thearchco

Celebrating 6 decades of youthful exuberance this month, "young" Eddie is starring in the World Masters Games in Turin at the moment. More of the swan dive than swan song and remarkably holding off the ravages of time with plenty of exercise followed by his tonic of choice, bourbon and diet cola. He's always loved his sports, and he's been good at all of them. All the best EK. J

On the eastern fringe of Glebe is an open air sculpture gallery of a different kind. Hilik Mirankar has used most of the Queen Street frontage as a gallery for his various carved timber installations. Being Glebe they are all suitably chained down to prevent theft. You can check out his web site at  http://seacruise.ath.cx/ It's a real joy on a clear day to walk the narrow street and view the imaginative sculptures that are located on the front porches of all his neighbours. They are at once primitive but modern, primal and tactile. You can view them on the way to a refreshment and cheap meal at The Friend in Hand hotel at the western end or the Australian Youth Hotel (not so cheap), not far from the eastern end. It's a good street to add into a larger walk through the back streets of Glebe. J

I recently sat on a design jury for end of semester year 3 UNSW architecture students for my friend and design wunderkind/tutor Mark Szczerbicki (Polish right!!!) Every time I do this it brings back many nerve racking memories of presenting my own designs back in the dim, foggy past at SU. And it's something I get to experience all over again when I front up to regular SEPP65 design review panels for my medium density projects.... so it really is good training for these future architects. We looove being citicised. Generally this group were pretty good and they scrubbed up alright seeing as how they probably only had a few hours of sleep between them for the previous four or five days. Anyhoo... here's a snapshot of what our education system is producing now... Their brief was to create a medium density (small) project with off street parking and some commercial at ...

Here's a neat little medium density project (20 units) currently being prepared for DA approval. Double block layout, linked basement with landscaped common outdoor area in the middle. More common decks at the upper level allow views to the city. The rear block looks over the front one. Simple, low maintenance finishes of "blue steel" face bricks for the bottom two levels and shiny/happy Alucobond for the upper floor. Also using our current medium density aesthetic of expressed balcony pods, slit style highlights and integrated indoor/outdoor, open plan living areas. Lots of simple but effective sun screens on East, North and West sides. WIll probably change a bit post DRP comments (they always change something...) but hopefully will retain the bulk of the ideas.   J front elevation upper floor recessive scale matches domestic scale NW high view showing arrangement of blocks on the site ...

Just finished a drawing for my favourite girls birthday. I took a series of scans to document the production process and thought you might be interested in how it was created. Starting point was to take a pic of the cat (called ... you guessed it... Pumpkin) and then goggle up some pumpkin pics. Pumpkin on her favourite blanket random pumpkin pic trusty blue pencil to set up the main layout of the drawing add the main character in ink start inking in the pumpkin surround start rendering the main elements finishing the pumpkins adding the blanket "rough" detail rub out the blue although nice to leave some remnants add orange pencil add yellow pencil to "lift" the orange hit it all with a tissue to smooth the colour rub out "overspray" add blue and pink "rough" detail to blanket for this pic I added a heavy line to "punch out" the...

Here's a little logo we've been working on for our friends at Tom Groggin Station. Located in God's own country in Victoria just on the southern side of the upper reaches of the Murray, Tom Groggin is an idyllic relic of past days when cattle stations were carved out of natural alpine areas. It's reportedly where the Banjo created The Man From Snowy River and is iconic in horse culture. The mighty Murray is just a 20ft wide creek of crystal clear snow fed mountain water at this point. It was only last decade that the Bracks government took away the stations right to have cattle graze in the Victorian Alps region and it became a tough place to run a business. It's been a popular place for a country stay but is now offering more in the way of accommodation. If you want to travel south via one of the most scenic routes in Australia, then head down through Jindabyne and past Thredbo on the snow gum lined A...

Can't leave out that other groovy inner city suburb... Glebe. Here's some great graffiti pics submitted by our guest bloggette, Deborah B. She has  a keen eye for quality and certainly takes a mean snap or two. Looking forward to more blog entries on some of her favourite topics. Enjoy...      J mad scientist in Campbell Lane off Cowper Street. Just love the bollards painted as test tubes.... I like the "frankenstein" tag letters with teeth and stitches a spacey supernova tag in Campbell Lane off Mitchell space detail..... 2820 is the postcode for Wellington NSW.... hence the "wello boys" great work guys vary badly behaving lego men in same vicinity appropriate given the high crime rate here very angry space birds  space birds detail