Architectural Flash Mob (sold separately)

HOME OPEN SATURDAY 6TH FEB 3:15PM - 4:00PM

465 CANNING HWY, MELVILLE

"An inspired design by one of Perth's most acclaimed architects, Geoff Warn, of Donaldson and Warn (Geoff was appointed WA Government Architect in November 2013), this stunning house was created around 25 tonnes of massive steel beams recovered from the demolition of a huge 1950's warehouse. The beams have been allowed to rust to an amazing natural red colour. The beams form the skeleton of the building and are exposed inside and outside the house..."

See you all there.

http://www.realtyone.com.au/for-sale/melville/465-canning-highway/299894

A Spatial Biography: Seven Extra(Ordinary) Office Buildings Exhibition

An exemplar selection of work by students from the Curtin Fourth Year Master of Architecture program. 

The studio was dedicated to two facets of architectural practice - the development of a complex building on an urban site and the development of the designers own spatial intelligence as someone who is engaged in spatial research for the benefit of society.

Exhibition open from 13th December - 22nd December at Moana Chambers, 7am - 4pm Mon-Fri, 10am - 5pm sat.

Link: A Spatial Biography: Seven Extra(Ordinary) Office Buildings Exhibition

Photo: Jonathon 'Mcfly' Yeo

The Changing Colours of Brookfield Place (and Perth)

 

 

Photos taken over the course of one summer hour.

Iwanoff House-Open: 53 Shannon Road Dianella (Not Marsala House)

UPDATE: 53 Shannon Road Dianella (Not Marsala House)

Open 11am -7pm. Thursday till Sunday.

The Iwanoff Project will celebrate the residential architecture of an Iwan Iwanoff home and showcase a collection of contemporary and vintage Australian design from March 7-10 in Dianella, Perth W.A. The property will be open to the public to view a unique "open for inspection" event over 4 days. aestheticalliance* will fit-out the interior of this signature Iwan Iwanoff brutalist/modernist home with a curated collection of contemporary & vintage furnishings. The property itself goes under the hammer from the 16th of March. 

For further details:

http://www.facebook.com/TheIwanoffProject

or

http://weloveperth.net.au/the-iwanoff-project/

thinking about: film

"Even if they are not all good poems, you do realise how incredible the thirst is for poetry as a way of apprehending and thinking about life. It sort of deals with the same questions as philosophy does, but it builds up from the ground and from specific detail whereas philosophy comes down from above and abstract generalisation. It allows you to experience other people's thoughts in a way that other art forms just don't, and reading all these entries together you see that people are looking for a way of dealing with the other. I don't want to term it spiritual exactly, but certainly the numinous aspects of existence aren't dealt with much in our culture."

- poet, novelist and international litigator Nick Laird on poetry, in The Guardian, 4/1/2013

To me, the essence of that quote really applies to film, not poetry. To me there is no better medium than film to "experience other people's thoughts", and for dealing with "the other". It is more visceral, has more "specific detail", and is also a very familiar medium - easy to make now with cheap computing, easy on-line promotion and distribution, and widely understood within our TV and cinema centric culture. Poetry I think held this popular story telling role within our culture, but has it no longer (except, perhaps, combined with song lyrics - which are given greater power in music videos). 

Recently among the collective, there has been quite a bit of film discussion and making; most of which has not yet reached fruition. 

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Notes from the Inaugural BCC Salon...

Ingredients:
2 x 35cm cheap baguettes
150g butter, softened
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 220°C/200°C fan-forced. Cut bread into 2.5cm-thick slices (don’t cut all the way through).
2. Combine butter, garlic, parsley and chives in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spread over cut sides of bread. Wrap each baguette in foil.
3. Bake for ___ minutes or until butter is melted and bread crisp. Ventilate room. Serve.

Photography: John Paul Urizar
Recipe Sourced: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/24786/garlic+bread

Architecture and Timelessness

Tutoring in design today made me remember a conversation I had with SP regarding the role of architecture and the timelessness of a building. From memory (which is very shaky on the details so I hope I have the essence of his argument right) in his opinion it is to do with the ability of a space to capture a sense of greater being, or a person's core self. By doing so it neglected cultural background, ideological persuasion or fads as all occupants connect to space in through the use of our senses. He put forth a very convincing argument.

Now what made me think of this discussion is that the students are being asked to explore Leon van Schiak's three schools of thought: 'Civic Narrative', 'Technic' and 'Poetic' - for those of you have are not sure what these are, I have tried to give a synopsis of each school below. Be wary though: I have been very reductionist. When considering the timelessness of architecture ideas, I pose these questions to start some discussion:

Do you think that only buildings designed intentionally in a poetic manner will become timeless? 

And if buildings were to designed to other design intents ie. Civic Narrative or Technic, to become timeless do they need to have a poetic quality?

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Point of Submission

It's called submission for a reason.

It begins with one's head starting to go numb from thinking to hard about everything all at once.

It ends at an indeterminate point in the middle of the night where good intentions stop hurting and the mind and body just gives in.

It's at this point of giving up that the good ideas begin to flow - free from preconceived expectation - unconscious trains of thought begin to choo choo along like bird calls starting up in the dark.

***

Unfortunately this train's already a wreck and the only 'good thought' was to waste more time photoshopping Mies falling out of his chair...

But it's not to late for you.

(Good luck to all the thesis students out there)

Les Girafes

Photo by I. Gosling

Another city street performance that I went to earlier this year was Les Girafes, part of the Perth International Arts Festival, by Compagnie Off. It was quite eery to see these giraffes roaming the city, with a hoard of people (including children) following and surrounding them. You could tell they were coming by the sound of the opera singer or the occasional explosions, and the group produced a red glow which cast onto the surrounding buildings. They started in the centre of the Cultural Centre, went along James Street mall, then up Beaufort Street and along Francis Street. What a spectacle for Northbridge on a Friday night! The giraffes themselves were cleverly designed and pulled themselves along on stilted legs - gentle, limber movements.

This video makes it seem like quite the mad roaming circus.

Tongues of Stone (in photos)

I went along to see what Tongues of Stone was like, and I have to say it was quite beautiful, and a must repeat! I didn't book ahead and so didn't have a headset, but I would love to try this experience with the music as well - its $18 to book. Performances run three times a day (10 am, 12:30 pm, 3:30 pm) until Saturday. Anyone interested in coming with?

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Willi Dorner

This talk was AWESOME, although I have to say that my opinion was highly influenced by being a climber and sitting next to another rather excited climber. I think we both liked the fact that Willi said increasingly he was using climbers and parkour people along with conventional dancers.  I am so glad KvV booked spaces for me as this event was sold out! - HG

I am mildly conscious of the fact that I may be slightly misappropriating Willi's artistic intention in favour of my own, but I think this is fantastic because I am tired of urban spaces dictating to the user how they should be occupied. Surely if this is our habitat, it should be shaped by us, rather than it shaping our behaviour. As a climber, I think I see the city very differently - I see positions and places that we could be, and pathways, ways of moving through and occupying space that exist on a three-dimensional level, instead of being restricted to a two-dimensional plane. I think that some of his installations highlight that three-dimensional space. - LW

Willi discussed two of his projects:

Anywhere Somewhere Everywhere
A little hard to explain, but essentially there is one performer and one audience member. The audience member is given a mobile phone with some guiding instructions on it, and is lead through the city by the performer, or 'shadow' who communicates intermittently with the audience member. They are typically lead through disused spaces of the city. The performance takes about one hour.

Bodies in Urban Spaces
A group of audience members is lead through the city. There are about 20 performers, who run ahead of the group and 'install' themselves in various places, making visible the gaps in the urban fabric. Willi said he likes to lead people through a range of neighbourhoods, and perhaps ones that people might not usually go to. The performance often picks up a lot of people along the way, at one point they had about a thousand people following them in London, causing traffic to stop and such. The also have to rehearse in the actual places they will be performing in, and this also typically collects an impromptu audience.

I recommend viewing the photos before viewing the video below, as the stillness is important in the understanding of the performance. The performers usually stay in one place and position for about 3-4 minutes. Apparently people are often irritated by the stillness of the performers and sometimes touch them because they do not believe they are real!

See here for photos from Willi's website (scroll down to 'bodies in urban spaces') and here for a Guardian album.

Below is a video that Willi showed us at the end of his talk from a performance at the Philly Fringe festival.

AJH, do you have anything to add?

House With Rooms

Its funny being in a house with self-closing doors and well-sealed windows in a different climate. Lying in bed this morning I was thinking 'la chambre' (French: bedroom) in this climate really is like a chamber. Rooms are very self-contained, and it makes me appreciate the climate in Australia where ventilation is often a good thing and you can take advantage of the 'open plan' without having to worry about heating bills. I don't know if I would want an open 'house without rooms' in this climate, but Raimund Abraham's is a series of intimate nodules dedicated to one activity, and I can see how that could work. It also makes me wonder about the role and sizing of hallways in the home (I want to read Bill Bryson's 'At Home', I think he mentions this).

Also I can see why the English like their tea...I think you need a cuppa to deal with the fact that the sun gets out of bed later than you!

Levity III

Yesterday after blowing bubbles in the urban orchard for a couple of hours, I went to Levity III, the luminarium in Forrest Place. If you haven't had a chance to look, its only open till Sunday so make sure you get in quick! Its free to enter but its good to go early and get a ticket for a particular timeslot.

Here are a few images of the interior.

© Hannah Gosling, 2010

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