Innholdsfortegnelse for AR137 i Architectural Review Asia Pacific

AR136–Super- traces a loose thread through various incarnations of what ‘super’ means in architecture. As a term, ‘super’ derives from Latin, meaning ‘above, over, on the top (of), or in addition to’. As a preposition, it is always added on with an implication of excess to something or someone. Excess is at the root of architecture, for in ways large and small, architecture is by definition the extra that brings meaning and order to the built environment. And, in typically operating additively, its architectural outcome often equates to scale. The large, monumental and the ‘super’ additive projects are all self-evident in AR136; but ‘super’ may also operate reductively, as one might find with the super-careful, super-curated or super-precise. These qualities are not so easy to locate in AR136 and so…

This is a book that offers a tribute to the works and ideas behind one of Australia’s most notable architects, Harry Seidler. It is a resplendent text filled with a mix between monochromatic imagery from Max Dupain and architectural drawings. Harry Seidler LifeWork is accompanied by an array of interviews with the people around the architect and is also foreworded by a number of essays from highly esteemed practitioners and academics, such as Norman Foster, Oscar Niemeyer and Kenneth Frampton. The book tracks the career trajectory with a convenient and detailed biography and thoroughly documents his practice, in Australia and abroad. Many of the most recognised and recognisable projects such as Sydney’s MLC Centre, Blues Point Tower, Rose Seidler House, as well as the Australian Embassy in Paris, are on…

Paradise is an important part of New Zealand identity and it incites a fascination with the private backyard, which is played out from the do-it-yourself backyard deck to the most celebrated houses. While this fascination with the private backyard has come at the expense of the front yard, footpath, street and, ultimately, the city, there are several concerted efforts to reorient New Zealanders to the front of their house, opening up the possibility of some revisions to the idea of paradise, from a private landscape to a shared one. An old paradise Paradise is a recurring theme in the stories New Zealanders tell themselves. Paradise is not only important to contemporary New Zealanders; it has been a part of who New Zealanders are for many generations. James Belich’s well-regarded history…

Some buildings are exactly what they are. Others trigger counter-readings and close scrutiny of the object and discipline. Contemporary architecture, marked by the suffusion of the diagram, reinforces this paradigm. It is seemingly ubiquitous in the work of McBride Charles Ryan (MCR), but deployed as more than simply a device for subjective interpretation. The implied diagram is integral to MCR’s form-making process, analytical shorthand that binds strategies of formal abstraction to mnemonic populism. Within these indices, the practice pursues a new civic-ness through geometries of delight. With The Quays, MCR completes its largest project to date, a multi-residential development for MAB Corporation, beyond the La Trobe Street extension at Melbourne’s Docklands. The podium and twin-tower development weaves between the iconic and symbolic, confronting the visual context of Victoria Harbour and…

Residential The annual Residential issue is a reflection on all that is emanating in the realms of the housing typology and, in this issue, is primarily focused on New Zealand. In a bid to invigorate what can be a normative and conventional typology, this issue takes as its secondary subject matter one steeped in architectural history – from ancient civilisation, to Roman Antiquity, to the present day – the courtyard. On revisiting Las Vegas some twenty-five years after their original trip, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott-Brown noted that returning to the city was comparable to returning to Florence a century after Early Renaissance – an alienating discomfort. They had previously suggested, in Learning From Las Vegas (1972), that ‘Las Vegas was to the strip what Rome was to the piazza’.…

The Italian historian and architecture critic, Manfredo Tafuri, produced countless written contributions that not only questioned architectural discourse but also pointed towards the lowly level of disciplinary criticism. In Theories and History of Architecture, he locates a condition relational to ‘operative criticism’, believing that the only feasible method to eradicate poorly conceived criticism was in fact to discuss architecture as an institution rather than the collection of individual buildings and practitioners. Indeed, he advocated for an interest in the ‘cycles of architectural activity and the problem of how a work of architecture fits in its own time’. It is intriguing, then, to see that the author of Project of Crisis: Manfredo Tafuri and Contemporary Architecture, Marco Biraghi, steers clear of any overt critical angle in favour of charting Tafuri’s lineage…

R TA Studio’s Wanaka House is situated in the breathtaking setting of Lake Wanaka on New Zealand’s South Island, nestled among 86 hectares of protected shoreline. The Mount Aspiring National Park World Heritage area provides a mountainous, snow-capped neighbouring context that could become an overwhelming backdrop to what is a modest and exquisitely detailed house; but the context, in fact, is actually the perfect foil as it offsets what could be mistakenly viewed as an extravagant undertaking. The house is richly finished and resplendently located, with stunning views to the pastures and lake, yet it manages to remain humble in appearance. Neither house nor context dominates, even though they are somewhat competing. Further, the extensive restoration of the natural habitat, combined with sustainability indices and maintenance services, allow the house…

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Penny Allan is the program director for landscape architecture at the Victoria University of Wellington and co-founded the design research practice, Outpost, focusing research on urban resilience with speculative propositions for New Zealand’s urban and regional landscapes. Melonie Bayl-Smith is director of Bijl Architecture and adjunct professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, where she also conducts design-based research. Martin Bryant is a senior lecturer for landscape architecture at Victoria University of Wellington and a director at Wraight Associates. Erik L’Heureux is an architect at Pencil Office, Singapore and a graduate from Princeton University. Simon Farrell-Green is an architectural writer based in Auckland, New Zealand. Clare Jacobson is the author of New Museums in China, former editorial director at Princeton Architectural Press and a design editor and writer based in…

Social housing, that most widely misunderstood and much-maligned project, tends to fare quite badly in history books, usually because of the notable (or notorious) poor performers. While there are undoubtedly some great success stories, rightly or wrongly many projects are tarred with the brush of failure – whether this is architectural, social and/or political in nature – taking along with them many unsuspecting, undeserving bystanders. From the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, the design and procurement of social housing was a significant activity for many Australasian governments and often an important election topic that reflected the ideological stance of the competing political parties. However, in more recent decades, the political realm has largely marginalised social housing and such inaction has undoubtedly been a contributing factor to the current lack…

The Cosgriff House by Christopher Polly Architect is an unassuming little gem in the back streets of Annandale in Sydney’s inner-west. A mere twenty square metres were added to the existing building footprint, the majority of the work reclaiming space from underneath the existing house. The clients, a couple with one, soon to be three young children, had seen some of Polly’s published work and invited him round for a chat. They recall that Polly was the only architect they met that considered the possibility of finding space under the existing house a viable option and got enthused by what was possible rather than what was not. This can-do attitude serves Polly well. Taking advantage of the site’s fall to the rear, a large living/dining/kitchen volume is inserted under the…

When commissioned to extend an existing grand Queenslander in Sandgate, twenty minutes’ drive north of Brisbane, Owen and Vokes and Peters (OVP) was granted the opportunity to work with an existing house with a more overt civic presence than most. At the northern fringe of Sandgate’s high street, the house, which has a scale and grandeur befitting its high street address, is situated on a crest that falls rapidly to the east, presenting broad views to Moreton Bay. To the west, the topography falls gently across the street, toward a natural lagoon and local scout hall. The easterly aspect and view of the bay from the rear of the property presents a compelling case to draw the focus of activity in the house from the street front to the backyard…

Romancing the verandah is a cherished pastime of the Brisbane architect. The iconic verandah-wrapped timber housing stock of pre-war Brisbane, known as ‘Queenslanders’, infuse the inner-city suburbs with a particular laconic charm. The Queenslander has entered into the mythology of the place, framing its rituals and staging its events for generations. Like their near-cousin, the Singaporean ‘Black and White’, they are increasingly celebrated by property marketeers and popularised in the media. However, it is often overlooked that the Queenslander is a model intended for another time, devised by a colonial power in response to increasingly distant cultural and urban considerations. What, then, is the continuing relevance of the Queenslander to a twenty-first century city and how might one of their most memorable spaces, the verandah, be updated or reimagined in…

The discipline of architecture and its practitioners hold ideology in suspicion. It is a peculiar condition that defines contemporary practice, maybe even bordering on an ‘end of ideology’ ideology. Indeed, the very notion of adhering to, or posturing for, a ‘position’, leaves many architects or academics considerably marginalised. And so, architecture finds itself on society’s margins; a peripheral profession sidelined. It seems that, as a discipline, we are no longer able to rationally understand the external, exploitative assertions that impact on daily practice. In fact, it would appear that there is a professional false consciousness disabling any possibility of a position being taken at all – a scenario wholly at odds with the preceding rich pedigree of architectural discourse. This statement does not, however, demand some kind of elitist, highfalutin…