2009 October « my design fix

Vader House – Andrew Maynard Architects

October 29, 2009 at 10:57 pm | Posted in architecture, houses | 3 Comments
Tags: architecture, australia, houses, steel, vader

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The Vader House, design by Andrew Maynard Architects is an extension to a two storey Victorian terrace house located in inner city Melbourne. The form, dictated by planning restrictions and the tight site, is a clever solution that creates open, flexible spaces and blurs the boundaries between inside and out.

Some of my favourite details in this thoroughly considered house include; the folded steel stair, the expressed hanging beam over the walkway to the existing building that appears as if it’s floating over the lounge space and, the sliding deck that reveals a hidden spa beneath. I also really like the warmth and grittiness that is created by leaving the existing brick walls exposed in contrast to the clean, hard edges of the new joinery.

I’m pretty sure the name “Vader House” refers to the black, machine-like steel structure and louvres having a slight resemblance to the helmet of the Star Wars character Darth Vader (see video below).

For more information and photos visit the Andrew Maynard Architects website here.

Youtube video via arquitectoslatinos.com

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vader 02 Photos: Peter Bennetts

Halong Bay Crusin’

October 26, 2009 at 11:15 pm | Posted in my work, photography | 1 Comment
Tags: diana+, halong bay, my photography

halong bay kayak_aidan taylor Photo: Aidan Taylor 2009

So the frequency of my blog posts has taken a serious beating of late (doing long hours at work doesn’t seem to help blog productivity??)

Well here’s another photo I took with my Diana+ during my Vietnam/Cambodia trip a few months ago to tie you through to the next post – I promise it’ll be in the next few days!

Five Girls (1962) – Sam Haskins

October 11, 2009 at 9:58 pm | Posted in books, photography | 4 Comments
Tags: five girls, nudes, photography, sam haskins

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Sam Haskins is a South African photographer best known for his contribution to nude photography during the 60’s and 70’s. During this time he also published a number of photography books, some of which include Five Girls (1962), Cowboy Kate (1965) and November Girl (1966).

Five Girls explored a fresh approach to photographing the nude female figure and contained important first explorations with black and white printing, cropping and book design which went on to become a key feature of all his subsequent books.

Below are some of the more famous photographs of Gill, one of the models featured in the book: SamHaskinsFashionEtceteraPg15

gill-on-floor-01 gill and curl - sam haskins

gill five girls - sam haskins

gill_five girls - sam haskins

"Gill was an art student in Johannesburg in the early sixties. Not a professional model, she just walked into the studio one day and was a total natural in front of the camera.

There were stories of Vietnam soldiers taking copies of Five Girls (often gifted to them by their wives or girlfriends) to war, so Gill was also a Vietnam pinup. The fan mail generated by Five Girls in the 60s included letters from both men and women." - Sam Haskins

You may recognise two of the photos from a more recent artistic project as they were used for the album cover artwork for The Last Shadow Puppets – a side project of Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane of The Rascals.

the last shadow puppets - album artwork