Lunch at Lindsay Johnston’s on the Hawkesbury with the great trio of Australian Architecture: Glenn Murcutt, Richard Leplastrier and Peter Stutchbury
Lunch at Lindsay Johnston’s on the Hawkesbury with the great trio of Australian Architecture: Glenn Murcutt, Richard Leplastrier and Peter Stutchbury – such a pleasure to spend time with them
Great meeting with Glenn Murcutt yesterday at his house in Mosman who was, as ever, incredibly illuminating on so many things from revisiting the principles Bingie Point (Magney) House, to timber shrinkage at (now his) Marie Short House, to the Pritzker Jury on which he now sits…. on how he won’t do any more talks, travel or teaching, on his mosque in Victoria, on the Broken Hill Opal and Mining Museum, on his time in England in the 60’s, on my mother’s old boyfriends in Australia in the 50s and 60s, on the specifics of Sydney’s climate, on the Berowra Waters Inn (which I visited by boat the day before), on Ghost Lab, Rural Studio and Studio in the Woods… and of course, the death of his son Nick earlier this year. What a guy…
Staying on the Hawkesbury just north of Sydney for 6 weeks in a water access only house – like many other people up here who live without car access. Here, it’s just taken for granted and not questioned or thought of as odd – in the UK, at Moonshine, we are constantly bombarded with incredulous comments about not being able to drive to the house… In this landscape – the Hawkesbury – there is a thriving self build community, and whilst individually they are nothing special, what is interesting is just how sensitive they are to the bushland in which they sit – absolutely no cut and fill, ever; no trees cut down, ever – and thus this landscape appears to be able to take development. In the UK, unquestionably, virgin sites are ruined whenever people build – seemingly, not here.
pierstaylor 