UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
CROSS-SECTION
Issue No. 189
¶ HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, officially declared the School of Architecture and Building open, at the University of Melbourne. In typical banter, he likened architects to "gods" because of their control over the shape and destiny of the community, which remark brought wry smiles and some sour grimaces to the faces of the quantity surveyors, builders and engineers who had come along to share the fun.
This is the completed "Architexpose" pavilion by the Adelaide University Architectural Society, the model of which was shown in C-S No. 185. Construction was of builders' scaffolding on a 4' 0" grid, resting on
"Formwork" beams, over a reflecting pool. The cover- ing was polythene sheeting. The highest point of the structure was 40 ft. above the pool. The Exhibition, designed by final year students Kym MacCormac and Tony Pannell, was on display for ten days during the Festival and proved to be a great attraction, with an estimated 10,000 people viewing the displays in that time. Banks of photographers surrounded the Exhibi- tion each night, and it will be a long time before photographic magazines have finished with "Architex- pose". Several special awards were received by the organisers, including one from the Illuminating Engineers Society of Australia. And the students made a profit of $900.
In Melbourne for University Open Day, architecture students from the School of Architecture and Building inflated this pneumatic structure which they had designed and built the previous night. It was the most popular exhibit of the day, visitors being particularly delighted on discovering that the apparently opaque structure was transparent from inside.
July 1, 1968 Congratulations to the small band of Hobart students who so courageously and efficiently organised the Aus- tralian architecture students' convention during first term vacation. Informative lectures, "fun" turns and sand castle building furthered the theme of "creativity".
The visiting heroes included Joseph Esherich (Ber- keley), who suggested that computer-oriented methods aided in the logical process of design even if the computer was not actually used; Cedric Price (U.K.), who made a plea for flexibility in the design of spaces and for more fun in architecture; Maurice Smith (M.I.T.), who hoped that poetic and visual beauty be not lost in this technological age; and Dirk Bolt (Can- berra), who spoke of his "code of behaviour" for de- sign, leading to consistency in materials and forms.
Prof. Peter Johnson (Sydney) and Paul Ritter (Perth) enlivened a seminar on architectural education in Aus- tralia. By contrast with the students' outward-looking, further-seeking conferences, the official RAIA conven- tions seem to be more inward every year. The BAIA supports exclusive and inbred introspection, closing in on the minutae of professional practice. Surely the good guys who organise multi-million dollar building contracts could plug-in to the students' initiative in collecting significant architects from overseas and allow the whole profession to engage in an inter- change of ideas with men who have ideas. Surely the heads of architecture schools could get together to allow the student-inspired visitors to give at least a couple of lectures in each State. Are these oppor- tunities missed because of lack of communication?
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"Sun", daily circulation 626,000, in June 1968.
¶ RAIA Council decided not to publish a draft docu- ment "Working with Your Architect" because it could conflict with the conditions of engagement (couldn't it have been altered so that it didn't?) and could pro- duce problems by saying "too much". Package dealers such as Paynter & Dixon, who have produced a lavish brochure on their work, which tells all for the benefit of prospective clients, must be splitting their sides and laughing all the way to the bank, at this ostrich attitude of the professional architects.
¶ The entries for the limited competition for the National Gallery in Canberra will not be publicly exhibited. Some of the information shown on the drawings is considered to be "confidential". As the old palm-tickling nursery rhyme runs "Can you keep a secret/I don't believe you can/You mustn't laugh you musn't cry/But do the best you can".
¶ "We, the public, are indispensible to architects . . . without the public the architect can get no farther than drawing paper". Lord Sumner (1923).
¶ A New Zealand architect, Mr Paul Reid who was formerly with the architectural firm Kingston, Reynolds, Thom and Allardice of Auckland, has been appointed deputy to the First Assistant Commissioner (Architec- ture), Mr R. Johnson, of the NCDC.
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Two recently completed buildings at the University of New England, Armidale, N.S.W.:
Arts 1 (top photo) is the first stage of the Faculty of Arts. There are two buildings. The study building contains mostly lecturers' studies, a language laboratory and tutorial rooms. The structure is three storeys of local loadbearing brick painted white externally. (This is the local solution to the problem of supply of bricks during building and the only way uniformity can be achieved between buildings and successive stages of buildings). Ceilings are off plywood form painted white, floors are carpet to corridors and sheet vinyl to lecturers' studies. The theatre serves for drama as well as lectures and has 300 seats and a large normal proscenium stage. A foyer serves as the link. E. H.
Farmer, NSW Govt. Architect; Project Design Archi- tect, Les Reedman; Bowe & Burrows, Working Drawings;
Miller, Milston & Ferris, structural engrs; Rider Hunt
& Ptners, Q. Surveyors; Alex. Roberts Constructions Pty. Ltd., Builder. Approx. cost $364,000. Earle Page College (lower photo). On a separate site from the main campus, the college has been built in successive stages since 1965. The Dining Hall, the kitchen of which will serve a future "twin" college, is now nearing completion together with the main paved courtyard works. The four residential buildings are three floors of 41/2" loadbearing brickwork as for Arts 1. The total student bedrooms number 300, with master's house, visitors' and a supervisor's flat. E. H. Farmer, NSW Govt. Archt; Project Design Architect — Les Reedman; Clarke, Gazzard & Ptners, Working Drawings Residential; Bowes & Burrows, Working Drawings Dining Hall; Willing & Assoc., Structural Residential;
Miller, Milston & Ferris, Structural Dining Hall; Thomp- son & Wark, Q. Surveyors, Residential; Wolferston &
Trower, Q. Surveyors Dining Hall; R. & B. Constructions Pty Ltd, Builders; Total cost $1,150,000. Crisp white uniformly neatly detailed buildings, very much under- stated and bland, they should look good amongst the trees, when grown. But is painting all that external surface white the best solution to uniformity of building character, even assuming that this consistency is desirable? It seems like a short term expediency for a programme of building that deserves a longer term solution.
¶ Sydney architect, Mr Lionel Glendenning has won the first $2,500 Robert Gordon Menzies scholarship to Harvard University.
The distinction for the best church to be built in Bris- bane since the last war goes to the Kenmore Presby- terians (Kenmore is a fast growing middle class Western suburb). Architect R. F. Gibson maintains his impeccable control of form and detail with this modest suburban church and Sunday School building. The laminated stressed skin Queensland pine eggcrate trusses structure the ceiling of the church, with glazed tower piercing the flat roof over the choir and dais.
The external extensively glazed walls are baffled with white bagged brickwork set around the perimeter, which gives a transparency and enclosure that is suited to climate and church function. The overall character is fresh, clean and wholesome — it avoids sterile and brittle touches that "Neo-Calvinist" architects have often mistakenly believed to be a Protestant's badge of honour. The landscaping is extremely subtle and creeper and foliage which are set over the white brick walls provide a contemplative and (dare we say it) beautiful setting. But the architect does not vulgarise the emotions and a visitor's response is keyed to the seriousness of worship. Gibson is now engaged on a major city tower block in Queen Street and it is cheering to see his office entrusted with projects that will allow his talent a greater range and impact upon the city.
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If We cannot do better than to quote "Astragal" in the Architect's Journal No. 19 Vol. 167:
"One of the irritating things about assessors' reports — when they deign to make them — is that they rarely say clearly why designs have failed or won — the carillon for Canberra competition being a case in point. In the event, Cameron Chisholm and Nicol of Perth, Australia,
were the winners, with a design' which could hardly be described as anything but 'safe'."
"What caused assessors Lord Holford, Sir John Overall and Sir Donald Gibson to reject the imaginative scheme by Ahrends, Burton and Koralek', whose great metallic sails, like a mini Jodrell Bank, have some quality of the second half of the twentieth century about them, while the shape blends with the contours of Aspen Island to create more than just a hackneyed vertical feature. Was the saga of Sydney Opera House, with its sail-like roof, too strong in the judges' minds?"
"But altogether this goodwill exercise seems faintly out of tune. Australian bell-ringers, it seems, were hoping for a peal of bells on which to ring vastly complicated changes in the unique English tradition. Now they are to get merely a carillon, which will chime pretty tunes in the effete continental manner. But perhaps this is appropriate as a gift from would-be common- marketeers?"
Other entries (the Canberra Times headlined them as
"The also-rangs"), wer& by Robert Maguire and Keith Murray (U.K.) (a very strange Oriental lantern); } by Eldred Evans and David Shalev (U.K.) (a cluster of shafts); : by Ancher Mortlock Murray & Woolley (a cluster of shafts) and ,1 by Mackay & Cox (a cluster of tuning forks).
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Photo: Graeme Robbins.
A new Roman Catholic Church at Sunshine Heights (Vic) is notable for its simple architectural form, a 20 ft. high nave surrounded by low ceilinged chapel, good handling of internal lighting and as an example of a building in which an artist, Rein Slagmolen was com- missioned by the architects, O'Connor and Gilligan in the early stages of design work and his work on windows, acid etched and sprayed with black enamel to symbolise the stations of the Cross is ingenious and effective.
If 12 Australian universities and colleges granting qualifications in Architecture are named in a list of 54 Commonwealth schools of architecture drawn up by the RIBA and the Commonwealth Association of Archi- tects. The list of approved schools of architecture are:
The Universities of Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle, N.S.W., Queensland and Sydney; the Gordon Institute of Technology, Geelong; the Hobart Technical College;
the Queensland Institute of Technology, Brisbane; the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and the S.A.
Institute of Technology, Adelaide.
if Architects Mr R. W. Kirkwood, principal education architect in the Government Architect's Branch of the NSW Public Works Department, and Mr J. Zaat, of the same department won certificates of merit in the Prince Philip Prize for Industrial Design. The portable class- room they designed has been used extensively to over- come short-term accommodation problems in schools throughout NSW.
¶ An Adelaide architect, Mr Dean Treloar, has been selected as the Australian delegate to the Union of International Architects conference in Mexico City in October. The conference is confined to architects under 30.
If Architect Dr Karl Langer, of Brisbane is one of nine members of the new Federal Arts Council.
This model is of proposed new administrative offices for the Southern Riverina County Council in Wagga Wagga NSW, and an orderly and stylish building it looks like becoming. James V. Tyler, archt.
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