architecture Archives - Page 5 of 14

April 5, 2014

Adelaide's laneways

We’ve started wandering down the lane ways in Adelaide’s CBD on some of our early morning poodle walks. I don’t really know them as I mostly walk past them. It is Ari who wants to go down and explore them. So I’ve started to follow him.

This is a laneway off Gawler Place near North Terrace:

Most of the laneaways in Adelaide are grungy, dirty and neglected. Unlike those in Melbourne, they are not seen to be places for people to gather or hang about. They are urban spaces that you don’t bother going down because there is nothing there. It is recognised that some do need to be cleaned up and ‘re-vitalised’ through good urban design. It is happening slowly, but Leigh Street is a street not a lane way.

Pages: 1 2

March 24, 2014

coastal architecture

I’ve started re-engaging with the local beachside architecture on the early morning poodle walks with Ari given my inability to represent ‘summer on the coast’ this year.

Some of the older coastal architecture is not going to last. A lot of the weekenders built in the 1940s -70s period are shoddier pseudo crap boxes on large blocks of land. The land is more important than the buildings and the latter will be no loss when they are eventually pulled down.

February 28, 2014

Mad March in Adelaide

‘Mad March’ is here tomorrow and that means its Festival time in Adelaide. Fringe, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, the Clipsal 500 and Womadealide. There’s even a state election for political junkies.

Ari and I continue to cruise the CBD in the late afternoon looking for spots with interesting interplay of light and shadow:

It’s the 1picaday2014 project that has motivated me to get out and walk the city–to get away from the computer and working on images for an exhibition in April.

Pages: 1 2

February 4, 2013

empty shops

One of the things that we keep on coming across on our poodlewalks in the CBD are the empty shops and offices. They seem to be everywhere we walk. Does that suggest that small business is doing it hard because consumers are not spending?

Some of the signs on the windows say that some of the small businesses are moving out of the CBD to the inner suburb, presumably due to the lower rents. I would think that others would have gone into debt and they have to sell up. The dreams become nightmares. The economy is not booming and the job opportunities are no longer abundant.

However, what I do notice is that the empty shops are not being filled with new tenants. They remain empty for long periods of time. What does that mean for the CBD’s economy? Is it structurally changing? Or are people just hanging on?

Pages: 1 2

January 4, 2013

heatwave

It was 30 degrees (C) last night in Adelaide. As it is going to be over 44 degrees (C) today, I made some photos very early in the morning. I took a break from working out in the gym around 6.15am and went to take some quick photos before the very bright early morning sunlight hit the streets. Then I went back to the gym.

I wasn’t really interested in The Wave per se. This was a snap I did on the way to photograph the deserted building on the King William Street and Gilles Street corner. This used to be a Chinese restaurant before they bought The Brecknock pub on the opposite corner and converted it into a restaurant.

Pages: 1 2

December 22, 2012

Esplanade, Victor Harbor

Our holiday at Victor Harbor started today with Suzanne and Ari walking around Petrel Cove and Rosetta Head whilst I did an early morning walk in the township with a camera. I was waiting for the Farmers Market to open at 7.30am so that I could buy some fresh vegetables and fruit.

This style of beachside house–from the 1940s or earlier?— will soon be history. It will eventually be pulled down to make way for a beachside style McMansion that will probably be rented out.

Pages: 1 2

December 18, 2012

Wright St, Adelaide

I walk past this building almost everyday and I’ve been wondered how to photograph it. This photo was made early on a weekday morning around 6.30am before there was any one around. There was just a security guard collecting money from the parking meters and she was hostile. Security guards are just suspicious of photographers these days.

I also look at the beginnings of the redevelopment of an open car lot to its left along Frew Street. It is an affordable housing project. Most of the year has been taken up with digging out the contaminated soil and replacing it.

I understand that the development will done in several stages, and it will allow low and moderate income households to live in the CBD. It is part of the Council’s strategy to encourage more people to live in “a vibrant, populous and sustainable Capital City built upon Adelaide’s heritage and lifestyle”.

Pages: 1 2

December 12, 2012

Adelaide: early morning

It was my day off from the gym this morning so I went out photographing in the early morning around the Central Market Precinct from about 6.30 am to 8am. It will be about 36 degrees today and tomorrow. By 8am it already was hot and the light was very bright. The city was very quiet between 6.30-7am. People were having their morning coffees and reading newspapers at the cafe’s in Gouger St.

I was interested to see this precinct of the city in the early morning summer light, as I generally only see it in the late afternoon light.

I basically reworked familiar ground to see the difference that the early morning light made. I was pleasantly surprised. The light highlighted the modernist buildings that are emerging above the low rise nineteenth century ones.

The Adelaide CBD skyline is changing from being that of a small quaint village or just another suburb.

Pages: 1 2

December 11, 2012

Adelaide architecture

The heat has returned to Adelaide. As the temperatures are going to be in the high 30’s for the rest of the week, so our poodlewalks include carparks and streets in the CBD that deep shadows in the early evening.

The carparks give me a ariel perspective on Adelaide’s architecture and I’m finding find a lot of it rather depressing. This TAFE building,for industry, reminds me of a prison—it is actually very similar to the Remand Centre just down the road.

Pages: 1 2

December 7, 2012

Central Market precinct

I went for a quick a walk around the Central Market precinct this morning after breakfast. It was overcast, muggy and the light was soft. I had a coffee at The Marquis amongst the lawyers, and glanced through the AFR for possible material to bounce off for my public opinion blog.

I put some medium format film into Photoco to be developed, and then started exploring the central market area itself.

Would this picture work as a large format shoot I wondered? I was unsure. I’ll keep coming back to it to have a look.

The market is very dark without the artificial lights, and the neon lights in the various stalls makes the light that falls on the produce contrasty and really ugly. I was looking for an area with vegetables and natural light. I had in mind some sort of still life.

Pages: 1 2