Talk Notes: PS12.03: design and community; creative outcomes in Fremantle

transcribed from my notebook; a few brief notes

Fremantle Bike Trees
buttress roots [link to MO, fairy lights, tree socks].

Bernard Seeber
Fremantle Train Station, Hilton Community Centre. Using existing fabric, putting things together the wat they were designed in the first place (because it's cheaper, easier to maintain and helps with continuity of community - but mainly cheaper). Adding to existing value.

Michael Patroni
Knutsford Consortium, development of a Knutsford (Brownfield development inland from Fremantle) lot. Managed to deliver sophisticated material outcomes and a 4.5M wide back lane (hard to convince State Planning), which would achieve a proper second order realm. Fremantle successful because of pre-car streetscape (among other factors).

As ever, thanks to the team at the Office of the Government Architect for all their hard work organising and curating this talk series, and the speakers.

A little bit of advocacy:

A discussion on a Victoria Park local 'facebook blog' (i.e. a page which someone uses to follow local events, businesses, issues and trivia), copied from facebook.

I have not made the posts anonymous, as they have been made on a public page.

I Love Vic Park

2 hours ago

On the corner of Leonard street and Albany Highway, we like it!

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The Queen in Australia

Hand coloured photograph of the young Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
on the Royal Tour of Australia in 1954, documented in the film The Queen in Australia.
Photographer: Unknown
http://www.abc.net.au/aplacetothink/html/queen.htm

There is a program on ABC iview at the moment called 'The Queen in Australia' that records the first royal tour of Australia, produced and directed by Stanley Hawes.  It was the first colour, feature-length documentary to be made in Australia.

There is a rather romantic passage about Australia near the beginning (starts at about 04:10) where the voice on the wireless reads, to the accompaniment of equally romantic images, what could almost be a poem.

'They speak for nine million people spread across six states.

They speak for giant Queensland, beneath its Capricorn horizons, carpeted with sugar cane.
For Victoria, where channel and dam and sluice have wrested increase from the tawny soil.
For boundless Western Australia, where the axes sound to the towering Karri forest.

They speak for New South Wales, with its Blue Mountain ramparts, with its broad-breasted rivers rolling down to the Pacific.
For South Australia, for the vineyards of its wine country, loaded with their smoke-blue grapes.
For its clanging ship yards, risen from a bed of iron ore on the arid coastal flats.
For lake lovely Tasmania, encircled by the southern seas.

They speak for a land of shy and gentle creatures.
For the marsupial survivors of a time-lost world, of the emu, pacing his pavan in the sand.
For the lazy, lovable koala, cuddling the gum tree in his furry arms.

They speak for a continent among the oldest in its being, among the freshest and most fruitful in its modern doing.
Where wirey stockmen ride cattle stations five times and more the size of Cornwall, or County Clare.
Where the sheep move like rivers on the plains, like white clouds across the field.

They speak above all for a new nation, flexing its muscles, filling its spaces, inheriting its own.
Never complete, never content, growing, enriching, expanding.
To this ancient continent, to this youthful nation, they bid their sovereign and her husband welcome.'

Isn't it so gloriously idyllic?  I hope you were as entertained as I was.

A visit to Krakow Part I - After WWII

HG's recent post on the Architecture and Culture 302 projects inspired me to write a follow up post. One of the projects every year focuses on Auschwitz, and I see that this year has been no exception. I recently visited Auschwitz, but I'm not going to write about that. I'm sure Auschwitz has been enough discussed. I think instead, I shall write about Krakow, the nearest major city to Auschwitz, and a city which has been very much impacted by recent history. World War II, and then the the subsequent communist period both took a toll on the city both socially and in terms of the urban fabric. I found Krakow a fascinating place to visit, because it is a city undergoing a lot of change. It really feels like it has just found itself again. However, as it undergoes so much change and renewal, it is also in danger of losing its old self as its people attempt to erase the painful history.

When I visited Krakow, I stayed with a friend of mine. She was born in Krakow and she studied in Krakow. She has an interest in political science, and she can rattle off several centuries of Polish history including dates and details. Essentially she was an ideal tour guide, because she knew why things were like that.

Before WWII Krakow had a large Jewish population; it now has a large number of buildings with no known owner. Many of these buildings are crumbling after more than half a century without maintenance. Many of these crumbling buildings, surprisingly, had people living in parts of them. As we walked along a street past buildings in varied states of repair one day, my friend walked in through what to me looked like a front door, a private space I would never have thought to enter. We walked across an entrance hall which had a large crack running the length of the tiled floor, one side of the crack being several centimetres higher than the other. We passed though this bizarre urine scented place ignoring the staircase and walking straight into the garden courtyard beyond. From the garden we could see the windows of the various apartments in the building. Some were obviously vacant, with broken or boarded up windows; but then, just next to, just above or just below windows like this there were windows which looked lived in and looked after, with clean curtains and neat flowers growing over the sills. It was quite remarkable. The city as a whole was like that: abandoned buildings grey and cracked were right next to ones which had been carefully repaired and painted in bold clean pastel colours.

an abandoned building

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situate (under construction)

The Vision

'situate was an international sculpture competition for Perth, Western Australia.

$1 million was offered for an artwork to transform the city landscape, with Forrest Place - the location of a proposed major upgrade - announced as the site.

The competition provided a model of cooperation between State and Local Governments to deliver major commissioned artworks within the city CBD. It was an invitation to think creatively about what we want from our capital city.

This competition has provided tangible illustrations of what can be achieved when committed to the belief that our sense of place and regional identity can be reflected in our built environment.

The winner of the competition - James Angus and his team - was announced on Friday September 11, 2009.

James Angus' artwork will be the single largest art commission undertaken in Western Australia.'

For more info about the winning entry, see the DCA website.

Do you think the vision has/is being met?

Perth Catalogue

Perth Catalogue, a set on Flickr.

Panoramic montages of some of Perth's public buildings and spaces

Postcard: Sheffield

Sheffield is:
hills (Wadsley, Stannington, Fulwood, Ecclesall, Meadowhead, Manor Top, Wincobank)
trees (6000 acres of woodland, at least 35 ancient woods)
rivers (Don, Sheaf, Loxley, Rivelin, Brook)

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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Postcard: London Court

Found this lovely drawing of London Court on the Pigeonhole blog.

I'm really fond of postcards that have drawings of buildings on them, because I like seeing how people have interpreted them. Really must get around to showing you some of the postcards I collected while I was away! (Yes I collect postcards rather than post postcards...)

Brussels in words

I noticed that I am listed under contributors as a European correspondent. I think for a correspondent I have been doing very little corresponding. So I thought I should perhaps begin by setting the scene. Here are some writings and observations that I have already written about Belgium, which is where I am.

(I'm afraid it is terribly lacking in photographs, as when I tried to add in photos, I discovered that I hadn't taken any of the things I see every day. I shall endeavour to take photos and to share them some time in the future.)

To be more specific I am in Brussels. Brussels is an interesting city, it is not like the other cities of Belgium. Because it is the centre of the EU, it is very multicultural. I can often hear 3 languages being spoken at once when I'm on the city's Metro. Brussels is the only area in Belgium which is bilingual. All of the other areas have only one official language, while the country itself has 3 official languages. In Brussels, the duality between the Flemish (Dutch speaking) and Walloon (French speaking) is interesting to behold. Brussels is predominantly French speaking, although the French speakers of Brussels do not consider themselves Walloon. They are from Brussels, not Wallonia, and a smattering of Dutch words have made it into their French (and vice versa).

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Hidden Perth Architectural(?) Gems

This is to start a thread of places that you love, but may not know, the places you like to look at as you drive/walk/bus past on your way to ......

There is a certain house that is perched high on a hill in East Fremantle, and is a two minute walk from my Nanna's house. Every time I drive to my Nanna's house I covet the beautiful simplicity of this house, which can be seen from the intersection of Pier and Parker Streets. So much to my shock when I discovered a 'For Sale' sign out the front.

As curiosity would have it, here are the details (I sigh as the price flashes up and as I type this it is probably already sold). Yes, the inside does look old, but this house has a real street presence and if your ever in the area I would recommend a drive by:



Just an off topic point, I think someone should come up with the 'collage suburbia'. I do love this suburban area near my Nanna's house for it's very even mix of 'heritage' homes (Penshurst, Aldgate, Knocknagow etc), 50's/60's modernism, 90's/00's McMansions and a few that have just been Italian'o'fied in the past.

AAAA 2011 and the State Theatre Centre

I have to admit I did not find the awards ceremony particularly inspiring, but I think this was largely because I was mostly unfamiliar with the people being awarded prizes.

The winners that I was most excited by were:

Janet Holmes à Court, who received the National President's Prize. Originally an organic chemist, nowadays she contributes in many ways to Australian culture and society, including being the commissioner for the Venice Architecture Biennale (in 2010, and to be in 2012).

Graeme Gunn, who received the 2011 Gold Medal. A youthful old man, he has created a ploy to make us follow him! Each talk he gives around Australia will be on a different area of his work. In Perth, the theme was 'courtyards'. I was fondly reminded of Beijing, where he too was inspired by the siheyuan (courtyard houses).

The ceremony itself was excellently put together. I was amused by the pre-movie-like-adverts, but the background digital displays were flawless, and this is such a rare thing to occur that I greatly admire whichever technician was in charge of this! Simon Pendal was the Master of Ceremonies.

The State Theatre Centre was also a wonderful venue, and I think perhaps in many cases, half the reason we wanted to go to the awards!

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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?

Blue Waters

As I was on the bus this morning, I noticed Blue Waters has been put up for sale. And whaddya know, its on Spacemarket, too! Totally fulfilled my urge to know what the glorious curved windows look like from the inside. Nice touch with the photographer in the photo montages, too.

R.I.P. Esplanade

It hadn't really occurred to me until I saw this post on AHiP that ARM's waterfront proposal was really going ahead. I thought it was just another one of the hundreds of waterfront proposals but no, construction is starting next year!

This raises a number of questions for me:

Why is 'the most significant thing happening in our capital city, certainly within the last 100 years' (Perth Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi) not going to a Perth architect? What is it about ARM that has allowed them to win both the Waterfront and the Arena?

What about the last 130 years? Scaffidi's statement diverts attention away from this site's history. The Esplanade Reserve was the first piece of land to be reclaimed for public recreation in 1880, the rest of the landing strip/doormat followed later. I know it is a bit of a peculiarity but it has long acted as a site for temporary shows - where will these now go?

Is reclaiming reclaimed land moving forwards, or backwards? If we are going to be returning what was 'historically' river to its original state, then what about Mounts Bay and the freeway interchange?

Is bringing the river to the city really going to make Perth a 'vibrant waterfront city'? Why can't the city come to the river?

How much consideration was given to this place's permanent position on the State Register of Heritage Places and how will this affect what is to be built? Is the aesthetic, historic, scientific and social value of this site to be rendered meaningless? See here for HCWA's register document and assessment document.

What will happen to all the beautiful Moreton Bay figs?

What do you think?

See also:
Funding in 2011-2012 Budget - note in particular “The Indigenous Cultural Centre will be situated over the water at the southern end of William Street and is planned to be a nationally significant centre for indigenous culture, art and learning. The timing and budget for this will be set as the major construction of the waterfront nears completion.' i.e. the Indigenous Cultural Centre is not part of the major construction?
Metropolitan Region Scheme Amendment 1203/41
Environmental Assessment Report
Both the MRSA 1203/41 and EAR are open for public comment, submissions must be received by 27 May.  Anyone with me?

Places of myth and legend

While seeing and hearing about the experiences of my fellow travellers last night, I was reminded of something I experienced while I was away. It was disappointment. I know this sounds rather negative, but sometimes these places aren't as great in person as they seem from afar. But that is my point, and a realisation I have had - often we who study in Australia bemoan the distance to all the 'significant' places of history, when really the wonderment comes from the mythos of these places and the selective drawings and photographs that create an image we hold in our head that inspires us. In some ways, I preferred having an untainted view of the world, but in other ways, I found it reassuring that places on the Grand Tour had their flaws too.

Of course, there are also those places that take you by surprise - they touch you and stick with you in a way you didn't know architecture could.

Spacemarket

Looks like Spacemarket is up and running - pairing disused spaces [in Perth] with useful people. Love the joiner photos and the 'warts-and-all' descriptions!

Sketches from Spain

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Barcelona Pavilion

The sculpture is a bronze reproduction of the piece entitled Alba (Dawn) by Georg Kolbe

Toledo

Figueres

Dali Museum, exterior sculpture holding a bright gold breadstick

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Edinburgh

We went up two sets of stairs, stepped out of the station and onto Princes Street. We turned to the right, and I caught my first glimpse of a monument on a hill, and was surprised how close it seemed. We started walking. We passed a lavish hotel, The Balmoral. We turned the corner again and the view caught me by surprise. There was North Bridge, leading me towards a ridge which had buildings running all along it, with the famed castle at one end. Beyond that was the hills - they were just so stunning and naturally majestic. As I started to cross North Bridge I realised the railway lines were running below us in a valley through the middle of the town. I had a strange feeling...it just felt right, like it was meant to be. What a place.

© Hannah Gosling, 2010

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