building blocks

As heard on fbi 94.5

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My next feature with Arcspace takes a look at Canberra’s Nishi Building. Home of the ultra-cool Hotel Hotel and numerous shops, eateries and aparments, it’s a great example of mixed-use development done well. 

The article can be read here. 

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Dr Chau Chak Wing Building

As of late last year, I’ve taken up a new position as a South-East Asian correspondent for the Danish Architecture Centre’s blog, arcspace. My first article is on Frank Gehry’s Dr Chau Chak Wing, which is located in Sydney, Australia.   

A link to the article can be found here.

Images of Dr Chau Chak Wing Building, Gehry LLP © 2014 Andrew Worssam

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At the beginning of this year I was fortunate enough to stay at Jørn Utzon's Can Lis in Mallorca, Spain. It was a beautiful and humbling experience, which I have documented in a recent article published on Australian website ArchitectureAU. 

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Today we showcased our intial Catalogue of Potentials, providing five visions for the future development of Refshaleoen. We presented our work to a panel of critics from Henning Larsen Architects, The Danish Royal Academy of Fine Arts and Steensen Varming. Following thier feedback, we will now integrate ideas from each of the schemes to work towards a collective vision for the site.

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Completed in 1971, Jorn Utzon’s Can Lis sits upon the edge of Mallorca’s windswept coastline. The house is made up of four discrete pavilions, which are linked by courtyards and stepping stones. Moving from room to room involves meandering through open spaces framed only by landscaped walls, bare branches and sky. 

The site is wild and untamed, yet the house feels solid, cave-like. The stone walls, a blushed Santanyi stone, are burnished with weather and wear. The shapes used throughout the house are pure and elemental: rectangles, semicircles and a lone crescent moon, which references the site’s former street address at Avinguda Media Luna.

The way that sunlight moves throughout Can Lis is enchanting. Chamfers of light cut severe shapes across the building, illuminating slivers of floor and wall. The view to the sea is of an endless, barren horizon. I have never heard silence as acutely as here. 

The sequences throughout the house are impeccably composed: a wall is sliced open to reveal a pathway, which leads to a door, which perfectly frames a simple seat.

The effect is total; of quiet, contemplation and pause.

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Can Lis, Majorca

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I'm tremendously excited to have been selected as one of the inaugural participants in MADE by the Opera House. The program, which was created in conjunction with the Opera Houses' 40th anniversary, is an international exchange program celebrating the collaborative spirit behind Australian and Danish design.

Above, you'll see Laura, a combined Architecture-Engineering student; Robert, a recent graduate of undergraduate degree in Architecture; Olivia, who studies Interior and Spatial Design; myself, a Masters student of Architecture; and Matthew, a combined student of Engineering and Finance. The team is capped of by Caroline Gradjean-Thomsen, Design Co-Ordinator at the Sydney Opera House.

Each year, as part of MADE, five Australian students will travel to Denmark, and five Danish students to Australia. While in the host country, the students will work together on a collaborative design project, and get the chance to study and tour local buildings. The students will be pooled from different design fields - two from architecture, two from engineering, and one from the built environment - working together in the spirit of multidisciplinary design.

The idea for MADE originated from the story of the Sydney Opera House. While the Danish architect Jorn Utzon was the lead designer on the project, the building would never have happened without the input of various engineers, consultants and collaborators - most notably, structural engineer Ove Arup, who collaborated closely with Utzon on the design of the ribbed concrete shells.

So this year, 2013, signifies the beginning of MADE, with the first five Australian students recently selected for the program. We'll be travelling to Denmark in January and February of 2014, and will be working on a project in collaboration with Copenhagen-based firm Henning Larsen Architects. We'll be sharing our experience via blogs, interviews and a host of other outlets. Watch this space!

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Visit Original Link

Podcast: Wrap-up of 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale

Aired on FBi Radio on 09.12.12.

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The Kamppi Chapel of Silence

Link to article on architectureau.

Helsinki is a happening place. Breaking free from its roots in the old Eastern Bloc, the city has transformed itself into a lively, liveable centre, with a focus on sustainable urban development. In light of this, Helsinki was crowned World Design Capital 2012. It was an honour taken seriously by the city, which has a rich design culture and an energized population of young architects, designers and urban thinkers.

The Kamppi Chapel of Silence was commissioned to complement Helsinki’s selection as World Design Capital and, once the year-long festival is over, will remain in the city. Designed by K2S Architects, the chapel is located in one of Helsinki’s busiest retail squares. The skewed, ovular building sits confidently on its site, its timber rings contrasting the commercial buildings nearby. Up close, you can appreciate the fine striations of the spruce strips that wrap a beautiful warm envelope around the structure.

Entering the chapel, you experience an odd reverence, though of a contemporary kind, unlike that elicited by great monumental churches. The chapel commands respect for something greatly needed in today’s world: silence. It’s a unifying force that seems to touch all who enter the Kamppi Chapel, and the result is a near soundless space, a place of quiet reflection and refuge from the world outside.

As a space, it also encourages pause. The chapel is a subtle and beautiful building that aims for calm over grandeur. Its interior volume is a single ovular room, lined with curved timber boards. Slender and seamless, these warm boards encircle and cocoon the space, wrapping visitors in a gentle embrace.

A white ceiling hovers more than ten metres above, suspended in the space by glulam beams, surrounded by a halo of light. It too is gentle rather than dramatic, and casts a soft glow around the chapel, bathing it in sunlight.

The warmth of the timber contrasts with the dark-stained concrete floor, and furnishings in the space are sparse. Religious iconography is abstracted to a bare minimum – as currently, the chapel serves no religious function.

The Kamppi Chapel of Silence will be an enduring reminder of Helsinki’s status as World Design Capital. It is a quietly composed piece of architecture, devoid of frivolity and fuss, offering simply a place of respite from the city.