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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 came back from a weekender in Sydney, primarily for a fantastical weekend of dining experiences, however we always make time for case studies. These four projects all dare to ask questions of possibilities within the framework of architecture, urban design and landscape, responding with a cohesive and progressive design:

  • Dominic Alvaro’s Small House in Surry Hills – on the site of essential two car park spaces, this is as close to Jap pet architecture as Australia gets. Details here on Grand Designs Australia also. This house is built over four levels, using pre-cast concrete panels, and includes 220sqm of living, plus a roof deck. Logistical nightmare to coordinate, but here it is. Finely detailed also.

  • Paddington Reservoir Gardens – adaptive reuse and heritage project by TZG. Here, it demonstrates how heritage can be respected and push the boundaries of landscaping as we experience it. This is a multi-levelled, complex arrangement of underground, partially covered, terraced, loggia, rooftop spaces that was once the reservoir feeding the local water supply. After it was unceremoniously converted into a parking garage and petrol station, it was lobbied to become parkland which came to pass as this project in 2008. Possibly the most photogenic space, the old arched loggias on brick columns are retained, as is the base of the reservoir. A concrete platform suspends over this, interspersed with grassed areas, planter beds, means of vertical circulation and even a reflecting pond. The upper green roof has lush kikuyu with a new steel canopy that echoes the arched forms below. Truly spectacular.

 

 

  • These are the Sirius Apartments in the Rocks, “perhaps the most egalitarian building in Sydney” according to our tour guide from Sydney Architecture Walks. Located in a remarkable site that gains height over the Rocks with tremendous views and proximity to the Harbour Bridge, Opera House and CBD, these are social housing apartments, built in true brutalist style. I think it still maintains its heart over the years through bold use of materials (doesn’t have a white colour to the concrete to reflect the Opera House sails as originally proposed), and has aged to include some greenery cascading down the building through the planter detail within the curved balustrading to the balconies.

  • Recently completed Roslyn Street bar and restaurant in Surry Hills, by Durbach Block Jaggers. Sinuous, curvy, proportionally just right, this project seems to address the acute corner is a bold gesture that buckles at the roof deck level. It’s tiled in broken white and yellow tiles, and uses deep reveals on their dark metal framed windows and openings. The building isn’t entered via the front corner as one might expect (perhaps due to the change in level?), but is via a side entrance under the steel skirt canopy that is tiled above, as if this entrance is peeled of a complete whole form. Have a look here for a photo of the roof deck.

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.

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.

A team of 16 people from all over Australia converged in Phnom Penh at the start of July to undertake a building adventure as part of a Global Village team for Habitat for Humanity. Armed with only garden gloves and no power tools, we engaged with local skilled workers, future home owners, Cambodian Habitat staff and loads of other locals to put together these two houses brick by brick (FYI, I was crowned best brickie!).

These houses were only 54sqm – the size of a good one-bedroom apartment in Australia. To put this into context, the average house size in Australia is over 200sqm – we have officially overtaken the US in housing obesity. In Cambodia, 54sqm is for an extended family – parents, kids, grandparents, cousins, aunties, uncles, etc. Sewerage is via septic tank that gets pumped from time to time. Water is delivered via large vats into stone jars, and there is no gas – cooking is done using camping-style stoves with refillable butane canisters. Electricity is provided through low slung overhead wires.

Having said this, the difference of their new house compared to the old slum village is vast. Slum lords would require payment of rent of $5 per month for their elevated house above watery land. The one-room self made shack of found materials (the only purchased materials is corrugated roofing) is made from bamboo and green timber branches, ventilated bamboo floors, sheets of hessian, tin and other gems for walling. Electricity is also supplied here at an inflated rate; the bathroom and toilet is outside next to the stone jar of water.

An amazing experience with an equally amazing team of Australians – no egos, no bragging, just a few mates hanging out to build a house. Couldn’t recommend it more – thanks for the memories guys! Hope it leads onto even greater things – the best is yet to come.