Pholiota for sale

The Griffin’s own house in Eaglemont is for sale (from $770k).

According to the blurb, the 1922 house has an ‘Art Deco’ addition. I think someone might want to send the copywriter a book on historical styles because somehow I don’t think angled blonde timber panels are a  particularly deco  feature. It isn’t a great extension in my opinion, don’t think it pays enough attention to the Burra Charter, specifically “22.2 New work should be readily identifiable as such”, which really is a very good recommendation.

environment for development

“Failure to address these persistent problems, UNEP says, may undo all the achievements so far on the simpler issues, and may threaten humanity’s survival …humanity’s footprint [its environmental demand] is 21.9 hectares per person while the Earth’s biological capacity is, on average, only 15.7 ha/person…”

from a new report from the UN Environment Programme, Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4), published 20 years after the Brundtland Commission’s seminal report Our Common Future.

hopefully this will inspire some action, rather than panic and/or further denial.

2007 national awards

the winners of the 2007 RAIA national architecture awards have been announced, Victorian winners are (there are too many to lists them all, hence the parochialism):

• John Curtin School of Medical Research – Stage 1 Redevelopment (ANU, Canberra, ACT): Lyons
• Cape Schanck House (Mornington Peninsular, VIC): Paul Morgan Architects
• Yve Apartments (St.Kilda, Melbourne, VIC): Wood Marsh Architecture
• Southern Cross Station (Spencer Street, Melbourne, VIC): Grimshaw Jackson JV
• Manchester Civil Justice Centre (Manchester, England): Denton Corker Marshall
• SOHO Shangdu (Beijing, China): LAB architecture studio
• Eureka Tower (Melbourne, VIC): Fender Katsalidis (Aust) Pty Ltd
• 1010 LaTrobe Street (Docklands, Melbourne, VIC): ARM
• Great Smith Aussie Home (Blackrock, Melbourne, VIC): Cassandra Complex
• Council House 2 (CH2) (Melbourne CBD, VIC): City of Melbourne + DesignInc Melbourne
• Stage One ACE, Kangan Batman TAFE (Docklands, Melbourne, VIC): Lyons
• Park Street House (Fitzroy North, Melbourne, VIC): Robert Simeoni Pty Ltd Architects

a few surprises there. something i find really interesting was in The Age article about the awards: “The cautionary tale of 2007, the jury said, was that the economic boom created a strong market for ideas, and yet perversely also meant quality sometimes suffered in the drive for higher profits.”

this is something i’ve heard from a few people. basically it seems that thanks to a fat, fast economy, there is a push to get things finished really quickly so that the developers can move onto the next project. which is fair enough, but when the buildings aren’t finished properly it’s pretty stupid. it seems that this also stems from the fact that architects are no longer in control of the project, that’s left to project managers at the developer’s end.

i can’t help but wonder if it will come back to bite them on the backside when poorly finished buildings start to show wear very badly, very soon.

but enough of that, congrats to the winners.

5 star treatment for everyone

it was announced today by the Building Commission that from May next year, all domestic renovation and extension work will include bringing the house up to a 5 star energy efficiency rating, press release here.

this is really a much more important step than introducing 5 star for new homes, simply because the vast majority of homes in Victoria are not new, but we do love to renovate. though it will still be pretty hard to make the argument for energy efficiency on the basis that it will save you money when greenhouse gas emissions are free and thus coal fired electricity remains so amazingly cheap.

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…

aus mod houses

there’s a new book coming out next month 50/60/70: Iconic Australian Houses which looks pretty damn good, great photos and plans.

possibly the best thing about it though is that it isn’t seemingly aimed at the standard audience, i.e., it isn’t preaching to the choir (us). it is written by the editor of one of those cushion chucker style interior/design magazines, which contain most of the architectural knowledge that the australian general public will ever be exposed to. which i think says more about architects than the general public really.

also, it is published by murdoch books so it will get out to more than 3 bookshops.

as wonderful as books like Houses for the 21st Century are, they’re unlikely to reach a wide audience, which is something that i think 50/60/70 may well be able to do. and in doing so might be able to introduce a whole lot more people to the wonderfulness that was Modern domestic architecture in australia.

DCM in manchester

DCM’s long awaited justice centre in manchester opens tomorrow. a review in the Guardian describes the building by the boys from Melbourne as “altogether a remarkable building” and “a radical and exhilarating piece of work”. they sound very excited.

looking through the pictures, the first thought that came to me about the building was “it looks like melbourne”. well, der really.

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?

it’s that time again…

yes, the election campaign is finally upon us and the stupid policies have started flowing thick and fast.

now k. rudd appears to believe that the prime miniscule’s commonwealth land release policy to improve housing affordability was such a good idea that he wants to claim it. never mind the fact that it basically won’t work because:

• most of the land they’re talking about isn’t anywhere near where anyone wants to live
• anything that brings the cost of houses down would piss off people who already own houses, who are a far bigger voting block than those who don’t, not a group any politician wants to lose
• they’d only sell the land to big ugly developers who would simply sell it for going market rates, after erecting rubbish soul less boxes that no one should have to live in before that of course.
• it’s the economy stupid!

i mention it though because i think this is as close to mentioning the built environment as politicians will come… it seems that despite the fact that we spend a good proportion of our lives inside a building, no one really talks about them much, unless it is in reference to how much they cost or if they’re broken in some way.

back on topic though, hosing affordability has more to do with low interest rates prompting people to borrow more than they otherwise would and competing against each other at auctions than a lack of land. and they’re only doing it in close to cities. in some areas of western sydney, house prices are actually in decline because people simply don’t want to live there because there is nothing to do and no services. if there is so little demand out there already, what the hell use will releasing yet more land be?

mafia sighting

today at the city wine bar-

peter mcintyre

peter elliot

norman day

-and three other blokes i am sure were architects too, i just didn’t want to stare for too long as i got my post-lunch coffee –

all in black

More Venice Shenanigans

Rhinogirl is back and alive and well after a wild trip to SAHANZ in Adelaide and AASA at UTS in Sydney. As much as I tried I failed to get it on with Bert “Boner” Bongers; well almost anyway.

But the big news today is the RAIA’s 2008 Venice Biennale winning team is the Durbach/Thomspon team. I guess you would call it a kind of Melbourne Sydney compromise. The RAIA has already spread the news via double page newspaper adverts. Where does the RAIA get its spending priorities? On the one hand it is so mean when you go there for a meeeting you only get nescafe (they’re even too stingy to send emails) and on the other hand its spends big bucks promoting the Venice thing in national newspapers. I kind of feel sorry for the winning team as I am sure the RAIA expects the winner’s practices to absorb some of the 2008 exhibition costs.

But of course the really, really big news is that the Durbach Thompson team was in fact the second choice. The real winner was the Markham Obrien team. This team was selected as the winner and invited to meet with Carey Lyon to discuss the proposal over a lunch of canapes and champagne. What followed is rapidly becoming becoming another melbourne mythic narrative. (One, which I think ranks up there with the DCM/Corrigan incident at the Last Laugh, the Pam McGurr/Ivan Rijavic broken spectacles incident and of course all of the John Andrew’s incidents you have ever heard of (not too mention the Howard Raggatt Pataphysics incident.) According to eyewitnesses Michael hurled the champers bottle and the bucket at Carey after he suggested the team might like to “make a few changes” to the design. I guess that’s why Kerstin’s got the job now. Which all goes to show everytime I go away, even if it is only to Adelaide life in Melbourne’s arkatekcha scene always seem’s the same when I get back.

If your are reading this Bert I just want to say I love you and thanks for the hair product.