Monthly Archive for March, 2010

The Dreaming Towers- UTS Towers

Published by Charles Pickett 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Photography by Jim Bar

Source

There’s been some publicity lately for a proposal to transform the UTS Tower on Broadway.  The idea is that the building could be clad with a lightweight mesh skin which would collect rain water, generate solar electricity and cool the tower, saving energy. Proposed by LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture) the plan would also transform the appearance of this well-known but not well-loved tower.

Image courtesy of LAVA Laboratory for Visionary Architecture © all rights reserved

Designed by the NSW Government Architect’s office, the building for what was then the NSW Institute of Technology was supposed to comprise three towers of varying heights plus a podium, as you can see in the photo of the 1969 presentation model.

John Andrews Collection. Powerhouse Museum.

However industrial trouble and budget over-runs meant that the complex took more than a decade to complete, despite losing the two shorter towers.

Since the 1980s the 27-floor tower has become a Sydney landmark and a regular ‘winner’ of the ‘Sydney’s ugliest building’ polls that are a favourite of certain sections of the media. The runner-up is usually Harry Seidler’s Blues Point Tower, another prominently located stand-alone. BPT’s notoriety also reflects ongoing debates about apartment living; if you want to know more about BPT and these controversies have a look at my book Homes in the Sky: Apartment living in Australia.

In contrast the UTS Tower is often reviled as an example of ‘Brutalism’, as are most large structures finished in bare concrete. It’s actually a compromised example of Brutalism, a movement which gained its name from Le Corbusier’s term ‘beton brut’ (raw concrete), as used in his signature Marseilles project, Unite d’Habitation. This public housing complex features enclosed pedestrian ‘streets’ as well as shops and other communal spaces, creating a less formal and more user-friendly version of Modernism. Designed with users’ needs as the paramount consideration, the exterior aesthetics of Brutalist structures was not the architectural focus, to put it politely. However the UTS Tower foyer is an example of the surprisingly inviting interior spaces which are a feature of Brutalism.

As Brutalism was most influential during the 1960s and 1970s it coincided with the post-War boom university boom and is over-represented in Australian campus architecture. Examples include the ANU’s Toad Hall, the Sydney University Law School at St James, UTS campus Kuringai College at Lindfield. and (in original design) the UTS Tower, which was planned as part of a self-contained campus, replacing the various Institute sites spread across Ultimo and Chinatown. The prototype for the ‘campus in one building’ was John Andrews’ Scarborough College, a self-contained campus for the University of Toronto.

John Andrews Collection: Powerhouse Museum

The UTS is currently engaged in a major building program both for practical reasons and with the intention of ‘using architecture to establish its brand’. Work has begun on a new student residential tower, while Melbourne’s Denton Corker Marshall is designing a UTS ‘Gateway’ building for the corner of Broadway and Wattle Street. Celebrated US architect Frank Gehry is preparing a concept plan for a new Business faculty building on the former Dairy Farmers site between Ultimo Road and Mary Anne Street, directly opposite the Powerhouse curatorial office.  

However the campus master plan includes no plans for the UTS Tower apart from ‘general refurbishment’.  It may be that, for better or for worse, the Tower is finally valued as an essential part of the University’s identity.

It has been announced today that architect Chris Bosse has won an international design competition to tranform the UTS tower.

Charles Pickett, Curator Design & Built Environment.

It’s our 1st birthday! Join our competition and win!

Published by Erika Taylor 23 Comments Tags: , , .

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski © Powerhouse Museum, all rights reserved.

Happy Birthday to us!

I can’t believe it has been a year since we started the first Powerhouse Museum collections blog.

To celebrate ‘Object of the Week’s’ first birthday, and reward our loyal readers, we thought we’d do something a little bit special.

We would like to give one lucky reader (and guest) a personalised basement tour of the Powerhouse Museum’s Ultimo storage site (where we keep all the hidden treasure!).

Two lucky runners up will win family passes to the Museum.

To join in the competition just let us know (in the comments) in 25 words or less

what would you most like to read about on the blog in the next year?

*In the event an international reader is chosen as the winner, First prize will be the book “Treasures of the Powerhouse Museum” by Terence Measham.

Winners will be chosen on Wednesday the 7th of April and announced on the blog on Friday the 9th of April.

Meet the Volunteer- Meg Stevenson

Published by Melanie Pitkin 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

Apart from curators, registrars and conservators working with and interpreting the Museum’s collections, we also have an incredible mix of volunteers who work behind-the-scenes (as research and administrative assistants) and on-the-floor (meeting and greeting visitors, leading tours and running programs). In this series, we want to introduce you to some of these volunteers and their favourite objects – on video! We call these ‘vox pops’ – short, unedited video snapshots of interesting objects and people. Let us know what you think!

Name: Meg Stevenson

How long have you been volunteering at the Museum? 21 years

What is your favourite object in the Museum and why? The Baron Schmiedel bust and Hargrave box kites. They both have interesting stories behind them and are examples of human endeavour.

Cycling around Australia

Published by Margaret Simpson 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Photography by Marinco Kojdanovski Powerhouse Museum © all rights reserved

Australia is an incredibly large country. It’s only when you drive out of the cities and clock up some country miles that you can begin to appreciate its vastness. Or better still in a jet hurtling along at over 800 kph to see it still takes about 6 hours to cross. So can you imagine travelling around Australia by the slow and leisurely method of a bicycle?

A Canberra couple, Mark and Denise Arundel, have just finished such a ride. It took them exactly a year to cycle almost 16,000 km, blogging as they went on their web site “Sprung Chicken Ride 2009”. The particularly interesting thing about their ride from the Museum’s point of view was that they were inspired to undertake their trip by a bicycle on display in our Transport exhibition which was ridden around Australia by adventurer Donald Mackay. What is really amazing about Mackay’s ride was that it was undertaken over a century ago and completed exactly 110 years ago today on 25 March 1900.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Mackay had no concerns with cars and aggressive city drivers, there weren’t any, but there weren’t any roads either, only rough wagon and cart tracks. He was actually the third person to make the trip around Australia in a plethora of long distance rides in 1899 to prove the usefulness of the bicycle for outback transport. How useful is a bike in the bush I hear you ask? Well, over 110 years ago it was much cheaper than a horse, it didn’t need expensive feeding, watering and stabling, could travel three times faster than a horse and carried the rider plus luggage. Bicycles were popular with shearers who rode them between shearing sheds until motorcycles and cars were used from the 1930s.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

The bicycle as we know it today or, more correctly, safety bicycle with two equal sized wheels, had only been around for a few years when Mackay made his ride. Before that, cyclists rode precarious penny farthings or ordinaries, which were only for the fit and agile and certainly not women.

It took Mackay 240 days to complete his ride, travelling anticlockwise via Queensland, across the Northern Territory, down the West Coast of Australia, across the Nullarbor and then up the East Coast, through the bush. Mackay actually donated his bike to the Museum. It was made in Melbourne, specifically strengthened for the trip and weighed 29 lbs (13 kg) without any gears. His equipment included two water cans attached to the bicycle weighing 15 lbs (7 kg), a set of tools and bicycle parts, a camera, waterproof cloak, diary, time book, food bag and revolver. Amazing as it now seems to us today it was normal to carry guns for protection in the bush against bushrangers even in 1900. During the ride Mackay wore out 2 pairs of cycling pants (probably knickerbockers) and four pairs of cycling shoes (probably kangaroo skin). We have a map of Australia in the collection on which he marked his route.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Tyres were a great problem for early cyclists, apparently very sharp thorns were their worst enemy. A shipment of spare tyres and inner tubes failed to arrive in Darwin so Mackay had to cut untanned calf hides into strips and wrap them around the tyres with lashings of a rubber solution. Other pioneering cyclists stuffed grass into their tyres.

At the end of his ride Mackay said of his bicycle it was “the best little wheel I ever rode” and “although I humped it over rocks, through great swamps, and crashed into stumps and logs on a thousand occasions it stood up every time and never needed the slightest repair”.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

No wonder the Dux company, which supplied Mackay with his bike, were delighted with these comments. They gave him a presentation trophy while Dunlop, who supplied the tyres, not be to outdone, gave him one too.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

When I was thinking about the two rides separated by over 110 years, a number of similarities and differences came to mind. Australia in 2010 is in the midst of a cycling boom with more bicycles being sold here than cars. In 1900 Australia was also in a huge cycling boom on account of the advent of the safety bicycle. It proved to be an ideal mode of inexpensive personal transport and gave independence and mobility to all ages, especially women.

The modern-day riders had a laptop and digital camera whereas Mackay had a diary and time book and probably a folding Kodak film camera.

The modern-day riders could nip into Woolies or other local stores for supplies, Mackay probably carried food similar to swagmen of the period, flour and salt to make damper as well as jam, sugar and tea. He would have stopped in at a few towns and also properties for extra food and supplies.

The modern-day riders had GPS, internet, mobile and satellite phones while Mackay may have had a compass and had to rely on word of mouth for where to get food, water supplies and directions.

The modern-day riders had state-of-the-art lightweight road bikes with gears, cable brakes and suspension, and have ridden almost exclusively on the bitumen, while Mackay rode a strengthened bike to deal with rough terrain, had no gears, no suspension, and only a “back pedal” brake!

Nevertheless, both rides are noteworthy achievements in their own way which demonstrated the usefulness of the bicycle as a practical and sustainable mode of transport at either end of the 20th century when cars were just about to make their mark in 1900 and when their continued use in 2010 at the present rate is unsustainable, particularly in cities.

The Powerhouse Museum celebrates Ada Lovelace Day

Published by Matthew Connell 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
File:Ada Lovelace.jpg

Ada Lovelace, 19th century British mathematician (1836). Painting by Margaret Carpenter (1793-1872).

We are delighted to be participating in Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging on 24 March 2010 to celebrate the achievements of women in technology and science.

Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron, is an intriguing figure. Mary Somerville, one of the very few recognised women mathematicians and scientists of the day, took the 17 year old Ada to London to introduce her to society. Through Mary, Ada met Charles Babbage, a scholar and inventor whose expertise included mathematics, astronomy, meteorology, ophthalmoscopy and linguistics, who showed Ada his working model of the Difference Engine.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Babbge had designed the Difference Engine to eradicate errors in the calculation of mathematical tables. Calculations of this sort were used to produce charts – such as used in shipping. To this date, errors in mathematical tables resulted in accidents and death – such as in accidents at sea due to mistakes in charts. So there was great practical potential to developing the Difference Engine.

Babbage was impressed to note that Ada understood its complicated operation. From that meeting a 19 year friendship and partnership began.

In 1995 the Powerhouse Museum acquired its specimen piece of Charles Babbage’s Difference Engine No1 (pictured above). Included in the auction lot were 2 letters addressed to Charles from Ada Lovelace.

Later when the acquisition brought us in to contact with Charles’ descendants in Australia we acquired from them, among other items, a small envelope addressed to Babbage containing the calling card of Countess Lovelace.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Hand written on the back is the mysterious and tantalising “Very Interesting”. We are delighted to have these items in the Museum’s collection, evidence of Charles’ and Ada’s association.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

From today’s perspective the culmination of this partnership is the much repeated writing of the ‘first computer programme’ by Ada in her description of Babbage’s Analytical Engine. The paper, written in 1843, is a translation from the French of a paper on the Analytical Engine written by Italian engineer (and later Italian Prime Minister) Luigi Menabrea. Menabrea had reported a lecture by Babbage on his Analytical Engine in Turin. But Ada’s paper included extensive notes of her own and incorporated a table or plan which shows how to set up the Analytical Engine to generate the numbers of the Bernoulli series. It is this table (a copy pictured below) which is commonly held to be the program.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Now it’s questionable that this work constitutes a program. It is also likely that Babbage provided much of this material to Ada, but she still had remarkable understanding of a technology which had no precedent. She also saw possibilities for its application that go beyond Babbage’s conception. She was a remarkable person who contributed to our understanding of the world and who we are.

The first Ada Lovelace Day took place on 24 March 2009. The aim then was for 1000 people to blog about women in science and technology; almost 2000 people took part. This year the organisers hope for 3072 people to blog about women in science and technology. At lunchtime on 23 March 2010 (the day before Ada Lovelace Day), there are pledges for just over half of the 3072 hoped for. If you are interested in encouraging the involvement of women in science and technology, you may wish to pledge to blog on here and help this enterprise in support of women in science and technology.

Alice in Wonderland

Published by Glynis Jones 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

I recently saw the new Alice in Wonderland movie and Alice’s blue dress brought to mind a dress in the collection created by Japanese designer Jun Takahashi for his Spring-Summer 2005 collection.

Takahashi’s dress may have been inspired by the story of Alice in Wonderland but the source of his take on the story was not only the novel by Lewis Carroll but another earlier screen version; the very eerie, surreal film, Alice, made by Czech artist Jan Svankmajer in 1988. Apparently the opening narration says it’s a film made for children….perhaps? It’s a bit creepy but in a bizarre and compelling way. It’s not something I‘d sleep on.

In Svankmajer’s film, Alice inhabits a nightmarish world of rotting furniture, stuffed animal corpses, and malevolent dolls. Taking his cue from the film’s decaying environment, Takahashi created an Edwardian style dress in lace, silk and tulle which from a distance looks pretty and innocent with its very feminine frills and lace.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

However when you get closer you can see the fabric has been layered, ripped and sewn to appear as if its surface is cracked and rotting.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Then if you start to look at the details of the applied and embroidered trims you realise they are shaped like teeth and fangs while eyeballs nestle in the fake fur trim and a row of brains embellish the bodice.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Part of the beauty and creepiness of Svankmajer’s film is the creaking and clanking of the soundtrack and Takahashi has even captured this by sewing a rusted metal ‘lacework’ trim around the hem of the skirt.

Collection, Powerhouse Museum

As the skirt moves they tinkle.

What do you think of Takahashi’s dress?

Barangaroo and Darling Harbour

Published by Charles Pickett 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

The current debate over the Barangaroo development recalls similar controversies during the 1980s, when the Darling Harbour precinct was being redeveloped. At one stage during the creation of Darling Harbour NSW premier Neville Wran, the main driver of the project, observed sarcastically that ‘we are going to hold a number of competitions for sculpture and civic works and it may well be appropriate that one subject be a white elephant surrounded by knockers rampant’.Both projects are among the numerous port areas recycled into new urban precincts. Since containerisation of freight was introduced during the 1960s this has been a trend in cities all over the world. In other respects the Darling Harbour and Barangaroo projects are quite different, most obviously in that Barangaroo will form a harbour side extension of the CBD, featuring office towers, a hotel and apartments. In contrast Darling Harbour was conceived as a leisure precinct of retail, cultural and entertainment facilities, ‘a place for people’ according to the slogan of the time. 

The Powerhouse collection includes proposals for a Darling Harbour leisure centre whose earnings were supposed to help finance the new precinct. This was the casino complex intended for the city side of Darling Harbour, where the Cockle Bay restaurant strip now stands. 

Designed by Harry Seidler. Collection: Powerhouse Museum

This model of a Darling Harbour casino and hotel designed by Harry Seidler was one of several tendered for the design/construct and manage contract for the casino. Seidler’s proposal was produced for a consortium of Donald Trump and Lend Lease, which holds the contract to design and construct Barangaroo.

Designed by John Andrews. collection: Powerhouse Museum

Another contender was a design by John Andrews, who worked with a consortium of Genting International and Civil & Civic. 

None of the potential designs was built after the casino operators failed to satisfy probity tests set by the NSW police. This was truly ironic, because police corruption was one of the main reasons for the casino project. Neville Wran saw a legal casino as a means of removing the most obvious evidence of police corruption in Sydney during the 1970s and 1980s, the flourishing illegal casinos known to everyone except, apparently, the police. Wran presented the casino project as an acid test for the NSW police force:

To put it quite bluntly it will be a test for the bona fides of the police force. There will be no excuses whatsoever for these places [casinos] to remain unraided and remain open when the legislation goes through Parliament. There’s no point in us going to this trouble if the police don’t support the Government

(Sydney Morning Herald, 20 November 1985, p.1).

Sydney would have to wait until the 1990s until a legal casino was built at Pyrmont.

The casino plans added an extra layer of controversy to the Darling Harbour project, also under siege for its expense, its arguably trivial purpose and its monorail people mover. Generally speaking the design of Darling Harbour was well-received. In 1990 Architecture Australia noted that the 1980s had seen a rekindling of metropolitan sensibilities and a corresponding revival of urban culture…

A remarkable example of this is the Darling Harbour project, where the edifices of culture are integral to the definition of place. This new urban fabric, the Culture Park City, has been used to completely re-order the city into a new, highly designed fabric removed from the evolutionary bricolage of the existing city. (‘Theory and design in the 1990s’, Architecture Australia, December 1990, p.34).

 Its interesting to read this today, because both the pro and anti Barangaroo camps are using Darling Harbour as an example of what not to do. Paul Keating: ‘Look at the disaster of Darling Harbour. That’s what happens when you let architects near your public spaces’. (Sydney Morning Herald 15 September 2009, p.3). While Darling Harbour’s mainly 1980s architecture finds few admirers these days, the precinct remains a successful urban park, well-peopled day and night. One wonders if this will be true of Barangaroo’s restored headland or its cluster of commercial towers.

Instead, the involvement  of international design eminence Richard Rogers suggests that Barangaroo will boast design spectacle rather than daggy but vibrant urbanity. Star architects have become a feature of controversial developments, with ‘wow’ architecture used to justify exemption from planning and heritage laws. Rogers’ former partner, Renzo Piano, pioneered this tactic in Sydney during the 1990s with his designs for Aurora Place and Macquarie Apartments soothing angst sparked by the demolition of the much-awarded State Office Block. Lord Rogers is presumably expected to create a similar design/public relations triumph with Barangaroo’s ‘floating’ hotel tower, a controversy focus similar to Darling Harbour’s casino.   

Darling Harbour and Barangaroo share another feature: the demolition of the industrial and urban heritage of the sites. At Barangaroo Paul Keating’s disdain for industrial heritage seems to be the main factor at work, while at Darling Harbour the tight construction deadline was a major contributor to this outcome, although fortunately Pyrmont Bridge survived as a pedestrian thoroughfare. 

The PHM collection includes many artefacts collected from the Darling Harbour site during the 1980s. My favourite is a set of concrete winged wheels which once adorned the roof of a Darling Harbour service station. Hopefully Barangaroo’s concrete will also evince flight. 

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Charles Pickett, curator Design and the Built Environment

See You Round Like a Monopoly Board!

Published by Erika Taylor 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

The makers of the popular and long-lived board game Monopoly have recently introduced a round Monopoly game and are doing away with the old rectangular board to which we are so accustomed. I bet the the original owners of the 1950′s Monopoly board, pictured above, didn’t think it would one day go coin-shaped! 

Image courtesy of Hasbro © all rights reserved

What will come as a surprise to some people is that whilst we are more than familiar with the rectangular shape, Monopoly boards were originally round! So, in effect, they have now come full circle. (excuse the pun!)

Photography by nabeeloo © all rights reserved.

Image sourced from Flickr

Charles Darrow started hand-making the Monopoly game boards for his friends and family in 1933. Some of the earliest boards he made were round, to fit the shape of a kitchen table. They later became rectangular. 

The new round design does away with cash. Instead, players are issued with a chip and pin credit card and an electronic central console plays the banker.

I personally dislike the new design. One of the greatest things about playing the ‘old’ Monopoly was the ability to have wads and wads of cash! Buying property with a ‘credit card’ is just a little too realistic, and close to home, for me!

What do you think?

Erika Dicker and Karen Biddle 

Pearls: Streetwear to Stilettos

Published by Rebecca Evans 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

2001/66/1 Karen Walker, 2000 'Etiquette' collection Collection, Powerhouse Museum

I’ve been doing a bit of research lately on this fabulous dress by Karen Walker and it’s got me thinking about pearls. From this printed graphic to the decorative they are continually referenced in fashion. The Museum’s collection holds a great many objects containing pearls, from buttons and brooches to even fans, and the further I look, the more I see them! In this post I’d love to take you through some of the fabulous and interesting examples of pearls in the collection.

This first outfit was designed by New Zealand designer Karen Walker and shown at Australian Fashion Week in 2000. The collection titled ‘Etiquette’ is Karen Walker’s take on society dressing. She has taken key elements of the socialite’s wardrobe, the little black cocktail dress and string of pearls and turned them casual with a street edge. It’s quite quirky with the broken strand of pearls, which is considered a sign of bad luck and breaks down conventional dressing.

88/840 Salvatore Ferragamo stilettos, 1959 Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Looking at footwear now, and not just your average sneaker, but this gorgeous pair of Ferragamo stilettos from 1959. Salvatore Ferragamo was a Florentine shoemaker most famous for his scientific and creative approach to his handmade footwear and the patronage of Hollywood celebrities. These stilettos are just stunning with swirls of beading and five imitation pearl droplets at the toe on red satin. As the saying goes, ‘pearls are like tears’ – gentle and feminine, and I love idea of the pearl droplets on these shoes breaking old traditions; dancing, jumping and bouncing on these stilettos to the quickstep in the 1950s.

A6362, Women's cap, late Nineteenth Century Collection, Powerhouse Museum

Tears and pearls have long been associated and often with 19th century notions of the delicate fragile women. This late Victorian cap made of lace and ribbon is intriguing in this respect with the decoration of imitation pearls attached to the cap using tiny metal springs. When the wearer moved her head the pearls would shiver and bounce simulating notions of fragility and delicacy associated with women at that time.

Reflecting on the way pearls have been used in the Museum’s collection, it’s fascinating to see how contemporary designers, like Karen Walker, have used old traditions in new updated ways.
The Museum will be featuring this outfit in the upcoming exhibition, Frock Stars: inside Australian Fashion Week.

Rebecca Evans, Assistant Curator (Frock Stars exhibition)

Dale Chihuly: genius of glass

Published by Melanie Pitkin 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Q: Which city in the world do you think produces more glass blowers and sells more blown glass in shops than anywhere else in the world?

A: Seattle, USA.

Contrary to popular opinion, it is not Murano in Venice, and this may have something to do with the fact that Seattle is home to the glass blowing studio of one of the most internationally renowned glass artists and his team of almost 100 craftsmen – Dale Chihuly.

Chihuly (born 1941) first became interested in glass while studying for an interior design degree at the University of Washington, Seattle. As part of a unit on weaving, Chihuly started experimenting in weaving glass onto tapestry, before melting, shaping and blowing his own creations. From here, Chihuly’s passion for glass blowing was born.

In 1967, Chihuly went to Murano, Venice and on his return to the US, was invited to set up a new glass blowing program at the Rhode Island School of Design. Two years later he co-founded the Pilchuck Glass School, outside of Seattle, which to this day continues to exist as the leading educational training centre for studio glass blowing.

Until 1976, Chihuly was blowing glass himself, but a car accident which claimed the vision of his left eye and a sporting injury the year later, meant Chihuly was forced to take a step back from his own glass creations, and in Chihuly’s words, he became “more choreographer than dancer, more supervisor than participant, more director than actor”.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Today, Chihuly and his team produce more blown glass as installation pieces and commissioned sculptures for corporate and private patrons, as well as for exhibitions and collectors. In the Powerhouse Museum’s collection are two amazing works from his Macchia series, which we acquired in 1992, including Violet macchia set with teal lip wraps and Deep cobalt macchia with yellow lip wrap. Both works were featured in the 1993 exhibition ‘Chihuly in Australia: Glass and Works on Paper’ at the Museum and are now on display in the Inspired! and Experimentations galleries.

What are your favourite Chihuly works? If you’re not familiar with the extent of his glass blowing creations, as well as his original designs and drawings, click here.