Colour Saturation

Applying bold colour to our buildings is a fashion at the moment, and boy, it can go all wrong! This is a great example of how the architects have managed to strip away all the surface mess and treat concrete as an amazing palette - note the recessed light fittings!!

Concrete & timber with black highlights are expanded on by the use of greens & blues 

Is it a stadium? Is it city football HQ? Is it accommodation?

A question that continually circles my mind is:
- how can we craft architecture that inspires our athletes, administrators, coaches and the public, all in the same project? 

One approach is to engage, understand & empathise with each of them & allow simple mechanisms or opportunities for them to be integrated at the human level & scale...

Croatian architects' NFO response in Dubrovnik was to offer residential-commercial content in the "contact zone" of the stadium, shaped by the surrounding city

A brilliant response for a low-level city / community football ground... offices to the street frontage/ accommodation with green-space to the field/ easy access & availability to training/ access for the public & community at street level & low-tiered bleachers

A great opportunity for a public-private partnership, with community engagement, I think

Laundromat Sculptures

just love these sculptural elements in what would be a very mundane, rectangular & functional space.... LOVE the colour & shape softening the linear/ is it that the heat from the drier moulded the seat to the laundette (or launder)...

while waiting for your wash/dry cycle, chances are that you're sitting in something soothing cool & in the style of the Eames side chair/ thing is there are SO many of these little treasures around/ bless our little Freeman's Bay outlet...

Rice Lake, Wisconsin, by MischievousRagDoll

35th Ave and Balboa St, San Francisco, by David Gallagher

California St, San Francisco, by me

QT HAUS

QT HAUS was a project for a Sydney-based family who had an affinity for skiing & summer weather/ they found a stunning place to land in Fernhill, Queenstown, New Zealand/

this was a magical project with a fantastic & stunning site/ the process was made even more enjoyable by the close relationship we enjoyed with our client/ two years of my time with Hillery Priest Architecture was spent developing the concept design then constructing this project with Sue Hillery & Richard Priest/

themes investigated here: view; sculpture; and the act of placing an object in the landscape

views were important to the client, but in QT they are considered - a strong theme at HPA/ the best moment is lying in bed with a framed view across Lake Wakatipu to the Remarks/

sculpting the building to address form & function is shaped in part by the track of sun for daylighting & climate control, reflected in the roof form "flick" & "nodes"/

the literal nature of digging out & excavating away the site to place the house is both an act of sculpting & placing/ these acts were translated into the new construct through physical aspects of wall depth & sense, material, but also interior plays of zones, divides & fissures/

here, the simplicity, boldness & strength of form Richard brings to his projects is balanced by the textural & sculptural moments Sue loves/ with a great client - this means an excellent design & built outcome

photos below taken as a collaborative project between Jo Wickham & Dion Gosling for Studio106Photo

Architecture as Art across the Cinematographic Lens

this is an incredible animated piece by Alex Roman

it captures the power & emotive presence of our built environment/ the possibilities of the experiential place

detail : light : texture : scale : motion : e-motion : life : landscape

architecture / photo / film


The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

A_Framed

don't these simple house-types remind you of summer holidays, the escape from the city & noise; the sense of freedom, simplicity &; sandy feet!


Love the black form of this one sitting in the landscape/

architect Andrew Geller turned the old idea of the A-frame house into a new fashion in 1955 when he built an A-frame house on the beach in Long Island, New York known as the Reese House/ named for the distinctive shape of its roofline, Geller's design won international attention when it was featured in The New York Times on May 5, 1957/

although many have been tried & re-shaped, LOVE!!! the return to a simple, contemporary kick on the A_Frame theme out of an investigation into the folding planes we find in the landscape/


this one by William O'Brien Jr. of Cambridge, Massachusetts/

Oh... to find a retreat like this in the CITY!!!!....

Is the Photographer the Real Architect?

Check out the review & trailer of a new documentary of Julius Shulman, VISUAL ACOUSTICS. It raises some interesting points, as noted in an article in Another Magazine/

It proposes, Julius Shulman, who died last year at 98, may have been the most influential figure in modern architecture - yes, not an architect, but a photographer! Although he never designed a building, he "created" thousands of them - the way the great Hollywood directors used to create stars - by immortalising them on film/

Architectural photography implies a certain fidelity to reality. While Shulman's images are faithful, ultimately they are to an ideal - it is an ideal of living; modern yet natural, relaxed yet composed, facilitated by architecture/

Designer Tom Ford remarks: "often, the houses in real life are not nearly as beautiful as Julius' pictures."/

Shulman, it seems, was in the business of creating dreams - a theme reinforced by Visual Acoustics. It was Shulman, more than any architect, who sold the dream to mainstream America

When we walk in a house or building, we experience the volumes, the textures, the light; the whole package. Photographs capture moments, specific compositions & overlay the emotive; the dream.

Is photography the 4th experience for architecture? No longer a means of record, great photography is a key to experiencing architecture

TOTARA HILL

this is a project for a house on the hill in taranaki, nz/ an addition to the family farm, but an opportunity to investigate scale & the texture of the landscape; the experience of the grass right up to the front door & the hills right away from the gate/

view once again dominates the programme/ how to deal with the connectiveness of the place on the hill/

something simple/ something crafted/ something that can grow a bit rough

a 2-stage proposal, the aim is to create a building that can breathe & absorb the landscape, with negative & positive space represented in subtle ways through the form of the building, but in a domestic way

CENTRE_ONE

CENTRE_ONE was the design name given to the Papatoetoe Multisport & Community Centre - a project initiated some 10years ago by a group of visionary club volunteers at the Kingswood Reserve in Papatoetoe, Auckland/ I became involved in 2007 & collectively we progressed the design at Hillery Priest Architecture until 2009/ recently, Pacific Environments took the design to the documentation phase & are now in mid-construction

it was an amazing project to work on: we had a great client [who was interested in lifting the design-standard of sport-community facilities]/ a highly supportive local Council/ a great team of consultants/ & an engaged community

the complex is due for completion in end-2010

NZIA Conference

NZIA CPD Presentation: Friday & Saturday 14th & 15th May 2010, SKYCITY Auckland Convention Centre/

beside the lack of anyone outside Australasia, this event was well worthwhile/certainly re-instilled & gave me confidence of the value in sticking with what you believe - & why shouldn't we!

yay! for being design-led; doing the stuff we get the most satisfaction from; creating an environment we really want to work in; only show the projects we want to attract more of;... all of this & not taking things too seriously!

... the physical model is still alive & well!!

absolutely loved the detailing & crispness of Chenchow Little/ the animation & investigation madness of MCR/ the unbelievable arrogance with humour, intellect & well-readness of Angelo Candalepas

B1+B2

this is a current project I am doing with ArchOffice - two spec houses in the Newmarket-Remuera belt: an interesting in-between of stately mansions & 80's in-fill/

I was inspired to spend a Friday afternoon modeling to investigate as simpler a roof as I could, but with some form that you could experience from the exterior & interior/ I wanted to solve a roof form that described to me the site that we had in the leafy gully in Newmarket/

I stumbled on this image out of a book on the architecture of Eduardo Souto de Moura/

the texture, composition & balance of his buildings & their parts, in their setting is remarkable/ this image provided the confidence that I was on the right track to solving issues we faced with the consideration of light, privacy & site controls for B1+B2

the idea of opening & closing wall elements (solid or void) to offer privacy & frame views interest me/ the reference to the Remuera house model (solid base & light-clad structure above) & how this may be interpreted in the contemporary form, was something we discussed when I was with Hillery Priest Architecture/

the rear house roof is inverted to allow light into the living spaces & "flick" out to the view; the front roof is re-verted to allow light to penetrate behind/ together the roofs act to describe the terrain & vegetation that was beneath

RAHO

this project is for a Sydney-based family who wanted to reference, but not be literal to, the old family connections & history of the site, on Auckland's North Shore Bays: a new house; a new start; a new generation; new memories/ but in no way discarding that which made the sense of place

the project is driven by an investigation into the idea of the floating pavilion, with an overlay of retro & the suburban model: built-in furniture, pattern, happy families/ it is also driven by the pohutakawa tree to the north & the fantastic elevation for views out to the water/

how to deal with view? Hillery Priest's TL_ONE does this in a magical way - choosing to frame part of an expansive view rather than to open it all up/ framing the views for RAHO & allowing multiple spaces upon which to enjoy the experiences, were a driver/

at the time I was re-visiting the Case Study Houses (1945-1966) of L.A./ low-cost prototypes; structural clarity & openness; a merging of social & artistic concerns; indoor-outdoor living; of staged exhibitionism made famous by the images of Julius Shulman; & of new beginnings/ the parallel for the local context & built environment for this project was uncanny/ being a 70's kid myself, I totally related

the project aims to turn its back on neighbours & the scrub vegetation/ it will allow controlled entry of light & view into the south elevation/ privacy is maintained by the use of elongated slotted windows in the mid-cladding while the main views are framed to the water/ the balance of texture & material found in the Case Study Houses will be reinforced in this project with crazy paving to the courtyard to reflect the shadow of the protected pohutakawa tree canopy and by the sharpness of glass & steel/

the project is completed to concept stage