We here at the gravestmor Real Estate Division have a room for lease in this exciting property. Built in 1930 this three bedroom house has an old world style that will charm even the most jaded of style nazi. With district views to the Spilberk Castle, the stunning outlook is complimented by glass walls, reminiscent of Prada LA, that disapear into the floor providing for an unique hybrid experience of both the inside and the outside.

The minor annoyance of furnishing the semi-circular dining ‘room’ is more than offset by the delightful play of line and arc freed {finally…} from the governance of structure, column.

A minimum of excessive decoration means that this house is easy to dust and clean.

Rooftop parking is available upon request.

Download A4

It has struck me that there is not a great deal of architectural propaganda out there. Everything else has its fair share of propapaganda out there; the right calling it marketing, the left, culture jamming. Architecture hasn’t faired so well. To turn this around, Gravestmor will be producing an irregular series of poster-like things that will serve the cause of biased, unfounded statements about architecture. A link to the right will list all the posts containing this propaganda.

The first of these posters, below, I strongly believe will convince cities around the globe to take Sydney’s lead in protecting their skylines from being devastated by unwanted towers through investing in a few Seidler originals.

Download an A4 version of the above.

So here is my rockin’ new book about Fin D‘ou T Hous by Peter Eisenman. Normally I would be pretty unforgiving regarding such ridiculous wordplay (Find out house, the end of the house, get it?) but any architect that can paint some of the most interesting projects of their generation seven shades of salmon has a sense of humour that ought not be questioned.

It is not really a book, more a box of prints; made to accompany an exhition of the house at the AA. It contains One booklet, Fifteen drawings; plans, elevations, axonometrics, each printed both as block colour prints and as embossed white card. It is the embossed white card things that rock the hardest but as it turns out they are also near impossible to photograph… So you will have to use your imagination, or come over to my house to see them in person.

The box

Some of the prints

I have discovered the perfect walking to work music and at the risk of sounding the kind of pretentious that is beyond beret wearing, beyond cheroot smoking and far far beyond Ulysees reading, I declare this soundtrack to be: Asa Chang and Jun Ray’s Tsu Gi Ne Pu. Toremoro uncannily matches a stroll from garden delight through urban latte to thriving metropolis with the sparest of bird chirp and the most stuccato of futuristic Japanese muttering. Flying neon street signs urging me to purchase square watermelons are about the only thing that could make me as self aware. Furthermore, I swear that we are all, every one of us,{ ! } a part of some socialist dream, happy workers marching in the morning sun, when walking down Martin Place with track four, Kaikyo, playing. It lends a gravitas to Martin Place that a giant TV beaming Olympic highlights cannot match

In other news I purchased the most bitchin’ book ever yesterday. I will post details and photos this evening. If you’re lucky.

Whilst it is true that I have never bothered with all the registration stuff as yet and cannot comment first hand on the experiences of each Hoop, I will say this:

While crap like this is being built by registered architects, the registration process is far too easy and far too myopic. I propose a Fourth Hoop which i call “The Burning Hoop of Fire”, this hoop is guarded by a monstrous dog with three heads; only instead of heads it has Alto Vases and instead of a body, The Complete Works of Le corbusier. In order to pass this beast and proceed to The Fourth Hoop one needs to fill each vase with the one’s choice of gin. If the gin pleases the Three Headed Dog/Vase Demon, the applicant will then be asked to quote a passage from the Complete Works and draw an accompanying sketch. The passage will be chosen at random by the Three Vased Complete Works so a thorough knowledge of ramping circulation and Indian climate control will be essential. Once past this initial test the applicant proceeds on to the actual Fourth Hoop itself. This is literally a buring hoop of fire that the applicant must jump through. If you get burnt, so be it, such is life.

I think that I could jump through the hoop, no problems; it is after all just a hoop. But the quoting and sketching stuff? That may prove more difficult, but then, it is probably the kind of thing that you learn over time, so I guess it will come together eventually.

It is the Year of the Built Environment, so how many graduate architects, who have attempted the onerous three stage; logbook, exam and interview process will be registered by the Board of Architects in each state and territory? How many bright young things will begin their professional career’s as Architects for the first time, bringing their intellects and commitment to Architecture to the profession? The answer is that the Australian Board of Architects in 2004, in the Year of the Built Environment, will exclude at the various stages, almost all applicants who have sought registration.

This exclusion is managed through what I like to call a three hoop process

Hoop 1: Logbook
A significant number of people can satisfy the logbook stage, this is achieved by filling out the most convoluted and unwieldy mass of paper work developed since Stephen Hawking wrote A Brief History of Time .

This is in spite of the authors of this document ignoring contemporary architectural practice with the arrival of project managers and professional clients and the multi disciplinary practice of contemporary architecture firms. You can almost hear them when you fill out the forms, calling across the years whispering Bill of Quantities, Clerk of Works and muttering about “doing things properly in my day”

Hoop 2: National Examination Paper
The next hurdle is a multiple statement yes/no exam impressively named the National Examination Paper or NEP. The failure rates for the NEP stage are a work of art and beautifully devised. In the ACT only one out of the nine to sit the recent NEP passed, in WA apparently only one out of the twenty to sit passed . In talking to the local authorities in the ACT, the pass rate for this exam is less than one third nationwide. The exam is straightforwardly devious, there is no statement or way to work out what the exam is scored out off, a 60% pass mark is required and negative marks are detracted for each wrong answer. In addition there may be more than one right answer per question or there may be none.

Hoop 3: Interview
Just add two architects, your logbook and you- combine for one hour and mix. Just hope you know your shit and don’t stuff up. I assume it’s a bit like you P plate driving test. Be conservative, don’t speed, try not to scare the examiner and don’t fuck up the three point turn. At the end you shake hands leave the room and wait to hear if you made it.

Success: If you made it congratulations and I suppose someone had to. If you didn’t, just pay more money and wait till next time they run the process, continue until either you run out of money, you make it or life moves along and other priorities overrule.

So what’s going on with the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia and the devious registration scheme they have devised. One can only speculate as to the reasons for the development of such a structure, small penis syndrome, bureaucratic old boys club, prestige and control, I suppose just the standard reasons nothing too special.

Unfortunately this is affecting our profession in key ways. There is an evolving culture of not becoming registered due to the inherent difficulties of the accreditation process. I have observed this in relation to graduate architects who are reluctant to become registered, even after many years of working in private practice. I acknowledge it may be the case that some graduates do not wish to personally assume the public liability responsibilities associated with professional practise. This is fine, however in other professions becoming chartered or registered is encouraged and attainable through transparent and accessible processes, and is undertaken by most graduates who work in that particular industry. In an amazing contrast, it seems that graduate Architects are largely apprehensive, unwilling, and apparently discouraged from joining the profession within which they work.

The current system is exclusionary, poorly reflects current architectural practice, and lacks accountability and transparency. The Board urgently needs to reform the registration process in order to make it accessible and encouraging to graduate Architects. By enforcing the current exclusionary system, the Board is ensuring that the Architectural profession will consistently miss out on exciting new talent and expertise to the detriment of the profession.

Whilst at Glenrock, the students drew the farnsworth house in the sand.
The big man was present and he smoked his Cuban in silent approval.

Twice lately I have been having some rather strange experiences that essentially reflect the amount of time I sit in front of the computer.

The first time this happened was watching the rugby on TV. For a short while I could have sworn I was watching a computer game. The little men running around on the little field so resembled the other little men that run around on the little field that I have at times controlled with a controller that I had to do a double take.

I attiribute this to a few things. Firstly that I have played a lot of games over the years - although not as many as some - and they were bound to have some kind of effect on the way I view….you know, stuff…. Secondly, I have recently gotten hooked up to digital TV and while 90% of the time this means a nice sharp image, occasionally the image can get pixelated a little resulting in a vaguely rendered looking picture. I was not too concerned about this whole experience just a little bemused and a touch proud of how goddamn digital I am.

The second incident was a little more insidious. We were away for two days with the students, south of Newcastle, in the Glenrock State Recreation Area. Windswept coastline, meandering lagoon thing, majestic ships on the horizon, you know, like, nature. Upon reaching the top of the ridge looking back to the lagoon, valley, coastline etc I was immediately struck by how similar it looked to a level in Farcry. In fact it would have made a great level in Farcry. Finally the natural environment is beginning to catch up with the imagination of sweaty game programmers in the United States I thought to myself. Of course, I would not want it to resemble Farcry too much, some shit went down, on that island that should not have happened in any civilised society. Fortunately we did not discover any evidence of any genetic experiments gone wrong, however, Chris did find the ruins of what looked to be an abandoned mine shaft or something so there may have been untold horrors lurking beneath but we are not really in a position to say for sure. Suffice to say, the water was rendered very well and the grass swayed realistically in the wind and these traits that all natural environments, rendered or real, should aspire to.

One day the Ric The Plastriers of the future will wax lyrical on the weft and warp of some digital realm, lending credence and a sense of gravitas to my paranoid merging of screen and landscape and I guess I will feel vindicated and righteous. Writing this now I just feel like a bit of a dork.