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...?