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This is our submission to the City of Sydney for a New Century Garden – an urban space and landscape proposal involving the reinterpretation of a Chinese garden by creating two distinct zones:

- a new hard landscaped urban space, created by a framing series of progressively shrinking moon window ‘veils’ that act as giant screens available for customised light projections according to the event

- a new soft landscaped green garden space, away from busy Ultimo Road and accessed via the smallest moon window veil

The proposal seeks to contrast the congregational Chinese outdoor experiences of hawker food stall freneticism with the tranquility of a traditional garden. It uses two motifs as repetitive elements to compose the design:

- the chinese character for person – ‘ren.’ The shape of the character is beautifully elegant, easily recognisable and reductive in form. As a built form, it has two splayed ligatures that allow for the structural distribution of load, as well as a confident rising gesture that may be used to display signage as a wayfinding device.

- the moon window – another recognisable element in the Chinese landscape idiom, this moon window is used as a facade to Ultimo Road to define the beginning of the site (referencing the neighbouring heritage through maintaining parapet heights), as well as define the outdoor rooms and the progression south west along Thomas Street towards the tranquil garden.

This was a collaboration with Michael Darmadi, graphic designer (and my cousin!) working in Sydney. This has been submitted to City of Sydney, and we await feedback from the jury of whether we have progressed to Stage 2.

This quick sketch design highlights the opportunities of an internal street to a community townhouse proposal. Located in regional Victoria, these townhouses utilise rear access via a communal driveway whereby the carparking is open (rather than a garage) and adjacent to pedestrian access. A large balcony is above one of the carspaces, allowing views across the site and providing passive surveillance to the communal gardens. Instead of fencing, there are painted timber pergolas interspersed with climbers on a trellis frame. Bold signage provides easily identifiable entries. Instead of hard surfacing within the carspaces, grasscrete is used as a method to reduce stormwater runoff and provide a greener outlook.
This proposal subverts ResCode by encouraging overlooking over privacy; we think it encourages a community spirit amongst close neighbours. This project currently is awaiting town planning approval.
Team:
Architects: Buckerfield Architects
Project manager: Esther Sugihto

This submission for a ‘sense garden’ as part of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show has been picked up by MIFGS as one of 4 show gardens, to be constructed in March/April 2012. Winner to be announced late March.

The proposal derives from the genius loci of Carlton, and embodies a shrine to coffee. ‘Coffee Street’ is essentially a vertical grid of steel mesh that is erected to the proportions of a terrace house facade. The mesh is interspersed with grasses in take away coffee cups, arranged according to their foliage colour to represent the bluestone patterning of a traditional terrace house. The theme of coffee continues further into the front ‘yard’ with an abstracted giant cappucino of grasses changing colour from browns to white, with some neo po-mo additions of milk cartons, milk crates and hessian coffee bags. It will be a tall fabricated structural element amongst a sea of soft landscaping. Some further competition entry images below.

Team:

Esther Sugihto – designer

Jenni Eaton – mentor/teacher at NMIT Fairfield

Julie Edmonds – coordinator, Landscape Victoria

Steve Syphers – builder, Birchwood Landscapes

Kathleen Rushford – MIFGS project manager, IMG

The guys from Rooftop Honey are bringing bees back into the city. Why? to help pollination in a growing urban environment. I’ve found they’re great on Twitter, and seem to get a write up in every online blog/journal. And you can buy the local honey to reduce your food miles – taste the difference between Northcote honey compared to West Melbourne! Would love to do a bee garden design with them :-)

http://rooftophoney.com.au/

A group collaborative effort has birthed Melbourne Architours: guided architectural tours in the Melbourne CBD by those in the industry. It is run by myself, Mark Skiba – landscape architect with Tract Consultants, and Andy Fergus – urban designer at Hansen Partnership and current architectural student. We have banded together to showcase all that Melbourne has to offer by devising 3 different tours within the Melbourne CBD:

  • Settlement to Marvellous Melbourne
  • Federation to Art Deco
  • Modernism to Contemporary

These will be run monthly at $30 a pop per tour, with a coffee or a beer (depending on the time of the tour!) at the end to discuss the built environment with tour attendees. This, for me, is the most valuable time to engage with the public and hear their thoughts about the evolution of the city and the discourse of architecture.

Check us out at Melbourne Architours.

I’m doing these tours for a reason, and you need to know where I’m coming from. I’m a big proponent of the architectural profession and the value of its services to produce shelter that exceeds the client brief and is responsible for the sustainability of the planet, housing affordability through clever design (not excessive specification of products), education to the client about new models of housing and possibilities of social/familial interaction for a changing demographic. I believe good architecture should address social, environmental and economic factors simultaneously.

For this reason, I am appalled to think that 3% of all new housing in Australia is designed by architects. I was taken aback to learn that the average Australian house size is 216sqm. In saying this, I was pleased to witness the amount of people that flooded through the doors of Lyons, Hassell, Bates Smart and other architectural offices during Melbourne Open House earlier in the year. People are interested in architecture, yet the average person still views it as a luxury profession for the elite. These tours, in the simplest way, are intended to bridge the gap of architecture by communicating it to the general public, making it accessible, relatable and understandable. I don’t believe this is dumbing it down or discrediting the intellectual thought that has gone into each building design. If more people are aware of the value of architects, then more people would be inclined to use them. The discussion at the end of the tour is the real gem.