What a whirlwind of a year!
We write to you as Blackheath (our home town) is burning, and so too is the rest of the country.
NSW is in a declared state of emergency; more than 4 million hectares have burnt since September, 873 homes have been destroyed, around 60% of Australia is in decile 1 (lowest 10% on record of rainfall totals) for the period, average soil moisture is at the 2nd lowest on record for November and 5th lowest on record for any month since 1911, New South Wales received over 100 mm less rainfall than the next driest period, ending November 1902 during the Federation Drought.
We are in a dire situation & must change our thinking and ways going forward… BUT, IT’S CHRISTMAS TIME so let’s recap on all the highlights, positivity and achievements of 2019 here at TGS.
From our smokey home to yours, a very merry Christmas and wishes for a wonderful, wet, fruitful 2020.
A Quick and Dirty glance back at the past 358 days…
With the highlights reel…
01/01 - Brought in the new year walking the magnificent Blue Gum Forest Walk in The Grose Valley , Two days of walking and Bobbie spilt boiling water on Owen’s back (oops!), had to walk out sooner than expected…
8/01 - We worked with Rick Leplastrier on behalf of University of Newcastle to pack up, transport and categorise the Architect, Swetik korzeniewski’s personal Library. 2 days of handling beautiful and rare books and hearing stories of phenomenal architects and architecture from Rick & Swetik
RIck Leplastrier designed River room, Bellingen! Bobbie modelling how not to use a building.
16/01 - Stayed at Rick Leplastrier’s brilliant ‘River Room’ in Bellingen for a few nights… What a bloody master piece. It’s on air b’n’b - check it out
29/01 - As part of our design process for a house in the Blue Mountains we walked for 14 DAYS either site of our site and camped on site. Through this we are trying to take the most valuable parts of The Grand Section methodology and apply it to the design process. This allowed us to really rub our noses with the broader site and get a good handle on which are the crucial aspects we need to include in our design. We created zines which they have became reference bibles through out entire design journey
Walking the ‘site section’ with the clients
23/02 - Our good friend Jai Parker spent a couple of days with us to document our “Girthy; with Slim Edges” exhibition. Hence why you have a sexy new website.
25/02 - We got a couple of invasive Scots Pines and a native Blackwood on our site cut down and milled up by the amazing Katoomba based Timber lover Michael Trickett who has an energy and enthusiasm for timber and milling that is infectious. These beautiful pieces of timber will form key parts of the house (if they don’t burn in these fires)
20/04 - We went out on our first Housing for Health project with the incredible Healthabitat in western NSW. We spent a week working with community members testing, checking and fixing 250 items in 130+ houses. Health research tells us that if you can’t have a wash as a child 0-5 years old, you have a greatly increased chance of skin infections, ear infections, eye infectious and even renal (kidney) failure by age 40 needing dialysis! Healthabitat work to improve health by making the living environment function better.
25/04 - The opening of a ANZAC memorial gate that Owen and our friend Sam Trembath designed 6 years ago whilst still at university, at the request of the community. Our talented friend Jeremy Stokes took some slick photos too.
29/04 - Measured up the old Lands Department in Bourke as part of our on-going research into passive design in Arid areas. We will draw this building up to then better understand the design principles used in hot climate designs. These are becoming ever more needed!
Ponds of water the Bouke lands department under the building drew air over them before sending it up through the building.
17/05 - Bobbie went to Nepal for the Healthabitat Sanitation Studio for two weeks. A team of students along with Healthabitat director Dave Donald worked with a team of plumbers and local builders to construct toilet and hand washing facilities in two remote villages; Lapse and Pachakanya. Bobbie along with the group of students worked to create a maintenance manual, cleaning checklist and tool kit list to ensure a maintenance program is executed by the locals to ensure longevity of the facilities... Remember, Maintenance is Sexy!!!
14/06 - Bobbie finished her penultimate year of Masters of Architecture at the University of Newcastle. Her projects looked at How to Design for Arid Australia - which comprises over 70% of the country and exploring how buildings could treat dirt to make contaminated dirt safe to use again. Area’s we want to explore further in our thinking and Architecture
18/06 - Took a train down to Melbourne (all very civilised) for the Australian Institute of Architects - National Architecture Conference. We were awarded the national “Student prize for the advancement of Architecture” for our Grand Section and Girthy work. We even got to model some recycled tent attire made by Bobbie with a special thanks to Costume Designer Liz Palmer for her expertise!
14/07 - We were invited to exhibit at the Cessnock regional art gallery. Making some new work to add to our Girthy exhibition, including;
a ‘water table’ - with all the rivers of Australia milled into a beautiful piece of invasive timber, learn about the country whist cutting out the weeds.
A series of perspex Australia maps that you can layer on top of each other and project onto walls detailing the different layers of the country. Offering you the opportunity to map your own Australia. WHICH ARE FOR SALE ON OUR WEBSITE!!!
20/07 - Bobbie won a scholarship to study in Stuttgart, Germany for 2 weeks at the IBA summer school working with idea of ‘minimal dwelling as practice’. Bobbie’s submission for the scholarship questioned the amount of space we truly need to live by reflecting on the 5.5sqm lived between two of us for 1 year.
17/09 - WE DID IT! We submitted the house we have designed for our site in Blackheath for Development Approval to the Blue Mountains City Council. A beautiful and rugged site with an impressive amount of challenges, including Flame Zone restrictions (bushfire) meant that the application process was a learning curve unto itself. Seen here, is the house model in Blackheath’s September 17th snow.
Sketch House model in the snow.
22/09 - Facilitated at the Glenn Murcutt Master Class with the wonderful organisation Oz.e.tecture. Where for a week we listened to critiques from Glenn Mrcutt, Richard Leplastrier, Peter Stutchbury and Brit Andresen while making sure everything ran as smooth as it could.
28/09 - Invited to speak at the Earth Building Association of Australia’s national conference. Got to hang out with our classic mate Clare Kennedy from five mile radius and participate in a drum circle. We had a brilliant time learning about Earth and quizzing people on different possibilities in Flame Zone area building.
05/10 - We took a weekend off to do a small section of the Great North Walk from Berowra to Hornsby. We walked for almost a whole day on middens beside the estuary through ancient trees and rock caves.
09/10 - With a crack team and a VERY enthusiastic bobcat we deconstructed (not demolished) an old house in the Hunter valley over two days to re-use the timber in our project in the Blue Mountains. We now have a bunch of beautiful Australian hardwoods (Wall Studs, Roof Rafters, Floor Rafters & Floor Boards) that will make up parts of the structure and joinery in the new house. A great team gets you good places!
23/10 - CSR Cemintel sponsored us to go to BMEE bushfire conference. We got a first hand insight into the chaos that is bushfire legislation, products and quizzed a series of bushfire consultants about the best way to design for bushfire areas. All with the wonderful company of Kim Roughan and George Nikolas.
26/10 - Bobbie worked on another Housing for Health project with Healthabitat, this time in the Northern Territory, up near Katherine. She spent a hot, sweaty week in the build up slogging it out over 12+ hour days with a top dog from NSW Health. Best lesson she learnt - NOT NOT USE ‘C’ SECTION FLOOR FRAMING, ALWAYS USE RHS
03/11 - Organised an open house and talk afternoon with local architect Peter Buckwell. We went to visit Peter’s lovely GrandviewHAUS in Mount Victoria to get some ideas for our own design and were blown away with the calibre of his work. As part of the Rhododendron festival we organised an afternoon for Peter to share some of his hard earned knowledge about architecture and life over the past 40 years practising and thinking about Mt Victoria.
Marty Leonard Community Chapel by Fay Jones in Fort Worth, Texas. An apprentice of Frank Lloyd Wright.
13/11 - We took a couple of weeks to sally over the the United States of America as a friend was getting married. The story from the wedding isn’t fit for this format BUT…we did get to see some amazing buildings in Vancouver, Seattle (+ art), Fort Worth and Dallas. Thanks to Bruce Haden (Human Studio), Joyce, Albie, Shane-train, Cowboy and Jim Heckt (Architect) for looking after us and sharing your cities and thinking. Especially Jim for taking us Behind The Scenes of Kahn’s The Kimbell Art Museum with great local architect Mark Gunderson.
18/11 - Bobbie’s work from Nepal was part of an exhibition ‘In Place’ at the Watt Space Gallery in Newcastle she co-curated. It showcased the amazing maintenance checklist that Bobbie and the team had made up to ensure toilets maintain their function of removing waste safely.
25/11 - Owen finished up the semester running a studio for 2nd year architecture at the University of Sydney with one of our great teachers from Newcastle: John Roberts. What a blast! The project was a student collective housing scheme in Newcastle. The energy and ideas was a joy every week to be part of.
02/12 - Just before we left on the bike trip in 2017 Owen handed over some plans for a house renovation. We only just found the time to go and see the built result! Some beautiful spaces largely thanks to the amazing Ian and Helen and Reef Designs and construction who constructed it.
21/12 - Bobbie’s MADE scholarship means learning about Utzon in depth. To kick this off she organised a day at Rick Leplastriers place with the other scholars. Rick worked for Utzon for about a year and so shared some of the stories and lessons from the brilliant mind of Utzon.
Idea to use less: Use timber wedges instead of nails or screws for your next post and beam connection!
& a glance at 2020…
01/01 - Bobbie heads off for two months for the MADE scholarship travelling to Utzon’s summer house in Mallorca - Can LIs - and then onto Copenhagen where she will work on a hypothetical project with a multidisciplinary team for 6 weeks and get to visit the great works of Utzon, Jensen-Lint & Leverence.
13/03 - We have been asked to talk at the upcoming architecture conference - Deerubbin. Held every second year on an island in the just north of Sydney, this is an international conference without the traditional hierarchy of such events. All participants stay on the island for the duration of the conference, eat together, talk together and learn together.
Autumn - If all goes to plan we will be running a studio/giving a lecture at the University of Arlington, Texas. The Grand Section methodology comes to the city. Slow movement through urban landscapes to see what the on-the-ground issues are.
Some-stage - We begin building the house in the blue mountains! The plan is to ensure we don’t become architects with no hands-on experience.
Some-stage - BOOK!!!!!
Until Next time. Cheers,
Dusty & Thirsty
On the Ferry south from Vancouver. Not so Thirsty here!