Archive for the 'Design and Designers' Category

Suburbia, apartmentia, adapturbia

Published on June 17, 2013 by Charles Pickett in Architecture, Architecture and Urban Design, climate change, Design and Designers, Environment, Object of the week, objects and Sydney. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Nelsons Ridge

Nelsons Ridge housing estate, photo by Marinco Kojdanovski 2012

Are baby-boomers responsible for Sydney’s unaffordable housing? It’s becoming a common theme of the property media with story headings like ‘Boomers put super squeeze on first home buyers’. And similar arguments are being made in the planning and architecture world.

Former NSW Government Architect Chris Johnson: ‘The big issue right now for Sydney is the pendulum swing from low density detached housing to more urban apartment living.…With a growing army of ageing baby boomers wanting to protect suburbia, Sydney needs a new swat squad of younger urban dwellers to support the new apartmentia’.
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The Big Trousers has a new friend

Published on June 3, 2013 by Charles Pickett in Architecture, Architecture and Urban Design, Design and Designers, New Acquisitions and Object of the week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
CCTV model

Powerhouse Museum collection: Architectural model, China Central TV Headquarters, designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren of OMA, ECADI, Arup, England, made by Micromodel, Beijing, China, 2004-2008. Gift of Arup Sydney.

Thanks to Arup Sydney we acquired a model of the China Central TV headquarters in Beijing. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA, its a sophisticated and controversial attempt to reinvent the office tower. Architects, journos and others have debated its pros and cons at length.

But in Beijing they can’t be fussed with that. To taxi-drivers, commuters and all manner of smarty-pants, Rem’s masterpiece is just the Big Trousers.

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Lost paintings from the pub wall

Published on May 15, 2013 by Charles Pickett in Architecture and Urban Design, Art, Collections, Design and Designers, Graphic design, Object of the week and Sydney. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
pub painting

Pub painting, photo by Jim Brown 1968-1972.

Jim Brown was a former US serviceman who lived in Sydney from 1968 to 1972. Like a lot of people back then he was struck by the oil-on-glass pub advertising paintings which adorned most of Sydney’s pubs. During the first half of the twentieth century a lot of advertising graphics and signs were the work of artists like those at the Rousel Studio. A painterly touch was common.
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Sirius on the Rocks

Published on May 8, 2013 by Charles Pickett in Architecture, Architecture and Urban Design, Design and Designers, New Acquisitions, Object of the week, Sydney and Urban development. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Sirius

Sirius apartments, watercolour and ink on board. PHM collection 2013/36/1 Gift of the family of Jack and Jean Nagle.

We have just acquired this watercolour elevation of the Sirius public housing apartments in the Rocks.  Most architects’ elevations use a street level viewpoint – this bird’s eye view is different and striking.

Sirius was built to rehouse public tenants displaced during the controversial redevelopment of the Rocks during the 1960s and 1970s. Eventually building work in the Rocks was halted by union Green Bans and resident opposition. In 1975 the Sydney Cove Redevelopment Authority agreed to suspend most of its development plans and rehouse displaced public housing tenants in new public housing.
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Nouvel and Gehry in the Hood.

Published on April 10, 2013 by Charles Pickett in Architecture, Architecture and Urban Design, Design and Designers, Environment, Object of the week and Sydney. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Photo by Charles Pickett 2013.

Photo by Charles Pickett 2013.

The first new building at the Central Park development on Broadway is making progress. Watching it is a bit different from following the progress of most new buildings – it’s literally growing, not just figuratively so. French botanist Patrick Blanc is creating what’s claimed to be the tallest vertical garden in the world.
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Blundstone tapboots

Published on April 3, 2013 by Debbie Rudder in Collections, Design and Designers, leisure, Performing Arts, Sport and Sydney. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
Powerhouse Museum Collection, object 2001/84/108-5. Part of the Sydney 2000 Games Collection. Gift of the New South Wales Government, 2001.

Powerhouse Museum Collection, object 2001/84/108-5. Part of the Sydney 2000 Games Collection. Gift of the New South Wales Government, 2001.

These boots were made for dancing. They are Blundstone work boots modified for tap dancing in the Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony. Entering into the quirky, innovative spirit of Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention, I selected them for display alongside the staid historic Wellington boots that came from Britain with the exhibition.

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Making it: 20 years of Student Fashion

Published on March 13, 2013 by Melanie Pitkin in Design and Designers, Fashion, Costume and Dress and Object of the week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .
Photo by Tomy K C Leung, Hair: Daniel Yang, Makeup: Kristina Milisavljevic, Model: Sandra Janssen @ The Agency Models.

Photo by Tomy K C Leung, Hair: Daniel Yang, Makeup: Kristina Milisavljevic, Model: Sandra Janssen @ The Agency Models.

2013 is an important year for the Museum. Not only are we celebrating our 25th birthday, but we’re also celebrating 20 years of Student Fashion.
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Architects and photographers

Published on March 11, 2013 by Charles Pickett in Architecture, Architecture and Urban Design, Design and Designers, Object of the week and Photography. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .
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Max Dupain, Sydney Ancher house, Neutral Bay, 1958. Courtesy Max Dupain & Associates.

The careers of architects and photographers are often intertwined. An outstanding case is Max Dupain, Australia’s leading photographer of architecture, whose work was crucial in building the reputations of several architects including Harry Seidler, Sydney Ancher and Glenn Murcutt.

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Upcycled – waste not, want not…

Published on March 7, 2013 by Anne-Marie Van de Ven in Design and Designers, Environment and Object of the week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .
Budget option ‘bush pantry’, improvised using an oil drum, kerosene tins and length of water pipe, unknown maker, about 1930. Powerhouse Museum collection. 92/305

Budget option ‘bush pantry’, improvised using an oil drum, kerosene tins and length of water pipe, unknown maker, about 1930. Powerhouse Museum collection. 92/305

A new display opens at the Powerhouse Museum this week titled ‘Upcycled’, a word coined by German engineer and upcycler, Reiner Pilz in 1994.

‘Recycling? I call it down-cycling. They smash bricks, they smash everything. What we need is upcycling, where old products are given more value, not less.’ (Reiner Pilz: thinking about a green future, Salvo Monthly, No 23, October 1994, p14)

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The Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 35 years on

Published on March 2, 2013 by Anni Turnbull in Communities, Design and Designers, Fashion, Costume and Dress, Graphic design, Health, leisure and Object of the week. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
Sydney Gay Mardi Gras 1993, designed by Kendal Baker, Australia, 1993. 95/339/6-2 .Collection>Powerhouse Museum.

Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras 1993 poster, designed by Kendal Baker, Australia, 1993. 95/339/6-2 Collection: Powerhouse Museum.

As Sydney throw itself into another round of Mardi Gras celebrations, it is 35 years since the initial march. Attitudes have shifted since 1978 when the first march, which was more of a political protest, attracted the wrath of the police and condemnation from certain parts of society and the media.
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