apples and architecture

Red Barn

2012-01-31T08:10:00.000+11:00

A Red Barn in Hemsedal, with the morning sun.

Hemsedal, Norway

2012-01-31T08:05:00.002+11:00

Mid winter light in Norway is a phenomena that evokes a deep primordial calm. The light is soft and everywhere, it hangs in the shadows of mountains and beneath the boughs of pines, where shadows persist in summer time.

Vasa and Haga in Göteborg

2012-01-30T23:03:00.000+11:00

The old town in Göteborg of Vasa and Haga. These streets rattle up the hill, with their brick and timber builds hugging the cobbletsone ways. It is entirely charming.

Hovås Sauna

2012-01-30T22:47:00.000+11:00

A sauna night in Hovås with Daniel and Frankie. a wood fired sauna in an ancient cabin with 4 degree sea water to freshen up in.

warmer days

2011-04-19T22:57:00.002+10:00

last days of summer at St Kilda. I spend a bit of time here, rolling through the meandering crowds, feeling the ground rise beneath my soles. It makes u move in unconventional ways.

commercial utopia

2011-03-03T18:20:00.002+11:00

this semester i will be spending alot of time in Docklands. A new suburb of Melbourne which has been garnished with palm trees and skyscrapers. A place where history means nothing and the future is bleak. we will try to negotiate a new path for the Waterfront City.

This image is a spin on the "Life" series by SuperStudio. This team laid out a seamingly endless grid that engulfed all that was false leaving the earth with Nature and an unquestionable Science. All that was left to do was enjoy life. It's just not that simple.

knox skateboarding

2011-02-15T21:01:00.003+11:00

Had an awesome time yesterday afternoon rolling around Knox park with Mike. We borrowed my friends 7D and shot a couple of fun clips throughout the day - i hope the fun translates.

rolling knox from Jonathan Ware on Vimeo.

st kilda flood

2011-02-05T22:09:00.002+11:00

yesterday afternoon we went for a swim at the beach and watched the storms roll across the bay. later that afternoon we went for a swim down the street and found my car deep under water!

apocalyptic metropolis

2011-02-02T21:56:00.002+11:00

Melbourne: A catastrophic city.

2011-01-21T18:34:00.002+11:00

this post is courtesy of my best mate Lenny from sydney. he is legend, has a unique talent for film photography and is the proud proprietor of Dimitri's Pizza in Paddington. the third one down is a daylight time lapse using a neutral density filter, definitely don't see that very often. hit me up if you would like his contact or go order a pizza!

great ocean road

2010-12-28T22:35:00.003+11:00

valley behind apollo bay

secret spine away from the deranged christmas tourists

marysville in colour

2010-12-23T21:25:00.001+11:00

marysville in black and white

2010-12-23T21:17:00.002+11:00

Marysville and the surrounding bush last week.

marysville

2010-12-20T23:15:00.002+11:00

Lake Mountain, 2 years after the fires.

tris jack and matt

2010-12-08T20:15:00.000+11:00

contrasts

2010-11-05T19:39:00.000+11:00

Lubitel 166+ / Ilford delta 400

seasonal

2010-11-05T15:16:00.002+11:00

So this year i will enjoy my first summer in 5 years...... but i will certainly miss this:

Lubitel 166+ / velvia 100 cross processed

water, again.

2010-08-29T23:11:00.005+10:00

a few weekends ago myself and Flames skipped town to go find some empty ocean swells. It was cold, there were lots of penguins, heaps of abandoned beach shacks and about 20 pizza take away stores. thanks for the good times and the photos Flames

sectional model

2010-08-12T12:05:00.001+10:00

site section and intervention approach. a sequence of planes that releases the landscape

suburb bowls

2010-07-18T23:44:00.007+10:00

a quiet sunday morning in suburbia.

Pin Up

2010-07-15T12:02:00.002+10:00

Lux St Sin is a babe

"terrain vague"

2010-07-14T22:46:00.001+10:00

movements of earth and wind and rain in a derelict industrial city scape

a week at home

2010-07-14T22:31:00.003+10:00

Byron is an epic place, it supersedes all the bogus tourists, city sea-change soul searchers, and hipster douche bags that flock to its magnetic sands.... The place still resonates with purity.

opposite worlds

2010-06-17T12:37:00.003+10:00

I just spoke to my mate who is enjoying summer mid-night sun in the mountainous regions above the arctic circle - probably my favourite place on this planet. As we move into 'winter' in Melbourne I recall what it is like to actually feel the cold of Norway.

canon ae-1 program / portra VC 160 / no edits

end of semester

2010-06-15T22:00:00.002+10:00

it has been another crazy end to the semester. there is never enough time to finish a project, harldy enough time to wash underwear and socks, no time for leisure... but we get through it and revel in the glory of a few small weeks break. i will post some stuff from the semester over the next few weeks. here is a drawing from the site we have been working on - an old industrial area adjacent to and underneath citylink - melbourne's major freeway.

the Oslo Opera House

2010-05-22T00:17:00.003+10:00

This is a panel I presented at uni as documentation for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet centre in Oslo. It's an amazing building, which I've been lucky enough to be inside of. We have been learning 3-dimensional modelling as part of our course and these are some of the images and drawings I've produced from the model. It is pretty pretty amazing the stuff u can do with these programs!!! click on it - it is worth a zoom in

cold place ii

2010-05-11T23:51:00.002+10:00

Gothenburg, Sweden and rural Norway. Lubitel 166+ / Portra VC 160 medium format

cold place

2010-05-01T15:56:00.003+10:00

January in Norway. ilford delta 400 / canon Ae1 program / no edits

a faithful servant

2010-04-30T23:22:00.002+10:00

Being uninhibited in architecture or any design is a skill. At first it comes naturally with a naivety that only an unawares first year student can express. The key is to not let the rules of engineering, the comparison to precedent and the suspicion of flare negate your untamed dream. Instead these critical moments should empower your idea and give it structurally sound wings... i need to be faithful to my initial concepts, channeling an artistic desire to produce something idealistic that doesn't conform to prerequisites. be a servant to your dreams.

lomo redscale

2010-03-26T00:15:00.005+11:00

Ae1 program / lomo redscale iso 100

Some pics from the beginning of summer in Byron before flying off to Norway for my winter dreaming.

the home studio

2010-03-13T17:57:00.005+11:00

Frankie and I draped a wall with a white sheet and set up some nice flash bouncers to do a little shoot for her burlesque character Lux St. Sin a few weeks ago. here are a couple of the pics, and one of me on the couch!

design week 1

2010-03-11T11:48:00.003+11:00

This semester we are exploring an opportunity to design affordable housing in North Melbourne.
The site we are investigating lies directly beneath and adjacent to the Citylink Freeway and the train line in an industrial area. The piece of land itself is a wasteland of old mattresses, glass, crates and an abandoned warehouse. One morning i was there painting these stencils and i turned around to find a guy going through my bag. It is a great site! and reminds me of D.I.Y. projects like burnside skatepark where people get together and turn debilitated space into vigorous communal volumes. exciting!

only in autumn

2010-02-04T10:06:00.003+11:00

The white afternoon light sank down low, and i stepped out from the worn prints on the track behind my house. i wanted to go and see something that i had only ever seen once in the Autumn 2 years ago. I followed some deer trails under the pine trees and across a frozen creek. clumsily falling thigh deep through the snow trying to navigate the delicate hoof prints. I climbed the small hill which is crested by a beautiful twisted dwarf cypruss pine and wandered past its marbled branches into a deeper forest of craggy birch. The land was familiar, its shapes, undulations, the angle at which the fence ran down into the trees, but so unfamiliar in the same way, like feeling your way around your bedroom in the dark, you know where things are suppose to be - but you still can't be sure.. i slipped through the fence and broke free of the trees into a small clearing where i had stood 2 years ago in October, marvelling at the golds and browns and greens that only autumn in Norway can deliver. Nestled in the lower corner of the feild is a small log shelter, half enveloped by snow now and dark inside. There is something comforting and very personal about finding a place that i'm sure only a handful of people have been to in the 2 years that have past. It isn't hours away, It isn't even very far from my neighbourhhod, but it seems to remain isolated from everyday life, it avoids attention and time and passes fluidly through the seasons without resistance or reminiscence. It is just there, beautifully.

candidate for best day ever!

2010-01-26T09:26:00.004+11:00

today was another candidate for the afermentioned title! had a nice sleep in and awoke to full sun streaming in through my window (this doesn't happen much!!). i then ate some breakfast basking in the sun while taking in the glory of the mountains, norwegian brown cheese on toast is like some weird salty caramel! Jonte and I headed up the hill to hit the park, and managed to soar far and high off the biggest kickers. great to feel a little adrenalin flying off the lip!! after night fell we drove up out of the valley to a highland forest and cross country skied through the blue moonlight.. then a sauna and pizza to round things up.... epic!

last night turned out to be candidate for best night ever when we 'borrowed' our neighbours 'kick' (1 2 or 3 person gravity fueled speed machine transport device) so much fun rocketing down the snowy roads at full speed taking corners and getting launched off into peoples front yards!!!! i dont think ive laughed that hard for quite a while!!!!!!

beware of snowlions!!!!!

good times on the mountain

2010-01-21T05:13:00.005+11:00

today loom cam went to the park!!! and in response to dane's comment on the last video i decided to go upside-down!

just another fun filled day (loom cam!)

2010-01-20T03:10:00.006+11:00

Jonte and I have started to experiment with a custom made pole cam! This is the first solo run from this afternoon, taking a few turns down the Sugar Bowl. it was a beautiful day, with a little bit of fresh pow, and you just couldn't keep the grin off my face!!!

Kyrkjebønosi

2010-01-14T07:52:00.005+11:00

This valley floor rests below a ceiling of cloud. quiet and calm chimney smoke hangs without breath to steer it and we are walking free of the treeline. the sea below reals in colour, lapping at the white peaks parting glimpses of the valley floor. sparkling shards cover my flannel, trailing gauper foot prints. canyons follow ravines follow gullies, valleys, ridges to distant frozen plateau. earth takes me high, snow takes me higher.

a pre dawn hike today to the summit of Kyrkjebønosi (1610msl) with Jim and Jonte (thanks for shooting some of this pics jonte!)

for a friend.

2010-01-04T05:40:00.003+11:00

sad is the night
that breathes
in deeply
mountains smothered
in sickly gloom

dark raven cries
from heights
unmeasured
a curse is strewn
on one below

a cloak of shadow
follows closely
wandering
lonesome through
dale and dell

a wolf awakens
at deathly summons
the curse
is ringing
in the wind

weight of woe
and sadness
heavy
fate and foe
slay unhindered

a new frozen world

2010-01-04T02:10:00.003+11:00

adrenal gland

2009-12-30T06:45:00.003+11:00

This afternoon i very nearly wimped out of a line. The dreaded "analen", the local hero chute was gnarlier than i've ever experienced here in 5 seasons. Standing on the ridge looking in my heart began to beat in my ears, i totally forgot how steep it was through there! The chute begins with a relatively easy entrance, which becomes instantly steep and bottle necks between two rock walls. Just above this bottle neck the face angle is precipitous, if you lose your edge here say good night! right at the bottleneck a rocky icy drop preceeds a tight right turn avoiding the rock wall on the left.. after surviving this another larger rock/ice drop preceeds another right hand turn avoiding a cliff drop on the left.. needless to say confidence is essential, if you hesitate you are likely to ping pong off the walls before hurtling head first over a rocky cliff!! in any case, all four of us exited heros unscathed despite a very close call for Sonny. (The last photo, does not justify the intensity of the last drop & corner!)

Some photos from around the neighborhood, hikes and adventures of late including harmonicas on the mountain!

valley

2009-12-23T07:43:00.005+11:00

the world is cold and alive. breath freezes on my whiskers and tries to lock my eyelids together. the giants peer down from their lofty homes.

friends for life!

sets

Dropping!

secret place

field

short cut

norge. dec 17. point and shoot!

2009-12-18T19:05:00.003+11:00

Home in the valley, where the sun threatens to rise all day long before setting early afternoon. this morning its - 23 outside, i stood out in the snow barefoot for about 1 and a half minutes then spent the next 5 minutes cursing myself!!! it is still. the kind of stillness you only find in the wild isolated winter wonderlands, nothing stirrs, it is like a still image that changes with reflections of light. the condensation between the double glazed windows has frozen solid and i am wondering how many layers i will have to wear today!

Ae-1 program / lomography redscale negative 100

2009-12-11T21:28:00.005+11:00

I shot this one on the road from melbourne and in sydney when hanging with ken, lex and james the williams. I had this film developed in a little country town and they let me come behind the counter to work the c41 machine so that the prints didnt come out bright red!! simply scanned.

Canon AE-1 program / Ilford Delta 400 B&W

2009-12-08T22:13:00.002+11:00

This film was shot in melbourne and camping along the great ocean road. all photos were shot on the one film, using cokin filters. no foto shop. no digital filters. just scanned. so stoked!

easy life

2009-12-06T23:04:00.003+11:00

Far north coast lifestyle: check surf, cruise, surf, swim, eat, cruise, skate, bbq, hang out, storms, cruise, sleep.... pretty darn good for the soul!!!!! the last photo is an annual monument to the suburban lifestyle, there must be at least 10 thousand dollars of lights strung up around this brick veneer home just around the corner from my parents place. It is very seriously un-serious!

sydney

2009-11-30T18:49:00.003+11:00

last night went for a skate down to bondi bowls at about midnight. it was really hot! have been wandering around the city and through surry hills and paddington being immersed in the terraced hills and ramshackle streets. loving the advantageous viewpoints of the cityscape that pop up unexpectedly! so different to most other cities. have also been making the most of the ocean baths at night.. great city sydney. melbourne is still better.

the vert wall turn is way scarier in the dark than it looks! my mate ken took these photos

2009-11-27T00:12:00.003+11:00

Tomorrow begins the road trip north to Byron Bay.... its a long way! here are some pics from Frankie's and my last expedition north where we followed our noses through back roads, 'short cuts', dead ends and small towns..... one trip and this is what we saw.... i can't begin to fathom the multitudes of landscapes this world has conjured. 'Gerry' is a great film if you like wide open space that makes you feel incredibly small. an expansive panorama of helplessness.

camping down south

2009-11-20T19:20:00.006+11:00

That windy Great Ocean Road, Leave the town, and ur phone. straw hats, burning sun & coconut scented sun screen. icy blue ocean all the way to antartica, nothing but waves and wind. feel it? what it was like asking someone for directions. those pale dusty roads and toilet pits. rough sand that swallows your feet. no shoes.

sunburnt

the virgin film

2009-11-17T18:45:00.004+11:00

Here is the first film from my new (old) camera.. It's a fuji sensia transparency cross processed into a negative. It developed a nice rose hue which is nice to know if u ever want that sort of a feel.... really differnet to a kodak cross process though which usually have a nice tealy tinge... I am really stoked, cause when u first shoot on a new camera the shutter sounds so different on each make and model - i was convinced it was too slow!! but as it turns out it is in pristine condition..

This weekend, just scanned - no edits:
Viva Prahran Skate comp. some big moves!

Frankie being really cute around our place in St Kilda

Cricket, exhibitions and friends

Major Project Semester 2

2009-11-15T15:10:00.002+11:00

Here are (some) of the panels i presented for our finals. We we're encouraged to develop a series of drawings that could relay across a detailed, resolute proposal for an Architecture School of about 25 students as an addition to RMIT's design school. Rather than using extensive 3D rendering to present the project, I focused on using line drawings to convey an overall feeling of lightweight simplicity to the building. The facade uses an external skin of aluminium mesh which would help in reducing summer sun exposure as well as creating a translucent facade in front of the glass - a blurr between inside and outside. This mesh is also used in the floors, so that the 4 leveled studio essentially becomes one space of perforated floors and mezzanines - this is also a technique to allow the warming air to rise through the building being expelled through louvres on each floor.

random pics

2009-11-15T14:15:00.004+11:00

random pics from the middle of the year taken with my loved lubitel

exposed

2009-11-13T22:19:00.002+11:00

a different technique, self portrait.

scanface

2009-11-13T21:53:00.003+11:00

luckily it wasnt danes package arriving today!!! so stoked, so this is my new film camera......

in other news i got back a roll of film today with a dirty big light leak that ran from tip to tail right through the middle... darn!!!!!!!!! to top it off my scanner doesnt handle negatives and because my scanner is also a printer copier fax machine no scanning software can isolate it as just a scanner.... oh well.. i have my new Ae-1 and i have resolved the light leak in my lubitel and uni has film scanners and the world is my chemically developed roll of film.

pick up: package

2009-11-13T12:53:00.005+11:00

I just recieved a notice to pick up a parcel from the post office after 4 o'clock today.. i am pretty excited, but also a little bit wary. I am hoping to whoever is up there looking after me that it is this that i'll be picking up:

but i also know that dane sent down a package of film he wants me to develop at a sweet pro lab around the corner... which will suck if that is what awaits me!!! i want to shoot on my new camera this weekend!!! please dont be a package from this weirdly shaped guy:

I will be soooo off it!

making models

2009-11-09T23:21:00.006+11:00

Sometimes i feel like Colonel Aureliano Buendía (one hundreds years of solitude). Tinkering away in my study, glueing tiny shreds of card together, scoring plastic in impossibly straight and repetitive lines... In the same way he trades his tiny gold fish for gold coins, from which he makes more goldfish from - i cut and glue cardboard, to give to tutors who in turn expect more from me, sending me back to my study to once again build a model that outdates the last.... It is a neverending cycle.. But the the cycle is therapudic.... If only someone would give me gold coins for these things. perhaps one day?

Below are some photos of my final model presentation. In the end the basic form of the Architecture studio ended up being a simple series of rectalinear boxes that are floating and suspended within eachother... by doing this i was able to create one single open space, separated by mezzanines levels. Philisophically, i decided internally the ideal studio should have no doors and no closed spaces to encourage a communal approach to design, creativity and critique.

The apparent simplicity came out of long and hard work at technical details in its construction, which enables the building to appear almost as one solid form, as well as a community of floating spaces.... details to come!

finishing school just in time for summer.

2009-11-07T14:40:00.004+11:00

Aaagh,

the sweet self imposed rewards of sleeping in and reading for leisure are oh so sweet.. my schedule today runs like this:

sleep in untill about 9 or 10, made some breakfast, eat & cruise listening to the radio.

jump on my cycle, with a book in my bag and mosey on over to jamie's cafe on Chapel St.

After hanging out reading and coffee-ing, rode down chapel and found a sweet old shirt for $4.50.

Stop at an epic old 50's silver falcon in front of an abandoned shop... take a photo.

come home via Acland St to have a look at melbourne's equivalent of surfers paradise - it is so average!

cook some left over beans and rice and listen to Tom Waits and Bette Midler.

and its only 3'oclock!

Am about to chuck on my boardies and go for a swim out the front and try to lose my computer tan!

So yes, I am finshed my first year of Architecture (ironically i was at this same stage of my educational career 8 years ago when i completed year 1 of architecture at Newcastle Uni).... haha!..... BUT, the amount i have learnt in these 2 semesters in comparison is nothing short of astonishing. But thats what you get when you allow yourself to become fully absorbed in something you love. You actually wouldn't believe how much i am at school unless you saw it.. It is again, nothing short of astonishing. Somehow i have managed to keep up a level of commitment that Simon Jenkins and I put in on our 1st week where we basically didnt sleep untill we were fully satisfied with our project - which meant we didnt realy sleep! (refer to minus h project early post in blog).

Anyways, i am for the time being a man of leisure, untill i fly to norway where i will work (and snowboard) everyday for 2 months.... tough days!!!

This pic is part of my final Design Studio presentation for our major project where we designed an Architecture Design School Studio.. So my design studio was designing a design studio..... how do they come up with these crazy ideas!?

physicality

2009-08-29T17:54:00.002+10:00

building as an architect is integral to understanding a design... even if it is as simple as carving a piece of foam - to physically create an idea is such a big step in the transition of drawings to the final built solution. some models from the past few weeks.

ramps

2009-08-17T20:14:00.004+10:00

There's just something about ramps......

Go South

2009-08-15T10:05:00.004+10:00

Driving south to the people-less national parks of southern NSW is always an adventure. The sessions are most often amazing with one or none to share with. The waves break out the end of rocky pinnacles and run along near dry shelves of reef, and the water is cold. This winter, we had to scrape thick ice off the windscreen before leaving for the pre dawn earlies. I dream of a south coast cabin in the bush.....

architecture comic

2009-07-30T21:43:00.004+10:00

an extremely unfunny comic panel i presented today.

light

2009-07-25T21:58:00.004+10:00

"Shadows praise light." - Peter Zumthor.

Without shadow there is no relief
Nothing to gauge how much light there is.
Therefore, even the very meaning of light is compromised.
If everything is revealed at once then nothing is really revealed.
There is no story, no journey, no climaxes, no falls.
No revelations.

Without shadow light becomes empty and meaningless.

Thermal Baths, Vals. Peter Zumthor

uni begins again

2009-07-20T12:58:00.003+10:00

This afternoon i have my first tutorial of the semester. I am anticipating alot of work! Just to have a final warm up before school begins, myself and some Uni friends went on an architectural day tour yesterday. Melbourne's buildings opened its doors to allcomers yesterday for the 'Melbourne Open House'. It was incredible how active and involved the public is in it's buildings. There were lineups of over 2 and a half hours to the most central and popular buildings (Manchester Unity, Council House, the Sub Station and Burley Griffen's Capitol Theatre).

manchester unity

capitol theatre

obsession with all things old

2009-07-17T22:36:00.011+10:00

My Lubitel 166+ is fast becomming my favourite pastime. love that anticipation of film developing, and the bonus flukes that come out of it. it is especially fun shooting because it doesn't have a light meter and every shot is a calculation.
all shots below are as is unedited and scanned at a really low res, with the serene oslo opera house at the top.

costume

2009-07-15T22:11:00.007+10:00

Back home in Byron, my little brother Josh, Frankie and I decided to go out in the fading sunlight to wear some costumes in the bush. There is an awesome piece of reclaimed land on the edge of town that fringes an empty white sand beach. The trees and grass now grow at will.

excitement

2009-07-15T10:08:00.004+10:00

yesterday i spent the entire afternoon deliberating over elective choices. Uni begins again on monday, and we (first year) are now faced with our introduction into a vertically intergrated design system, where we are learning (and presenting!) along side second and third year students. This is going to be intense!

So, yesterday we listened to the tutors offering their design studios with empahasis ranging from; the outcomes of design amongst volcanic activity in western victoria, liberation from the oppressive work place, building vertical gardens in urban environments, computer based design and algorithms, The effect of the body within architecture and the list went on for 15 studios! so much to choose from! I laid down my 4 preferences, and am actually happy with whichever studio ends up taking me through for the next 13 weeks.

After all this my friend Simon and I decided we hadn't yet had our fill of architecture for the day and went to the Architecture Institute of Australia AIA jury presentations, where representatives talk about why certain buildings were selected out of the hundreds of newly built designs. It was so great to hear Architects heckling eachother! Arguing over what makes a good building, and what makes a buliding utterly awful! good to hear the disputes never end.

SHIFT community centre

2009-07-12T18:51:00.008+10:00

This project is located on the corner of a park facing 3 other blocks of towering offices (Flagstaff Gardens, cnr William & La Trobe St). It is the scene of mass transiency from 8 am to 6pm, when workers pour out of the trams and trains and fill the capsules above and then race home leaving a desolate landscape of flickering lights and blowing leaves

The Shift community centre houses pubic space for multiple use such as lectures, exhibitions and functions, and also acts as a Homeless Shelter with refuge lounge, lockers, kitchens and meeting spaces. I was focused on pushing these two (usually) segregated user groups into the same space and to create compromising situations where people are forced to deal with the realities of our social context.

The forms are simple abstractions of typical houses and are all floating free from the ground and some at obscure angles, splicing into and pushing out parts of the other buildings. This should cause poeple to question the permanance of the building and create a feeling of awkwardness. The idea is that the forms could easily be seen one day as one arrangement and then on the next morning the forms may seem to have shifted and skewed over night in the complete abandonment of life this place suffers from in the evenings.

The Shelter lounge with it's pitched roof stands out as a beacon of refuge to the homeless, and stimulates the question of what shelter is? and more importantly who deserves it?

Below: scattering of forms to achieve a plan 'without hierarchy'. elevation drawings. sections through the building. montage on site. final model.

winter at cape otway

2009-07-12T18:30:00.003+10:00

After the exhaustion of first semester frankie (my girfriend) and I needed to bail out of the city to let the mind float free from the realm of buildings and graphics. it was cold and devoid of humans, the perfect abandonment.

stencil renders

2009-07-11T19:07:00.003+10:00

Axonametric designing. i have seen some absolutely mental axon graffiti, so ridiculous how largescale some of the stuff is! These renders are A2 size and took so long to cut out and spray!!! imagine covering a whole wall in 1 night!! (excuse the cut through the middle, my a3 scanner is too small)

Film Gallery: Melbourne Laneways

2009-06-22T18:41:00.003+10:00

Project Brief: Create a FIlm Gallery within a selected context of Melbourne's Laneways

Melbourne has a rich array of passages and laneways that cut through its large city blocks. They were designed for the pedestrian, and allow the core of the city to be explored by foot. They are tightly packed with cafes and boutiques and are distinctly european in their vibe. We used these alley ways as a context to site the project. This design is situated in the Block Arcade, which is one of Melbourne's narrowest paths with cafes on either side jostling for space. It was conceived as a replication of Milano's famous arcades. "incorniciare" (To frame) plays with the lanes lively layering of awnings and steel details that create selective views of the city and unique openings. I used forms derived from the actual shapes these openings created for the 3 levels of the gallery. the lower level is used as a "raised floor" of the lane incorporating cafe seating and compensating for any lost space underneath. The second level is a viewing point for the outside film screens that hang on the opposite facade. These screens take the shape of the existing windows, and through a certain ambiguity of what windows are real and what are films link the interiors of the upper floors back down to pedestrian level. The highest level is the interior gallery, where the form is an abstraction of a typical italian awning hanging above an entry way.

The layering of levels and crossing of stairs in this design further magnifies the built conditions, framing and lively nature of this lane. It raises the laneway rather than excluding it to make the gallery accessible to all pedestrians, and in doing this it intergrates the upper levels which are often disregarded and viewed as separate spaces.

minus_h

2009-06-21T00:12:00.003+10:00

minus_h. with Simon Jenkins

Demountable Shelter project. The design sought a transportable, demountable and easy to assemble shelter which could be used in emergency housing situations, or for homeless persons. Simon and I came up with a series of cardboard sheets with shaped cut outs, that when slotted into the bearers created internal voids. There are 4 kinds of sheets. The entry, a standing void, raised sleeping void and a rear port window. The entry uses the iconic image of a house, that would stand out as a symbol for refuge. The repeated sheets created a dynamic aesthetic, playing with transparency, movement and privacy. At the front on view exposing the occupant inside partially, but then appearing completely solid from other points.

This was our second project which we recieved in week 1. we spent so long drawing up different designs using different materials - which almost always turned out to be some form of a tent! which is what most people ended up submitting and for that reason was exactly what we were trying to avoid. Simon and I have since decided that our architecture careers peaked way too early and we should just quit now with minus_h as our legacy. hahaha.

Conceptual Design: Seaford S.L.S.C.

2009-06-18T23:38:00.004+10:00

For this project we were asked to draw on multiple ideas. We had recently been studying varied topics like political events in Aboriginal and Colonial Australia, issues of displacement in Palestine, the glorification of localism and nationalism in "Bra Boys" and many other contentious issues. I chose to reflect on Aboriginal heritage by creating a building that embodied a traditional perspective of time. In Aboriginal culture, time is meaningless. There is no race to the end, and no prizes for impatience. Days are spent much like they were 60,000 years earlier. And the ancestors of this past traverse time through story telling and spirit.

The design uses repetition on the front facade, compression and expansion of spaces, and a series of levels to create a journey throughout. The repeated elements are abstracted from the leaning tea trees in the dunes, twisting and turning away from the wind. The watchtower draws from other studies focusing on totalitarianism, it is an all seeing, privileged viewing room. The building would be embedded in the dunes so that over time sand and growth would consume the building leaving its own age and lifespan open to interpretation.

Expression

2009-06-12T19:26:00.007+10:00

In one of the mid semester design tutorials, we were exploring abstract ways to symbolise ideas. every project involved something different to absorb and analyze, from Lynch films, 18th century paintings, existentialist theatre through to political speeches. From these we took concepts and developed the ideas into physical forms. so fun. alot of post rationalisation! these are some of the drawings i used to explain my built models.

a monument to shame

collage inspired by "Ten Canoes" used to explain the cyclic nature of time

Jørn Utzon created an icon

the things we surround ourselves with will consume us in then end!

Semester 1

2009-06-12T18:44:00.004+10:00

1st Semester consumed my life! It was pretty amazing, and i'm so stoked to be studying architecture at RMIT. I'm not sure how many sleepless nights i've endured so far scratching away with my 0.18 pen, cutting out pieces of card for models, and filling my lungs with cfc's spraying stencils for presentations.. But the certainty of these zombie like states is assured for the next 9 semesters. 9! Well, at least i don't have to go and get a job for a long time.

a sectional perspective layout