What do you see?

Do you see the dark nine patches, or the light crosses?
This is a design on a building overhang on George Street.

Brisbane Open House Program - Part 3

The State Library was next on the agenda for me.  Here the first stop was the River Pump Room, which draws water from the river and creates chilled water for the entire Cultural Centre

 Every item that enters the collection has to be treated to ensure no creepy crawlies get in and cause damage.  Two people sit here for five days turning each page of a book and brushing it while these extractors suck baddies (if there are any) off the page - what a job!!!

 If something is found in an item, it's locked into this shower-type stall, oxygen is removed and nitrogen pumped in and the item is left for a period, and that kills what ever was in the book.  It's apparently much more "humane" than using pesticides - and of course much healthier for the humans!!!

Here is the repository - all 85 metres of compactus on each side of the room.  Few library staff even get in here.

We were next taken to the conservation area - the work that goes into conservation is mind-blowingly labour intensive and painstaking.  One big thing is that anything they do has to be reversible, in case, in 50 years, someone realises that what is being done now isn't such a good idea.  One aspect of this is that every Monday they cook their own adhesive!!

Brisbane Open House Program - Part 2

The Magistrate's Court in George Street was the second stop in my day. Walking there I noticed lots of spaces where the City Bikes should be - it's great to see they are being used -

The tour of the building was by one of the architects involved in the design of the building.  He pointed out all sorts of architectural bits and pieces, as well as artwork.  2% of the build cost was to be spent on the artwork.  Here is a subtle one - fine threads....but strong

An important design concept was to make sure that there were constant connections to the outside, that the building was welcoming, reduced anxiety and minimised conflict - this meant lots of natural light, views, and spaces where people could be separate from others.  This is one of the views

 The door handles going into courtrooms reference thefretwork often found in Queenslanders...

 The Murri Court

 Artwork in the Murri Court

 And an amazing piece of art just outside the court

Each panel is numbered separately.  The interconnections between the panels is just wonderful - and reminds me of symmetries and rotations.  

The piece is called Sacred Water Holes by Lilla Watson, and the holes are burnt through paper (I think) to reveal the colour underneath.

Brisbane Open House Program - Part 1

I did a tour of the BCC library in town today.  I saw the amazing book sorting machine - the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere, it was custom built and cost $2M.  When you pop your book in the return chute, you can see part of its journey through glass windows

 Then we went to the room where the items moved along a conveyor-type belt and they are turned around, scanned, and put into the correct bins/trolleys for shelving.  So clever!!!

 I found out that the Steam artwork was designed to have steam coming out of it!  But water restrictions have not allowed that to happen.  Another fun concept with Steam is that it's like a game of marbles - I THOUGHT the pieces moved around - well today, one orb was inside the building!!

QPAC

Today I was in town for the Brisbane Open House event.  I looked up and saw these characters playing on the building -

Believe it or not, they're made from milk crates!!

Gold Coast

I had a trip to the Gold Coast yesterday.  Broadbeach is a great place for architecture

and I found this pattern in a bar

Intriguing Brisbane Architecture

After the show "Pennies from Kevin" I wandered around town, and came across this building - really worth looking at - left, middle, right