ANU Shipping container housing

Opening in 2010 is the new housing units at Australian National University in Canberra. This will be one of the first applications of shipping containers in multi-residential housing in Australia - following the precedent firmly established throughout the Netherlands and Scandinavia. The ease of construction and cost make this building an effective solution to address the current inadequacy of the existing housing on the Canberra campus. <accom.anu.edu.au/UAS/43.html>

Within Australia, the precedent for shipping container housing only extends to single residential units, popular within isolated mining towns where housing shortages are prevalent and in disaster response modules, such as Sean Godsell's FutureShack which has gone on to gain International recognition. <www.seangodsell.com/sga.swf>

<www.portrait.gov.au/exhibit/architecture/team-godsell.html>

<www.shippingcontainerhomes.com.au>

Organisations against the over-gentrification of urban spaces

SquatSpace - Creating awareness of the beautiful qualities of existing urban spaces.

http://www.squatspace.com/

There goes the neighbourhood - Exploring the politics of urban space.

http://www.theregoestheneighbourhood.org/

RedWatch - Resource for up-to-date information of re-development sites in Redfern and the surrounding suburbs.

http://www.redwatch.org.au/

Former Rachel Forster Hospital

The former Rachel Forster Hospital was started in the 1920's and was officially closed in 1993. The building is a prime example of Inter-war functionalist style hospital architecture and is recognised as such in the South Sydney Council LEP.

The re-development and re-zoning plans we established by Redfern Waterloo Authority, an initiative of the Labor State Government and headed until recently by former Minister for Planning Frank Sartor. The area was re-zoned as medium-density residential...

Sites such as this raise dynamic questions about the future of urban, inner-city spaces and therefore the affects of gentrification itself. Who has a right to an opinion about the future of this building? Planners, Architects, Politians? And where is the opinion of the existing population of Redfern, until more recently working-class and Indigenous Australians, who are in essence being displaced by this process...

Smart Design Studio, Bourke St, Surry Hills

Smart Design Studio’s Office in Bourke St, Surry Hills, while built 5 years ago, still provides an interesting approach to retro fitting within the terrace house module. The frosted glass plates on the building exterior respond the original placement of windows. The tactility of the glass, steel bolts and softly rendered exterior walls (graffiti is a welcome addition) provides, on the exterior at least, a distinction between new and old materials. The Architect and Creative Director of Smart Design Studio, William Smart, has inserted an apartment in steel and glass on top of the structure breaking above the line of the existing streetscape, creating a parasitic structure upon the existing parapet. Interiors have been stripped and replaced with a minimal material pallete of white and soft greys contrasting to the texture of the original brick walls which remain.

http://www.smartdesignstudio.com/index.html#start

Welsh + Major

Tuesday night talks at Tusculum featured the recent works of Sydney Architect's Welsh + Major.

The beauty of the Fitzroy Terrace project is in their approach to the layers of building fabric. By peeling off each layer with respect for it's heritage (significant or otherwise) and making a conscience effort to consider the original functionality of the work and evaluate it's use within the current context; the Architect's were able to juxtaposed the layers of original texture and new work in a way that raises questions about heritage value in Australia.

>www.bustler.net/index.php/article/winners_of_australian_2009_nsw_architecture_awards<

for details of the Francis Greenway Award

>www.australiandesignreview.com/projects/12439-Pitt-Street-House-Redfern-Welsh-Major<

for Marcus Trimble’s Comments

Images from Welsh+Major's website >www.welshmajor.com<

Urban pockets was started to catalogue a series of forgotten spaces of the city which create the tactility of the urban fabric. This "grit" or "petina" of the city occurs over time and usually through pure necessities of day-to-day survival. When these spaces no longer fulfill the needs of their required function they are often abandoned and lost.

The beauty these spaces hold is when their original programme is transformed, again often by necessity, and their possibility and placing within the meile` of the urban fabric can be explored...

Brooklyn, NY__warehouses transformed by artists and designers into habitable living spaces.

Urban Pockets is online

Welcome to Urban Pockets. Exploring the potential of forgotten spaces.

Stay tuned...