001_Bike

The first thing I found for my bike, Tires. I'm very happy with these, brown with cream walls and 28mm so a little more fat than my current bike's tires. They're Dia Compe Gran Compe ENE Ciclo - which are gear touring tires.
Tom managed to pick up some great wheelset for me too, Alexrims, on Quando hubs, all silver. There are fixed and freewheel cogs on the rear wheel so I can chose my riding style.
Nice one.

I'll keep you posted on my progress. I'm mainly looking for a frame at the moment, a vintage lugged frame would be perfect - especially one located in Aus.

Bike-spiration

Having gone back to uni I found myself with very little time to do anything other than uni work. I thought to myself that there was never a better time to build myself a bike.
Here is one of my biggest inspirations for my building aesthetic. A great team out of New York called Bertelli. They do some great clean vintage bikes. Here are a couple of my favourites.

The first one, I love the paint (rather the clear coat steel finish). I'll definitely be setting up my bike with these great no rise french style bars, and I really like the red brake cable for some reason..

I'll have to go with this paint job, a nice navy blue... I really dig the tires too, i'm on the hunt for white/cream walled tires.
Make sure to check out their bikes on their delightful website.

006_works

This is final installment for my edible garden project and The Right to the City (That is in relation to the exhibition, with a little luck the garden will survive for many more weeks, months and even years).
So, I'll start off with the only part of the garden I didn't build entirely myself. Stage 3, the vertical garden. I managed to get two of my lovely volunteers to use coffee sacks as a soil storage medium. In this garden we planted: lemon thyme, basil, coriander and mint. The coriander didn't last long, i'm not entirely sure what ate it, now we're just left with stalks. (haha)

The vertical garden was definitely the crowd favourite.
I've included some of my sketches amongst the next few images as a comparison of concept and realisation.
This is shows the fourth and final stage of the garden, the 'eclectic' plot as i've been calling it as it was originally supposed to be composed of many pots donated by volunteers, staff etc.. In the end I used coffee sacks which I planted out with a range of plants, from herbs (of course!) to veggies and citrus trees. There are carrots and a few other veggies which won't have reached maturity by the end of the exhibition, which will hopefully give the garden a bit more longevity.

This is one of my favourite parts of the whole project, it anchors the garden to the site. Makes it as though the garden has a place in the courtyard rather than just being wheeled in place for the exhibition. This is my recycled downpipe and gutter setup. Clamps allowed for quick installation on the day, and and easy bump out in the future.

The final part of the project is the DIY hydroponic garden. This consists of milk crates (found in the street), old newspaper, milk bottles and egg cartons collected from work. A big thanks to JD for coming up with this scheme. It adds a nice rustic touch to the whole garden.

To finish off I included an original sketch of how I wanted to pallet garden to work as well as the final result. It was so exciting to see everyone's positive reactions to the garden on opening night. A couple of people said that the garden was their favourite part of the whole exhibition (the people didn't even know that I had played a role in it's creation).

I'll keep you posted on the life of the garden after the exhibition ends.
If the garden is actually going to have some significance and be more than just a token effort that's when I'll find out. This is not the end...

006_inspiration

This firm has to be one of my biggest inspirations to date.
Monday night I went to a talk given by Luis Callejas from Paisajes Emergentes, spanish for "Emerging Landscapes". The firm consists of 3 young Colombian architects (they're all in their late 20s).  The work Luis showed was so beautifully thought through and meticuliously realised, both in terms of physical construction and (predominantly) competition entries.
Recently the Colombian government has introduced laws to reduce corruption, this has manifested itself in the form of architectural competitions open too all firms rather the exclusivist mentality that previously existed.
Here are some examples of works by Paisajes Emergentes:

Firstly a competition as part of an attempt to prevent Heathrow from constructing a third runway in the middle of the surrounding suburbs. Paisajes explored the British laws allowing people to utilise the airspace above their homes. 

Second is another competition that required an existing airport to be converted into a water park. Paisajes used the existing runway as the basis for the 'lake', with various types of water park from swampland to recreational activity lake.

Finally, is one of Paisajes's few built works. A pool complex in their home town in Colombia. They were asked to produce the traditional type of massive building with pools inside. What was produced were outdoor gardens and pools. Beautiful.

Make sure to check out the Paisajas Emergentes website.

005_works

URBAN FARM_PART 2_The No-Dig Method

The No-Dig garden was developed by a Sydney gardener Esther Dean in the 1970's.
As part of the edible garden for The Right to the City I established an experimental bed using this method. I found a great description of the method on the Gardening Australia website. For my own No-Dig garden I used pea straw, chicken manure and compost out of a worm farm. I once again planted various herbs and lettuces such that I could compare the results with the conventional garden I put together at the start of the garden project.

 

 I've included some images of the process above, as well as a photoshopped image that I put together for fun. It was perfect really, once the garden was all put together and smelling of fresh manure a fire alarm forced the inhabitants of the building to evacuate and fill the forecourt. People were somewhat forced to look at the next stage of the garden. Great!

Stay tuned for more updates...

005_inspiration

While looking through BLDGBLOG the other day I came across this amazing video. It is so beautifully shot and elegant in it's simplicity. To think it's an ad for a mobile phone.
If only more ads were this unoffensive and sophisticated.



I've watched this so many times. Bach never sounded so good.
It was put together for a Japanese mobile phone company called Docomo by Drill Inc. Drill Inc's website is slightly annoying to use however it is well worth a look.


For the whole article check it out at BLDGBLOG.

004_works

Another poster design for the Architecture faculty. This one is for the annual Debs Ball, this year's theme was Nuts and Bolts.
Here is the development of the poster:

 

 

The green effect was not entirely to plan, it somehow got amplified in the process of emailing it.
I'm really happy with the final outcomes.

004_inspiration

This is a different kind of inspiration to my usual.
I was put onto this link by one of my contacts from the edible garden project. 
This is Milkwood, an amazing project. As they describe it:
   "Milkwood is one small family's shot at being the change we want to see in this world.
    From the bare earth up, we're creating an abundant permaculture farm in the central west
    of NSW, Australia."
One project of their's really caught my eye. They show us how to make a Wicking Garden Bed.

The photos show the base excavation, which is covered with a tarp, filled with gravel, and a water distribution pipe. There is the beginnings of an in-bed worm farm, and the final product. Brilliant.
There are some other cool things on the website, such as worm towers, and links to local permaculture classes and courses.

003_Works

Despite the fact that the day started out with 5 hours and 140kms of driving in a very crude vehicle, today was a most successful day. The edible garden for The Right to the City is officially underway.
Everything went according to plan, and I didn't finish too late. We started out by getting the castors onto pallets to make a base for the movable gardens. Trying to attach the castors to the crate was slightly more difficult, but we got them on and set up the garden bed according to plan.
We planted lettuce, chives, parsley and silverbeet, sprinkled some coffee grounds on the garden to keep the slugs and snails away, and mulched it with 100% recycled pallet mulch which is very cool.
I also hinged two half pallets together to form the beginnings of a vertical garden.

(Clockwise from the top left: the materials in the backyard; getting the castors on; the vertical garden; and the finished crate herb garden)

003_Inspiration

One of my favourite blogs, Inhabitat, came as a great source of inspiration today.
As part of The Right to the City project I've been doing a lot of research into urban agriculture, or permiculture. This is one of the simplest but most effective ideas that I have found to date.
The potential that this project accesses, converting disused concrete lots into flourishing vegetable gardens, could revolutionise city living.

Here is a great video about the Urban Grow Bag:

For the whole article check out Inhabitat.

002_Works

As part of 'The Right to the City' exhibition new month I've been coordinating the creation of an edible garden. I'll post some photos of the progress, and the final result in weeks to come. But in the meantime here is a little poster a put together to go next to the garden to give people a little information about what we're trying to do.
I used one of my favourite poster styles for this one:

For more info about the exhibition check out the website:
www.therighttothecity.com

While we're talking bikes...

And while i'm on the topic of bikes, here is one of the most stunning bikes i've ever wanted to see for real. It's the Montante Maserati 8CTF, modelled after a Maserati that one the Indianapolis 500 in 1940.
Maserati and an Italian bike builder called Cicli Montante to create this €3,000 masterpiece, of which only 200 were made (to commemorate the 200 laps of the race).

Also, a couple of really cool bike movies for good measure:

A Hill in Spain from chris akrigg on Vimeo.

Doom Presents: full-length teaser trailer from wolfgang on Vimeo.

002_inspiration

Sometimes great design is so simple (in fact most of the time the simple stuff is the most elegant), and when you combine a beautiful aesthetic with clever function you get magic.
Here is one such example, thanks to talented furniture maker Chris Brigham. This bike shelf is perfect for the tiny modern apartment.

For more info check out the Knife & Saw website.

001_works

Some friends of mine from university organised a competition as a means of getting the new first year students involved in the faculties extra curricular activities from the get go.
Here are some of the posters I designed for them.

Neither of the teasers (the top two) were used. I was very happy with the final poster (bottom right).

Email Footer

The inc.des.arch logo, turned email footer.
Perhaps it will work now...










Brilliant. It works!!

001_Inspiration

While searching online the other day I came across this very interesting project by Tatiana Bilbao in Ordos, Inner Mongolia.

The eight segments comprising the conceptual house are beautifully realised in this very clean model.
I'm looking forward to seeing a completed home.

More info at:
http://www.archdaily.com/30314/ordos-100-43-tatiana-bilbao/