Innholdsfortegnelse for August/September 2015 i Architectural Review Asia Pacific

Hello. Back in 2000 I was invited to sit on a panel to select an architect for Marc and Eva Besen's TarraWarra Museum of Art in the Yarra Valley. It was a limited competition and by invitation. Following an exhaustive interview process the list was whittled down to five architects: Wood/Marsh, Kerstin Thompson, Fender Katsalidis, Allan Powell and Sean Godsell. It came down to Powell and Godsell and, in the end, Allan Powell was selected with his delicate ‘fortress’ of rammed earth. It was Sean Godsell's proposal however – an uncompromisingly tough, elongated rectangular extrusion in rusted steel, with a glass lantern, clinging to the side of a hill, overlooking a lake – that created the most debate and discussion among the panel. Godsell has never forgotten (or forgiven) –…

Philip Jodidio Thames and Hudson, 2015 Hardcover • 288pp • $70.00 In recent years, contemporary Japanese architecture has emerged as a substantial force on the international scene. In The Japanese House Reinvented, Philip Jodidio demonstrates the Japanese architects’ willingness to experiment, particularly when faced with the constraints of high-density urban living and the ever-present threat of natural disasters. Jodidio showcases 50 recently built Japanese houses from his extensive travels around Japan. Projects by Pritzker Architecture Prize winners, Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban and Kazuyo Sejima, are shown together with works by established and emerging architects like Sou Fujimoto, Atelier Bow-Wow and Keiko Maita. With each house, Jodidio explains the architect’s choice of materials, response to site, programmatic needs and the challenges faced by the architect or client. Roughly six pages are…

Having raised the blinds to let the breeze pass, he [Prince Genji] sat out near the veranda[h] with a booklet spread before him … a quiet breeze coaxed perfume from the flowers and especially from the plums just coming into bloom at the veranda[h]. Murasaki Shikubu, The Tale of Genji (1007–1010 AD) In 11th century Japan a classic piece of literature – arguably the world’s first novel – was published. The Tale of Genji tells the story of Japanese aristocratic women in the Heian period and, like all good yarns, evocatively describes both the inner lives of its characters, as well as the places in which the story unfolds. The quotation is interesting, as a verandah is referred to, not once, but twice. It sounds like Prince Genji found a…

The RMIT Design Hub provides accommodation in one building for a diverse range of design research and postgraduate education. RMIT is a world leader in design research, yet previously postgraduates were dispersed across the university’s campuses and facilities. The Design Hub provides a collegial research base, where postgraduates in fields as diverse as fabric and fashion design work alongside those involved in architecture, aeronautical engineering, industrial design, landscape architecture, urban design and so on. Research groups have the ability to locate and fine-tune their accommodation within ‘warehouses’ – open plan spaces where research teams can set up and tailor their work environment to suit their particular needs. Teams may stay anywhere from six months to three years, depending on the nature of and funding limits to their research and education…

Penny Craswell is a writer and communications specialist in design and architecture. She is a former editor of Artichoke and has held editorial positions at Indesign and Frame magazines. She is currently communications and business development manager of Bijl Architecture and is completing a Masters of Design (Honours). Her blog is www.thedesignwriter.com.au. Nic Dowse is an architecture graduate, but prefers beekeeping. He shares arcane histories of beekeeping, beehives and bee cultures, as well today’s practices from Australia and beyond. Historically, hives were built into the fabric of village life – into walls, under eaves, in bee huts. Nic is excited because, in the 21st century, beehives are appearing in urban villages again. Paul Katsieris is principal of Katsieris Origami: Architecture and Urbanism based in Melbourne. His practice is engaged in…

Leon van Schaik Wiley, 2015 Softcover • 248pp • $58.95 One of my favourite lessons in architecture is written by the late cultural geographer, Denis Cosgrove, in Social Formation and Symbolic Landscape. The story goes like this: 16th century Europeans first discovered the idea of landscape and also of representing landscape for aesthetic enjoyment. Those travelling to Veneto in northern Italy were delighted by landscape morphology they had never previously seen. They saw terrain, seemingly natural and cultivated at once, covered in what appeared to be delicate embroidery. It was the result of mixed crop farming, coltura promiscua, creating a pattern of small, irregular (often) wheat fields, bound by rows of trees supporting a variety of productive vines. Cosgrove tells how this was not only the result of accumulated knowledge…

One of my earliest childhood memories was sitting on my father’s knee while he drew. The backing paper and masking tape on his drawing board were covered in squiggles of black drawing ink lines – evidence of clogged Rapidograph pens – and to distract me he would sketch the faces of my siblings in among the squiggles. His drafting tools – set square, clutch pencil, T square and (very precious) Wild Heerbrugg compass set, were all intriguing to me. Empty packets of leads, broken slide rulers and damaged set squares became my equipment so that I could make my own drawings on the floor of the drawing office. Best of all though were site visits, where, if I was lucky, I would be asked by a carpenter to hold out…

For example, Sydney has a greater population than New Zealand, and has almost as many people as Norway, Finland or Denmark. Melbourne’s population is approaching that of the state of Queensland, while Brisbane has almost as many residents as the entire state of Western Australia, which occupies almost one-third of the whole country. Interestingly, there are only five cities in Australia with more than one million people and there are only 10 cities bigger than Hobart, which has a population of just over 200,000 people. Although nearly 90 percent of Australians live in urban areas, less than 40 percent of the population live in the five major capital cities. Beyond these metropolitan centres Australia is a country of regional and, often remote, communities. However, the critical mass of population in…

Piet Eckert and Wim Eckert, E2A Architects, Zurich, with an essay by Semir Zeki Photography Jon Naiman Park Books, 2014 Hardcover • 98pp • $136.00 This book captures the full range of Zurich studio E2A Architects’ work across public buildings, housing, exhibition design and industrial architecture. Over 50 architectural models of E2A’s most significant projects are represented in a collection of striking black and white photographs taken by US photographer, Jon Naiman. Naiman’s photographs are powerfully evocative and artistic, alternating between abstract and perfectly focused depictions of form. Here, architectural models are shown in part and in whole form, capable of suggesting urban space despite their size. The photographs show that the fragment can be as meaningful as the whole. A case in point is the model of the Centre…

Penny Craswell You have described your design for MPavilion in Melbourne as a canopy structure that allows movement, appears fragile and translucent, and responds to its surroundings. Can you tell us a bit more about your design? Amanda Levete I wanted to exploit the temporary nature of the pavilion form and produce a design that speaks in response to the weather and landscape. Rooting the pavilion in its parkland setting, I looked to create the sensation of a forest canopy in the heart of the city, giving shelter to a program of events. We have a long history of working with boat builders and Australia has some of the finest. We’re working with a yacht fabricator to employ the boundary-pushing technology of composite materials to create the canopy, which is…

St Andrews Beach on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula is unusual in that it is one of the few locations in Australia where construction is permitted right on the foreshore. The coastline is normally protected as government-owned land yet, at St Andrews, buildings are sited right on the beach facing the southern ocean. Our site is elevated and exposed to magnificent ocean views and, in winter, gale force winds. The house has a protective outer skin made from oxidised steel industrial floor grating, which hinges open to form brise soleil shutters. The building is raised on columns, with parking and storage underneath. The program called for a simple three-bedroom family house. The plan has two discrete elements – a communal kitchen/meals/living space and a bedroom block. Each element is connected via a…

‘I could be bounded in a walnut and sealed therein, count myself a king of infinite space.’ - Hamlet AR140 was devoted to the idea of ‘Small Spaces’. Guest editor Joe Rollo acted as a curator for the issue and selected a number of varied projects, each illustrating a particular slant around this theme. As I read through the issue, I was often reminded how ‘small’ remains a relative concept, often paired with another idea to amplify or legitimise its very ‘smallness’. Similar binary pairings recur throughout the issue and it opens with a brief snapshot of projects or practices operating around, within or across the ‘small’. Particular Architects (p025), an emerging practice based in Melbourne, has big ambitions for large-scale projects in the Asia Pacific region. Particular is profiled…