Dutch cheese

Apparently the Dutch want to build an entire island to relieve over-crowding on their already created land.

And they want to build it IN THE SHAPE OF A TULIP.

It seems all of their much lauded stylish and sleek designers were on holiday when this was announced and it was handed to a politician or a nine year old to design instead.

“…it’s the academic equivalent of ‘Survivor’…”

Exhaustion, uppers, downers, crashing computers, hysterical laughter… Triple J’s current affairs program, Hack, interviewed a bunch of final year students at UQ, listen here.

Apparently, studying architecture makes your friends think you’re a wanker, well yeah, mostly…. And newsflash of the freeking century: crits suck!

sublime and ridiculous

Heard the other day over drinks in a city bar: in between designing some extraordinary renovations for the heritage-listed terrace of a well-known Melbourne media player -including a full-size concrete pool on the roof deck- Buro Architects are currently busy designing a 22-storey tall statue of Buddha, to be erected in Bhutan. Apparently the sculpture is currently being fabricated in China, and the current dilemma is how to get a greater that 22 storey crane set up on a mountain in a country that only has one traffic light.

Material Girl.

Went to lunch the other day with my girlfriend who writes for one of Australia’s national daily newspapers with a readership of around 800,000. She told me of her frustration in trying to get an interview with Cassy No-undies. Well at least Cassy admits to not wearing underwear (is this why she got the job off Sam?) which is more than I can say for a lot of male architects. I mean can you imagine what kind of undies Tom Kovac or Godawfullsell wear? And what about Allen Powell (is he still alive?)? I can just see him lolling about in a leopard skin g-string. Of course, down at Hassel’s South Park boxer shorts are all the rage. Me…well I prefer my male architects to keep it simple….anyway I digress so back to the Rhinogoss: After repeated calls to Cassies’ gorgeous male “assistants” not much really happened and my friend was increasingly frustrated and about to give up. All she wanted was to interview Cassy about her work and to promote architecture in general in a national daily. It really upset my friend because as she says “when Cassie was an unknown and starving RMIT graduate (and a not a very good one at that) she was as nice as platypusserypie and all over me to get published.” Amazingly, a few weeks later my journogirlfriend got an email from Cassy stating that she would only do the interview if she could be paid for it. So at what rate does Cassy charge herself out as? Unbelievably, her asking rate is $500 an hour. That’s a lot of lingerie even if you don’t wear undies. It makes me think that there is a lesson here for other woman of negligible talent ( I mean really…lets face facts that platypussery at Healesville is truly awfull..I mean whats the thing about oversized steel members ) is too just have oodles of girly charm, premium price your services and forget to wear your undies at the RAIA awards nights.

Of course the real moral of this sad story of material greed is to return phone calls to people who were generous enough to help you out when you didn’t have a job in the office.

Carpark architecture

Spotted in the local architecture-book-stocking book store recently The Architecture of Parking.

Looks like I’ve been beaten too it. I’ve had a soft spot for carpark design for years, firstly thanks to the 1920’s carpark on Lonsdale Street opposite QV but I’m also very fond of the double helix carpark on Flinders Lane and the carpark you enter from Bourke Street but which wraps around up to Meyers Place. There’s something appealing about their often somewhat brutal, unassuming but often very interesting design. I remember going along to a lecture given by someone quite important and ‘cutting edge’ a few years ago and they were extolling the virtues and wonders of continuous surfaces, talking about how ‘cutting edge’ they were. I just thought: carpark. Carparks were doing it long before it was cool!

There is a small collection of the photos from the book here.

an exercise in mapping

The National Public Toilet Map

They even have a newsletter!

richmond + cardiff = ???

zaha hadid’s fantastic cardiff bay opera house never did get built, the city of cardiff in their wisdom chose something that looks like a beetle instead, but it appears that rothe lowman are trying to revive the ill-fated project. in richmond.

zaha, cardiff:

rothe lowman, richmond:

there also appears to be a touch of the laban centre about the gills…

food

the wonderful Detail have published a new book: what architects cook up. literally, recipes from architects.

this is possibly one of the most delightfully odd things i’ve ever heard of, wonder if the jelly city makes it in?