January 26th, 2007 + del.icio.us +digg
Winners of the Hobart Waterfront Design Competition announced. I have to say, they are a little underwhelming in their politeness. I understand that the jury concentrated on realistic outcomes and the potential of amking ‘many minor moves’. However it was an ideas competition, and Hobart being hardly a city where we should tread lightly, I expected at least one of the winners to be a scheme that had some form of a critical agenda other than threading neatly into the existing urban fabri-yawn-c. It is an Antarctic Harbour for crying out loud. Where is the optimism? The speculation?
February 2nd, 2007 at 6:29 am
Indeed marcus, i agree whole-heartedly. No sour grapes here, just a little tear for my old home town….. still failing to break free from the shackles of economic depression and mediocre urbanism. I did however hear a rumour though that a certain female Spanish member of the jury early on in the process was reportedly seen standing opposed to the rest of the judging panel, in a fierce battle to bring some joy to an otherwise very disappointing outcome (apparently she remained fairly low key from then on)….. In closing, did you notice there was an entry form Utzon Associates, it didnt even make it into the exhibition! Apparently they wanted to show a diverse range of projects, the bad ones and the good ones….interesting technique!