the suburb.
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The dialogue between these two halves,
the bottom half of the floor and walls, and
the top half of the concrete roof, create a
sculptural and spatial whole, converging
as a singular object that is both at the
same time functional and ornamental.
This continued writing into North Perth
exemplifies its features and identity,
altering the landscape to one of ideas
pertaining to belonging and habitation.
The approach for these propositions
started with what they could become for
the resident, how they could help foster
belonging in a community through their
application. Once the projects developed
further, each proposition also feeds back
into the context and system in which it is
sited. Through this two-way operation of
study and response, reading and writing,
belonging is strengthened.
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Working with the geometries of an
existing brick building, new in-situ
concrete additions appropriate the
existing dilapidated structure into a
useful studio office, workshop and
gallery, without denying its past existence
and history; its materiality marks new
interventions and existing structure.
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It is an exploration of a methodology
developed that combines versions
of belonging gleaned from text (Tim
Winton’s Cloudstreet), the conditions
particular to neighbourhood sites (‘strips’
in North Perth), and the systems of
habitation of lived spaces within this
neighbourhood.
By
‘reading’
belonging
and
a
neighbourhood in this way, what is the
architectural consequence?
Ultimately, any spatial object cannot
escape the realities of decay; even those
that attempt to deny it. This is the main
rationale behind the site’s selection.
Specific interventions within the new
structure mark spatial territories with
sculptural morphologies instead of
graphic signs: a circular subtraction to the
roof in the office marks a spatial territory
of a meeting room, in the workshop a table
and niche alcove forms a spatial void to be
inhabited by the working person, and in
the gallery a sculpted dome ceiling forms
a spatial ornament, a celebration of pure
space, materialised by gentle light. As a
whole, the new spatiality of the building
may be described diagrammatically as
being achieved through the dialogue
between the addition of the concrete
roof, and the building’s shell and floor
plane, animated and made palpable by
the careful use of light.
This thesis asks the question, what
if renditions of belonging are used to
inform medium to high density dwelling
insertions in an inner suburb of Perth?
Student Projects: Curtin University
Rethinking ideas:
city periphery, method of mapping,
theory of multiplicity and architectural
intervention
Sense of Place:
rapid expansion and change in small
coastal communities
Hayden Smith
Rebecca Lewis
The project looked at rapid expansion and
change in small coastal communities within
Western Australia, with a focus on three
communities in the Augusta-Margaret
River Region.
Within the case study, the perception
of place by residents was linked to the
formation of “memoryscapes”; mappings
of the intangible topographies of each site
that consist of the memories, experiences
and associations of a community’s
residents. The argument being put forth
is that perception of place is inherently
linked to memories that are embedded in
an inhabited landscape by each community.
By understanding how and where these
memoryscapes interact with the physical
site, perception of change and loss of
‘sense of place’ can be better understood
and addressed.
The work also looked at things such as
differing concepts of time, architectural
and community amnesia, created identity,
and the use of kitsch as a way of creating
attachment to place.
River City:
a polycentric urban development
Narrows Bridge was selected as a test site
from which the creative process ventured.
Beginning with a simple desire to spatially
engage with the inherent qualities of
Narrows Bridge; entailing a re-thinking
of ideas of the city periphery, method of
mapping and theory of multiplicity; ending
with architectural intervention.
THE BATH UNDER THE BRIDGE mediates
upon the Perth Baths. The bridge is flipped
along the horizon to form a submerged
concrete monolith. The bath constructs an
image of the bridge’s reflection.
THE SKYSCRAPER IN THE WATER re-orders
the urban context. It is of the city, house
and river. From the road, the Skyscraper
both blends with yet stands apart from the
CBD.
THE THIRD BRIDGE duplicates another
bridge to the East. Here, two tapering
bridge ends anticipate a meeting, yet one
that is never found. The bridge is no longer
crossable and is thus a place to dwell.
The process of design is inherently limitless;
the bridge was never crossed and the end
was never reached, time being the limit. It is
a mess which should not be cleaned.
This is where the joy of the creative process
lies.
Nicholas Putrasia
This project set out to explore potential
urban development on Perth Water as
an integral part of a well-connected
system, by means of a complex transport
infrastructure network.
The secondary objective was to identify
the characteristics of selected past and
existing activity centres as architectural
evidence to project future possible
scenarios.
The project aimed to demonstrate how
polycentric regions of development can
be proposed as a constellation around
the river in an attempt to shift the urban
focus back to the Perth Water.
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This body of work seeks to appreciate
how site may become more than soil upon
which to build; a vessel through which the
architect may develop his or her own ideas.
It values the smallness of architectural
intervention as not one great shift, but a
series of many lessons.
Opinion
Our Studio Culture
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The nature of the physical and social space
at Curtin has changed. Open discussions
and crit-sessions have been replaced by
‘studio by appointment’ - one on one
tutor-student critiques scheduled in 10-15
minute blocks. While students do receive
an equal amount of critique time, they are
far more inclined to participate for their
appointment time only, either leaving
the class or disengaging immediately
afterward. The American Institute of
Architecture Students Studio Culture Task
Force Report (p12) observes, “Students
work side by side, but alone, often guarding
their ideas from each other, competing for
the attention of the studio critic.” Studio
by appointment discourages student peer
to peer discussion and analysis, prohibiting
the formation of a wider understanding of
the brief and barring potential discovery of
alternate interpretations. As the group critsession is now reserved for major reviews
and as studio space faces extinction,
the remaining potential for student-tostudent discussion and sharing of ideas is
dwindling. For nomadic students without
communal studio space, there is little or
no collaboration between peers let alone
different year groups - this is the bleak
trend observed by Curtin Architecture staff
and postgraduate students.
While we agree collaboration is certainly an
integral part of studio culture, the removal
of studio space can be seen as a positive
sign of the methods of learning and student
dialogue beginning to evolve with societal
change. The transformation of the regular
“crit” to studio by appointment is a rational
response to the huge increase in student
numbers; upwards of sixty students
per studio in some cases. Engaging the
whole studio twice a week to discuss each
individual project is no longer an efficient
use of time.
Rather than assuming
collaboration between students is lacking,
it is possible to suppose that collaboration
has also evolved with external change and
that students now utilise different modes
of connection, including the digital realm.
Instead of filling walls in studio space with
drawings, texts and model photos, students
can be seen posting the same information
to their Facebook walls in order to seek
peer critique. Collaboration and discussion
about architecture now takes place in the
form of memes, blogs and Twitter feeds.
Students are connected to a far larger
network of peers than in the past, sharing
ideas and relating on the heartaches and
triumphs of architecture school with fellow
students around the world. Yes, physical
collaboration between students in our
classroom is sometimes lacking, but the
sharing of ideas and experience has not
disappeared, it is just less visible.
Staff who were graduates of the 1980s and
‘90s contrast their “golden years” of studio
culture with low levels of engagement and
participation in extra-curricular events by
students of today, another symptom of
the slump in a studio culture. Students are
results driven; only focusing on completion
of their degree rather than enjoying the
journey and experiences in between.
“The contemporary student is motivated
by the acquisition of a qualification and
not necessarily an education” (Ostwald
and Williams, 2008). This nonchalant
attitude is most notable in the continually
decreasing student interest in the big
architecture event of the year, the T-Square
Ball. In addition, larger events hosted by
the Australian Institute of Architects, held
for the entire profession, are apparently not
worthy of student involvement as students
seldom attend. This attitude is also seen
in class attendance and engagement;
design studio sessions have diminishing
student numbers, and many students who
do turn up lack focus. The attitude of many
students, particularly in the first years of
study, is that extra-curricular engagement
is uncool or unworthy of their time and that
a minimal work level will get them a pass
and that’s all they will need. It is implied
that this negative attitude is largely the
cause of the decline of a studio culture.
We agree that student participation in
extra-curricular events is lacking, but this is
not an indication of studio culture declining.
Student engagement is dependent upon
external variables and, regardless, there is
always a core group of students who are
engaged in the wider school experience.
Lecturer, Leonie Matthews notes that
“every year has the group of engaged
students who want to get involved and
the students who don’t; all that changes is
the number of participants on either side.”
She argues that the disengaged students,
marked by lateness, low attendance and
little extra-curricular activity, are largely
disconnected due to external circumstances,
therefore, participation will fluctuate
accordingly. Leonie gives an example,
“if there is student work available in the
profession, then it is likely that the majority
of students will replace extracurricular
time with practical experience.” After four
years of architecture school, we have also
observed that each year group is different
and each value and prioritise different parts
of their architectural journey. Our studio
culture should not be measured relative
to student participation in singular facets
of architecture school, as the facets are
adapted by different students to suit their
differing needs.
Architecture practitioners and professors
claim continually that architecture school is
not what it used to be; the educators have
“gone soft,” the curriculum is made easier,
the workload lighter or that the introduction
of CAD has made students lazy. The most
commonly mentioned change, however, is
the watering down of “the crit”. It was once
something to be feared, with crazy design
professors literally tearing student work to
shreds. Studio culture was about sharing
a genuine fear of failure and battling to
be part of the elite group of graduating
students. It is supposed that without
professors pushing students to their limits
and without the unbearable workload,
students are not bonding and that is why
our studio culture has withered.
The most recognisable facet of studio
culture is the bragging rights attributed to
dysfunctional behaviour, where students
take pride in what they consider to be
achievements; things that non-architects
would consider ridiculous and unnecessary.
Jeremy Till - architect, educator and Head
of Central Saint Martins - discusses the list
of achievements in Architecture Depends
as including, “losing your house keys and
not noticing for a week, never being seen
in public, brushing your teeth and washing
your hair in the school toilets, combining
breakfast, lunch and dinner into one
single meal, and using coke and coffee as
tools to survive consecutive all-nighters.”
Architecture students are grouped together
by their disconnection from regular society;
Till proposes that this is the basis of the
studio culture that exists in architecture
schools around the world. The suggestion
that our studio culture is declining is
therefore quite ironic and predictable. Of
course architects would infer that the
current generation of students don’t have
to go through what they did, and of course
they would preclude that the teaching staff
are becoming soft - it is just another level of
the competitive boasting formed as part of
their own studio culture.
Studio culture is the bond between
architectural students created by the
shared experience of hard struggles and
the insane disconnection from reality that
is unique to the journey of architectural
education. To say that our studio culture
is in a state of decline is to suggest that
this bond is under threat or that the many
facets of the architectural journey are not
what they used to be. Whilst student
collaboration has been affected by the
increase in student numbers, students
are beginning to develop new ways of
communicating their ideas; particularly
in the digital realm. The collaboration
inherent in studio culture is not declining
but adapting to changing circumstances;
the measurement (if possible) of their
studio culture should not be so shallow
as to judge them solely on extracurricular
participation. Studio culture should be
seen as flexible and equally fluctuating
to meet changes in student needs. While
we agree students may appear to be less
engaged than in recent years, their sharing
of the obstacles of architecture school
remains unchanged.
Each generation
of architecture graduates assumes their
journey was the most difficult; far more
difficult than the current batch of soft
and lazy students and our studio culture
suffers because of it. This is merely an
ironic extension of the one-upmanship that
stems from their own studio culture as part
of the awarded completion of dysfunctional
“achievements.”
Here is our updated list of dysfunctional
achievements - our studio culture:
You know you’re an architecture student
when...
...you enjoy hiding from the night shift
security guards at uni.
...you slice your finger, and the first thing
you think of is if you’ll be able to finish your
model.
...you put up everything on your walls with
drafting tape.
...you threaten to go “disgruntled postman”
when the plotters stop working.
...the alarm on your phone is to tell you
when to go to sleep.
...any horizontal surface is a mattress.
...there are more pictures on your Facebook
wall of buildings than there are of people.
...you ban your friends from using the
words “Zaha” and “Gehry”.
...you define buildings with setbacks as
“human”.
...drawingarchitecture.tumblr.com is your
version of porn.
...you spend an extra $1000 on an Apple
product because “it just looks better”.
...you take five units every semester but
spend 95% of your time on one of them:
Design.
...you like buildings you hated before you
started architecture school.
...you are the only person in your family /
group of friends that likes Perth Arena.
...you get pissed off at people who think
architects only draw pictures of buildings.
Has studio culture actually changed then?
Is our studio culture weak? No, not if studio
culture is the unwritten but understood
bond between architecture students. So
long as students continue to dedicate
five or more years of their lives to living,
breathing and dreaming architecture,
studio culture will still exist. It can be
adapted and manipulated to suit changes
in student needs, teaching methods and
demographics but it cannot be extinguished.
The criticisms that our studio culture is,
weak or otherwise less than in the past is a
myth fuelled by a healthy dose of nostalgia
and the competitive nature of practitioners
and professors of architecture passed
around at reunion time. As per our healthy
studio culture, we shall begin to perpetuate
this myth as soon as we graduate.
Christopher Mewburn &
Euterpe Platritis
Chris and Terps are currently undertaking their
Master of Architecture at Curtin University. They are
President and Secretary respectively, of the Curtin
Architecture Student Association.
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From practitioners to professors to recent
graduates, architects often refer fondly
to their own architectural education
whilst criticising the current generation
of students for having a weak studio
culture. Studio culture is the un-paralleled
engagement of architecture students with
their course and with one another; it is a
bond, or a sense of community, forged by
the collection of shared difficult experiences
that are the rites of passage of architecture
school. Late nights, debilitating critiques,
a high workload and the loss of social and
physical activities are some of the obstacles
that every student must endure if they
intend to join the profession. If the student
cohort is less engaged with the curriculum
and disengaged from one another, then
the studio culture is said to be weak.
What then, are the perceived changes to
studio culture and what has caused the
supposed decline? Alternatively, has our
studio culture changed, or is this merely a
myth fuelled by a healthy dose of nostalgia,
passed around by architects at reunion
time? The speculation of changes to studio
culture and our own alternative reasoning
will be discussed primarily in the context of
Curtin University’s Architecture school.