Site Measure Revelations - The Walnut Banquet

Glutony takes many forms.

As the weather got colder... a rodent seeks warmth, shelter and security.

Rodent finds warmth through fire.

Rodent finds shelter within wall cavity.

Rodent finds security 2 storeys up within wall cavity.

Times are glorious and the wee bugger has a banquet!

fancy pants friday

To mark our inaugural Friday in the new office we have declared today be a

 'fancy pants friday'.

Jeremy appears to be leading the charge...

Ben is not far behind with some sweet houndstooth...

Mike's pinstripe isn't quite cutting the mustard in such heady competition however he is sporting a cravat...

keep it secret - keep it safe

Lloyd Hartley Architects are currently looking for premises. 

During our prospective visits we've come across all manner of things.

 But this is just a little bit special...

Hidden beneath this cover plate in a concrete floor is....

This!

Combination unknown...

LHA Staple Off

There comes a time when a human must look into one's self and ask some serious questions, some of which can't be answered...

Here at LHA we are a supportive bunch and decided to lend each other some advice in order to help answer these behemoth queries, queries such as which way to tackle a stack of paper with a stapler!

Do you take Ben's 'toy soldier' approach and bang it straight up and down in the 12o'clock position?

Or perhaps you follow Mike and whip it in horizontally sending the 'aeroplane' across the page?

Or, maybe you're still a bit confused like myself and can't decide which is more appropriate... so you take the best of both, cut it up the middle, and fang it in sideways!

Considering I'm writing this post, I can also add that the 45degree pin allows for a near perfect fold when reading through multiple page stapled documents.

 

I hope this helps next time you're confronted by a stack of processed timber and armed with tiny pieces of folded steel!

- jeremy

Embracing the festive season..

Seasons Greetings from the team at LHA.

Happy summertime reading. 

-Suki

Hidden Treasure

Holy Family Catholic Church
94 Taikata Road
Te Atatu Peninsula

Architects: KRTA (Kingston, Reynolds, Thom & Allardice)
Built: 1964



An absolute stunner of a building we came across en route to a site measure last week. The church was designed by a leading Kiwi firm from this period who were well renowned for their integration of architectural and engineering expertise, and responsible for many of the original buildings on the University of Auckland city campus. The acceleration in technological development following the Second World War lead to the use of new construction techniques and materials, including the introduction of precast concrete systems as both structure and cladding. KRTA were quick to employ these methods and take advantage of factory-made components, as visible through the incredible finesse in which they have been applied in the design of this church.

The visually dynamic A-frame structure minimises obstruction caused by internal supports, allowing for an undisturbed void within. The use of a moat-like external drainage system collects and removes rainwater from the building.

Light floods in through a series of openings located on the bottom side of each angled wall, with a large decorative partially-coloured glass end wall. The repetition, alignment and variation in thickness evident in both the sculptural precast concrete panels and openings combine to provide us with a thoughtfully designed visual feast.

Worth stopping by if you're ever out that way...



henceforth
suki

 

 

bacon stone

We went to Italian Stone the other day is search of beautiful stone.

We found this...

It's name: Onice Fantastico 

While it is fantastic - we're calling it Bacon Stone.  

Anyone been thinking about opening that steak house or speciality butcher?

 We think we can help you...

casting

I've always wanted to sneak inside the hallowed doors of Millar Paterson Metals...

Today we did just that.  And the experience was just lovely.

fabricated place

This semester, we're teaching Design 6 at the The University of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning

title: 

FABRICATED PLACE

program:

An architecture that catalyses meaningful collaborative exchanges and assists in the formation of community by providing a site for shared experiences.

key collaborator:

AUCKLAND AIRPORT

original image courtesy auckland airport

project vehicle:
Auckland Airport wish to fabricate place to augment ‘The District’ and operate as a nucleus of collaborative work space within The Quad Precinct. 

Auckland Airport have a 20 – 30 year vision for the Quad Precinct however they wish to build community and provide extraordinary collaborative work amenity in the short to medium term. The brief of this project is to explore and present strategies both at an urban design scale and a particular scale for how Auckland Airport can develop The Quad Precinct to provide this amenity.

This is a live project with a real client and has real intentions for a built outcome. 

design intentions: 
Fabricated Place studio explores the role of architecture in catalysing meaningful exchanges and the formation of community through shared experiences. The studio will also analyse and extrapolate through design action the possibilities inherent in offsite construction. 

The design agenda is: 
fabricated landscape + fabricated shelter = fabricated place 

original image courtesy Holgar Lippmann  

generative art based Peter De Jong map equations

Fabrications [stories and elegant lies]

Through active research, drawing, modelling and writing, the stories of the site and context will be represented, reviewed and opportunities for nodes of congregation and the interstices that link them will be offered. Through a distillation of the environment’s context, a site strategy will be formed.

original image courtesy SHoP

CAMERA OBSCURA

Fabrications [off site systems of manufacture]

The studio group will undertake a series of site visits to a number of fabricators. These visits paired with further research and a extrapolative design process will result in at least two fabrication strategies being explored in terms of qualities for fabricating landscape and shelter to produce elegant systems of construction. 

Details are strategies for how materials, forms and stories meet – these fabrications will be worked – collusions and corroborations made and presented.

what we're watching and listening to

We live in fantastic age.

Information is abundant and is often packaged in delicious ways.

Our favoured information snacks are podcasts and here's our sweetest sources...

99%invisible 
This is 'a tiny radio show about design, architecture & the 99% invisible activity that shapes our world.' Roman Mars, Sam Greenspan and their team of collaborators create aurally complex, informative and often humourous revelations on all aspects of our built environment. 
These podcasts are all beautifully produced and well worth a listen.
We like...

best beer 

design for airports

escalators

cul de sac

TED

technology   |   education   |   design

All things we're really into.

Here's some proponents who we quite like...

Paula Scher
Ken Jennings
Ken Robinson
Sean Achor
Shea Hembrey

Design Matters

Debbie Millman leads us via her extremely well researched and cut to the chase manner through a series of notable 'graphic designers, change agents, artists, writers and educators.'

Humorous and not afraid to ask the tricky questions, these are a delight and a must for anyone who cares.

Our choice selection...

Alexander Isley

Massimo Vignelli

Stephan Sagmeister

Maria Popova

James Victore

Tim Brown

Marian Deuchars

Find them in the iTunes store...

Monocle
A world watch news feed: covering magazine, radio and film genres. 
We like their short and informative films.  The narrators all have beautiful enunciation.

Here's an assortment of their recent offerings:
House Vision
Sharpen Up
The how to generation
The High Life


Needless to say these are all available through iTunes... go get them, you'll love your commute for it.  

folk...

The American Folk Art Museum is set to be demolished a mere 12 years after its completion.  

This is a crying shame.

The Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects designed building is a stunning example of a purposeful and beautifully crafted space that once housed an eclectic collection of Folk Art and is a lovely public building.

As an exposé of circulation - it is delicious.

There are critics who believe that the gallery spaces are poor for showing art.  Possibly a fair call if you are trying to house multiple Mark Rothko or Anselm Kiefer paintings.  However  the American Folk Art Museum's collection pieces were of a much smaller scale. The almost living room scaled spaces allowed a close, personal interaction with these pieces.  

We can only hope MoMA have very good intentions for the site and that the wonderful cast white bronze facade elements are reintegrated somewhere...

ilam shed - sketch design

Part of a conceptual proposal undertaken in 2011 for the University of Canterbury 

to revitalise a series of relocatable buildings into a temporary post-quake campus.

Lloyd Hartley’s brief was to create a student-friendly café within this campus that 

doubles as a function space. By extrapolating the shed form of the original building 

an outdoor courtyard was formed beneath a whimsical and ethereal canopy.

christchurch | memorial + resilience + colour

Not far from the site of the CCTV building devastation; 

a poignant and arresting installation of '185 chairs' rest.

The work, by Pete Majendie, pays silent homage to those who lost their lives in the earthquake of February 2011.

This is the installation's second place of repose and is well sited to take in the construction of the Cardboard Cathedral.

The principal driver behind this work is the indomitable Shigeru Ban and I for one, am pleased there is such a display of Christchurch's resilience being carried out.

I look forward to a moment of reflection within what I'm sure will be an exquisite condition of light.

Not far away, in the thick of the concrete jungle, Ash Keating is bringing some serious colour into play with his work concrete propositions.

henceforth...

mike