the private life OF PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
This book is not just about a building. It is about how big architecture gets done in Australia today. In this case big architecture is the new Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre currently being built on the edge of the Yarra River. It might also be described as a city within a city.
16 Weeks 16 000 pages in 75 000 pages out
Woods Bagot NH Architecture THE PRIVATE LIFE OF PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE
A vision for contemporary architecture beyond the stereotypical 15 minutes of fame.
Process research
introuction
36 1/44
Process research
THINKING introduction
37 2/44
THINKING Travelling and seeing
10:45AM 2005
Why do we need to travel? Why do we need to see and touch things? Surely Google Earth allows us to forensically interrogate every private home, commercial office or public street across the face of the globe without the need to step outside. Besides voyeuristic travel affords a diagnostic clarity which is privileged; it is not affected by inclement weather, geographic borders or foreign languages. It is not subject to life from a mini bar or cancelled timetables and can be quickly supplemented by instant images and Wikipedia downloads, ensuring a seamless authority over any subject matter.
Yet we do travel. Why? Partly a field trip, study tour, first principle research or junket, depending on the terminology, is a liberating event able to widen our thinking beyond the specifics of a projects logistics. Cyber-travel is by it definition hermetic and cannot replace the accumulated knowledge gleaned at the periphery of our experiences: the mistakes, the buildings which were not on the official itinerary, the overheard conversations or the momentary slip in a precise timetable that allowed access to a building which was open only once a year. Travelling and seeing often allows small ideas to be connected to big ideas and for the observer, reveals the subjective behind the objective. For us, contained within these travel slippages began the gestation of an architectural idea.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
introuction
36 1/44
Process research
THINKING introduction
37 2/44
THINKING Travelling and seeing
10:45AM 2005
Why do we need to travel? Why do we need to see and touch things? Surely Google Earth allows us to forensically interrogate every private home, commercial office or public street across the face of the globe without the need to step outside. Besides voyeuristic travel affords a diagnostic clarity which is privileged; it is not affected by inclement weather, geographic borders or foreign languages. It is not subject to life from a mini bar or cancelled timetables and can be quickly supplemented by instant images and Wikipedia downloads, ensuring a seamless authority over any subject matter.
Yet we do travel. Why? Partly a field trip, study tour, first principle research or junket, depending on the terminology, is a liberating event able to widen our thinking beyond the specifics of a projects logistics. Cyber-travel is by it definition hermetic and cannot replace the accumulated knowledge gleaned at the periphery of our experiences: the mistakes, the buildings which were not on the official itinerary, the overheard conversations or the momentary slip in a precise timetable that allowed access to a building which was open only once a year. Travelling and seeing often allows small ideas to be connected to big ideas and for the observer, reveals the subjective behind the objective. For us, contained within these travel slippages began the gestation of an architectural idea.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
world tour
38 3/44
Process research
world tour
39 4/44
Transit Frankfurt is just an enormous airport… isn’t it? I‘ve been their before but never seen more than an endless concourse: a realization of the Superstudio dream where you can walk in any direction and find a café and toilet every one hundred metres. Even the security guards use bicycles to get around. The global blandness of this airport is only given a local dimension by the amount of smokers in the business lounge…German cigarettes and Lufthansa furniture…and when requested by the immigration card to indicate in which country we had spent most time…the answer was clearly Frankfurt airport.
BERLIN
berlin
Day 02 22.01.08
soul
Day 07 27.01.08
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
new york
Day 02 22.01.08
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
GMT +9 hours Time Difference -1 hour
;>KEBG ; > EB ?K:GD?NKM GD?NKM
new york
hong kong
ehl Zg`^e^l `^e^ e^l
Day 08 28.01.08
g^p rhkd ^
GMT +8 hours Time Difference -2 hours
;:K<>EHG: ; :K EH HG:
L>HNE >HNE
pZlabg`mhg lZg _kZg\bl\h \h h _ehkb]Z
HONGKONG
barcelona washington
Day 04 24.01.08
AHG@ @ DHG@
Day 04 24.01.08
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
LBG@:IHK> L H >
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
))3)03+)
singapore
Day 07 27.01.08
BARCELONA
GMT +8 hours Time Difference -2 hours
i^kma
Z]^eZb]^ Z ]^eZb]^ lr]g^r
WASHINGOTN
F>E;HNKG> HN
BARCELONA
washington
[kbl[Zg^
SINGAPORE
Process research
world tour
38 3/44
Process research
world tour
39 4/44
Transit Frankfurt is just an enormous airport… isn’t it? I‘ve been their before but never seen more than an endless concourse: a realization of the Superstudio dream where you can walk in any direction and find a café and toilet every one hundred metres. Even the security guards use bicycles to get around. The global blandness of this airport is only given a local dimension by the amount of smokers in the business lounge…German cigarettes and Lufthansa furniture…and when requested by the immigration card to indicate in which country we had spent most time…the answer was clearly Frankfurt airport.
BERLIN
berlin
Day 02 22.01.08
soul
Day 07 27.01.08
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
new york
Day 02 22.01.08
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
GMT +9 hours Time Difference -1 hour
;>KEBG ; > EB ?K:GD?NKM GD?NKM
new york
hong kong
ehl Zg`^e^l `^e^ e^l
Day 08 28.01.08
g^p rhkd ^
GMT +8 hours Time Difference -2 hours
;:K<>EHG: ; :K EH HG:
L>HNE >HNE
pZlabg`mhg lZg _kZg\bl\h \h h _ehkb]Z
HONGKONG
barcelona washington
Day 04 24.01.08
AHG@ @ DHG@
Day 04 24.01.08
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
LBG@:IHK> L H >
GMT +1 hour Time Difference -9 hours
))3)03+)
singapore
Day 07 27.01.08
BARCELONA
GMT +8 hours Time Difference -2 hours
i^kma
Z]^eZb]^ Z ]^eZb]^ lr]g^r
WASHINGOTN
F>E;HNKG> HN
BARCELONA
washington
[kbl[Zg^
SINGAPORE
Process research
world tour
40 5/44
â&#x20AC;Śthe mistakes, the buildings which were not on the official itinerary, the overheard conversations or the momentary slip in a precise timetable that allowed access to a building which was open only once a year.
Process research
world tour
41 6/44
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
xxx, singapore
teatre lliure, barcelona
xxx, seoul xxx, hong kong
xxx, berlin
BARCELONA
hong kong
berlin
xxx
berlin
Process research
world tour
40 5/44
â&#x20AC;Śthe mistakes, the buildings which were not on the official itinerary, the overheard conversations or the momentary slip in a precise timetable that allowed access to a building which was open only once a year.
Process research
world tour
41 6/44
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
xxx, singapore
teatre lliure, barcelona
xxx, seoul xxx, hong kong
xxx, berlin
BARCELONA
hong kong
berlin
xxx
berlin
Process research
world tour
42 7/44
Process research
world tour
43 8/44
barcelona 24.01.05
barcelona convention centre 10:45AM 2005 God is the details… but he’d better hang on to them
The target in Barcelona was Herzog de Meuron’s new Convention Centre: a massive blue triangle. We had seen it in a number of publications and it looked good. We arrived into the city with a clear sky anticipating the warm air of the Mediterranean only to discover an ice wind blowing off the coast. The strength of the wind had closed the Convention Centre for fear of flying debris but from the surreal calm of the business club level in the adjoining hotel we could see the colossal scale of the triangle: an abstract object set against the backdrop of the blue ocean. By next morning the wind had slowed a little. The expanse of blue facade, which I had anticipated to be luminescent like one of Yves Kleins’ paintings, was more a deep dull purple while the sprayed texture of the walls was clumsy and awkward.
barcelona convention centre 10:45AM 2005
The public plaza beneath the hovering triangle rose gently upwards to an invisible horizon. The clients were walking quickly up front looking to find an entry, a doorway, anything. Wind blowing through the undercroft was rattling the soffit and causing turbulent eddies full of rubbish. The monumental was replaced by the mundane. Arriving out the other side of the giant monolith we were greeted with a sudden septic smell rising from some open pits below. Jim was first to reach the highest point of the inclined plaza where the rough cast façade nearly touched the ground. He felt the surface with his hand. Then with a sudden and sharp motion, probably remembered from schoolboy football, kicked the side of the building. Blue bits fell off like crumpled pieces of Christmas cake. We all stood in unified bewilderment and silence. Half way around the world and freezing in a bitter wind…”stuff the architecture” he shouted…let’s have coffee.
Half way around the world and freezing in a bitter wind…“stuff the architecture” he shouted…let’s have coffee.
barcelona convention centre 10:45AM 2005
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process research
world tour
42 7/44
Process research
world tour
43 8/44
barcelona 24.01.05
barcelona convention centre 10:45AM 2005 God is the details… but he’d better hang on to them
The target in Barcelona was Herzog de Meuron’s new Convention Centre: a massive blue triangle. We had seen it in a number of publications and it looked good. We arrived into the city with a clear sky anticipating the warm air of the Mediterranean only to discover an ice wind blowing off the coast. The strength of the wind had closed the Convention Centre for fear of flying debris but from the surreal calm of the business club level in the adjoining hotel we could see the colossal scale of the triangle: an abstract object set against the backdrop of the blue ocean. By next morning the wind had slowed a little. The expanse of blue facade, which I had anticipated to be luminescent like one of Yves Kleins’ paintings, was more a deep dull purple while the sprayed texture of the walls was clumsy and awkward.
barcelona convention centre 10:45AM 2005
The public plaza beneath the hovering triangle rose gently upwards to an invisible horizon. The clients were walking quickly up front looking to find an entry, a doorway, anything. Wind blowing through the undercroft was rattling the soffit and causing turbulent eddies full of rubbish. The monumental was replaced by the mundane. Arriving out the other side of the giant monolith we were greeted with a sudden septic smell rising from some open pits below. Jim was first to reach the highest point of the inclined plaza where the rough cast façade nearly touched the ground. He felt the surface with his hand. Then with a sudden and sharp motion, probably remembered from schoolboy football, kicked the side of the building. Blue bits fell off like crumpled pieces of Christmas cake. We all stood in unified bewilderment and silence. Half way around the world and freezing in a bitter wind…”stuff the architecture” he shouted…let’s have coffee.
Half way around the world and freezing in a bitter wind…“stuff the architecture” he shouted…let’s have coffee.
barcelona convention centre 10:45AM 2005
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process research
world tour
44 9/44
Process research
world tour
berlin 22.01.05 The sublime from a taxi
Berlin…snow…minus three degrees…a nine hour time change and the history of the 20th Century compressed into 4 hour walking tour. Having walked west to east, literally and metaphorically, I attempted to cajole my travelling companions to make one last visit before the irresistible call of hotel took grip on them. In the dwindling winter twilight we grabbed three taxis and set out along the Unter den Linden to visit Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Muesum. On arrival however, the words masterpiece and sublime were unable to convince the occupants of the taxi to leave the warmth of the backseat. In a gesture of suitably baroque grandeur the taxi convoy swung a U-turn in unison under instructions to head directly to the hotel bar. Three of us were left on the edge of the street leaning hard into the wind and pondering a building which had spanned the historical and intellectual territory of classicism and modernism and has been both the foreground and background to centuries of human conflict. Big ideas are hard to photograph and even harder to explain through the window of a taxi.
10:45AM 2005
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Aldes museum, berlin 10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
45 10/44
Process research
world tour
44 9/44
Process research
world tour
berlin 22.01.05 The sublime from a taxi
Berlin…snow…minus three degrees…a nine hour time change and the history of the 20th Century compressed into 4 hour walking tour. Having walked west to east, literally and metaphorically, I attempted to cajole my travelling companions to make one last visit before the irresistible call of hotel took grip on them. In the dwindling winter twilight we grabbed three taxis and set out along the Unter den Linden to visit Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Muesum. On arrival however, the words masterpiece and sublime were unable to convince the occupants of the taxi to leave the warmth of the backseat. In a gesture of suitably baroque grandeur the taxi convoy swung a U-turn in unison under instructions to head directly to the hotel bar. Three of us were left on the edge of the street leaning hard into the wind and pondering a building which had spanned the historical and intellectual territory of classicism and modernism and has been both the foreground and background to centuries of human conflict. Big ideas are hard to photograph and even harder to explain through the window of a taxi.
10:45AM 2005
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Aldes museum, berlin 10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
45 10/44
Process research
wprld tour
46 11/44
Process research
world tour
47 12/44
hong kong 24.01.05
One hundred ducks
The Hong Kong convention centre is so big it is hard to define it in terms of traditional architectural scale; it appears stranded in the middle of Hong Kong harbour an example of late 1990’s corporate American architecture with a large sweeping roof profile as signature element. The interior was a tour of manicured concourses, escalators, carpet, glass, stone and free span space. Even the main loading dock was floating above the harbour on a cantilevered upper deck. On our visit the kitchen was in full military preparation for a banquet lunch seemingly measured in the thousands. Hundreds of ducks, trolley loads of cabbage, pigs stacked vertically and endless racks of steamers. Nik, who is skilled at using food as a cultural locator looked at me with a recognizable anxiety…the reality of “conventioneering” as organized neutrality had taken on a palpable dimension.
We discussed this issue in the cooler hours of the following morning as we made our way on foot up the steep incline of Hong Kong’s market streets into the dense upper reaches of the old city. Lyndon, who was trailing behind called out. We turned to see he had stopped mid street to compose a photograph of a wedding couple whom he had just met. From beneath the shop awnings people stopped to admire the bride, while, at our slightly higher position, a street vendor was slicing fish heads with a speed and accuracy that suggested it was a repetitive daily ritual.
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
The street is still a place of random connections, the mundane and the beautiful, the ritual as artifice and necessity…can architecture allow these intersections or was the suffocating samness of Convention Centres the future of our project.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
wprld tour
46 11/44
Process research
world tour
47 12/44
hong kong 24.01.05
One hundred ducks
The Hong Kong convention centre is so big it is hard to define it in terms of traditional architectural scale; it appears stranded in the middle of Hong Kong harbour an example of late 1990’s corporate American architecture with a large sweeping roof profile as signature element. The interior was a tour of manicured concourses, escalators, carpet, glass, stone and free span space. Even the main loading dock was floating above the harbour on a cantilevered upper deck. On our visit the kitchen was in full military preparation for a banquet lunch seemingly measured in the thousands. Hundreds of ducks, trolley loads of cabbage, pigs stacked vertically and endless racks of steamers. Nik, who is skilled at using food as a cultural locator looked at me with a recognizable anxiety…the reality of “conventioneering” as organized neutrality had taken on a palpable dimension.
We discussed this issue in the cooler hours of the following morning as we made our way on foot up the steep incline of Hong Kong’s market streets into the dense upper reaches of the old city. Lyndon, who was trailing behind called out. We turned to see he had stopped mid street to compose a photograph of a wedding couple whom he had just met. From beneath the shop awnings people stopped to admire the bride, while, at our slightly higher position, a street vendor was slicing fish heads with a speed and accuracy that suggested it was a repetitive daily ritual.
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
The street is still a place of random connections, the mundane and the beautiful, the ritual as artifice and necessity…can architecture allow these intersections or was the suffocating samness of Convention Centres the future of our project.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
world mosaic tour tiles
48 13/44 1/6
Process research Design & Construction
mosaic tour world tiles
49 14/44
hong kong 28.01.05
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Architecture has nothing to do with space
The physical dimension of space became a common discussion theme. With each convention centre visit it confirmed they were places of permanent emptiness able to accommodate transient fullness. Program was not expressed in terms of scale or function and the generic and flexile was sought ahead of identity or location. This seemed to imply a kind of fugitive space able to exist in a physical dimension which belied its implied dimension…I recalled confronted this idea at an exhibition of James Turrell’s work at the Centre for the Moving image Federation Square. On leaving the bright mid day sun on Flinders street we descended to the bottom of the escalators where we were met in the half darkness by a sea of teen-schoolies being shepherded in groups and lectured at by well meaning but mostly misguided teachers. The queues were unbearable but we waited. The guide was ushering through small groups every few minutes. During our wait she courteously recited a short pre-learnt speech outlining Turrell’s unparalleled capacity as an artist to work with light by giving it an almost physical quality. Our
10:45AM 2005
turn came. We entered a space the size of a school classroom. The initial impression of total darkness soon gave way to a faint blue glow at one end of the room. Slowly a sharp rectangular seemed to be projected onto the wall. We moved closer as a group. Words came out…ethereal… weird…it’s a projection. Upon reaching the end wall there was a collective and dramatic realization. It was not a projection or image but in fact a void, a hole, a window in the wall - looking into an endless abyss, arms and hands went out to touch…there is nothing, no edge, no horizon, no dimension. From the back of the room two kids raced in. Twelve years old, maybe thirteen. In the half dark they were just an outlined of baseball caps and baggy pants. “Hey mister, I thought this was a show”, said one of the kids. “What are we looking at?” Peter, who was known for translating the everday into the philosophical, said “nothing, absolutely nothing”. There was a slight pause and with a jab of one arm the other kid snapped. “This is shit” and they left.
Process research
world mosaic tour tiles
48 13/44 1/6
Process research Design & Construction
mosaic tour world tiles
49 14/44
hong kong 28.01.05
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Architecture has nothing to do with space
The physical dimension of space became a common discussion theme. With each convention centre visit it confirmed they were places of permanent emptiness able to accommodate transient fullness. Program was not expressed in terms of scale or function and the generic and flexile was sought ahead of identity or location. This seemed to imply a kind of fugitive space able to exist in a physical dimension which belied its implied dimension…I recalled confronted this idea at an exhibition of James Turrell’s work at the Centre for the Moving image Federation Square. On leaving the bright mid day sun on Flinders street we descended to the bottom of the escalators where we were met in the half darkness by a sea of teen-schoolies being shepherded in groups and lectured at by well meaning but mostly misguided teachers. The queues were unbearable but we waited. The guide was ushering through small groups every few minutes. During our wait she courteously recited a short pre-learnt speech outlining Turrell’s unparalleled capacity as an artist to work with light by giving it an almost physical quality. Our
10:45AM 2005
turn came. We entered a space the size of a school classroom. The initial impression of total darkness soon gave way to a faint blue glow at one end of the room. Slowly a sharp rectangular seemed to be projected onto the wall. We moved closer as a group. Words came out…ethereal… weird…it’s a projection. Upon reaching the end wall there was a collective and dramatic realization. It was not a projection or image but in fact a void, a hole, a window in the wall - looking into an endless abyss, arms and hands went out to touch…there is nothing, no edge, no horizon, no dimension. From the back of the room two kids raced in. Twelve years old, maybe thirteen. In the half dark they were just an outlined of baseball caps and baggy pants. “Hey mister, I thought this was a show”, said one of the kids. “What are we looking at?” Peter, who was known for translating the everday into the philosophical, said “nothing, absolutely nothing”. There was a slight pause and with a jab of one arm the other kid snapped. “This is shit” and they left.
Process research
washington
50 15/44
Process research
washington
51 16/44
washington 28.01.05
Washington DC and a breakfast of Scrapple
In February 2005 the design team was stationed in Washington DC for six weeks. Not recognized as a cultural centre of the world, Washington D.C. is however the centre of Western power and since its original colonial origin been preoccu0pied with the subject of public architecture. It represents a fusion of the founding fathers ambitions for a new world democracy and the modern American dream for instant gratification: consumer classicism built at a scale that would make both the Empires of Greece and Rome feel inadequate. The public mall, which stretches more than 3 kilometres from Capital Hill to the Lincoln Memorial, is lined with monuments to American Presidents, the war dead and Museums of every description. The irony of these public edifices is that they have almost all been built with money from bequeaths and private donations. They are not the outcome of a benevolent central authority but a shameful display of individual and ideology power within the free market. At the midpoint of the Mall sits the White house, a surreal apparition given its transformation by television into an image of far greater recognition than the reality of its second rate colonial architecture suggests. The Mall is also the home of one of late modernism most successful reinterpretation of the classical idiom: I.M. Peiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s East Wing of the National Gallery. The sharp edge modernism is in contrast to the surrounding stolid classicism. The buildings abstract form is composed by lines generated from the broader urban plan of the Capital which slice the mass into a series of shards and fragments. It is a building made out of bits of other things. It is full of air, smooth faced concrete walls and a gigantic Calder mobile.>>
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington
50 15/44
Process research
washington
51 16/44
washington 28.01.05
Washington DC and a breakfast of Scrapple
In February 2005 the design team was stationed in Washington DC for six weeks. Not recognized as a cultural centre of the world, Washington D.C. is however the centre of Western power and since its original colonial origin been preoccu0pied with the subject of public architecture. It represents a fusion of the founding fathers ambitions for a new world democracy and the modern American dream for instant gratification: consumer classicism built at a scale that would make both the Empires of Greece and Rome feel inadequate. The public mall, which stretches more than 3 kilometres from Capital Hill to the Lincoln Memorial, is lined with monuments to American Presidents, the war dead and Museums of every description. The irony of these public edifices is that they have almost all been built with money from bequeaths and private donations. They are not the outcome of a benevolent central authority but a shameful display of individual and ideology power within the free market. At the midpoint of the Mall sits the White house, a surreal apparition given its transformation by television into an image of far greater recognition than the reality of its second rate colonial architecture suggests. The Mall is also the home of one of late modernism most successful reinterpretation of the classical idiom: I.M. Peiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s East Wing of the National Gallery. The sharp edge modernism is in contrast to the surrounding stolid classicism. The buildings abstract form is composed by lines generated from the broader urban plan of the Capital which slice the mass into a series of shards and fragments. It is a building made out of bits of other things. It is full of air, smooth faced concrete walls and a gigantic Calder mobile.>>
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington
<<On the fringe of the precinct in which our apartment was located we had stumbled upon a small diner next to an evangelical gospel church. Sunday morning breakfasts seem to be the diner’s big moment as we discovered while waiting for our seats at the counter. The local dialect contained only scant English which made reading the menu relatively easy…pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice, coffee, toast…grits is getting a bit harder…but what was scrapple. Chris, whose stomach had now become legendary chose the “all in” breakfast and managed the scrapple without complaint. As we were leaving our curiosity got the better of us and we asked the waitress what was scrapple. She explained with obvious clarity it was the scraps of the previous day pressed into a loaf…perhaps I.M. Pei had eaten there too.
52 17/44
Process research
washington
53 18/44
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington
<<On the fringe of the precinct in which our apartment was located we had stumbled upon a small diner next to an evangelical gospel church. Sunday morning breakfasts seem to be the diner’s big moment as we discovered while waiting for our seats at the counter. The local dialect contained only scant English which made reading the menu relatively easy…pancakes, eggs, sausage, juice, coffee, toast…grits is getting a bit harder…but what was scrapple. Chris, whose stomach had now become legendary chose the “all in” breakfast and managed the scrapple without complaint. As we were leaving our curiosity got the better of us and we asked the waitress what was scrapple. She explained with obvious clarity it was the scraps of the previous day pressed into a loaf…perhaps I.M. Pei had eaten there too.
52 17/44
Process research
washington
53 18/44
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington
54 19/44
washington 7 MAY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 15 AUGUST 2004
Feeding the public city
Every night was the same. From the safety of the apartment and the background drone of 98 cable channels we watched the ritual of the American welfare state. It was easy. The 7th floor apartment had a bay window overlooking the street; not the grand dimensions of a 19th century London terrace but a modern motif stifled by low ceilings. With the apparent routine of a middle class office worker, a well dressed white male in mid life would take his bedding and belongings from a street side bin and make a small shelter in the doorway opposite: a perverse pantomime as the result of a planning regime. (The Washington D.C. authorities were enforcing a streetscape policy of reintroducing traditional shop front windows back into the sterilized streets of downtown under a misplaced belief that a city of bureaucratic architecture could be erased by the nostalgia of an Edward Hopper painting.) Instead the image was a cruel mix of the private and the public. Seventh Street was a main bus route and the basketball stadium one block up generated a steady
stream of cars and taxis. We were less than one kilometre from the both the American Capital and the White house. This happened every morning and evening as we watched the winter snows being replaced by flowers, which arrived with government efficiency in one morning across the entire city. In the mornings Lorraine would wake before the time I considered natural to the human condition and take a walk, often a very long walk, in sub zero temperatures. Later she told me that most mornings she would leave a coffee for the man in the doorway (who rose at the more tradition time of around 7.00am.). This seemed to me a kind hearted but slightly dangerous offering. It also struck me as a curious irony that the only place to buy a coffee that early was Starbucks, a place we had made a pact never to enter during our 2 month assignment. Perhaps the public city was a myth? The reality was the disenfranchised being feed from a franchisee: an offering to the moral good becomes yet another statistic for the omnipresent god of consumption.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington
55 20/44
Process research
washington
54 19/44
washington 7 MAY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 15 AUGUST 2004
Feeding the public city
Every night was the same. From the safety of the apartment and the background drone of 98 cable channels we watched the ritual of the American welfare state. It was easy. The 7th floor apartment had a bay window overlooking the street; not the grand dimensions of a 19th century London terrace but a modern motif stifled by low ceilings. With the apparent routine of a middle class office worker, a well dressed white male in mid life would take his bedding and belongings from a street side bin and make a small shelter in the doorway opposite: a perverse pantomime as the result of a planning regime. (The Washington D.C. authorities were enforcing a streetscape policy of reintroducing traditional shop front windows back into the sterilized streets of downtown under a misplaced belief that a city of bureaucratic architecture could be erased by the nostalgia of an Edward Hopper painting.) Instead the image was a cruel mix of the private and the public. Seventh Street was a main bus route and the basketball stadium one block up generated a steady
stream of cars and taxis. We were less than one kilometre from the both the American Capital and the White house. This happened every morning and evening as we watched the winter snows being replaced by flowers, which arrived with government efficiency in one morning across the entire city. In the mornings Lorraine would wake before the time I considered natural to the human condition and take a walk, often a very long walk, in sub zero temperatures. Later she told me that most mornings she would leave a coffee for the man in the doorway (who rose at the more tradition time of around 7.00am.). This seemed to me a kind hearted but slightly dangerous offering. It also struck me as a curious irony that the only place to buy a coffee that early was Starbucks, a place we had made a pact never to enter during our 2 month assignment. Perhaps the public city was a myth? The reality was the disenfranchised being feed from a franchisee: an offering to the moral good becomes yet another statistic for the omnipresent god of consumption.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington
55 20/44
Process Design & Construction
SHUTTLE
Tiles to save a life
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the smell of death. Over the following days the astronauts flipped and flopped the shuttle so cameras on board the international space station could survey the damage. Like an old car up on concrete blocks, the astronauts became home handymen taking an extended spacewalks under the ship to remove debris from between the heat shield tiles.
56 21/44
Process Design & Construction
SHUTTLE
57 22/44
It seemed the belief in modern technology to synthesis any problem into a solvable sound bite had been superseded by the realities of uncertainty. But we felt a strange connection.
As each day proceeded the date for reentry was readjusted and shrouded in uncertainty. More diagrams of death and the endless replays of early catastrophes. The weather at Cape Canaveral had turned bad. It seemed the belief in modern technology to synthesis any problem into a solvable sound bite had been superseded by the realities of uncertainty. But we felt a strange connection.>>
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process Design & Construction
SHUTTLE
Tiles to save a life
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the smell of death. Over the following days the astronauts flipped and flopped the shuttle so cameras on board the international space station could survey the damage. Like an old car up on concrete blocks, the astronauts became home handymen taking an extended spacewalks under the ship to remove debris from between the heat shield tiles.
56 21/44
Process Design & Construction
SHUTTLE
57 22/44
It seemed the belief in modern technology to synthesis any problem into a solvable sound bite had been superseded by the realities of uncertainty. But we felt a strange connection.
As each day proceeded the date for reentry was readjusted and shrouded in uncertainty. More diagrams of death and the endless replays of early catastrophes. The weather at Cape Canaveral had turned bad. It seemed the belief in modern technology to synthesis any problem into a solvable sound bite had been superseded by the realities of uncertainty. But we felt a strange connection.>>
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington SHUTTLE
<<The abstract, almost surreal images of the shuttle in orbit no longer seemed improbable having a few days earlier stood beneath one of its wings. At close range the black tiles of the shuttles underbelly where like the bathroom tiles at home. Evidence of their manufacturing was clearly visible to the eye. The problems of construction, of joints and awkward connections, combined with the banality of instructions stenciled on the exterior (why would an astronaut need to be told the where the escape hatch is located!), read like the backside of a fridge. “How good were the shop-drawings” we thought and “were they made to select from off-the-self items?” I got home late from the studio to see the live-cast of the landing, not in the brilliant sunshine of the Florida Keys but via a blurred night vision film in the California high Desert. The tiles had worked. As I stood in the bathroom the following morning and stared at the mouldy sheen in the shower recess, everything had a slightly altered meaning.
10:45AM 2005
58 23/44 15/44
Process research
washington SHUTTLE
59 24/44
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
washington SHUTTLE
<<The abstract, almost surreal images of the shuttle in orbit no longer seemed improbable having a few days earlier stood beneath one of its wings. At close range the black tiles of the shuttles underbelly where like the bathroom tiles at home. Evidence of their manufacturing was clearly visible to the eye. The problems of construction, of joints and awkward connections, combined with the banality of instructions stenciled on the exterior (why would an astronaut need to be told the where the escape hatch is located!), read like the backside of a fridge. “How good were the shop-drawings” we thought and “were they made to select from off-the-self items?” I got home late from the studio to see the live-cast of the landing, not in the brilliant sunshine of the Florida Keys but via a blurred night vision film in the California high Desert. The tiles had worked. As I stood in the bathroom the following morning and stared at the mouldy sheen in the shower recess, everything had a slightly altered meaning.
10:45AM 2005
58 23/44 15/44
Process research
washington SHUTTLE
59 24/44
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
level 6
60 25/44
Process research
level 6
61 26/44
week one
CAPTION HEADING
WASHINGTON STILL TO COME FROM NICK)
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the smell of death.
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Over the following days the astronauts flipped and flopped the shuttle so cameras on board the international space station could survey the damage. Like an old car up on concrete blocks, the astronauts became home handymen taking an extended spacewalks under the ship to remove debris from between the heat shield tiles. As each day proceeded the date for reentry was readjusted and shrouded in uncertainty. More diagrams of death and the endless replays of early catastrophes. The weather at Cape Canaveral had turned bad. It seemed the belief in modern technology to synthesis any problem into a solvable sound bite had been superseded by the realities of uncertainty. But we felt a stra.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
level 6
60 25/44
Process research
level 6
61 26/44
week one
CAPTION HEADING
WASHINGTON STILL TO COME FROM NICK)
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the smell of death.
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Over the following days the astronauts flipped and flopped the shuttle so cameras on board the international space station could survey the damage. Like an old car up on concrete blocks, the astronauts became home handymen taking an extended spacewalks under the ship to remove debris from between the heat shield tiles. As each day proceeded the date for reentry was readjusted and shrouded in uncertainty. More diagrams of death and the endless replays of early catastrophes. The weather at Cape Canaveral had turned bad. It seemed the belief in modern technology to synthesis any problem into a solvable sound bite had been superseded by the realities of uncertainty. But we felt a stra.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process Design & Construction research
level mosaic6tiles
62 27/44
Process Design & Construction research week two
level mosaic6tiles
63 28/44
Can architecture go beyond the applied or the functional...can it be embeded into the total experience? 15 APRIL 2007 design
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with.
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process Design & Construction research
level mosaic6tiles
62 27/44
Process Design & Construction research week two
level mosaic6tiles
63 28/44
Can architecture go beyond the applied or the functional...can it be embeded into the total experience? 15 APRIL 2007 design
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with.
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin. CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process research
mosaic level 6tiles
64 29/44
Process Design research & Construction
mosaic level 6tiles
65 30/44
week two
15 APRIL 2007 design
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
mosaic level 6tiles
64 29/44
Process Design research & Construction
mosaic level 6tiles
65 30/44
week two
15 APRIL 2007 design
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
mosaic level 6tiles
64 29/44
Process Design research & Construction
mosaic level 6tiles
65 30/44
week two
15 APRIL 2007 design
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
mosaic level 6tiles
64 29/44
Process Design research & Construction
mosaic level 6tiles
65 30/44
week two
15 APRIL 2007 design
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process Design & Construction research
mosaic tiles the form
66 31/44
Process Design & Construction research
mosaic tiles the form
67 32/44
the form
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005 10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process Design & Construction research
mosaic tiles the form
66 31/44
Process Design & Construction research
mosaic tiles the form
67 32/44
the form
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005 10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
level 6
68 33/44
week two
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process research
level 6
69 34/44
week two
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
Process research
level 6
68 33/44
week two
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process research
level 6
69 34/44
week two
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
Process research
the form week two
70 35/44
Process research
the form
71 36/44
the form
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process research
the form week two
70 35/44
Process research
the form
71 36/44
the form
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process researchk
the form week two
72 37/44
Process research
the roof
73 38/44
the roof
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
15 APRIL 2007 design
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America. 10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process researchk
the form week two
72 37/44
Process research
the roof
73 38/44
the roof
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
15 APRIL 2007 design
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America. 10:45AM 2005
10:45AM 2005
Process Proce resea research
the bid
week t two
the bid
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
74 39/44
Process research
the bid
75 40/44 week two
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process Proce resea research
the bid
week t two
the bid
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster. Nothing draws the television like the sm.
74 39/44
Process research
the bid
75 40/44 week two
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Process research
the bid
76 41/44 week two
Process research
the bid
77 42/44 week two
CAPTION HEADING
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
CAPTION HEADING
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
15 APRIL 2007 washington
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with Deutsche Bank helps us deliver quality community assets and value for money. We play an active ongoing role in each project, engaging in all aspects of delivery including financing, planning.
Process research
the bid
76 41/44 week two
Process research
the bid
77 42/44 week two
CAPTION HEADING
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
CAPTION HEADING
CAPTION HEADING
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
Faccum quat. Ure magnis alis euguer ate molum aliqui blandiam, consequisit dolorercin.
10:45AM 2005
15 APRIL 2007 washington
One hundred words. Established in 2004 as an independent public private partnership business, here is no room for excuses. Importantly for government, Plenary Group fully supports projects. The Plenary Group is a long term investor, developer and operator of public infrastructure. Our approach is absolute; comprehensive and complete. Working in both Australia and America we bring a holistic approach, linking our success to the success of the projects we deliver. Our strategic relationship with Deutsche Bank helps us deliver quality community assets and value for money. We play an active ongoing role in each project, engaging in all aspects of delivery including financing, planning.
Process Design & Construction
the bid week sixteen
The bid
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster.
10:45AM 2005 10:45AM 2005
78 43/44
Process research
the bid
79 44/44
Process Design & Construction
the bid week sixteen
The bid
The Space shuttle had finally gone up. Chris said he had watched it on late night cable…weather was ok but some bits had fallen off again during the launch, creating a spray of media reports about the possible repeat of the earlier Challenger disaster.
10:45AM 2005 10:45AM 2005
78 43/44
Process research
the bid
79 44/44