MiCRO - exploring the big ideas behind small spaces - event wrap by RAA secretary Sarah Aldridge
MUDGEE, 14TH-16TH MARCH 2024.
Photography by NADINE PRENTICE, WUNDERLUST PHOTOGRAPHY with TALERWYN FORGE IMAGE by SARAH ALDRIDGE
Dotted across the landscape around Mudgee are a series of small design practitioners and artisans with masterful, yet efficient small scale built projects being a feature of the local accommodation scene. It is this large-scale ingenuity in tiny form that MiCRO SET OUT TO explore.
This morning as I was listening to Spotify a notification popped up that Taylor Swift has released a new album. Excuse me? The world’s busiest woman, in the middle of a recordbreaking epic tour has somehow found the time to write, record and release a new album? So, shamed into finally writing the wrap text for MiCRO by the phenomenon that is TayTay, here it is:
Alex Scheibner showing delegates around Talerwyn Forge
For those of us who have the pleasure to live on Bundjalung land in far northern NSW, it is quite the trip to get to Mudgee on Wiradjuri Country. You start to wilt by about Armidale and feel decidedly weary by Tamworth when you realise that you are still three and a half hours away. But, gosh it was worth it. We started off the MiCRO fringe program on Thursday afternoon chasing the shade in Alex Scheibner’s blissfully cool stone workshop at Talerwin Forge. Alex is one of those characters who does excellence quietly and the more you see and hear, the more fascinating he becomes. Alex hails from a long line of blacksmiths and after a stint as a journeyman in the USA he set up his workshop near Rylstone to produce custom-made arms and armour to the film industry. On the back of this success his work has evolved to include sculpture, jewellery, furniture and just about anything else that can be made from metal. His work is experimental, each new idea furthering his understanding of his medium and its behaviour.
Whilst we were keen to enjoy the sculpture garden and finish off the cool drinks and strawberries we had the lure of a visit to Gawthorne’s hut and sunset drinks to keep us on the move.
Gawthorne’s Hut, designed by event creative director Cameron Anderson
We’ve all seen the wonderful photos of Gawthorne, but this off-grid ‘hut’ (a magnificent understatement of a title) captures the beautiful views across the Wilgowrah Estate towards Mudgee, and feels spacious and luxurious despite it’s modest floor area. It always feels very brave of architects and owners to open their buildings to a group of architects keen to scrutinise every detail and decision and we are grateful to the Wilgowrah owners and Cameron Anderson for hosting us so generously.
It was another beautiful landscape that was hard to leave, but we had dinner booked at the Lawson Park Hotel so we said our goodbyes and headed off for the bright lights of Mudgee.
Coffee from the Fish River Roasters cart being enjoyed by delegates
For once the BOM forecast was accurate and the temperature dropped dramatically overnight, meaning our Friday started off cool and breezy, catching out the north coasters who hadn’t checked the forecast before packing. We started the day with coffee from the Fish River Roasters coffee cart at the ridiculously picturesque Rosby Wines before launching into the talks. Marcus Piper, our communications guru kicked things off with Aleshia Lonsdale welcoming us to Country and President Tim Lee setting the scene for the day. Our Creative Director Cameron Anderson welcomed us to Rosby on behalf of the Norton-Knight family and introduced our first speaker Drew Heath.
Drew Heath
Drew spoke of the Australian passion for remoteness and the delight of designing and building small buidlings that utilise outdoor spaces to provide additional functionality. Drew spoke of his signature process which is to assemble a small team who produce limited hand drawn details and don’t leave site for the duration of the project. In this way he creates buildings that are specific responses to their site, designed and built by a tightly collaborative team, which sometimes includes his own children. Apparently there’s not much about this process that resonates with the ARB, but that's a discussion for another day.
Technical members providing advice from the gallery at Rosby
We are always fortunate to have great support from our technical members at our events and MiCRO was no different. We had expert representation from ArcPanel, Nolans, AWS, Artedomus, Weathertex and Tait furniture who generously shared their knowledge and in Tait’s case loaned us some extremely stylish and comfortable furniture for the event.
We were also joined by Paulo Macchia from Government Architect NSW who outlined some initiatives to address the housing crisis such as the Pattern Book for housing which aims to provide a 3 for 1 replacement of identified dwellings, to increase housing supply and avoid greenfield development.
Sally Sutherland
After a spectacular morning tea served amongst the sculptures and artwork of the Rosby estate, Sally Sutherland from Source Architects took the stage to outline how even in larger projects there are opportunities for MiCRO projects that allow collaboration with local makers to bring new products to market. Sally spoke of her general failure to persuade clients that building smaller is a good option and how our idea of what constitutes ‘small’ is creeping ever larger. Some clients are prepared to embrace the idea of small when they can see the increase in functionality brought about by a relatively small intervention and Sally demonstrated this with examples of her work.
Brad Swartz (left) with Cameron Anderson
Brad Swartz is well known for his love of maximising functionality in small spaces and used his own 27sqm Darlinghurst studio as an exemplar project. Part of the skill in the success of the final project was in originally selecting the studio for its high ceilings, abundant natural light and a kitchen big enough to fit a double bed, freeing up the rest of the space for living. He took inspiration from Murcutt’s Boyd Education centre by designing the room around the bed and separating public from private. Brad managed to weave in impressive amounts of storage whilst maximising the living area, although he did admit that the wardrobe located above the bed was occasionally problematic when you need to grab a jacket but have already put your shoes on. He has gone on to work his magic with other modest apartments to great effect, bringing, light, storage and separation to spaces that previously had little.
Delegates enjoying lunch in the gardens at Rosby
Lunch was served in the Rosby gardens, with the cellar door open for tastings and our hosts Gerry and Kay on hand to enlighten us about both the wine and art sides to the Rosby estate.
From left: Drew Heather, Brad Swartz, Sally Sutherland and Sarah Aldridge
With wine in hand, the Small Practice, Bigger Thinking panel of Drew, Brad and Sally began the discussion with Sarah Aldridge of Space Studio around what is ‘small’ and why is it such a hard concept to sell to clients? In the 1960s the average house was 100sqm, growing to 246sqm in 2008 before retracting to 232sqm in 2021. Will this increase again with post COVID working from home patterns, or will rising costs and pressure on land see a continuing contraction? If we build more smaller homes how can we persuade people to be more mobile and move out of the family home when it no longer suits their needs? Would lower levels of home ownership create more mobility? How do we make denser living more enjoyable through the provision of shared and communal spaces?
Afternoon tea was another delicious affair in the garden followed by a viewing of the Catherine Hunter documentary of the Cobar Sound Chapel. Built on the land of the Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan people, this collaboration between musician Georges Lentz and Glenn Murcutt is an intervention in a disused water tank accompanied by a 24 hour looping sound track composed by Georges and played by the Noise String Quartet.
From left: Justin Penney, Glenn Murcutt, Catherine Hunter and Cameron Anderson
The Create, Communicate, Construct and Capture panel with Catherine, Glenn Murcutt and builder Justin Penney in conversation with Cameron Anderson discussed the design process which whilst not always smooth sailing partly due to Georges love of symmetry, resulted in an internationally acclaimed regional art installation. Justin Penney was drawn into the conversation as it turned to the Strikes 3 project also designed by Glenn and of which Justin is owner and builder. Justin revealed how the original communication between himself and Glenn had been by letter with long pauses between, evolving into hand sketches arriving periodically by post and eventually text messages speeding up the exchange process. The result is 2 modular buildings, prefabricated off-site and craned into place, with slight design modifications between the first, now home to Gerry and Kay Norton-Knight and the second which rests at the Strikes property adjacent.
The Orchestra of Us, aka Marcus Piper
As the formal presentations drew to a close we moved to the cellar door for refreshments and a continuation of the discussion, accompanied by a live performance by the Orchestra of Us. Dinner was provided by local indigenous business Indigiearth with music provided by a collective of RAA members.
Strikes 3 by Glenn Murcutt
Saturday dawned cool and damp but nothing could stop the runners trying out the Mudgee Parkrun, with at least one scooping an age category win. Despite the rain Kay Norton-Night led a fascinating sculpture walk around Mudgee viewing sculptures donated to the community from the Rosby sculpture program. Then it was off to Strikes 3 to see Glenn and Justin’s gem of a project, with the dream team themselves on hand to answer our many questions and tell us tales about the process. It was such a privilege to be able to spend time absorbing the building and talking about materials, process, construction and budget to the people who made it happen. We were slow to leave because nobody wanted it to end.
Builder Justin Penney (far left) with Glenn Murcutt inside their Strikes 3 project speaking with delegates
The hardcore amongst us made it to Yeates winery for lunch and a taste of their spectacular Albariño and non-alcoholic Cabernet cordial with the rammed earth cellar door building designed by Cameron Anderson and built by Justin Penney as the backdrop. It was a beautiful way to conclude what had been a very special few days on Wiradjuri Country.
Enormous thanks to the Norton-Knight family, Cameron Anderson and Amber for their generous hosting and magnificent organising. To all the RAA team who put in so many unpaid hours to make these events happen, often at the expense of their own practices and families, thank you. Big thanks to Rhiannon our operations manager and events coordinator who does untold wonderful things to bring it all together – we’d be lost without you. And to our amazing members, speakers and guests, thank you so much for making MiCRO such a pleasure.
We look forward to seeing you all on 14th June for our next event in the Northern Rivers town of Yamba.
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