Gall Architects in Red Hill, Queensland, Australia | Home improvement
Gall Architects
Locality: Red Hill, Queensland, Australia
Phone: +61 417 741 292
Address: 14 Jay Street 4059 Red Hill, QLD, Australia
Website: http://gallarchitects.com.au/
Likes: 122
Reviews
to load big map
24.01.2022 The title is hard to resist, but it really is a good message.
23.01.2022 Its been a crazy first half of the year. Finally, one of the little projects to show off. I hardly ever do houses. There's never much thought and modesty involved. An earlier one got there through designing "stuff" away. This one came with lovely people and was there already. A beautiful high and lonesome site with an obvious strategy: leave this world with all its violence and grasping and enter another, peaceful and simple one by passing through a wall and hidden courtyards.
21.01.2022 BIG THINKING, SMALL HOUSING. I'm tired. Getting to the frantic end of another year of ...adventures. Tired of hearing the same conversation about housing, sustainability, design etc, etc. Tonight there was a presentation of QUT students' optimistic, practical and thoughtful work about beautiful small housing that made a pleasant and attractive place to live. It was, for all intents and purposes, stamped into the ground by boring conventionalists rediscovering/re-stating the ...issues, making the the same opposing arguments and frowning about the same dilemmas -following the market v. shifting the market (the vicious cycle of demand and choices provided was well documented in 1993) I wanted to ask what year it was ...1995? But, fortunately probably, time ran out for questions because of ongoing discussion about the financial models. Discussion dominated by serious men who really seem to think they know best. The future is determined by what we desire and imagine. The students are right and the old blokes wrong. One more conversation, supposedly about a better future, ruined by the same imagined/constructed ( that is, not real) divide between those with imagination and heart and unthinking convention. The problems of 1995 have not been dealt with or even seriously considered. They've gotten worse. The dilemmas do not exist. See more
17.01.2022 Gold Coast the bellwether city?
16.01.2022 These are some of the Tourism Destination images (see the earlier Samoa Climate Change Adaptation post).
16.01.2022 Climate change adaptation in Samoa (the capital Apia and Tourism Destination Areas). The core of this is development of social, economic and urban planning strategies. But I was lucky to have a small role in ideas and images: places can be better if good responses are acted on, rather than the blunt (an ineffective, largely) "engineering" instruments. Apia images.
16.01.2022 Alejandro Aravena is a brilliant selection for the 2016 Pritzker Prize (essentially the worlds best architect). He's not just done architecture that is outstanding technically and sculpturally (aesthetically) but he's addressed the foundation of unsustainability -poverty. Poverty, manifest as homelessness, is an issue most of us don't want to see much less take on in our work. Even government has turned its gaze away. Alejandro Aravena's work involves the building of basic ...shells that people can fit out themselves. Clearly there are barriers of skills and quality that he has addressed. The "win, win" with this work is that not only is the housing financially possible but the homes made are better because of the engagement of people in the making. Why can't we do this here in Australia? The barrier of skills and knowledge is strong because we are educated and regulated to be disconnected from skills that make us self reliant. But the main answer is the Finance Industry. What is needed is some imagination put to the questions: How can we structure finance through time?: and how can we provide shifting risk/security (say from government to homeowner? Of course the bigger question is: How can we change ourselves so we value helping people out of poverty? Given that the experiment of economic rationalism and Thatcherism has been a dismal failure and we've forgotten that the Economy is a means to an end, not an end in itself: that the economy is for people not the other way around. See more
16.01.2022 Pro Puu is a collection of woodcrafters from Lahti in Finland. Its a beautiful City (which used to have only wooden buildings) by a Lake. Their studio/gallery is in old ex-factory building near the Sibelius Hall on the Lake. Their work is almost indescribably beautiful. These are lamps made from timber recovered from an excavation in the city.
15.01.2022 This, of course, threatens the romance and tendency to eurocentrism of New Urbanism and much of the perspective of architecture and urbanism these days. The challenge is really to get back to first principles of climate, land, ... country. The first part of the project is to get urbanised people aware of climate in the first place, since we are highly disconnected. The goal is to build culture from the ground up ... oh, and by-the-way, with the help of STEM, not as a kind of decoration of it.
13.01.2022 This is very important because the focus is on caring ("making a difference") the social, and ultimately economic, importance of design as a process. The opposite of arrogance and elitism. It is a glimpse of a future for architecture that, sadly, is the opposite of the dominant paradigm and direction in Australia.
13.01.2022 OK. A challenge. This is one of a couple of bus stop "shelters" that serve hundreds of school students each day. Awful. The "Awfulisers" (see Michael Leunig) have been at work: cutting costs, standardising, ensuring advertising visibility, etc. Everything but providing shelter. It faces west onto a wide, busy road and is backed by a high, masonry/brick wall. No shade, no protection from SW and W winds/storms, little rain protection and a nasty little space behind it. And of c...ourse, its cut off from cooling SE and NW breezes -mind you they'd be heated up by all the hard, heavy, dark surfaces. As Scott Lossee recently pointed out, There is a recent, long prescriptive, detail document on the "design" of bus stop shelters. It contains two, brief dot-points about "shelter". In the 21st Century we are disconnected from the existence of climate ... weather. So, I will be doing a little project. making some design proposals and images of what this shelter could (should?) be like if it is to provide ... shelter for its users. Please join me in coming up with some suggestions.
12.01.2022 There is a simple lesson here for Brisbane ... Queensland ... Australia. Its not to do with typology , style or appearance. As it says, this is not rocket science, its good, simple design put in place despite Planning Regulations and despite the questioning of globalisation. It's especially relevant in Brisbane where we are in the process, largely, of putting in place the equivalent of this projects preceding disaster: guided by, for the worse, a cacophony of regulations and... political machinations. Doing good housing is so easy, so why has it become so hard? And ... why are we still having the conversations we had 25 years ago? See more
12.01.2022 You could do worse than to read Henry (Thoreau).
08.01.2022 Although Donald Trump is not directly "our problem", his rhetoric (attractive to his supporters) and his ethics (maybe ...) are, as many have said, indicative of a global, Western, social problem (perhaps malaise) that we must respond to. Its a bit late since we should have responded before the event, but nevertheless ... So, this is worth a read and perhaps inspiration for action. Funny how this kind of "collapse" could make us all better in the end. And who could blame people who are worse off as a result of globalisation, prioritisation of Economy as a core of culture and life, and Cuts ...always Cuts ... What is the positive consequence of good design for people's lives?
07.01.2022 To keep things tidy and sensible, here is a Facebook page for my design practice. I'll start building up content. I'll put up images from projects I'm working on and thoughts/ideas as they come up. gall architects aims to put content before form, to make good design accessible and to help, in a small way, make life better for people by designing places that are easy and enjoyable to live in. That is the core of Sustainment (sustainable and sustaining).... That sounds simple so it will be interesting to illustrate it means through this page. gall architects has begun to expand its architecture and design. If you have a look at the web site you'll see the range in scale and type of projects.
07.01.2022 Worth a read! Pros and Cons are listed honestly. Small home thinking can sometimes be too Utopian. Match this against the way you live. Definitely a worthwhile exercise.
07.01.2022 The focus here is on content and experience of places -how great it feels to be somewhere or to live, work or visit a building, landscape or town. Not that surface and appearance isn't important. Its just that surface and appearance is the first and typically only, thing thought about. So, one place to start thinking ... Wabi-Sabi... It is a Beauty of things imperfect, impermanent and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional. Metaphysical Basics Things are either devolving toward, or evolving from, nothingness Values Truth comes from the observation of nature Greatness exists in the inconspicuous and overlooked details Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness State of Mind Acceptance of the inevitable Appreciation of the cosmic order Moral Precepts Get rid of all that is unnecessary Focus on the intrinsic and ignore material hierarchy Material Qualities The suggestion of natural process Irregular Intimate Unpretentious Earthy Murky Simple Leonard Koren, 1994
06.01.2022 This is a low-cost, zero energy house. Passive-wise it has a BERS rating of 9.5 stars. Its on a farm site between Warwick and Killarney. The climate is fairly harsh: cold/dry/frost winters but usually sunny during the day; hot/dry/stormy/glare in summer. Not a place for looking after your skin. The site is exposed, grassy and almost treeless. It drops to fertile black soil flats near the Condamine (the upper reaches), but the rolling hills are poor(ish) (Podsols?). Of cours...e the best views are towards the west and south-west, right where the blasting sun and "weather" come from. Hence the "veranda" that can be closed off. Its off the grid: PV/battery main supply, emergency backup generator, gas backup for solar hot water, gas for cooking in summer and a wonderful, proper wood stove for winter heating and cooking. 2 Bedrooms but built in bunks/seats mean it can sleep up to 10. See more
05.01.2022 http://www.architectmagazine.com//after-cop21-where-we-go-
05.01.2022 Oh yep. Perfectly not perfect. How to make a this into a place to live. Its simple, its clear, its honest and its made by the most brilliant hands and voices.
04.01.2022 Some simple economic analysis that makes some simple conclusions about urban living versus suburban. "Affordable" housing is not affordable if its far from where you have to go to work, shop, socialise etc. So, if you want suburban sprawl people have to be able to largely stay put -services must be nearby. Or, public transport should be cheap and convenient. All this is leaving aside the productivity reduction of longer travel, the costs of roads, etc. Its also putting aside ...the impacts on the land of sprawl in terms of conservation (health, psychological and emotional amenity) and loss of productive land. It all starts to look like smallish clusters (dare I say villages) and a small number of bigger, denser centres connected by really good public transport. This is absolutely not how our cities are conceived or designed now. http://www.planetizen.com/node/86202/selling-smart-growth
03.01.2022 Urban Design. I thought Architecture was misunderstood, even ...especially by Architects. But Urban Design seems to be the galaxy you glimpse in the periphery of your vision, in the night sky, which disappears when you look directly at it. Recently a few people seemed to agree that it is "the glue" that ties together architecture, landscape architecture, planning and engineering. That is, of course wrong and a dangerous analogy should it escape in to the public realm. Urban ...Design is the multidisciplinary practice that manages all those (and more: biological sciences, social sciences, anthropology, social psychology, phenomenology, etc., etc.). It is overarching, not stuck between. Urban Design is the multidisciplinary practice for designing human habitation. At all scales. At all levels. John Byrne has made the point that Urban Design has to engage with people ("the community" ... which has become something of a condescending term) -open up the discussion and debates, demonstrate what can be done, etc., -so that people can see how important it is, how it simply makes their daily lives better. They might then value it: dragging government and the academy along with them. Ironically, like Architecture, most harm is done to the the Urban Design profession by what urban designers say and do. Experienced people who don't really have a clear conception of what they do. Perpetuating cliches and myths - which are believed and acted on by people, governments and the academy.
03.01.2022 The title says it all. Something the Gold Coast might invest in as its Commonwealth Games legacy. Oh ... as well as its massive homelessness problem ... but that's another story.
01.01.2022 If they're thinking about this in NYC ... why aren't we?
