Architecture
It was walk to work day for this shoot back in November, which was a real treat - as it was to work with the team at Amiconi Architects and Pip&Coop again. This time a beautiful upgrade to a Clifton Hill townhouse overlooking the park and away to the east. Adrian and the team have brought new life to this home for a lovely family.
Architect: Amiconi Architects
Stylist: Pip&Coop (Cassie Thomson)
I wasn’t sure what to expect as I drove towards this project in Knotting Hill. I knew it was 4,000sqm, a mix of commercial and industrial spaces and on the site of the former Toyota Technical Centre. What I found was a bold and clever update and reuse of an existing space, which offered some great opportunities for photography. I had particular fun playing with colour, which you know I’m a fan of and the unexpectedly green building surrounds. Hats of to PTID and Amicus for what they’ve achieved here.
This was one of those shoots that really made me work for the images. 1 Halycon Walk by H2o Architects and HousingFirst Ltd is stage one of three that will make up Halcyon Village a senior citizens village in Brighton. While stage one is complete and sitting pretty in it’s leafy surround, stage two was very much in progress, in close proximity, making clean images hard to come by. To add to the complexity residents were moving in around us and the apartments were unfurnished. All that said it’s a great little building and I loved the challenge.
Developer: HousingFirst Ltd
Architect: H2o Architects
Builder: Minicon Construction
A long-time and very dear friend paid a visit to Melbourne in recent months. In one of our many, deep and artful conversations we came to the subject of my “Fixations” posts. She (who will know who she is when she reads this) suggested that you might like to hear about what it is exactly that I am fixating on in these images, what it is that caught my attention.
So. This next fixation, I happened upon when working in Hobart earlier this year. This little scene stopped me dead and only got better the more I moved in. It’s the strong lines and repetition in the facade of the building, it’s the patterns in the paving of the road and footpath, it’s the symmetry of the shiny silver bike thingys (what do you call those?), it’s the way nature gently but firmly disrupts the man made perfection with organic, uneven and unpredictable lines. It’s colour - green on stone, the hint of red in the speed sign, the coloured paint on the pavement, the bolt of yellow from the adjacent carpark and the pastel yellow of that strange little, sticker covered, industrial box, which doesn’t belong and fits in all the same. It’s the sense of isolation, the absence of people. I could go on… it’s all of that and more.
For those that are interested it’s the former Reserve Bank building which was designed by the Commonwealth Department of Works and constructed in 1977.
There are few things that give me greater pleasure than being alone with my camera and away from home. This is where I feel most free to explore things that catch my attention or arouse my curiosity. When existing in this space I often find myself fixated on an idea or subject. Most of these stay hidden on my server, never to be shared or seen. With that last thought in mind I decided I’d bring one of those fixations to light…
What a pleasure it was to work with Baldasso Cortese and HousingFirst Ltd on this impressive and important social housing development in Balaclava.
Built by Buxton Construction on the site of a former council car park, the six-level development consists of 46 one, two and three-bedroom dwellings suitable for families, older residents and people living with a disability.
The building includes a rooftop terrace and community garden, end of trip facilities and a thoughtful art work in the entry featuring an “inverse-Nolli Map” of the St Kilda / Balaclava neighbourhood.
Hats off to City of Port Phillip and the Victorian Government for coming together to make this building a reality and house a vulnerable cross section of our society.
Developer: HousingFirst Ltd
Architect: Baldasso Cortese
Builder: Buxton Construction
Styling: Pip+Coop
I hit the road a couple of times earlier this year to shoot the new home of Kilcoy Global Foods for Amicus. Set just out of town in a semi rural, industrial estate it was a nice change from busy, bustling Melbourne. In a first for Amicus, they have designed both the interiors and the building itself.
Exciting news last week with 1 Treasury Place - 8:50am being shortlisted for the Omnia Art Prize.
The exhibition opens on 19th May and runs to the 22nd May only. Be sure to go along and take in work from leading contemporary artists around Australia. All the details below.
