WA Museum Boola Bardip opens in Perth

WA Museum Boola Bardip opens in Perth

    The long-awaited $400 million WA Museum Boola Bardip has opened, close to a year after the building was completed.

Architects Hassell and OMA describe the museum as “a collection of stories about Western Australia’s diverse and rich history, and contemporary culture.” Its name, Boola Bardip, means “many stories” in Whadjuk Noongar language.

    “The museum carefully combines and embraces historic and contemporary architecture to provide opportunities for exploration, sharing of ideas, and ongoing storytelling,” said Hassell principal Mark Loughnan.

A number of heritage buildings at the Perth Cultural Centre, including the Old Gaol, the Jubilee Building, the original Art Gallery and Hackett Hall, have been enveloped in two intersecting circulation loops – one vertical, one horizontal – culminating in the centre at a public space referred to as the City Room, which accommodates a variety of activities and exhibitions. A large volume cantilevers over Hackett Hall, which shelters the City Room.

    The museum includes eight new permanent exhibition galleries, a 1,000-square-metre special exhibition gallery, learning studios, retail, and a café.

Below where the cantilevers of the new structures meet old buildings, Hassell and OMA have landscaped a large sheltered plaza.

Named the City Room, this space is the museum’s centrepiece and will be open for public events and activities hosted by the museum and other institutions in Perth Cultural Centre.

Inside, the refurbished historic buildings and new structures are woven together two intersecting circulation loops – one that extends vertically and one that wraps the buildings horizontally.

    These loops offer multiple routes around the museum and encourage visitors to explore and meander freely through the museum.

“The museum is unique in both the Australian and international cultural landscape,” said OMA regional director Paul Jones. “It invites visitors to not only passively look at exhibitions, but also become active creators of their own museum experiences. Visitors can choose museum journeys relevant to them and engage in dialogues with each other.”

 “The new WA Museum Boola Bardip is simply spectacular,” said premier Mark McGowan. “I have no doubt Western Australians will be blown away by its stunning architecture and fascinating exhibits.”

written by :  ArchitectureAU Editorial 
24 Nov 2020
published in : architectureau.com

WA Museum Boola Bardip opens in Perth

    The long-awaited $400 million WA Museum Boola Bardip has opened, close to a year after the building was completed.

Architects Hassell and OMA describe the museum as “a collection of stories about Western Australia’s diverse and rich history, and contemporary culture.” Its name, Boola Bardip, means “many stories” in Whadjuk Noongar language.

Australia is Building the World’s First Coral Conservation Facility

coral conservation facility

Australia is Building the World’s First Coral Conservation Facility

    Contreras Earl Architecture has revealed its design for the world-first coral ark. Located at the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef in Port Douglas, North Queensland, Australia, the conservation facility “aims to secure the long-term future and biodiversity of corals worldwide which are under severe threat due to climate change”.

Dedicated to the future of corals worldwide, the Living Coral Biobank, designed by Contreras Earl Architecture, with leading engineering and sustainability consultants Arup and Werner Sobek for the Great Barrier Reef Legacy, is the first facility of its kind. Focusing on taking care of 800 species of the world’s hard corals, the new building is a “living ark”, with next-generation renewable energy design, creating optimal conditions for coral storage while minimizing energy consumption and solar gain.

    Securing the living biodiversity of the world’s coral species immediately, the 6,830 sqm multi-function center will also host exhibition areas, an auditorium, and classrooms as well as advanced research and laboratory facilities over four levels. Commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Legacy, the project responds to context, climate, the user, and its function to protect 800 species of coral. The volume, inspired by the mushroom coral, takes a series of organic undulating concrete fins, on the façade, “clustered closely at ground level to offer protection from adverse tropical conditions including threats of a flood”. On higher levels, the fins twist and unfurl, allowing natural light and ventilation while providing solar shading. On another hand, the visitor’s’ journey is defined by an architecturally manipulated play of light.

    Responding to the need to conserve the corals in a highly controlled environment as well as the requirement for biosecurity to prevent cross-contamination, sustainability is at the core of every design decision, aiming to be self-sufficient and carbon neutral. In fact, the structure was divided into six compatible climate zones over four levels, with adjacencies minimizing energy resources used for climatic control. 

written by : Christele Harrouk
11 November 2020
published in : archdaily.com

Sutherland Shire entertainment center gets the final go ahead

Sutherland Shire entertainment center gets the final go ahead

    The Sutherland Entertainment Center holds an important place in the collective memory of the Sutherland community. Designed and built in the 1970s primarily as a musical venue, the then ‘Sutherland Civic Centre’ relied on an inward focus on its auditorium and on a narrow public address to Eton Street.  This was a time when buildings like this relied on a separation between inside and outside and where spaces such as the foyer had only one purpose.  This was also long before the development of Peace Park to the building’s north.

Fast forward to the present day.  What we now find is a 40+ year old building which is in relatively good physical condition. However, as a modern day public venue, it must now cater to a diversity of cultural and technical needs. It must have a more open outlook and offer more to its community, both in terms of its relationship with its immediate surrounds but also in its spatial flexibility.

    Our proposal seeks to offer a new and more engaging address for the Entertainment Centre by virtue of a friendlier and integrated relationship with Peace Park.  This speaks to an opportunity to re-affirm Peace Park as the civic heart of Sutherland – a place with stronger connections not only to already established civic institutions but also with anticipated future developments within the Sutherland Town Centre.

    Just as there is much spatial potential between the building and the park there are also wonderful opportunities to re-use much of the building’s current fabric.  We propose that the existing black box space and administration building be retained and re-purposed to be café / theatre bar and foyer on the Ground Floor and multi-purpose community room and rehearsal space on Level 1.  Likewise, the structure and facade on the north side of the building would be adapted for new uses such as restaurant, kitchen and stores on the Ground Floor; Administration spaces on Level 1 and Green Room on Level 2, each with a view of the park and connected by the existing ivy clad egress stair.

    The auditorium also retains much of its surrounding envelope but will become an entirely new and lively space.  The existing flat floor will be transformed into a more immersive tiered seating arrangement and all acoustics, accessibility and back of house functions revitalised to provide a venue with broad appeal for audiences and performers alike.  The new theatre will be designed to meet or exceed national benchmarks for Performing Arts Centres, achieving a four star rating for theatres on the local, regional and national touring circuit.

Sydney’s Sutherland Shire Council has voted unanimously to go ahead with the largest infrastructure project in the council’s history, the redevelopment of its Civic Centre.

    A state-significant development application for the proposed Sutherland Entertainment Centre was approved in October.

Chrofi and NBRS Architecture won a design competition for the project in May 2019. Their winning scheme included a verandah structure that will be added to the north of the existing structure, the Sutherland Civic Centre, and form a large foyer space and connection to the adjacent Peace Park.

Other works include a refurbished theatre with tiered seating, a fly tower over the stage to cater for diverse performances, flexible teaching and rehearsal spaces, a new entry court incorporating flexible outdoor events space, and upgrades to Peace Park.

    “The Sutherland Entertainment Centre has been a much loved and well used performance and events space for over forty years, but we all acknowledge it is in need of a refresh to ensure it can continue to be the region’s premier entertainment destination for many years to come,” said mayor Steve Simpson.

“Plans to redevelop or replace our Entertainment Centre have been floated for almost as long as the building has been standing, with plans to upgrade the facility first brought before Council in 1984.

Construction will begin in early 2021, and completion is expected in 2022. The council is continuing to seek funding from relevant government agencies to support the project.

written by : ArchitectureAU Editorial
19 Nov 2020
published in : architectureau.com

Sutherland Shire entertainment center gets the final go-ahead

 “The Sutherland Entertainment Centre has been a much loved and well used performance and events space for over forty years, but we all acknowledge it is in need of a refresh to ensure it can continue to be the region’s premier entertainment destination for many years to come,” said mayor Steve Simpson.

Sydney to host ICOMOS

Sydney to host ICOMOS general assembly

    The world heritage body International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) will hold its next global General Assembly in Sydney, the first time the event will be held in the Pacific region.

Scheduled for 2023, the program will include site visits, workshops, lectures, and meetings between heritage experts from around the world.

Delegates will visit heritage sites including Sydney Opera House, Hyde Park Barracks and Luna Park, and will also be given the opportunity to visit cities and regions across Australia.

Australia ICOMOS president Helen Lardner said the theme of the assembly – Heritage Changes: Resilience, Responsibility, Rights, Relationships – reflect the tumultuous changes taking place in the world. “But [it is] also a positive message about the role of our heritage in supporting rapid recovery and inclusive approaches,” she said.

    “GA2023 will highlight stories and techniques for conserving important cultural sites and will make an important contribution to the re-emergence of Sydney and Australia more broadly as a leading cultural tourism destination”

Headquartered in Paris, ICOMOS is a professional association with has more than 10,000 members globally – architects, historians, planners, archaeologists and other specialists. It advocates for the protection of cultural heritage sites and advises the World Heritage Committee and national governments about heritage issues.

Federal environment minister Sussan Ley welcomed the announcement of Australia’s successful bid to host the assembly.

    “Australia is a global leader in heritage conservation, and our hosting the General Assembly aligns closely with our commitment to the management of 20 World Heritage properties – with more nominations on the way,” she said.“As an active member of the World Heritage Committee, and one of the first nations to adopt the World Heritage Convention, we are delighted to partner with the NSW Government and ICOMOS to bring this prestigious global gathering to Sydney”, she said.

NSW heritage minister Don Harwin said the event would highlight the state’s achievements in cultural heritage management.

“Sydney and NSW boast wonderful heritage places ranging from important Aboriginal sites with rich stories, to the convict Hyde Park Barracks and Parramatta’s historic Female Factory,” he said. “Our ICOMOS visitors will share knowledge of great conservation practice and enjoy amazing cultural experiences at iconic venues like Sydney Opera House. This event will boost cultural tourism, and attendees will become advocates for the amazing experiences that our cultural heritage offers.”

written by : ArchitectureAU Editorial
19 Nov 2020
published in : architectureau.com

Pace Gallery-Jean Dubuffet

Pace Gallery . Jean Dubuffet

    Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called “low art” and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. He is perhaps best known for founding the art movement Art Brut, and for the collection of works—Collection de l’art brut—that this movement spawned. Dubuffet enjoyed a prolific art career, both in France and in America, and was featured in many exhibitions throughout his lifetime.

    Jean Dubuffet rejected artistic traditions. He strove to create a unique visual language with which to portray the everyday world. One of the most important early theorists and collectors of “art brut,” Dubuffet was a major force in the recognition and appreciation of outsider art. Naive and unconventional visions of reality influenced the development of his own singularly personal style and imagery. He explored and experimented with many printmaking techniques throughout his career, most notably silkscreen and lithography.Dubuffet has been the subject of numerous museum and gallery exhibitions, and his work is included in important public and private collections worldwide. His personal collection of outsider art was the foundation of the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland.

    NEW YORK, NY.- Pace Gallery is presenting Jean Dubuffet’s Le cirque (1970), a monumental sculpture occupying the entire first-floor gallery of Pace’s 540 West 25th Street location in New York, on view September 18 – October 24, 2020. Le cirque is a habitable environment that suggests an urban plaza, which Dubuffet first conceived and sculpted in 1970 as a model for future enlargement at architectural scale. Measuring thirty feet square and thirteen feet in height, Le cirque is one of the last remaining works from the late-1960s and early-1970s to be realized at heroic size. Marking a crucial moment in Dubuffet’s deeply influential oeuvre, it stands as a major achievement in the artist’s sculptural practice and heralds the final chapter in his celebrated Hourloupe cycle, which lasted from 1962 to 1974. This cycle, the longest and most prolific of Dubuffet’s career, began with drawings and paintings, to which Dubuffet added reliefs to expand their presence spatially and “give them life,” as the artist stated. This evolved further into painted and sculpted panels, which came together in ambitious sculptural and architectural installations.

    The original model for Le cirque was created shortly after Dubuffet’s second solo exhibition with Pace Gallery in New York in 1970, which debuted a body of new black and-white sculptures called Simulacres. Dubuffet’s inaugural exhibition with Pace had taken place in 1968, after the artist met the gallery’s founder Arne Glimcher for the first time in Paris in 1966 and began working with him the following year. A foundational figure in the gallery’s history, Dubuffet’s work has been the subject of more than 20 solo exhibitions at Pace since 1968 and has been featured in countless dual and group exhibitions.

published in : pacegallery.com

Pace Gallery . Jean Dubuffet

    Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was a French painter and sculptor. His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called “low art” and eschewed traditional standards of beauty in favor of what he believed to be a more authentic and humanistic approach to image-making. He is perhaps best known for founding the art movement Art Brut, and for the collection of works Collection de l’art brut that this movement spawned. Dubuffet enjoyed a prolific art career, both in France and in America, and was featured in many exhibitions throughout his lifetime.

In Absence-Winner at the NGV

In Absence - This Year’s Architecture Commission Winner at the NGV

    Occurring annually, the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Architecture Commission is a nation-wide competition that invites architects and artists to design and create a site-specific work that is ephemeral in nature. Selected from five shortlisted design schemes, the winner in 2019, In Absence, speaks to the history of Indigenous Australians prior to European arrival. The project is a collaboration between contemporary Kokatha and Nukunu artist, Yhonnie Scarce, and Melbourne architects Edition Office.

    Ephemeral architecture has the ability to crystallise an emotional and psychological response through only a fleeting experience. In this way, the winning work for the NGV’s 2019 Architecture Commission by Yhonnie Scarce and Edition Office, In Absence, will take people’s breath away as it opens to the public in the Grollo Equiset Garden.

The NGV’s Architecture Commission is one that the entire country looks forward to, and this is validated by Yhonnie who says, “this commission is an amazing opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the [Aboriginal] builders of such infrastructure and their enduring legacies.”

    The NGV Architecture Commission is supported by RMIT University, Macquarie, and The Hugh D.T. Williamson Foundation, and the competition process is managed by Citylab.

Designed as two black timber towers with expansive voids, the dramatic interiors are adorned with thousands of black glass yams by Yhonnie. “This pavilion does not recognise the term – ‘Terra Nulius’ ¬– instead it celebrates the structures that were built long before the colonisation of Australia,” Yhonnie explains

    With a strong focus on collaboration and the community, in both a physical and conceptual sense, the pavilion is a successful example of ephemeral architecture. In Absence is underscored with a strong narrative-driven purpose and, therefore, highlights the histories of Indigenous construction, design, industry and agriculture before European colonisation.

written by : Eric Baldwin
29 April 2019
published in : archdaily.com

In Absence - This Year’s Architecture Commission Winner at the NGV

The NGV’s Architecture Commission is one that the entire country looks forward to, and this is validated by Yhonnie who says, “this commission is an amazing opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the [Aboriginal] builders of such infrastructure and their enduring legacies.”

Clement Meadmore

clement meadmore sculptor

    Clement Meadmore is one of the most highly respected artists of his generation, for both the quality of his work and the integrity of his commitment to public sculpture. This sculptor has been uniquely successful as a creator of public art that serves as a positive, unifying force in the environment.Although initially linked with the Minimalists, Clement Meadmore transcended geometry with work of uncommon force and elegance, powerful in large scale and small.

    It relies for its effect on the opposition between line and mass, also deriving power and eloquence from its fusion of formal invention with intense feeling, a frankly spiritual dimension. Yet ultimately the appeal of Clement Meadmore’s work lies in its success as sheer form.The artist has managed to overcome geometry’s qualities of stasis, containment, rigor, and sobriety. His sculptures deny their physical reality, suggesting weightlessness. Because of this extroverted and animated character, his public commissions provide oases of humanity in the urban environment. He himself has stated: “A building is part of the environment, but a sculpture is a presence inhabiting the environment.”

    Clement Meadmore’s works range in size from those that fit in the palm of a hand to others that stretch more than forty-six feet, not to mention a proposal for a six-hundred-foot skyscraper sculpture. This range in scale is belied by the seeming monumentality and robust physicality of even the smallest maquette.In a typical Meadmore sculpture, a large rectangular volume of steel twists and turns upon itself. The point about his classic works is that they are huge, and so the great curl of steel takes on this epic scale, as if mighty and usually exuberant forces are at work. In Melbourne, a massive steel structure called Dervish has been sitting beside the Yarra River for 20 years.

    Another Meadmore sculpture called Flippant Flurry slumbers on the rooftop of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. It was hidden behind a wall until 2010, now it can be seen through the glass panes of the gallery rooms. But a Meadmore sculpture titled Janus has met a more controversial fate. Australia donated Janus to Mexico City for the Mexico Olympics in 1968, and for a while it was on public display, but that’s no longer the case. Since 1996, it’s been inside the grounds of a private school. Some people are now saying the Mexican government has effectively abandoned this gift and Australia should now ask for it to be returned.

published in : Clement Meadmore | Sculptor

clement meadmore sculptor

    Clement Meadmore is one of the most highly respected artists  of his generation, for both the quality of his work and the integrity of his commitment to public sculpture. This sculptor has been uniquely successful as a creator of public art that serves as a positive, unifying force in the environment.

Articolo Lighting’s Nicci Green

How One Designer Is Handling Australia’s Reopening

    Nicci Green is not new to global crisis. The designer founded Australian lighting maker Articolo Lighting when the Great Recession led to the demise of her previous glassware company, Bribe. “Pretty much overnight that business wasn’t relevant anymore” Green recalls. Standing at an empty Maison & Objet booth in 2010, “I held one vase on my hand upside down and another one on top of it and joked, ‘I don’t know—we could get into lighting.’” Today, Articolo is a global brand that operates showrooms in Melbourne and New York.

    This time around, when COVID-19 began to threaten small businesses, Green took a decidedly different tack. “We approached the coronavirus pandemic with a more positive perspective,” she says. Working with long time architect David Goss, Green prepared her local showroom for reopening after lockdown with projects that include a floor-to-ceiling installation comprising 90 glass spheres from Articolo’s Fizi product line. “It shows our ability to customize our lighting for larger scales and format,” Green says.

But the undertaking also inspired her to reflect more deeply on quarantine. “I thought, ‘What are we all going to be looking forward to?’ We will want to be together.” That thought led Green to start to seek out collaboration opportunities. Soon, Articolo began to commission new creative partners with gusto. The company produced a short film with Paris Thomson of SIRAP Motion Lab, and tapped illustrator Alex Watson to reimagine the lighting collections in a series of prints. Watson now works for Articolo one day per week.

    Now, some of these projects are being shared in Articolo’s Australian showrooms, as the country began reopening its economy in phases approximately a month before its American counterparts. Simultaneously, Green is finishing up a collaboration with digital media artist Yandell Walton that will transform her reopening into a spectacular event. Walton will amplify the Fizi installation’s presence by immersing visitors in motion graphics of bubbles. “When regulations allow us to have an event of 100 people, we’ll showcase this amazing digital art piece,” Green says. “COVID-19 gave us the quiet to explore this.”

The wider Melbourne community has used that time to similar ends. Interior designer Fiona Lynch launched an open-source platform for sustainable design called Future Archive during quarantine. And Green’s fellow designer Christopher Boots is welcoming clients to a new showroom that he created with interior designer Pascale Gomes-McNabb.

    Green, who is launching three new product collections this summer and hopes to expand her business to six showrooms worldwide by 2025, thinks her response to COVID-19 will inform her professional thinking for a long time. She feels particularly confident that Articolo’s future trade fair stands will more likely resemble a Walton-like environment than past booths, for one. But Green does not advise her American peers to necessarily parrot Melburnians as they navigate an eventual reopening. “It’s got to come from the heart,” she says. “If you try to orchestrate something just to capitalize on this moment, then you have a business proposition rather than an authentic expression.”

By David Sokol

published in :  articololighting.com

Articolo Lighting’s Nicci Green

Nicci Green is not new to global crisis. The designer founded Australian lighting maker Articolo Lighting when the Great Recession led to the demise of her previous glassware company, Bribe. “Pretty much overnight that business wasn’t relevant anymore,” Green recalls.Standing at an empty Maison & Objet booth in 2010, “I held one vase on my hand upside down and another one on top of it and joked, ‘I don’t know—we could get into lighting.’” Today, Articolo is a global brand that operates showrooms in Melbourne and New York.

ARCHISTYLE

ARCHISTYLE

   Frederico Babina is an Italian architect and graphic designer who creates artwork that focuses on the abstract replications of famous imagery and buildings. Through a strong focus on geometry and form his work represents a sense of innocence, inexperience and spontaneity throughout.

for his latest series ‘ARCHISTYLE’, Italian artist Federico Babina forms a categorical summary of some of the major architectural movements, expressed thorough simple graphic gestures.

the collection of 16 images illustrates the evolution and transformation of building styles from the last century from deconstructivism to art deco. the compositions are formed by minimal geometries, a deliberate use of color, mention of materials, typographic choices and drawn decorations.

‘architecture changes with society, follows the society, and sometimes guides it,’ says babina. ‘it’s easy to see the changes of the society through the mutation of the spaces we inhabit

walking through a contemporary city we can often observe sequences of buildings with different shapes, various styles and heterogeneous languages that coexist in an architectural (dis)order. they are like the pieces of a mosaic that relates the passage of time. it is not difficult to see an art deco building that touches a deconstructivist structure in a timeless embrace.’

published in : ARCHISTYLE – federico babina

ARCHISTYLE​

italian artist federico babina forms a categorical summary of some of the major architectural movements, expressed thorough simple graphic gestures. the collection of 16 images illustrates the evolution and transformation of building styles from the last century from deconstructivism to art deco. 

Paige Bradley

Paige Bradley – Sculptures in Bronze

     Paige Bradley is an American sculpture artist who gained fame for her figurative bronze works that were internally illuminated with electricity. Titled “Expansion”, the bronze sculpture depicted a woman sitting in a cross-legged position with light streaming from cracks in her body. This piece was originally photographed in 2004 against New York’s skyline, gaining international fame and putting Paige on the map.

      Paige Bradley’s (b. 1974) powerful sculptures of dynamically posed figures showcase more than just physical strength and passion – they testify to the inner strength and fortitude woven into the fabric of a person’s soul. Her own personal experiences are the starting point for Paige’s work, and she then uses her skill, intuition, and sensitivity to build these stories out into universally understood creations. The unseen and often unspoken dichotomies one encounters in life – joy and sorrow, dissonance and harmony, weakness and strength, ugliness and beauty – become powerfully alive in Paige’s sculpture, as she is an artist who has the rare ability to turn abstract feeling into three-dimensional form.

      Working in the figurative genre, Paige’s sculptures are anything but relics, antiques, or pastiches of figuration past. Rather, her works combine iconic media and uncommon skill with modern thought, philosophy, and psychology, speaking in the currency of our contemporary culture. Paige is also known for eschewing stylistic rules and parameters of any kind, which has kept stagnation far from her studio. In looking at the variety of thought-provoking work she has produced over her 25-year career, one can see how this mind set continues to serve her creative diversity: some of her figures sit strong and grounded in outdoor spaces; others float delicately in suspended compositions; others are sturdily wrapped in silk while stretching toward freedom. Although she primarily casts in bronze, Paige’s artwork also encompasses painting and charcoals, woodcuts, iron-bonded resin, aluminium, mixed media, or any other material she feels helps communicate her message.

in her own words

     “Inspiration comes from my connection to the world, my relationships with others, and my relationship with myself. I don’t need to travel the planet or hire dancers to find a muse. My individual journey is inspiration enough.Since I was nine years old I knew I would be an artist. I was drawing since I can remember and began casting my work into bronze when I was seventeen. Three decades later, I am still doing it – and I intend to never stop.”

       “As much as I try to avoid labelling myself, I am a figurative artist in everything I do. The figure to me is the perfect vehicle to communicate the human condition. My definition of success is to be a visionary through truthful and courageous artwork, work that communicates what it feels like to be alive in the world today.I keep moving my work forward by questioning, observing, looking for truth and searching for clarity. My goal is to have the courage to create what feels real, not necessarily beautiful, in order to create lasting, fine art.”

Paige Bradley

published in : paigebradley.com

Paige Bradley – Sculptures in Bronze

      Paige Bradley is an American sculpture artist who gained fame for her figurative bronze works that were internally illuminated with electricity. Titled “Expansion”, the bronze sculpture depicted a woman sitting in a cross-legged position with light streaming from cracks in her body. This piece was originally photographed in 2004 against New York’s skyline, gaining international fame and putting Paige on the map.