Oceania Books

Design City Melbourne

Leon Van Schaik
Photography by John Gollings

Wiley Academy, 2006
ISBN-13 978 470 01640 4 (HB)


With a light touch `Design City Melbourne' tells the wonderful story of Melbourne's late 20th century architectural renaissance as an incubator of local design culture. And who better to tell that story than Leon van Schaik AO, Professor of Architecture (Innovation Chair) at RMIT where for 20 years he has been a passionate teacher, curator, administrator and advocate of innovation across the arts. And who better to photograph that story than John Gollings.

The development of Melbourne as a Design City - a city Van Schaik defines as one which is temporarily "hot" with a catalytic mix of curators and creators - has been held in orbit by RMIT during his tenure and dominated by its vociferous architecture programs. Most of the book is taken up with brief biographies of the established and incipient Melbourne architectural glitterati, nearly all of whom are tethered to RMIT in some capacity. Most have been part of its graduate design school, a forum where the theory-practice nexus that Van Schaik insists upon, has been crystallized as nowhere else in this country and for that matter in only a few places around the world.

Descriptions of these people and their practices are framed by a main essay regarding the curatorial methods and agendas Van Schaik developed since his arrival in Melbourne in 1986. Other shorter essays map the links between architecture and the academy, between architecture and other disciplines, and most importantly, between architecture and the city itself.

In short, the story of Melbourne becoming a Design City in the course of the last 20 years is one of how, through this network of interconnections that Van Schaik in no small part engineered, a generation of designers has converted the crippling cringe that generally affects settler societies, in to the source of their liberation. As opposed to recoiling from the global so as to romanticize and essentialise the local, Van Schiak the immigrant, saw the cringe from all sides and exposed Melbourne to a consistent stream of international influences, trusting the locals to make their own, local sense of it.

They were steeled for this by Peter Corrigian and his partner Maggie Edmond who had already pioneered a gritty Melbournian brand of critical regionalism in several small suburban riots. But it was their high risk gymnastics across the front of RMIT's Building 8, a building Van Schaik championed, that came to headline Swanston Street as a new axis of innovation cutting across establishment lines. With this project the conversations inside both RMIT and the local journal `Transition' (RIP), literally started spilling out onto the streets and muscled their way in to the otherwise dull Melbourne grid.

Of course, many bright Melbourne architects, not least of all Howard Raggatt who nailed his own thesis on the cringe to RMIT's door in 1990 would have found their voices in the wilderness, and Van Schaik is not claiming credit for all, rather, as this book attests, the Design City is one of multiple synergies.

From Edmond and Corrigan the baton was handed to Ashton Raggatt McDougall whose Storey Hall next door to Building 8 was thought so radical that they kept a bag over its head until opening day. Completely misunderstanding its brilliance, many wanted the bag put back on - Ralph Neale, the former editor of this journal included. ARM have since reinforced their importance in Melbourne's inner city renaissance by digging in to the Shrine at one end of Swanston and opening Pandora's box with the Melbourne Central Shopping Centre at the other. Federation Square by LAB architects replete with Paul Carter's footnotes to an-other history of colonization and the new QV complex by Lyons, Kerstin Thompson, John Wardle and Rob McBride all consolidate Van Schaik's thesis of a Design City. The temporal and spatial linkages between these works and Van Schaik's role in the cultural life of Melbourne are no coincidence, although a finer grained history of these breakthroughs would reveal more.

As a somewhat overt homage to Libeskind, Federation Square is however more difficult to package as radically and originally local. Nonetheless, Van Schaik recoups it as a part of geometric arguments being waged in Melbourne, arguments between the platonic and the fractal to which he errs on the side of the latter. Whilst at this level he takes sides, this book makes clear that he never set out to form one school of thought and certainly not a style: quite the opposite. Just as it is the crucial factor in the biological world, diversity is the key to the cultural. But this is not to say that anything goes; the curator has to tie it all together and find commonalities without compromising the differences.

Although it provides a poetic, political and geographic structure, there is much more in this book than an appreciation of Swantson Street's well known trophies. The whole kaleidoscope of designers who have inspired or helped Van Schaik in his quest to create a Design City are all showcased. Risking the perils of writing his own story through theirs, Van Schaik's tone is humble and indeed humbled by the creative work of his colleagues. He played his role and they played theirs, both fulfilling the Design City contract.

Although he connects the dots from the efflorescence of his time back into Melbourne's deeper architectural history, this book is not about dispassionate historical analysis; rather it is about recognizing that there is a latent ecology of creative intelligence in any city and that if you nourish it, things happen. Neither does Van Schaik tell us what to think about this outpouring of work and nor, as he so easily could have done, does he admonish other Australian cities for doing so little in the time that Melbourne has done so much. And although this book seems designed for a broad audience and is to an extent promotional for all included, Van Schaik doesn't tell us why the Design City is good nor amass data about its benefits - those arguments have been won and now the work speaks for itself. Those who define themselves by their distance from RMIT would be hard pressed to deny the remarkable achievement of this group of people.

By announcing what has been, however, books like this tend to also announce that which is about to pass and whilst Van Schaik worries for a future that could so easily acquiesce back into stylistic echoes, this is an uplifting book for anyone involved in the daily struggle to create serious cultural production.

Given the theme of innovation, the design of this book is surprisingly conventional and some essays are too short and too cool for such a hot topic. The conclusion, a proposal to erect a copper sheath over the Arts Centre seems unnecessarily heroic. As opposed to vertical triumphs over the inner city symbolic order, perhaps the future of this Design City, like most in the 21st century has to be about horizontality, about landscape.

In this book, Landscape architecture as a discipline and a profession, despite being there throughout it all, gets very short shrift. Van Schaik doffs his hat to VicRoads and RMIT landscape graduates, Cath Stutterheim, Patrick Franklyn and Leanne O'Shea are noted. Their works suggest that some of the rich conversations held in RMIT's landscape program are starting to find form but perhaps landscape is yet to be curated in the manner that Van Schaik has done for architecture. If that is so, then, the creators need to rise to the occasion and give the curator something inspirational to work with.

RW

Australia is a large continent, and to provide a resource book that adequately covers all that could be possibly be seen or done by 4WD would require a far more voluminous tome.

Discover Australia By 4WD attempts to provide the best of the rest and in my opinion does so admirably.

Anyone who owns and frequently tours in their 4WD will find this book a must. It provides plenty of useful information, tips and genuine and up to date advice, which I find should be compulsory for such a book. There are lots of relevant photographs, and the maps are as up to date as you can get.

Lots of links to almost everything you could want, such as tourist bureaus, information centres and the like as well as useful advice on road conditions, weather conditions, camping sites, and so on.

I was, however, a little disappointed at the lack of information on Western Australia, which is the largest state, and yet rated very little by way of 4WD trips through the north west of that state, which is one of the better regions in W.A.

Otherwise, I would heartily recommend this book to all Australian 4WD enthusiasts and international travellers alike.

As a second grade teacher, my students loved hearing this book during our Australia unit. Very informative with great pictures! I recommend for any child with a love of animals and an interest in Australia.

This is a very informative book for someone interested in moving to New Zealand - FROM EUROPE (not from the U.S.) but, it is still a good start to my interest in moving there.

This is a useful guidebook for Australia. As is typical of Fodor's, it covers the major cities and a fair number of the less visited areas, cities, and islands. Provided is a representative selection of hotels and restaurants, and a fair number of attractions. It has many more maps than Lonely Planet, a definite plus.

Major problems: it is less useful for the traveller seeing Australia by road, since many country towns where motels are found are not covered (travelling from Adelaide to Sydney by a leisurely route, I looked for Port Augusta, Lithgow and Forbes in vain). Good metropolitan maps of the major cities would be appreciated, as well, showing each airport and city center.

Still, a very good guidebook which will be a great help for the visitor to Oz.

While I gleaned much useful info. from Fodor's guide, I wish that they had either given a better overview of lodging, or left it alone entirely. How does a hotel/apartment receive a review? What is the criteria? A bit more info. would have been helpful. Overall, a good tool for planning a trip to Oz.

If you want a grasp of the ambience of Fremantle, Western Australia, then consider this book. It takes you through the town and its cultural scene. Fremantle is actually quite small, and overshadowed by being in the urban sprawl of Perth, the capital city of the state.

In spite of this, Fremantle struggles to maintain a slightly separate identity, as suggested by the book. For an American familiar with Los Angeles, think perhaps of how Long Beach and the South Bay (Torrance, Redondo, San Pedro) try to have a different vibe from downtown LA and the Westside.

I purchased book a week before my trip and read on flight to Sydney. Soon determined there were a number of inaccuracies in the attraction pricing and other minor specifics (e.g., per Frommer there were 30 Explorer bus stops in Blue Mountain...there were actually 27, which Lonely Planet had right). The organization layout could be more simplistic (i.e., one attraction was discussed in various areas of the same section - used labeled flags to facilitate use). The book is bulky to carry around in backpack - editions should be available for specific regions (e.g., Sydney and surrounding). Worship service times and places could be added. Sydney is home to one of the most popular, largest non-denominational churches (Hillsong) and there was no mention of this (or other churches, other than the architecturally impressive cathedrals). Lastly, it would be great if Frommers would add local sites and activities. For instance, there is mention of the Sydney fish market but I found out through a local that cooking classes are offered. That would have been a fun "local" activity to have known about. I will buy the competitor book on my next trip and will then place my loyalty on one.

Book in good shape, shipping kind of slow

Beware... this is not a new book. Having said that I will add, that it is rather two good books that for some mysterious reason have been placed together in one cover. The books have no common theme even if the titles suggest it. The books were first published several years ago and when I saw the new title I immedeately reread them, they were worth it, however they are not among my favourites by Jayne so the old ones are not yet worn out, and thus I have no need to buy it yet. Check your shelf, if you like Jayne, and they are not yet there, this is a good buy otherwise forget it.