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This is a show garden for the 2012 Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show.

Conceived from the competition theme ‘Sense Garden,’ this landscape design captures the genius loci of Carlton – the ‘sense of place’ of the site. It is a process-driven exploration of the multi-sensorial experience of coffee, engaging the public as the subject hunting for a caffeine hit down Canning Street.

With thanks to St Ali, Seven Seeds, Cavellero, Padre’s, Eco Outdoor, Plantmark, Landscaping Victoria and Birchwood Landscaping

Green wall of dichromatic plants in coffee cups to resemble stretcher bond brickwork in a typical Carlton terrace house; milk crate seating in front; walk up window behind

Detail of tubestock mondos and poa labs in coffee cups, mounted on a steel mesh frame

Dichondra ‘silver falls’ gently cascading from the gutter planter box – resembling cast iron lacework on a Carlton terrace

Coffee bean gravel amongst Melbourne bluestone paving evoking the scent of roasted coffee, thanks to Seven Seeds.

Blue chalk sticks in coffee hessian sacks, thanks to St Ali.

Mass planting of grassy carex varieties, resembling a frothing cappucino

Plant list:

1| rear terrace wall

ophiopogan nigrescens | black mondo grass

poa labillardieri | common tussock grass

lomandra longifolia tanika

2| hessian bag fence

senecio serpens | blue chalk sticks

3| porch lacework

dichondra silver falls

4| coffee feature

coffea arabica | arabian coffee tree

macadamia pinkalicious | macadamia tree

5| central mass planting

carex comans brown

carex buchanii | leatherleaf sedge

carex frosted curls

acacia cognata dazzler

 

See here for the competition brief

See here for photos under construction

While I was hoping that this garden would be purchased from eBay (see here for the listing) to prevent it from ending in the skip, thankfully, the good folk at Jobs Support dismantled it to reuse. From their website: “Jobsupport’s mission is to place, train and maintain as many people with a significant intellectual disability as possible into quality jobs in the regular workforce that meet both their employment needs and the needs of the employer.” The use of scrap materials will aid their cause by providing materials for skills training. Instead of throwing away your good quality building material refuse, drop them a line and pass it onto Jobs Support instead.

If you like what you see, drop me an email to discuss your own landscape design/installation project.

[If instant gratification is your thing - see here for the finished product].

 

       

Exciting times! Construction has begun earlier this week on the show gardens at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. Click here to read about the outlandish design intent summarised.

 

See below for a photo diary how things are progressing:

Day 0

Day 1: framing of base (no penetrations into the heritage listed Carlton Gardens permitted)

Day 2: erection of rear wall, deck framing and base cladding

Day 4: painting, bracing, decking added, pickets arrive

Day 5: mesh, shadecloth up, post, fascia and gutter up, pickets painted and erected, hay in sacks

Day 5: ply shelf up, ‘blockwork’ started with planting of mondo grasses in black coffee cups erected (first time I’ve drawn a planting elevation, because a planting plan didn’t cut it), starting to pot the ‘mortar’ lomandras in white coffee cups

Day 5: a couple of thousand plants in cups later…

Day 6: pickets completed, ply on seats, end nibs, door and ‘mortar’ planting completed

Day 7: central mass planting arranged, succulents in hessian sacks planted, pavers laid

Day 9: dichondras in, coffee gravel poured, canvas up and framed, finishing touches added; complete.

Don’t forget to stop by at Site #A73 (strategically opposite the Lindeman’s Open Garden for a cheeky afternoon pinot noir) and say hello during the show. It runs from Wednesday 28th March – Sunday 1st April.

Let me take the opportunity to thank all who have been involved:

Don’t forget to check out the other three talented finalists Rourke Hartwig, Phillip Withers and Ross Uebergang, at our combined blog, Four Designers.

Robert Pike, contributory blogger for the UK site Boidus, recently visited Melbourne, and you can find his thoughts following his trip on their website. He was unable to make one of our Melbourne Architours - a tour company that I co-lead with friends in the fields of landscape architecture and urban design. Instead, he has asked me to write a local Melburnian’s narrative about architecture in this city, distilled into a local’s perspective. Writing factual information about buildings is not as difficult as describing a discourse when you’re intrinsically tied to it. Here is my attempt…

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A tale of two cities: contradictory Melbourne

I live in Melbourne. Home is in Fitzroy and work is in South Yarra. I was born here and studied here, travelled extensively and lived overseas. Yet I come back to reside in this city of contrasts. Apart from being quite fortunate to have most fundamental systems in working order – healthcare, social security, education, tax, etc – we have the luxury of spending our time thinking towards better city planning, in all its facets.

So my view of Melbourne is this: out of any city in Australia, Melbourne is completely contradictory, yet chooses to embraces these tensions. Why do I say this? Here are some examples.

Opportunistic…

Its opportunism is borne out of the early illegal settlement culture, where free settlers from Tasmania chose to set up camp here, “buy” land from the local Aborigines, build upon the success of the gold rush and capitalise on the dizzying heights of Marvellous Melbourne in the 1880s! A population boom too fast to create order out of chaos – that was early Melbourne.

…yet planned

Given the rogue trader beginnings, the city had the benefit of foresight. Robert Russell’s survey demonstrates the service of a central business district 150 years prior to its need. We are lucky enough to have key figures throughout our architectural history, from William Wardell to Marcus Barlow, Robin Boyd to Rob Adams, who champion the true development of architecture of purpose and authenticity above style or dress to continue the character of the city.

Regulatory…

As the population grows, so too does the need to curb the developer extremists. A stickler for the rules, each new release of the building regulations brings tighter controls that forces us to either a) reject the rules and request copious dispensations, or b) reinterpret the rules through lateral thinking. Coupled with a defined planning scheme across 78 municipalities, there are tough reins to negotiate for even the smallest renovation project. And then there’s those that default to VCAT (Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal).

…yet explores loopholes

Among all this, Melbourne breeds a culture of design. We see it as the ability to take seemingly overwhelming competing interests and holistically solve the issues into our designs. AAMI Park by Cox Architects is one recent example – architecture and engineering intrinsically tied. Graeme Gunn’s cluster housing estates in the 1970s is another – density, housing and community. Even the Small Homes Service describes an architectural solution of supply of post war housing in the 1950s by producing affordable housing plans via the local newspaper to encourage a revival of the building industry.

Think global…

Sure, Melbourne is not the pre-eminent international city in Australia, however when the building industry was in decline, Melbourne architects travelled on the wages of taxi drivers and bartenders, learning from the current day movements at the time and not being scared to test it out locally. William Butterfield designed St Paul’s Cathedral in the 1850s. Harry Norris changed his design direction after a trip to the States (funded by GJ Coles!) to produce the spanish mission Majorca House. Bates Smart and McCutcheon designed ICI House at the same time when New York received Mies’ Seagram Building. And Federation Square is the closest thing Australia will get to deconstructivism.

…act local

Melbourne doesn’t have great topography. There are no scenic mountains, no dramatic cleft falls to a bay, no central lake. Given the natural shortcomings, it is resigned to look beyond the surface to other benefits. The development of our laneways is partially accidental, but wholly purposed also. The little lanes, originally not part of the Russell’s (and later Robert Hoddle’s) Melbourne was actually forced by the then Governor Bourke for means of refuse collection. Now, with a combination of factors such as the Postcode 3000 push, dirt cheap liquor licenses, the prevalence of overseas student life, Jan Gehl’s review of the city, and the patronage of the citizens through foot traffic (amongst others) we now have activation in even the most unlikely of laneway spaces.

The urban neighbourhoods that developed around the time of the tram network installation also allows for 19th century shopping strips that now are the new local town centres. Melbourne isn’t one for public squares (allowing protests and expression to free radicals? I think not!), so the strips from Smith Street to Sydney Road, Chapel Street to Clarendon Street is where we go to commune, shop, eat, reflect and experience our local city.

Also, we push forward the cause of local architects, so much so that many interstate buildings are now done by “another Melbourne architect.” And then we reiterate this on 3RRR’s The Architects radio program.

Permanent…

While not restricted to Melbourne, the cause of heritage here is rampant. Over levels of government (Heritage Victoria, National Trust, Heritage Overlays through the planning scheme) through to well-funded community action groups (Geoffrey Rush, Melbourne Heritage Action Group) to protection beyond architecture (Trust Trees, monuments), there is the understated case that existing conditions is best practice. We will rally for preservation of our buildings and lament the loss of the Federal Coffee House, Australia Hotel, and even Lonsdale House of late (yet collectively skip over the demise of the Gas and Fuel Towers). Melbourne was the richest city during the boom time years – let us not forget it.

…yet ephemeral

On the flipside, because we are so opportunistic, we have embraced the instant gratification culture with fervour and excitement. Wood Marsh’s bridge from Spencer Street to Docklands lasted just two years. ARM’s additions in the 1990s to Roy Grounds’ Arts Centre was demolished recently to make way for another ARM project. The pivotal cermonious corner entrance to Melbourne Central completed in 2006 has just been reconfigured. KTA’s restrained interior fitour of the Ah-Mu restaurant at the top end of Bourke – blink and you’ll miss it. And Hassell recently won an award at the International Interior Design Awards for their Chasing Kitsune pop up Japanese sake bar that was roving around this city for two weeks during last year’s State of Design Festival. Yet, we love this temporal nature of time through all design disciplines – fashion (SOME space), food (Taco Truck, Beatbox Kitchen), retail (Matt Gibson’s The Co-op), drink (RoofPOP!, Black Coffee), the list goes on.

Where does this leave us? I’m resigned to a life of tensions. Hoping for the best, yet expecting the worst. I live positively optimistic about the potential of design to revitalise a locality, yet spend hours justifying the use of louvred screens to one neighbour. We’ll explore the prospect of a new construction method, only to have it as a steel framed structure due to inability to receive certification. Yet, an innate desire to see something extraordinary come to pass beckons – a purple cow as Seth Godin may say. I feel that this is the tension that Melbourne explores so fervently. I can only hope that as a visitor, you will look past the lack of the iconic and learn to read between the lines.

I recently wrote a post for my side hobby business, Melbourne Architours, which details the Melbourne iPhone applications available that document this city’s built history. As an architect, there are also several other apps that complement the way I work and broadcast to an audience.

Twitter - follow my daily musings on social_archi, there’s many other active users in the local architecture community to follow. Keeps me up to date and in the know of current issues and events. I personally use the Twitterific app.

 

Instagram - search under the #melarch or #melbourne hashtags for some good photos by other instagram users. I connect this to my Twitter feed for instant uploading of photos.

 

 

Heritage Victoria‘s Vic Heritage App – The database of Heritage Victoria is now available for free on your smartphone. Best of all, you can search for heritage listed buildings around you by location, and upload user content. This feature, in particular, is what I am most interested in.

 

National Trust‘s Trust Trees App – Again, another searchable app that verifies your location to find listed trees in your area. This is a good catalogue of species, health, details and why it is protected, plus has some great accompanying photos.

 

Plant File is a searchable database of plants, founded in the US. Usually costing up to $400, there is a streamlined version found an an app that gets you access on your phone for a fraction of the price. Best of all, I can create multiple ‘favourite’ databases that is helpful when illustrating to clients the planting themes I’m looking at for their project.

DPCD have released their property reports as an app. I use this when passing a property to research its zoning and overlays to do a quick back-of-the-envelope feasibility.

 

 

I use the Eventbrite’s entry manager app for checking attendance for Melbourne Architours. This encourages a paperless office and streamlines the role-call process at the start of each tour. It also aids our database by creating an instant list of attendees.

 

I don’t use the AutoCAD, SketchUp or Photoshop apps – this is a case where sometimes pen and paper are just far superior.

Missed an app? Let me know and I’ll post them up accordingly.

 

Endnote: There has been no sponsorship in the writing of this blog post.

 

With the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show coming up in a month’s time, I’ve been busy finalising the details of my ‘Coffee Street’ landscape design – see here for details. All shortlisted entrants effectively project manage the entire construction of the garden. Last Thursday, I went out to Lynbrook to meet up with Simon Lindsay from Plantmark to chat about plant selection. Here’s the synopsis.

Dichondra ‘silver falls’ – a beautiful creeper with grey foliage that drapes/weeps in a manner that evokes the iron lacework commonly associated with row housing. He’s put aside 30x 140mm pots – in a month’s time, they will be draping gracefully to soften and frame the faux terrace house.

Senecio serpens – blue chalk sticks – the ‘it’ plant for several seasons now, this blue succulent has vertical spikes, which for me creates a mini side fence, formally similar to picket fencing.

Coffea arabica trees – for obvious reasons, given this garden gives a sense of coffee! This tree is typically grown in tropical environments and gives fruit in spring; the trees available in Plantmark are only in 140mm pots, so we’ve decided to group several of these in milk crates and add a Macadamia tree (chosen for its similar appearance) to give height.

Black mondo grass – 1500 of these tubestock plants are going into coffee cups, mounted on a steel mesh grid vertical wall. Yes, I thought it was crazy too, but the good people at Landscaping Victoria thought it just might be feasible. These were chosen to represent the bluestone blockwork found on early Melbourne terrace houses.

White foliage plants – yet TBC due to quantities, but 1200 of these are also going into coffee cups to represent mortar joints between the bluestone blockwork.

Carex comans brown, carex buchannii and carex frosted curls are the grasses chosen for the mass planting at the front. Gradations of brown to white are intended to depict a giant cappucino cup! These plants were chosen for their fine foliage and ability to blend colour, and for their consistency of little variation – there are no flowers or branches, etc. Their simplicity is what makes these great plants.

Acacia cognata ‘dazzler’ – I know this is another ‘it’ plant of late – one of the many minicogs going around – but this was chosen for its similarity in form to the carexes, but it also doesn’t grow as high. This is intended to provide a backdrop to the carexes, allowing their colours and height to really be emphasized. Also, this will appear as lawn, not too dissimilar to some terrace houses that use turf in their front yards.

The quantities of plants here are enormous – as there is no actual planting due to inability to penetrate the ground plane of the heritage listed Carlton Gardens, all plants are kept in their pots, so they are placed as closely as possible. All up, approximately $50k of plants go into each garden – a remarkable loan from the supplier!

Will keep you up to date on further progress…I can say that the kind folk Matt Perger and Salvatore Malatesta at St Ali will be supplying coffee cups, coffee beans for ‘gravel’ and some coffee grinds for fertiliser. Stay tuned for photos under construction…