Local Botanical Splendor

The Local Bloods

The Lost & Found Again

There's a certain degree of instability of mental state that tends to follow shortly after realizing that you are utterly and completely lost. However, remain lost for long enough and you may begin to lose yourself in the adventure that you find yourself on. The panic that had seemed at first to be so near, simply fades into nothingness as a sense of discovery takes its place. At this point you are no longer lost, but exploring until you can find yourself again.

Of course, these words aren't purely for the sake of me sharing knowledge; they are the conclusion I found myself arriving at after a weekend of what some might term bad luck, but I like to think of as an opportunity to learn more about this place. Nonetheless, I did, in all conventional terms, get lost multiple times. The first couple were unintentional, but the experience grew on me and I then purposely started wandering off to see what I may find.

To start, I rose early Saturday morning to get a jog in before a tour we had scheduled. I started off down a few familiar streets that I had made a route of before, but feeling particularly spritely I sought to extend my previous route by what I thought was only a couple of blocks. Well a couple of blocks turned into a couple more and before you know it . . . yes, I was lost. Wonderfully I stumbled upon a footbridge overpass that directed me back into Sydney Uni and back into the realm of the know, at least in my internal GPS.

This jogging detour put me a bit behind schedule and inevitably set me up for my second bought with the ways of being lost. After a quick shower, I left the hostel by myself (everyone else was in front of me) and caught the train down to Museum Station as we had been instructed to do. I was a running behind at this point but I still thought I could arrive at the location on time on foot. Here's where I went wrong; I underestimated the distance from the station to the Paddington Reservoir (our tour location) and disregarded the suggestion to catch a bus for this leg of the journey.

So I set off, thankfully in the right direction, and hoped for the best. Soon after, my mind started to dig into that pit of worries and I pulled out my phone to call Gretchen and Jul to inquire as to there position. As I did, the two of them passed by in the bus I was meant to be on and that was the last I saw of any of my classmates. Having been encouraged that I was on the right track from the girls, I trudged on with hastened pace in an attempt to reach the destination on time, but block by block it was obvious that my efforts were not going to deliver the results I was searching for.

Now why I got lost to the extent to which I did must have something to do with my unconcious propelling me into the unknown, because I literally walked right past the Paddington Reservoir and just kept on going. To my benefit, the reservoir is a submerged structure with little at ground level to point out it's existence, at least from across a busy street. Yes, I was on the wrong side of the road . . . my mistake. Anyways, I got the feeling I had passed my destination when the dense Paddington development gave way to 6 lanes of speeding highway traffic. Another call to Jenna kept me thinking that I still had further to go though and so I pushed on. Past Centennial Park, past Bondi Junction and you know, I probably would have kept on going if the road I was supposed to be following hadn't abruptly ended after that.

At this point it was about an hour and a quarter after the tour had started and I had flushed all worry from my mind. In all reality, if you're going to be more than half an hour late to almost anything . . . what's the point. It's not that I wasn't trying to find the place; I did try . . feverishly for about an hour, but as I've stated before, after a while you just seep into a state of relaxation that stems from the loss of care. When you can cast aside those things in your life causing you stress, it doesn't take much to keep you in a state of content. I ended up catching a bus back the way I came and arriving in time for a group photo before everyone dispersed. I'd love to tell you some interesting tid-bits about the Paddington Reservoir after all this, but understandably, our tour guide wasn't too keen on going through it all again for me.

So when it came down to it, my final arrival at the proper location furnished no benefits to my position. This being said, i was now hungry to venture forth into the unknown and see what I might find. Returning from the direction from which I had just come, I veered off into an inviting array of foliage with Dannielle by my side. She was akin to reach the marketplace at Bondi Junction to fulfill her shopping desires so quickly viewing a nearby map we had our general direction set. I escorted her to a corner of what I'd found to be Centennial Park and watched her vanish back into the noise of urbanity. As for myself, I drifted off into the woods and my parkland adventure had begun.

Stopping here and there to marvel at native flora and fauna I lost myself again, but in a state of relaxation instead of panic. I kept sauntering around what seemed like a never-ending sequence of forest and open space until abruptly emerging onto a network of interconnected ponds. Before me lay an image of pure beauty; diverse flocks of birds I'd never seen before gently nestled amongst the landscape. Black swans guiding there baby chicks into the water, a goose of some sort perched on the end of a pier, and not another human in sight. As I stood there, letting it all sink in, I realized that this moment would have not held the same weight if I had know of its existence prior to finding it.

There is an undefinable quality of spontaneity that is vanquished from existence once we begin to order all of our actions into a regimented schedule. I went on to discover much more that day, not returning to the hostel until after nightfall. I realize that there are certain dangers to the practice of getting lost, and I am not implying that such a way of life is safe or fit for everybody. However, the feelings that I maintained while in that state were so powerful that I cannot disregard their existence. I will withhold from urging others to follow in my footsteps, but for those willing to take a chance in the name of adventure; GOOD ON YA!

Learning from Great Minds

After discussions based on critical regionalism with Michael, what it is and how it came to be, the group assembled in one of the lecture theaters for a presentation. Perhaps presentation is too dry a term to describe the experience that we were enveloped by in that room; mind-blowing spectacle of architectural and sociopolitical genius! . . . may be better suited.

Paul Pholeros took our minds on a journey through his impressive body of dealing with detrimental housing conditions for the underprivileged citizens of the world to which many of the luxuries that we take for granted (running water, medical care, etc.) are not available. Most of the communities Paul has helped, live in Aboriginal (native Australians) communities in the expansive desert of Australia's interior. We have been continually reminded of architects here practicing 'architecture with a little a.' What they mean in saying this is that they are not designing flashy look-at-me buildings, but instead, responsibly upholding the values that architect's are tasked with maintaining (public health, safety, & welfare) and allowing the design of said buildings to follow suit. Having explained this turn of phrase, I have also described Paul Pholeros' architectural practice. He cooperatively devised a plan with a partner in medicine that continues to raise the survival rate of Aboriginals all over Australia through simple analysis, maintenance, and small amounts of construction of plumbing systems.

Through a separate project in Nepal, he has turned lives around by building outhouses that also allow for a cooking stove to function off of the methane produced from the waste. This may not seem like much, but it is so inspiring to meet a character of such humble, selfless stature.

I must point out though that Paul stressed the importance in finishing our studies and gaining a lofty amount of practical knowledge in the field before ever attempting to delve into his line of work. I found this a very amicable move since so many young adults could be entranced by these words of humble deeds with plans to immediately embark on their on journey to save the world when in reality, one can do so much more help by taking the time to learn the skills by which they may adequately provide that help.

And so with that we all headed up the street from Sydney Uni to a Vietnamese restaurant where we were joined by our other professor, Adrian Parr, and her artist friends/relatives as well as Brian Zulaikha; a partner at a well known local architecture firm called Tonkin Zulaikha Greer. Our guests were impressed and everyone left filled and happy. This trip continues to pay dividends back to us.

Sydney Opera House

"The sun was unaware of the beauty of it's own light until it saw it reflecting off of the skin of the Sydney Opera House" -Louis Kahn

Walking . . . A Lot

So Tuesday was a day of learning through moving, seeing, and listening. We met our extremely knowledgeable tour guide, Eoghan at the Sydney Customs House by Circular Quay on the bay. There was a lot of information of which I will not get into here, but suffice it to say that though our legs were tired after a good 5 hours of walking, our minds were enlightened. Sydney has a history of conflict between native peoples (Aboriginals), Australian whites, and foreign immigrants and influences from Europe and Asia. This conflict has largely played into the cultural and physical development of Sydney by itself and the nation as a whole. Sydney, being the oldest city in Australia as it was set up by Captain Cook upon arriving from England, is the only Australian city that has been laid out in a more organic European nature. All others employ the American grid system. Throughout it's history, all developed Australian centers have eagerly adopted ideas and forms from other places and then tweaked and manipulated those forms and ideas into uniquely Australian concepts.

After filling our minds with meaningful sociopolitical and architectural knowledge, the group dispersed into smaller groups and went about exploring on our own. Gretchen and Jul went off to find the Apple store in the CBD (Central Business District) as she needed to replace her computer charger after accidentally burning out a convertor earlier. Dannielle and I hopped on a ferry across the bay to the zoo. We didn't visit the zoo, as this was not our intention in taking the ferry, we simply stayed on and enjoyed the sunny excursion across the water while snapping amazing photos along the way. Arriving back in Circular Quay from whence we came, Dannielle was so pleased with our first trip that she felt we must follow it up with another. So, we boarded another ferry that was to take us to the furthest destination available down the Parramatta River. Of course, we paid no head to the time frame of the ferry before embarking and so we found ourselves watching the sun set over the river and returned over two hours later to a city emitting a dazzling display of lights.

Redfern Market & Carraigeworks

University of Sydney first impressions.

Into The Future: The 1st few days in Oz

Leaving from different locations across the US, our Australian cohort made the long and arduous journey across the Pacific to the exciting and backwards world "down under." Most of us arrived @ 6:00 am on Thurs. June 18th while the rest slowly trickled in until we completed our group by about 4:00 pm on Sat. June 20th. We've all been battling jet lag for the past couple of days and that's been . . . fun i suppose. I personally am still getting used to the fact that we're caught in complete darkness by 5:00 pm every day; trippy. My body seems to feel that I should get tired when the sun sets here, and so I was ready to pass out after consuming a couple plates of sushi with Jul, Gretchen, and Dannielle. However, Jul, having been in Melbourne, Australia for the past 3 months, has not fallen victim to the jet lag that plagues the rest of us and so she inspired Gretchen and I to accompany her to a local bar for a drink that ended up being an expensive method of passing time before we retired to our hostel thoroughly tired and unsatisfied.

As I realize I have just skipped over most of what happened in the past 3 days I've been here, I will try to sum that up in a concise, yet entertaining manner. On Thursday, without having a clear grasp on our bearings, the 8 of us that arrived together set off to explore our immediate surroundings. Luckily, we happened upon Sydney University and it's beautiful campus complete with an array of striking buildings. Upon inquiry, I was made aware that the lecture that our professors, Michael Zaretsky and Adrian Parr, had planned for us to attend later that night was in fact an hour earlier than we had previously been informed. Of course, this hardly even mattered once we arrived at the lecture since most of us promptly fell into a deep slumber thanks to our jet lag.

Friday began with a number of us waking early due once again to jet lag and then finding ourselves listening to presentations by a group of 2nd and 3rd year architecture students from Sydney U. The ties between cultural and climatic demands for architecture have been brought up again and again in the past few days, which leads me to believe that such practices will be central to our studies here. Of course this was told to us before we arrived, but seeing it enforced through actions helps it sink in.

Saturday we took the train to Redfern station to meet Michael and two of Adrian's architect friends for a walking tour of the area. Terrace housing dominates the residential neighborhoods and a massive rail yard is undergoing steps to revitalize and reuse its workshops. In particular, we had the opportunity to peruse a local market of organic, locally grown and produced food, which was situated adjacent to a repurposed rail structure now called Carriageworks. This building had an exquisite interaction between new concrete volumes inside an existing steel structure with precision detailing to afford a exceptionally clean reading of the tectonics and architectural relationships between the new and old.

This brings us to Sunday for which we have no structured curriculum and to which we will all most likely be catching up on several readings required of us for our courses . . . Yay!