bricks for thought

We'd like to introduce you to our lovely friend Yeong and her awesome blog called down the rabbit hole. Yeong is a writer and she has written a great piece about us here at bricks + cartwheels. 

It's called bricks for thought, and we're actually overwhelmed by her words. We're sure Yeong is going to make a huge name for herself in the world of journalism. She really does have a way with words, and we're so excited she has written something about us! Make sure you check out the blog here and the bricks for thought story here!

a little herb garden

When we were last in Kenya, I planted a herb garden with Basil (my favourite), Parsley, Chives, Coriander and Mint. It made our not so great food that little bit better! Nothing like some Basil to add some fresh zing to a pasta sauce. I've just planted a herb garden on my balcony in Sydney, but wishing that I had these so I could have them all organised on the kitchen window sill.Available from one of our favourite shops, top3 by design, the Eva Solo pots are self watering. The vase in the base of the pot holds the water for the wick to bring up to the soil as the plant requires it. How cool is that?

designer drinks september 08

Another successful designer drinks was held this month at the Faculty of Architecture, Design + Planning - University of Sydney.

Thank you must go to Alister, a long time and particularly valuable b+c team member! He is always ready and willing to spread the word about the project and rallied everyone together to part with their gold coins for the night. Thanks also to all the thirsty students who together raised $234.80 for the secondary school for Girls in Katolo!!

Until next time, here's cheers!

Quentin Bryce

There was a great interview on the 7:30 report ABC with our new Governor General Quentin Bryce. Quentin is Australia's first female head of state and after a life time of feminist activisim Quentin told Kerry O'Brien how it feels and how she still wants to make a difference. 

Quentin has made alot of firsts in her amazing career, she was one of Australia's first female barristers and the first woman appointed to the University of Queensland's Law School. She has broken the mould again by giving a lengthy and informal interview as Govenor General, and what she hopes to achieve in the job.  

Quentin Bryce is an amazing person and has really made her mark on the women's movement in Australia. This interview is definitely one to watch! You can find it here. 

the last king of scotland

Last week I watched The Last King of Scotland. In alot of ways it was a hard movie to watch. The movie is a fictional story but is based on the factual events of the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin's rule. Which in itself is horrific. 

What I found very impressive and brave about this movie is that Amin is portrayed not only as a crazed dictator but as a real human. This is a great movie and really is worth the watch, it is so interesting to see the Ugandan  people go from chanting supporters to horrified victims of the dictatorship. It's no wonder Forrest Whitaker won the Oscar for this.

soundscapes

Has anyone else been following Pia's soundscapes? They are amazing and can transport you all around the world..... from Paris to Amsterdam and even Sydney's Northern beaches. This soundscape is especially special and really is worth the click, it transports you to a beautiful place and a very intimate little concert. 

We've mentioned Pia before here and here , she is amazing. 

twelve canoes

A friend who lives in the NT has recently alerted us to the digital media project twelve canoes. It is a website presenting, in an artistic, cultural and educational context, the stories, art and environment of the Yolngu people who live around the Arafura swamp in north-eastern Arnhem Land.

The collective, presents aspects of their present and everyday lives in their hometown of Ramingining.

The website has been created and developed by Ten Canoes filmmaker Rolf de Heer and Molly Reynolds in conjunction with a consultative committee from the Ramingining Community who are all community elders and artists in their own right.

It truly is a beautiful website - very well laid out with an abundance of artworks and informative short fims! The other 13-18 canoe projects, all works in progress, can be found here...

susannah stone

Susannah Stone, who recently performed at the bricks + cartwheels Orange Launch back in June this year, is now back in Nashville TN singing up a storm!

So for anyone who is in the area... make a date at The Blue Bar to see this talented singer/songwriter perform - the b+c gals know how good she is so it's only fair you do too! Visit her myspace for a demo or two.

on my wish list...

PlayPumps International’s mission is to help improve the lives of children and their families by providing easy access to clean drinking water, enhancing public health, and offering play equipment to millions of people across Africa. The PlayPump water system are innovative, sustainable, patented water pumps powered by children at play. Installed near schools, the PlayPump system doubles as a water pump and a merry-go-round for children. Already in communities across South Africa, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia- they are currently expanding to Kenya and fingers crossed we'll be able to work together to bring clean drinking water and a whole lot of fun for the kids of Katolo!

Have a look at their cool bags on flashbags - I am eyeing off the Spinning Smiles extra large box bag, with 10% of the profits going directly to PlayPumps International. It is on my Christmas list already- what a cool way to start a conversation...

we have an announcement.....

bricks + cartwheels is hosting their very first inaugural Gala Dinner, and we are inviting you to attend! It is on the 1st of November at The Red Box in Lilyfield, Sydney and we're so excited! Check out our invitation designed by the lovely Gemma Lush our talented graphic designer.

It is going to be a great night with lots of food, drinks, dancing and general fun. With ALL proceeds going towards the Secondary School for Girls in Katolo, Kenya. We understand that for some $120.00 is alot of money but we can promise it will be a night to remember with amazing African entertainment and loads of great prizes (Bholu is one of our generous sponsors). We even have a short film of recent footage from the community of Katolo.



For more information or to buy a ticket visit our website here. We hope to see some of you there!

sydney african film festival 08

It's on again. The Sydney African Film Festival returns to the Chauvel in Paddington from Friday 26th – 28th of September 2008.

Anyone who attends the festival will be helping Hands of Help achieve their goal of building equality in communities of Uganda and Kenya with ALL money raised from the festival going directly to the projects.

The movie being screened on opening night, A Walk to Beautiful looks amazing! To buy your tickets online visit here.

Mitchell Road Auction house

The Mitchell Road auction house in Alexandria is a recent find of ours. It is a treasure trove of amazing things. We could spend hours and hours trawling through all the beautiful things at this place. The downstairs is full of everything you could possibly think of from lawnmowers, surf boards and bikes to side boards, desks, chairs and lamps. This is where the auction items are and they're a bit more rough and ready. 

Upstairs is a retro lovers dream. The most beautiful chairs, tables, lamps, glasses, jars, typwriters and clothes.... just to name a few things! This is where the impatient buyer can get a quick hit. No auctions up here. Well worth a visit, the website is here. 

how could you resist....

Now this is what I call awesome toys! Beautiful minimalist wooden toys from where else but Sweden. Momoll which means "yeah, yeah" in Swedish/German slang is the name of this great kids design company. 

 I would have killed for these dolls houses and even this toy stove..... what a way to instil good design in small children. Get them young I say.....

Found via Famille Summerbelle.

friday afternoon inspiration

A few beautiful photos of inspiring spaces to get everyone through the rest of this Friday afternoon. The first three are The Hof residence, designed by Studio Granda..... isn't it amazing.

The next few images are of a lovely apartment in Amsterdamn, I think we all at bricks + cartwheels could very easily live or work here. The light is lovely. 

The Hof house found here and the apartment found here.

richard allen

Currently on at the Richard Martin Art gallery in Woollahra is an amazing exhibition by Richard Allen. Anthology is on until 23 september and it is a must see!

With not one brush used on any of the works, Allen evokes the beauty and movement of the animals with expressive gestural marks on canvas. The small ink works on paper are just exquisite also.

The works are powerful and possess great energy - we wanted to take them all home!
Pictured are a couple of our favs (of course we love the african animals the most) Face Off and Ink Hippo above and the beautiful Red Stork below.
For more of these delights visit here.... but nothing beats seeing them in the flesh!

elephant pepper

A friend recently alerted us to the Elephant Pepper Development Trust - they seek to preserve Africa's threatened elephant population.

Their mission is to promote the livelihood of farmers living in elephant range through training, the deployment of appropriate conflict mitigation methods and development of agricultural techniques which promote elephant conservation. By promoting effective farming techniques crop security for rural communities in Africa is also improved.

How you ask? Well one of the ways is through chillis! These hot peppers are being used by farmers to protect their crops from elephants as they are known to hate chilli! Elephants cause widespread damage to crops. With only 20% of elephants in Africa formally protected this has lead to massive decreases in elephant populations in some local areas where people are forced to compete with them over food.

The organisation is currently working the the following countries.

You can also buy Elephant Pepper produce at their online hot shop!

sustainable house day - this weekend

This weekend is the 7th annual Sustainable House Day. Throughout Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th of September all across Australia sustainable homes will be open to the public. For open house locations click here. It's a great opportunity to check out how the ideas of sustainability can be put into practice. Image from here.

Thanks for the heads up daily imprint, a great blog to check out!

congratulations Bholu!

Big news from Bholuland over the weekend. Bholu won the Telstra Business award for social responsibility. Congratulation to Jodie and all our Bholu friends, what exciting news! Of course you deserve it, we always knew you were amazing and it's not surprising everyone else does too. 

If you haven't heard about Bholu you should make sure you check them out. Jodie is pictured above and is the founder of Bholu. We've mentioned them here before. They are a wonderful design company that has a beautiful range of products and they also are a fair trade company with a social conscience. 

facade

What a talented photographer Tom Evangelidis is. His exhibition Facade celebrates the colourful patchwork of architectural styles from Prague, Bucharest, Hanoi, St Petersburg, Sophia, Istanbul and Havana. Not your typical postcard images, he captures honest details - peeling paint of once beautiful homes, concrete monstrosities.... each work revealing intricate links to politics, culture and class.

The book is also beautiful! The exhibition is on at the Depot Gallery from Sept 2 - 6

grand designs + kevin

This is a top watch, if not for the architecture lovers amongst us then for those who love to see people reaching for their goals and their dream home (some more dreamier than others...)

Kevin McCloud is the writer and presenter of Grand Designs and oh how we love his little words of wisdom - such as this which i found here:
'...it’s important to remember how all good architecture adds to places by enriching our environment, not by ticking boxes and conforming to a series of policy requirements. Good architecture has individuality and soul, man.'

Kevin accompanies self-builders on their journey to create their dream home, as he offers advice, guidance and often a sympathetic ear as budgets and schedules inevitably run over...as they always do! This weeks episode was classic! Kevin was worried about the outcome of the huge Lime Kiln House, but came to the conclusion once weathered a little this house will settle into its environment... hmm

We love how each build pushes the boundaries in some form or another, whether it be in the materials, siting, scale or the spaces themselves. You can catch Grand Designs now airing Tuesdays at 8:30 ABC.

tennis

We all love playing tennis, and we're always talking about getting ourselves organised to play regularly. Well I've finally got myself organised and am playing every Saturday. It's great, and surely as they say practice makes perfect, or even just a bit better? 

The lovely ladies in these photos look far too elegant to be playing tennis. I might try their outfits this week! The photos are a bit blurry but there is something so interesting about them, old photos can do that i suppose. We found them here and here. 

a new blog to watch

Sophie Daley the photographer and bikini designer, previously mentioned here has a new blog. It's called my lens of love and is a collection of photography, design, moments, art, music and people that inspire Sophie. It's sure to become a daily read, as with everything the talented Sophie does it looks beautiful. 

a trip to the library - john wardle

We had a bricks + cartwheels working day on Sunday. We spent half the day working on the design brief for the school, we're getting it ready to send off to Kenya for community feedback. The rest of the day we spent at the library! 

We wanted to check out the new John Wardle building at the Univeristy of Sydney, especially the new library. When we were at uni we had our very own library within the architecture faculty, and it has now moved to the new building and is integrated with the engineering library. 

We spent our last year at university watching the John Wardle building take shape, and slowly becoming a very cool building. We all really like the building and enjoyed watching it all being built. On Sunday we were a little disappointed with the some of the interiors of the building..... BUT it isn't quite finished and really it is an amazing building. 

One thing we do hope is that not too many architecture books have been put in storage, they seemed to be a bit light on the shelves. 

cockatoo island - sydney biennale

Two of the bricks + cartwheels girls finally made it to cockatoo island on saturday. As promised here is a little taste of what the biennale has to offer when you make the hop to the island.

We first came across the work of William Kentridge. After being told about this amazing artwork by one of the b+c gals it didn't disappoint! The above image is What Will Come (Has Already Come) (2007). It is a film seen in a cylindrical mirror on a table, composed of revolving images – from familiar carousel animals through to tanks and aeroplanes.

I am not me, the horse is not mine (2008), is a multi-channel projected work based on The Nose (1837) by Nikolai Gogol. It is an awesome display that keeps you transfixed with its mixture of self-reflective, and absurd cutouts and projections. The music combined with the building itself made this our favourite art piece on the island by far.

Another fav was Vernon Ah Kee's exhibit of 12 charcoal and pastel drawings on canvas that continue his series of portraits of his family. The focus of each subject is their ‘gaze’ – the way they look back at the viewer. The detail at such a large scale is sheer genious!

Of course the buildings and the site itself blew us away! There was plenty of ooing and aahing over architectural details, in particular the impressive Turbine Hall built during World War II. The island's prison buildings have been nominated for World Heritage listing and the large workshops, slipways, wharves, residences and other buildings retain the texture of the island's industrial past.

From animal mobiles fashioned out of hard case luggage to boomerang shaped canoes, there is so much to see you must take a visit - but beware this is the last week!! The Sydney Biennale finishes on Sunday Sept 7th. So hurry along to catch the free ferry t0 the island before its too late... if you do miss it you can always take a visit in another form - camping! This is a camping experience like no other. Newly opened you can now enjoy a night sleeping on the harbour under the watch of dormant cranes and chimneys - our next weekend workshop for b+c perhaps...?