The business of architecture
Who is he? An italian architect and "urban change agent"[1] who divides his time between Carlo Ratti Associati, the innovation and design studio he runs from Torino, and SENSEable City Lab, the research laboratory he leads out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston. Ratti's design and research work overlap significantly, both focussing on the transformative effect of new technologies on... Continue Reading →
What is it? An unsolicited project our architecture practice, Mihaly Slocombe, recently completed. We redesigned a segment of Drummond Street in Carlton North, the street where we live and practice. The project began with conversations with around two thirds of our neighbours, who helped us understand the cross section of the community for whom we were designing, as... Continue Reading →
Chai Viticole (Vauvert, 1998) What was it? A lecture held late last year as part of the Australian Institute of Architect's International Speaker Series. French architect, Gilles Perraudin of Perraudin Architectes, discussed his works and search for a timeless architecture. The lecture was attended by a sparse audience at sponsor Austral Bricks' Brick Studio and hosted by... Continue Reading →
In the early 1960s, during construction of the Sydney Opera House, Jørn Utzon and his office designed and documented his own house in Bayview, 30km north of Sydney (1965, unbuilt). Utzon agonised over the extent of windows facing a particularly beautiful view. Should the wall be fully glazed or only partially? After many weeks of... Continue Reading →
San Sebastian Kindergarten, Münster 2013 What was it? A national lecture tour presented by the Australian Institute of Architects' 2013 Gold Medal recipient, Peter Wilson. In eloquent symmetry, Wilson returned last month to his alma mater the University of Melbourne to present the final lecture of his 10 day tour. The Carillo Gantner theatre was filled... Continue Reading →
Who was he? The name, Robin Boyd, should be known to every Australian architect. He was a Melbourne architect prominent in the postwar era, but many decades ahead of his time. He was a proponent of an environmentally sensitive and locally specific adaptation of modernism, a teacher, a writer, an ambassador for the profession, and... Continue Reading →
Safari Roof House What was it? A national lecture tour held last week for the Australian Institute of Architects by Malaysian architect, Kevin Low, and hosted in Melbourne by the ever-entertaining Stuart Harrison. Small Projects is also the name of Low's studio, which has an almost exclusive focus on buildings of residential scale or smaller.... Continue Reading →
Winning proposal by Herzog & de Meuron + HASSELL What is it? After two years, 117 Stage 1 submissions from around the world, 1 unauthorised exhibition, exhaustive work from 6 architectural teams on Stage 2 submissions, jury deliberation, extensive media coverage and two weeks of public voting, the results for the Flinders Street Station design... Continue Reading →
What is it? The long awaited release of the shortlisted entries for the Flinders Street Station Design Competition. Public voting on the entries opened early last week, with our assessment on sixth, fifth and fourth places published yesterday. We have marked each project out of 5 in the four criteria that underpin both the original design brief and... Continue Reading →
What is it? The long awaited release of the shortlisted entries for the Flinders Street Station Design Competition. Public voting on the entries opened early last week, with full documentation now available on each of the six projects. In addition to the project boards, we are able to access drawings, area summaries, project descriptions and... Continue Reading →