Anyone here remember the "feature wall" of the 1960s?... Often made of fake bricks on a plank nailed to the joists of the house or to fibro? Sometimes, there would be a brown cushioned bar in front with a couple of orange stools... Very American movie of the 50s... Sometimes there would a fake archway leading to a flat-wall on which a large print of a Chinese impression of the Rocky Mountains would be stuck. Very hubcapy.

So the next (possibly) premier of NSW, Barry O'Farrell has promised to demolish the "Entertainment Centre". Actually the Entertainment Centre is one major building the beauty of which resided in its raw concrete. No hubcaps. Then some public servant, I guess, offended by the cement, decided to spend money on hubcaps for this grand building, turning its impressive concrete top into a mosaic of large white bricks with black tuck-pointing, making it as ugly as sin can be awful... The inside deserves a bit of attention. The red and blue mauve carpets are so late 1970s after that period of mission brown and orange delight. But really nothing that a bit of cosmetics would not fix it. It is my grand view that the building needs to be preserved despite its lack of usage, presently. Because let's face it, all Barry would replace it with, would be a 1920s Teutonic post-and-slab array of dormitory buildings — with hubcaps to make them look 20th century. And one day soon we might say "we need a building like the Entertainment Centre to do this and that...". you know what I mean...

British architects have become political and cultural punch-bags, and the Budget's "radically relaxed" planning rules in Enterprise Zones will batter them even more. Ruth Reed, president of the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba), welcomes the Chancellor's proposal with a pathos-laden hope that the new rules will "protect the essential requirements of sustainability and good design".

George Osborne's "gift" to enterprise, and Ms Reed's painfully dutiful response to it, highlights the fact that the architectural profession is riven by confusion. Are architects cultured designers or glorified triage surgeons working in towns and cities lacerated by architectural collateral damage caused by political and commercial expediency, rubber-stamped by planners?

Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, thinks architects are conniving bread-heads. Sir David Chipperfield, one of Britain's most culturally thoughtful architects, says the profession's rising generation of new talent has been blocked from competing for major projects. Our Government has no rigorous interest in architectural standards. And now, even the Riba is daring to suggest that the current version of homo architectus could die out by 2025.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/architecture/the-death-of-architecture-2261212.html

 see toon and stories above...

A SYDNEY architect is looking for a family willing to let him smash down their home.

But don't worry. He will build two or three new ones to replace it.

Mathieu Gallois wants to take a large, environmentally unfriendly home - which he refers to as a ''McMansion'' - and use the materials to build smaller, more eco-friendly and cost-effective homes.

The Reincarnated McMansion project is one of five finalist ideas in the Taronga Zoo Green Grants initiative. The zoo invited applicants to submit project ideas that would inspire Australians to live more sustainably, with a $50,000 prize to fund the winning idea.

The idea came to Mr Gallois, an architect and artist, after he stayed in a holiday home in Lorne, Victoria. ''This very typical Australian home was contrary to everything we'd been taught about how to build a good sustainable house,'' he said.

Instead of retro-fitting a large house to make it green, Mr Gallois said complete rebuilds could be the answer.

''NSW has some of the biggest homes in Australia,'' he said. ''Bigger houses require more energy. This [project] would take a poor housing model and create the very best - a zero emissions home.''

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/family-deal-free-downsize-with-every-mcmansion-20110408-1d7on.html

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Gus: who knows where this is coming from but it makes some sense... Greener architecture is needed in the way we build our stuff as well as the way we run our stuff... But demolition is also energy demanding thus the whole equation needs to be written.

And here below is an example of more hubcap architecture, in this case a pedestrian bridge, where the structure is hidden under flamboyant shiny panels... Next, the Harbour Bridge?...

Wow, if you wanted to alienate every mother in Australia, mission accomplished! Your statement comparing Jackie O bottle-feeding her baby while walking across the road to Michael Jackson HANGING HIS BABY OVER A BALCONY was so absurd it had me wondering if it was a belated April Fools Day joke. But no, apparently you were serious. But then, if making that statement wasn’t bad enough, accepting responsibility for the opinions of every mother in the country and suggesting we too would be appalled by Jackie’s actions? Well, Pru, here’s a hot tip for you. The only mother I’m appalled by here is you.

http://www.essentialbaby.com.au/baby/baby-blog/an-open-letter-to-pru-goward-20110404-1cvyw.html?s_rid=smh:rainbowstrip:box3:campaign1:content2:04-04:jackieo_172x115:anopenlettertoprugowar

How blessed we are The Daily Telegraph has launched a campaign to protect us from beastly comments on Twitter.
That such a rational Murdoch organ is on the warpath against abusive negativity is a huge comfort.
Others are also concerned, including 2GB personality Ray Hadley. He says there ought to be regulations against it.
Interestingly, Ray only in the past week or so settled a defamation case against him brought by Channel Nine NRL caller Andrew Voss.

Voss had the temerity to criticise a statue of yet another sports commentator, Ray Warren, whereupon Hadley on air called him a ''grub of the highest order''.
''Raining on Rabbits' parade'' is something unforgivable.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/sometimes-it-takes-a-troll-to-know-one-20120913-25v40.html#ixzz26NrUQVQV
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Ray Hadley, Alan Jones and a lot of shock jocks are grubs. The Merde-och press is a grubby media.... The difference between grubs and trolls is the medium and the dosh... Grubs are deliberate ingnorant idiots with the gift of talking or writing crap for profit.... Trolls, like me, are accidental idiots who don't know how to make money out of venting their spleen...

A new 19-level tower will bring a "Times Square" flavour to Kings Cross, promoters say, and will be one of the most hotly contested apartment launches of the year.

The hour-glass shaped tower - yet to be named - is on the site of the former Mercure Hotel opposite Sydney's iconic Coca-Cola sign.

"When you view the building from the Coca-Cola sign with Darlinghurst Road and Victoria Street veering off, and all the lights and action, it gives the whole area a New York Times Square feel," said Ben Stewart, director of residential projects for selling agents CBRE.

read more: http://news.domain.com.au/domain/real-estate-news/kings-cross-to-become-sydneys-times-square-20150318-1m10r1.html

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Allow me to disagree with the selling agents... I got the shock of my life by seeing the "artist's impression" of the building... To keep this new contraption "in the moment", this building would look excellently in pre-modernism Russia or in the ruins of East Ukraine... This building looks like a pile of hubcaps or "декоративні ковпаки для коліс"... But I am not an architect... Time square? Nupe...

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