CoDesign Studio

About CoDesign Studio

CoDesign Studio is a not-for-profit organisation that combats social exclusion and disadvantage in Australia and internationally. We work with communities to design and implement neighbourhood improvement projects. Together we create new types of public spaces - from community gardens and public furniture, to parks, schools, community facilities, and housing.

We value social outcomes as much as physical outcomes. We work with people of all ages and backgrounds, and our process focuses on positivity, shared values, practical action, and meaningful relationships. To do this, we bring together multi-disciplinary teams of volunteers to work on our projects. For volunteers, working with CoDesign is an avenue for professional development, and an opportunity to make a difference.

Get Involved!

In 2013, we're excited to be working on projects in WA! If you're interested to volunteer, we invite you to a 2-hour induction session. It covers why CoDesign exists, our approach to design and community development, the operational structure of the organisation and opportunities for volunteering.

Date: Wednesday 14 November
Time: 6-8pm
Place: Urban Orchard, Perth Cultural Centre (if the weather is bad we will move to the State Library foyer)

Please RSVP to kate.ferguson@codesignstudio.com.au
More info on CoDesign Studio: www.codesignstudio.com.au

"I would put solar panels on it…if I was stupid."

If there was only one talk about Architecture which I could afford to attend each year  - I would choose a 'Klopper Talk'. 

My first attendance at a Klopper gig was in 2008 or 2009!? The timing doesn't really matter because what is said often stretches between the far past and the ponderings of the present (...timeless perhaps). I remember it as physically image-less presentation and would also allege, slightly inebriated, spoken word performance. It was a cryptic but cutting Bob Dylan like rambling in front of a typical black clad archi-crowd for which I am yet to have witnessed an equal.

So it was with much excitement that I ditched work commitments and attended the Brownbag Talk No.8: 

Brian Klopper - Culture of Culture. 

"What is an architect to do? For that matter - a poor student…Do you give the client or the lecturer exactly what they want because they are paying for it with their money and their marks - not their marks - but they've got control of them? Or do you work for some higher authority like prosperity or as the muse of God? And is it alright to deceive people to get the right solution? Is it ok to use any material or structure or finish to achieve the end you seek? If it looks like a marble column is it alright that is not a marble column? Is it  your role to educate the public to appreciate good architecture (and anyway what is good architecture)? Is it something in the latest European style? Are the practical matters of organisation and environmental modifications necessary evils attached to the more mystical matters of art, beauty or message? And the answer to all this? Well for all complex human problems, as you know, there is one single answer - and its wrong. 

…of course Im not going to give you the answer. You must decide for yourselves."

Image: http://perthsbest.wordpress.com

Kerosene Stores

Today I went to Kidogo Arthouse (or former Campbells Pottery, former Harbour & Lights Dept. and former Kerosene Stores) in Fremantle to take some documentary photos for AM, who is currently working on this project.

Hopefully AM can expand on the exact process of performing remedial works on limestone buildings, but I thought I would share some of the process photos.

western facade

Read more >>

Architecture is an 'ace job'

The ABC produced some interesting material on architecture in the past - the interview transcripts from Plans for Life (an 80's radio show made in Perth, featuring local architects - in the Alexander Library), and In the Mind of the Architect both make good reading.

 This video is from a program called 'Ace Day Jobs' ("Love Ya Work"), aimed at primary and lower high school students.

I think it's interesting that Drew Heath has been used as an example. His experience probably doesn't reflect that of the majority of architects - but certainly makes architecture look exciting! I like the way the ABC doesn't dumb things down - this video has a lot of ideas for something aimed at kids.

Margaret River Chocolate Factory - Chindarsi Architects

front facade, from the carpark 

On a couple of visits to the South-West recently, I have had occasion to visit the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. The chocolate is great - the white chocolate is probably the smoothest and richest I have encountered so far, and their 55% cocoa dark is nice to eat (I always find the 70-80% ones a bit too bitter).

front facade detail - plywood lap-joined, sometimes painted.

Read more >>

Muqarnas

I loved seeing AH and BJ's photos of Alhambra (which in Arabic is actually الْحَمْرَاء Al-Ḥamrā: the red one - didn't know that previously but that makes so much more sense now! Flashback to Arabic lessons on colour words). In particular the ceiling of the king's bedchamber was...well...stunning, to say the least.

© Amanda Hendry, 2010.

I have decided to post up some work from Special Topics 542: Ways of Making with Errol. Try to get your head around this! For this unit I decided to look at مقرنص muqarnas (Arabic: stalactite vault) because I had picked up this book about the Topkapi Scroll in second year and decided I loved it.

Read more >>

Work in Progress: Cladding

I miss site visits in Building Technology, it was nice to see work in progress.

Here are some photos to do with cladding, from the last time I was in the city.

City Square (Westralia Square site)

© Hannah Gosling, 2010.

Raine Square

© Hannah Gosling, 2010.

St George's Cathedral

© Hannah Gosling, 2010.

Brown Bag No. 3: spaceagency (10 Sept 2010)

Michael Patroni and Dimmity Walker from spaceagency presented the 32 Henry St apartments (which received the Harold Krantz award for multiple residential from the Chapter this year, among others), and their own Prevelly Beach House (also awarded by the Chapter in 2010).

The apartments were based around an attitude to heritage which said 'no reconstruction' and 'this is best left as a ruin' when they approached the remains of an 1880s cottage on the site. The project has many ingenious solutions to the demands from the site and building codes. I like the way the ruin space was made into an interior which was given the feel of an exterior, as the visible services bulged out from the white volume above, like the forgotten backs of shops with ducts and air-conditioning scabbed all over them - but in white! The level of resolution was amazing, as was the brisk use of curved walls and flush-doored cabinet work (though this is obviously luxury residential).

image: spaceagency website

Dimmity noted that in their 'beach shack' they were trying 'not to be architects'. They holidayed in it for a number of years without changing it, filled it with old furniture, stuck salvaged chunks of other buildings in, asked the builder's advice a lot, and avoided creating another large holiday mansion which pervade the South-West coast in increasing numbers. Lara MackIntosh (who always asks the best questions) thought this collaboration with the builder was a great example of an alternative mode of practice, and wanted to hear more about it. There was some musing over whether this was what really architecture is, or should be. Michael noted the Henry St apartments were procured in "a very traditional" way, with a lump sum contract.

It is great that we are having brown bags again (thanks to the organisers and presenters!)

Labels 1