The business of architecture
What is it? Each year, the Economist Intelligence Unit releases a report assessing 140 cities around the world according to a comprehensive liveability index. Back in April, we discussed the EIU's index placing Vancouver in first position, followed by Melbourne then Vienna (post viewable here). For the first time since 2002, Vancouver has dropped below first... Continue Reading →
What is it? This weekend, 69 buildings around Melbourne and inner city areas participated in Melbourne Open House 2011 by opening their doors (for free) to the general public. Included on the list were office buildings, theatres, electrical substations, churches, a synagogue, hospital tunnels, museums, houses, university colleges and sports stadia. What did we think?... Continue Reading →
What is it? The second of two free lectures organised by Melbourne Open House held on Tuesday night that explored recent Melbourne architecture across seven different typologies - residential, multi-residential, commercial, retail, education, landscape and heritage restoration. Presenters included Andrew Simpson, Robert Blackhouse of HASSELL, Roger Nelson of NH Architecture, John Wardle, Perry Lethlean and Jeff Turnbull. As with the first Speaker Series, discussed... Continue Reading →
20100422.1235 Just outside the entry to the Umayyad Mosque in old town Damascus. As the bells for noon prayer sound out across the city, the streets quickly empty, leaving a convoluted tapestry of urban fabric. Power lines, phone lines and washing lines are strung out across the street; courageous vines crawl up the cracks between... Continue Reading →
What is it? Each year the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) compiles an index of 140 cities around the world, ranking their relative liveability according to 30 indicators distributed across 5 broad categories: stability; healthcare; culture and environment; education; and infrastructure. This year, Vancouver remains in the top spot, with a score of 98 out of... Continue Reading →
What is it? The Victorian State Government has recently confirmed it will make good on its pre-election promise of introducing 940 security guards to metropolitan railway stations around Melbourne over the next three years. The guards will be trained in a similar (through controversially less intensive) way to police, given the power to search and... Continue Reading →
What is it? As graffiti is commonly understood to involve the addition of paint or other markings to bare public surfaces, its opposite would be the removal of such markings. Or, as in the case of the Ossario project by Brazilian artist, Alexandre Orion, it is the selective removal of dirt and grime to reveal... Continue Reading →
Once upon a time, many years ago, the town planning process in Victoria was treated like every other legal proceeding - planning applications were submitted for approval, planning departments had sufficient autonomy to make decisions without referring to elected officials, and objections were only permitted if they could point to areas in which an application... Continue Reading →
What is it? A recent article in the Saturday Age by Julie Szego on the proposed demolition of Ampol House, "Stripping the glitter from architecture's 'golden' oldies", offers an insightful observation into the nature of heritage and the planning policies that protect it. Ampol House, a kooky old gasoline company headquarters on the corners of... Continue Reading →
What are they? They are a series of measures implemented over the past few years to Melbourne's freeways and tollways that aim to improve traffic flow during peak periods. They include reduced speed limits, red lights at on-ramps to pace incoming traffic, flashing signs in the Burnley Tunnel encouraging us to "avoid lane change[s]" and... Continue Reading →