New Zealand Dave Launder

Dave Launder, New Zealand : Glenn Murcutt Master Class 2001

[house : new zealand: rural : nzia award]

Kaitawa Road House, Lower Hutt, near Wellington, New Zealand

Dave Launder, Kaitawa Road House, near Wellington, New Zealand

Dave Launder attended the very first Glenn Murcutt Master Class in 2001, held at Glenn Murcutt's Boyd Education Centre on the Shoalhaven River south of Sydney Australia.

Dave Launder was recipient of a NZIA Supreme Award 2007 (best house of the year) for his Kaitawa Road House - here is part of the jury citation.

Simply straddled log-like across a watercourse, the Kaitawa Road House’s extended linear form responds strongly and deliberately to the striated landscape, climate, agricultural buildings and restricted access to the river valley. Cavalier and cunning, this environmentally hardworking house challenges current construction practice as it actively participates with the elements in the rural paddock.

This house is an excellent model of the architect’s own home as tester of ideas; a home that is at once inventive and familiar. A shed skewed across a shallow gulley has a regular arrangement of structure and enclosure that is highly ordered yet relaxed and loosened by the overlap of domestic use and the playful creation of visual connections within.

At the NZIA Awards Ceremony, Dave Launder, as he left the platform after receiving the award, came to Master Class Convener Lindsay Johnston and said - "this wouldn't have happened if I had not attended the Murcutt Master Class".

"The Glenn Murcutt Master Class of 2001 was a (rather belated) turning point in my career as an architect, to meet and learn from the four of you was something that I should have done in my forties when I was building structures as sculptures, interesting shapes perhaps but with no cognisance of their deeper needs or the total environment.

To hear, in particular, Richard Lelastrier's approach to simplicity and to work through how simplicity could hold poetry and romance, to look at how Glenn met primary needs and made beauty and to learn how to tie all these approaches to the specific environment can be so obvious – it should be essential for every mature architect."

Dave Launder -

http://www.nzarchitect.com

www.ozetecture.org

Lindsay Johnston4 June 2016

Juan Carlos Eugene Soler : Glenn Murcutt Master Class 2001

54th Central Glass International Design Competition, Tokyo, Japan

‘Architecture That Generates New Sakariba’ - 2019

The Japanese ‘Central Glass International Design Competitions’ have been run each year since 1966. The 2019 competition attracted 188 international entries. Seven were shortlisted and Eugene’s entry was placed second.

[ theoretical proposition, metaphor, solar energy, technology, sustainability, community ]

‘MOON LANDING’

It is in our deepest primal instinct as social beings that people gather in a communal place that gives us a sense of culture and belonging. We gather around the warmth and wonder of campfire under the stars and share memories and stories. Or by day, under the cool shade of a tree- a natural place to meet a lover or exchange knowledge. Such place that delivers these conditions perhaps is the genesis of ‘Sakariba’.

The proposal is a massive balloon structure that can create and harness energy from the Sun whilst defining space underneath its volume, where people of all ages can gather to meet, play or ‘hangout’. The ‘Moon Landing’ hopes to create a central place for gathering where business and commerce are encouraged and generate ‘Sakariba’.

On a hot summer or rainy day, people can gather under its shade. On a cloudy day, the balloon structure can rise above the clouds where it can efficiently harness energy from the Sun. At night, it becomes a light source and a signal to attract people and when it descends it creates a space where people can gather around its warm glow. The ‘Moon Landing’ has all these features at the same time providing sustainable energy to its local community.

This idea is not science fiction but actually a very feasible means of efficiently combining what is currently being developed in balloon technology, sustainability, science and art. What is new is the realignment of technology to create a more poetic and meaningful purpose to reinvigoration local culture, religion, myths and stories, which is appropriate when it needs to be integrated in local communities. Especially to the 25% of the world’s population which has no or lack access to electricity. Such space offers a wonderful chance for the community to be activated, bring people together and encourage businesses and various activities.

By combining a strong metaphor with technology and sustainability- the proposal hopes to address not only the community’s basic needs but also hopes to give a deep importance and meaning in local culture and tradition to bring people together and organically for business growth and generate a ‘New Sakariba’

Moreover, in a world where we have Internet connection but seem to be ‘disconnected’- the ‘Moon Landing’ can be a benefit to existing ‘Sakariba’ not only to reduce the abundant energy we are drowning in, but also to remind us to look up and realize our place in the Universe and encourage real connection with each other.

Architect : Eugene Soler

Awards : 54th Central Glass International Design Competition _ Second Place

Web site : http://www.ateliersoler.com

OZ.E.TECTURE

architects thinking locally acting globally

www.ozetecture.org