design*kung-fu

Museum of Old and New Art – Mona

nk — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:01:32 +0000

In early January 2011, the Musuem of Old and New Art – Mona, opened its doors to the public in Tasmania’s capital Hobart. Situated in Hobarts down to earth northern suburb of Barriedale, the new building shares its little peninsula with the local “Moo Brew” brewery and a very odoursome waste water treatment plant – a strange combination and a little troublesome to think about while enjoying one of their great tasting beers! Yet quite suiting the diverse aura around MoNa’s founder and art collector David Walsh, who describes the museum as a “subversive adult Disneyland”.

Designed by Fender Katsalidis architects, the exterior of the building becomes most apparent when approached via the Derwent river. From a distance the red brown corten steel facade elements alongside complementing grey surfaces of structural concrete used to stabilize hillside slopes create the impression of a brutalistic medieval keep rising up from the Derwent river.

Approaching the building from the land leaves a very different impression. After following the road through rows of vines, the building gradually rises out towards the water, leading the visitor past a corten steel concrete truck and over a tennis court to the reflecting stainless steel surface of the main entrance. Inside the complex a minimalistic seaside residence welcomes the visitor with great floor to ceiling windows, framing the river scenery of the Derwent, a warming fire blazing in its hearth. From here, the real Mona experience starts. Descending through the circular glass cylinder into the jaw-dropping guts of the raw space beneath, ten meter high bare cut sandstone walls give way to free flowing space with a cathedral like atmosphere. No daylight, just bare rock, concrete and raw art.

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RMIT Design Hub

nk — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 03:54:12 +0000

Australia’s architectural capital Melbourne has borne a new gem. Situated on the north-western edge of the CBD, the newly built Design Hub for the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology – RMIT by Sean Godsell Architects boasts research and accommodation facilities for the universities design initiatives, design research groups and postgraduate programs. Situated at the northern end of the cities civic axis, Swanson Street (crn. of Victoria Street) the buildings facade consists of 16.000 sandblasted semi-translucent glass cells that form the outer shell of the building, shielding it from solar impact. The inner shell is dominated by floor to ceiling double glazed low emission curtain wall.

The facade gives the building a distinctive appearance which changes immensely throughout the day. From solid deep green at dawn over a fine silky blanket of silvery blue to a gleaming gold at dusk. I have yet to see and photograph the building light up at night, at its most translucent state. Below are some of the images I took of the building over a period of some weeks, with potentially more to follow to complete the circle once the building is fully finished.

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Check out my website for more.

Melbourne architecture

nk — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 07:03:55 +0000

Having worked through a lot of old raw files whilst constantly accumulating more data on the built environment in Australia – be it the common everyday structures or the sophisticated buildings of contemporary architecture – I have updated my website with fresh images of some of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings. The projects range from the million-times-published Webb Bridge over the Australian Center of Contemporary Art to random 88° views of true blue – steel and glass curtain wall facades.

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There is lots more to come as I am still working my way through. From Australian Suburbia to Sean Godsell Architects new RMIT Design Hub building in the Central Business District of Melbourne. Stay tuned.

Time

nk — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 11:00:15 +0000

I started off thinking about this post as a sort of apology or explanation for my six month lasting absence from this blog. Keep it simple. Find an easy way back. Okay, so… Fail.

Here I am, turning it into an epic sort of self conversational brain ejaculation. Enjoy.

Time is, as we are well aware of, a relative matter. Great minds like Newton and Einstein have contributed greatly to our understanding of the rather abstract concept of time.

Take the common tortoise. It leads a happy life, taking one thing at a time. “Wow, look at the sheer size of that juicy dandelion leaf!” – might take an hour to actually reach the depth of the little tortoise brain. The triggered action to set things in motion to see if the dandelion leaf is, oh so juicy indeed, could take another few hours. And off it goes into happy days of chewing and resting in the sun. So, for the tortoise itself, things are moving at a genuine pace. Yet its surroundings would somehow seem blurred an strangely hastily. Never quite in its reach to grasp what is going on around it.

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Trainride

I wouldn’t say I am like a tortoise. But I do things in my own time.

I’ve had too many things to do in the last six month. Time, and my concept of it, did not allow me to reach this mind frame.

I worked for a large architecture company in Melbourne, Australia. Being responsible for communications, graphics, pr. Very busy place. Good people. Time is whole different concept in a work related environment – whatever you do, time just seems to be running through your fingers and uups, 6pm again, see you tomorrow! There you go, its relative. And, you could ask yourself, am I just now wasting my own and your time as the same instant?

I like time. It interests me, amazes me, confuses and inspires me. And yet, I feel I never have enough of the stuff! Sometimes I find myself contemplating what I would do if I could randomly stop time. Or capture it and release a few moments when ever I need them.

Unsurprisingly, time often shows up in my private photographic work. Be it as a stylistic device or as the subject itself. Taking long time exposures, especially at night is something mystical. You never quite know what you end up with an the result is always unique.

A great inspiration to me is the work of a fellow Teuton, Hans-Christian Schink. Next to sharing his interest in the relationship between landscape and built environment, his black and white series “1h”, which makes the passing of time somewhat abstractly visible, encourages me to further experiment.

Stay tuned.

work.space

nk — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 02:46:42 +0000

As I moved into a new house a few weeks ago, a bed wasn’t the only thing I needed to get me started. Most importantly, I needed a desk. And again, I wanted it to be made out of recyclable materials, as well as be relatively cheap and easy to transport, as I don’t possess a car. Again, milk crates and cardboard where the first to jump my mind. Since cardboard is a waste/recycling product and easy to come by, I sharpened my 2B TK and started sketching. Being initially made from trees/paper, I pictured a somewhat treelike shape. Layers of bark peeling away, revealing a growing form that could to some extent be made up as I go long. Like a growing paperbark tree, native to the Australian landscape.

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I went to collect some old cardboard boxes and quickly realised that this project can take weeks, if not month to finish. I postponed it to future endeavours.

So back to the good old milk crate it was. Next thing was the height issue to come by. Your general milk-crate has proportions of about 340x340x310 mm. My height being 183 cm, 3 crates would mean i have to sit on a bar stool and 2 boxes leave me somewhat hunched. Depending on your height and chair, 750-800mm is generally considered to be efficient to work at. So I needed about half a crate. Thankfully one night out in Carlton and a midnight stroll provided me with a few orphaned bread crates! So to work I went, 4$ spent on cable ties.

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The finished left side. Bread crates where used for footings and as support for the tavle top.

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The openings of the crates where positioned to serve as either drawers/storage or to hide cables, etc.

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Once all the parts had been assembeled the table top was quite wobbely, so I had to use some temporary support from underneath and get a 30$ MDF sheet from your local hardware store. Not my favourite, but okay temporarily as I had to get to work.

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Thanks to the structure of the bread crates, I was able to hide power supply and most cords under the table to with ties.

AAMI park light concert

nk — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 01:52:43 +0000

Check this one out. Time lapse of the evening led light concert of the Rectangular Square Stadium at AAMI Park in Melbourne, Australia. Lighting design by Artists Alexander Knox and Bruce Ramus. Building design and construction by Cox Architects. Stills of the Rectangular Square Stadium on my website.

173 meters

nk — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:21:07 +0000

baunetz.de

Mukesh Ambani, 4th richest man in India according to Forbes list, built this humble new home for his family. His wife and 3 kids can now play hide and seek in this 27 storey tower. Whilst they have to be careful not to stumble upon some of the 600 servants that roam the 37.000 square meters of the family home. Chicago based architecture firm Perkins and Will included some 3 heli pads, a swimming pool, spa, dance and fitness areas alongside a cinema and just about enough space to park your 160 cars. Rediculous example of too much money, possibly quite a small figure and a large ego. Yuk.

baunetz.de

Concerning the architecture, that is to say, the visual appearance, its like “I dont care”. I’ve seen much worse, but its not great either. What a waste of material and a total failure of spatial integration.

Milk crates and cardboard

nk — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 03:10:48 +0000

Moving into a new house recently challenged me with the task of creating furniture for myself.

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I purchased a 100% recycled queen size mattress from a nearby Brotherhood of Lawrence store. So now I needed a base to stay away from the cold floor on chilly Melbourne nights. Trying to use materials that are waste products or in any other way free, light and reusable, two things came to mind. First, the milk crate. A very common and frequently used product of the Australian dairy industry. It is made from plastic, is very light and stackable, comes in a range of nice and bright colours and supposedly has high fines on it if you get caught finding one on the side of the road. So beware and only take donations!

My second thought was to use cardboard. Its free, extremely light and quite durable depending on how its used. After a series of testing I decided to use both, milk crates and cardboard boxes for two reasons: keeping the waste of material down to a minimum while also taking advantage of the structural strength and minimising the weight.

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Once all boxes had been assembled, all I needed was a few hours of work these tools.

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Now I could start looking for a suitable shape!

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When I had found the shape I liked, while maximising the structural integrity, I was confronted with a small problem. The surface was very uneven. Nevertheless, I decided to execute my build and flatten out the surface with loose sheets of cardboard later.

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So I strapped three major parts together, which in the end where assembled to one solid piece of cardboard-plastic dream-time goodness.

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The result is light, comfortable and costs exactly 8$ AUS (without the mattress I’m afraid).

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Landscape Architecture Australia

nk — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 05:18:38 +0000

Imagine the face of the girl working at magnation when I purchased two copies of the current Landscape Architecture Australia magazine, featuring me on the cover while accidentally wearing the same pants and shirt as on the shot by Peter Bennetts. She seemed slightly puzzled, and just for the fragment of a second, blinked and shook off the weired feeling that something in this 15 second encounter had been very strange indeed.

Peter Bennetts

Pee, poo and meow

nk — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 03:02:57 +0000

I normally like cats. I really do. I grew up with the little bastards. But these two made it really difficult for me.

Lets call them Fin and Flo. They are brothers, but as alike as water and rock. Fin would be the rock. No need to caress him. He will drop by and cuddle himself with you whenever he feels like it. Boundaries are non-existent. The world’s his bloody oyster. Meow

Flo is just the opposite. Like water – quiet and shy, always looking for the easiest way to get where he wants to be. He will only make himself heard if he has no other choice. But if it is about the food it’s all his, a “Do not touch” sign glowing bright above his head.

75 days of residence in my home country – many interesting encounters. Day 25 – first pee attack. What’s that big black thing doing on MY floor? Dunno, but peeing on it seems a good way of showing I don’t like it. – Thankfully, the big black thing is made out of rubber, protecting itself and its contents from the nasty stench. Anyway, I got the hint and moved the big black thing onto higher grounds, out of reach of Fin and Flo.

Day 57. Accident. Fin is badly injured. Eye and head got hit by something big and possibly, black. Poor fellow has to stay inside for days. He doesn’t care. Painkillers clouding instincts. A few days later though, poo turns up. Miraculously on a small fabric carpet, right next to their loo. Maybe someone cant quite see what he’s doing? Duh! More days, lots of washing and more poo turning up miraculously out of nowhere, always on the mat. Clap clap.

Day 65. Second pee attack. Same place, same time. A quiet, covered, over-night ops. Intruding item: small black thing on the floor. Well, its MY floor after all right? And I still don’t like intruders. Sadly this time, the small black thing was made from genuine calfskin and ends up in the trash. Mission accomplished.

Day 66 and counting. Daytime is for losers right? Who ever needs light if he can roam the night. Much more interesting. So what do you do if you’re sleeping all day and the bloody door is locked when you want to use it? – Well, how about MEOW until you get attention. 3 am? No problem, that’s my time and I can carry on all night.

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