Brolly Blog

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Flipboard Cafe

Flipboard is a niche cafe nestled in the shop-front window of Brolly Studios and Benetts Lane Jazz Club. A multi-level nook that serves fine space with a side of excellent coffee and scrumptious healthy food.

Completed: August 2013 Opening: September 2013 Website

Design: Martin Heide, Megg Evans Design Consultant: Barry Tonks

Building Surveyors: Theo Theodorou Group ii Access Consultant: Architecture & Access

Electrician: New Gisborne Electrical Plumbing: Marty Cunningham

Photos: Tanja Milbourne © TM Photo

Invaluable Project Support:

Aurelia Gachet, Boris Murnig, Charles Dewanto, Chris Skyner, Damien Yip, Dean Ovens, Erlend Wollan, Gert Heide, Isi Isodoro, Joshua Bailey, Lincoln Walker, Mike Becker, Phil Burns.

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Press Stool

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” - Albert Einstein -

Design Concept: Martin Heide, Megg Evans Design Development: Martin Heide, Dean Ovens Illustrations: Dean Ovens Photo Production: Gert Heide

Photos: © Brolly

Shortlisted in the Melbourne Design Award 2013!

Project Brief:

Faced with the relentless consumption of insightful information left behind at the end of the day at cafe's, we wanted to respond to its digestion with humour. Brolly Design presents the Press Stool: where the pages of yesterday support the reading of today, and then some... 

Innovation/Need:

It seems every serious design agency needs to someday tackle the commonwealth of horizontal surfaces for the ass. The more practical innovation of the project lies in its site specific repeatability. Cafes have long provided patrons with access to newspapers, independent broadsheets and street mags, and they’re usually thrown out at the end of the day to be recycled. With the Flipboard Press Stool you can sip coffee and read assured that today’s press will be tomorrows stool (or at least next month’s). The upcycling of the stool that limits the need for more bin space also provides the café use of the stool as a marketing device – gifted to loyal customers, or sold as a piece of interesting time and site-sensitive merchandise. “It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.” - Albert Einstein 

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Alberto Piazza, Shoe Store, QV, Melbourne (CBD)

"Layered City"

Completed May 2013.

Design Concept: Martin Heide Design Development: Phil Burns Graphic Design: Megg Evans

Photos: Tanja Milbourne, ©TM Photo

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"Layered City"

Brolly commissioned to redesign shoe store "Alberto Piazza" QV, Melbourne (CBD).

To be completed in May 2013

Team: Martin Heide,Megg Evans, Phil Burns

A shoe store with Italian roots based in the heart of Melbourne. Located in QV on the corner of Londesdale and Swanston street, embedded in the laneway network of the shopping center. The design reflects the urban environment of thre stores location and emphasizes the history of Alberto Piazza's as a shoe store that has been present in Australian capital cities for many years.

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Brolly designs Cafe in Melbourne

Flipboard Cafe opening in September 2013!

Design: Martin Heide, Megg Evans Project Management: Martin Heide, Barry Tonks

Stay tuned for the opening!

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Interview with Co-Founder of Brolly Studios Martin Heide

"Melbourne CityLeaks: An act of urban intervetion"

...Architect by day, urban interventionist by night, Heide makes elaborate creations that involve the collection and upcycling of street milkcrates, which are then used to construct an enterable and climbable structure...

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RMIT MPX November 2012

RMIT Architecture Major Project Exhibition + Opening Event Team: Phil Burns + Martin Heide (As Sessional RMIT Staff) Student Team: Aurelia Gachet, Thomas Morton, Khaliesa Soffiee, Salem-Joy Nasser, Alice Podner, Andrew Kwong Loong Tsang Since 2011, RMIT Architecture Masters students and recent graduates have been making a considered effort to elevate our Major Project Exhibition to an event that appropriately celebrates both the completion of their Major Project (Thesis by Project), and the culmination of the long journey through their Architectural education. Brolly's Phil Burns has been involved this this transformative process as an event DJ and Volunteer event/exhibition Co-Ordinator (Nov 2011). Also, In June 2012, Brolly's Phil Burns & Martin Heide build the bar, seating, and other ephemera for the June Major Project Exhibition opening event. The re-branded RMIT MPX (Major Project eXhibition) event, held in November 2012, was one of many firsts. It was the first time the exhibition and event was co-ordinated by a small group of elective students, facilitated by Phil & Martin (as employees of RMIT). It was also the first Graduate Exhibition to be held in the newly opened Design Hub Gallery. Phil & Martin were responsible for co-ordinating the elective students to organise the exhibition design & layout; liase with Major Project Students, RMIT Architecture & Design Hub Staff; and orchestrate the opening event - including bar design, lighting, event management and entertainment. Exhibitors included Brolly's Kim Bridgland. The opening night was a great success - we've been told it was one of the best RMIT Architecture events in recent memory! We forward to working on more event design in the future.

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BROLLY HAS WON AN AWARD FOR PLAYMO!

Melbourne Design Awards Winner 2012 Urban Design Category

"This award recognises the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages, and is about making connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric. 

Consideration will be given to giving form, shape and character to groups of buildings, streets and public spaces, transport systems, services and amenities, whole neighbourhoods and districts, and entire cities, to make urban areas functional, attractive and sustainable."

See more on PlayMo here on our blog and on the Melbourne Design Awards Website

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Peoples Market Design Competition Entry

Everthing Grows!

Collingwood, 2012 (Proposed) Team: Martin Heide, Megg Evans, Stuart Webber

Our entry into the People’s Market Design Competition.

A creative twist on the tried-and-tested ‘Melbourne’ vernacular; featuring a gargantuan milk crate canopy, amphitheatre/bleachers and adaptable seating.

This design proposal seeks to extend the current People’s Market & Flea aesthetic along similar lines. Maintaining the temporality and flexibility of being able to occupy vacant lots our vision seeks to celebrate the short-lived nature of the project and the sense of community that has founded it by implementing three main stategies – waterworx, everything can grow/go, and space to play.

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Soldier Sailor Film Night

Warehouse, Fitzroy August 2012 Team: Martin Heide, Phil Burns, Angela Woda Adaptive Re-Use is an important value to, and aspect of, Brolly Studios. We were able to find this fantastic opportunity to re-use the milk crates from our MPX June installation for a film night at Friends-of-Brolly, Soldier Sailor - a sharehouse/warehouse/studio space in Fitzroy.

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RMIT MPX June 2012

Bar Installation 'ConCRATEulations' by Brolly Studios Exhibition/Event Co-Ordinator: Hannah Rowe Team: Phil Burns, Martin Heide

The third in a series of Major Project Exhibitions run by RMIT Students & Graduates, with the aim of increasing the prominence and importance of celebrating the culmination of RMIT Architecture students' studies.

Phil Burns and Martin Heide were responsible for a sprawling milk crate installation, rolling off the success of PlayMo. This included a window seating area, beer & wine bars, archway, corridoor seating and an outdoor smoking 'cubby house'. 

Brolly's own Phil Burns and Sergei Netchaef were exhibiting their Major Projects, viewable here. After the event, materials were repurposed by a number of parties, namely a film night at Soldier Sailor.

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PlayMo

Melbourne CBD, 2011

Design: Martin Heide Installation Team: Martin Heide, Megan Evans, Ana Jankovic, Andre Bonnice, Mike Becker

**Update: PlayMo has won for Urban Design at the Melbourne Design Awards 2012!  'A shift from 'the' city to 'your' city; A playground for urban dwellers'

The unasked question of living in modern cities is: whose city is this? New York, Berlin, Vienna, London, Melbourne – the modern city is not authored by its citizens, rather it is authored by institutions, developers, and capital. But they still claim to be cities for living – with spaces to dwell, commune and protest. Are they? Are our cities ours?

PlayMo is one of a series of urban interventions that test who or what authors a city. The innovation made by PlayMo was its success in transferring a meme: be the author of your own place – make the city yours. It revealed that urban users wanted a space they could play with, care for, and apprehend for themselves. Someone installed plants, another a bin, artwork, cushions, lights, there was even talk of erecting a roof! In this way PlayMo is not ‘ours’; it was anonymous and yet it became everyone’s. 

PlayMo was conceived as part of CityLeaks - "An Investigation of Inventive Urban Dwelling.

     **Update: PlayMo has won for Urban Design at the Melbourne Design Awards 2012! 

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Brolly Studios HQ

Melbourne CBD, 2011 Team: Megg Evans, Martin Heide Brolly Studios HQ is a unique, clever and bespoke hybrid living/working space. Situated in the space above Bennetts Lane Jazz Club, it is home to Megg, Martin & Melvin, while subsequently inhabited up to 14 creatives who lease desks and share the kitchen/dining/meeting room space and a large multi-purpose area. Soon also home to Flipboard Cafe, opening in the front window in September 2013!

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RMIT MPX June 2012

Bar Installation 'ConCRATEulations' by Brolly Studios Exhibition/Event Co-Ordinator: Hannah Rowe

The third in a series of Major Project Exhibitions run by RMIT Students & Graduates, with the aim of increasing the prominence and importance of celebrating the culmination of RMIT Architecture students' studies.

Phil Burns and Martin Heide were responsible for a sprawling milk crate installation, rolling off the success of PlayMo. This included a window seating area, beer & wine bars, archway, corridoor seating and an outdoor smoking 'cubby house'. 

Brolly's own Phil Burns and Sergei Netchaef were exhibiting their Major Projects, viewable here. After the event, materials were repurposed by a number of parties, namely a film night at Soldier Sailor.