Just in case you need a reminder, the Schools of Architecture and Design at Victoria, Massey, and Weltec are on now in the Capital, and are definitely worth a look. Some fantastic presentations to view in the Schools, unveiling some major new talent bubbling up from the student world.
School of Architecture & Design, Victoria University (the Red building, Vivian St) Final Year Degree Show: open for one more week.
Massey University School of Art & Design – Exhibition : Blow.08 – open from November 7 – 22, at the old Dominion Museum building.
WelTec final year Interior Design – Exhibition : Tangent – from November 7, 2008, at Chaffers Park Gallery.
And of course, if you want to take a business card and offer some of this young talent a job, I’m sure they would be most obliged.
(image courtesy of Johnson Tong at Victoria Uni – apologies for poor reproduction)
A personal favourite of the Fish, showing that student talent can go far compared to the mainstream architects (and when unfettered by commercial restraints), is Johnson Tong’s scheme for the reworking of the Overseas Passenger Terminal. Some great points: you can see under it, so it won’t disturb the view; you can sail under it, so you can get out to sea quicker; and you can actually tie ocean-going liners up there, which is what the thing is meant to be there for anyway. Now that seems a whole lot better than a rack of apartments for rich yachties!
That design gives me the creeps. It looks like the lair of an evil overlord from some science fiction movie. I want to be near the water, not detached from it.
Absolutely. But evil overlords still need their science fiction lairs designed by competent architects…
Mega-structures rock !
In fact, you might want to check this out:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2008/nov/04/james-bond-architecture
“Yes, almost inevitably, the building does not survive its encounter with Bond, and as he saunters away from its smoking ruins, it occurred to me that few buildings ever do. Bond movies invariably end like Quantum: with 007 single-handedly trashing not only the plans of would-be world dominators but also their hideouts, which is a pity because most of them are rather splendid. Think of the stupendous submersible lair of Stromberg in the Spy Who Loved Me with its circular underwater windows and 2001-style furniture, the hollowed-out volcano in You Only Live Twice, the vertiginous control room in Moonraker, the elegant, if structurally unfeasible, ice palace in Die Another Day, and so forth. Some of the low-rent Bond baddies settle for oil rigs and such, but whatever the villain’s crib of choice, you can guarantee it’s going to get exploded. Those villains tend to put a great deal of effort into their bachelor pads, recruiting tasteful but evil architects, contractors, interior designers etc – it can’t be easy. Then along comes Bond. The villains are the creators; Bond is the destroyer. He’s basically an enemy of architecture.”