A Is For Architecture

Roof ridge detail, Melbourne

I've joined up with the ABC-Along on Ravelry.

I'm hoping it will spur me on to post to my blog a bit more frequently.

My "A" is for Architecture. I've been interested in architecture since third year high school. We were given a project to do for Art class, which was to design a room in a house. I did a bedroom, with a wrap-around desk-cupboard-drawers arrangement, and then made a 3-D model of it in cardboard, with teeny tiny cloth curtains.

I've been doodling with house designs ever since.

Mr M and I designed and built our house. It mostly works, in terms of passive solar energy. Where it doesn't work is where we had to compromise because of cost. Sigh.

I like the quirkyness of these witches' hat rooves.

There's quite a few of these around my local suburb
- it must have been the HOT style of its period.

I like the architecture of pre-Modern styles best - very little modern stuff appeals, and Federation Square (Melb) is an abomination - all style just for the sake of being controversial and no substance.

Lovely wooden verandah posts is Melbourne.
The verahndah has an equally lovely tessellated paving floor.

That's not to say I don't like ornamentation - I do, and love the almost frivolous nature of some of it. I particularly like Art Deco.

Beautiful tuckpoint multi-colour brickwork, in Melbourne.

I've already done a couple of posts about some architectural delights I have come across, here and here.

Look up, look up! Above verandah height, and see what's there.

Merchant's building in Fremantle - glorious dome!


Victorian lacework verandahs in Melbourne

No doubt there will be more architectural photos on my blog - I could fill pages and pages with them!

Entering The Convent

I thought I would post a few more photos from the convent we visited the day after the Mid-Winter Festival.

It seemed to be such a mixture of architectural styles. I guess it was built and added to over quite a number of years. I don't know the history of the convent. Strangely enough, I don't particularly want to know. It becomes like a painting - it is what it is, without explanation or interpretation.

Here is an upper storey verandah with a lattice covering which seems almost Moorish or Arabian. Hints of the harem?

And here is the end of a building - it may be a church or chapel. The syle seems almost Spanish Mission to me.

Then there are these two lots of stained glass windows, one in a downstairs room, the pair are on the staircase landing. They are definitely Art Nouveau styling. What's most remarkable and surprising is that they are stained glass windows in a religious institution, but with no religious iconography.
These windows would not have been cheap to make.
The cloisters have the beautiful deciduous tree in the centre. Although the photos were taken mid winter, there were still autumn-painted leaves clinging to the branches. The pointed arches seem medieval-Norman in style, while the columns have a Corinthian style capital.
That is the most Art Nouveau interpretation of acanthus leaves that I have seen on a capital. (acanthus, or 'bears britches' is the usual leaf ornamentation for Corinthian columns). The close-up should show this.




This is one of my favourite photos. It didn't turn out the way I had planned. Maybe that's why I like it.
I was trying to focus on the cloister columns in the background, and have the plants in soft focus in the foreground - peeking through to the secret place in the back.
The fool camera just wouldn't focus on the background. It was just the little camera (Olympus), and not my usual serious camera (Nikon D70 DSLR).

But, it is what it is, and I like the feel of it. The background becomes more moody, more mysterious.

The Direction Of A Spiral

The day afer the Mid-Winter festival, I entered the convent.

No, not as a nun! The St Helier's Convent in Collinwood is open to the public. It's no longer an operating convent, but there are two cafes there, and a glass-blowers' studio, choir practice halls, and some wonderful photo subjects.

This is one of my favorites from that day's shoot. It's a rather pagan looking cupola which stands at the entrance of a quadrangle or cloister.


There are other great shots, which I may post later

These are shots of two spiral staircases. Much of the convent site is rusting in peace, as were these. I'm intruigued by the process of decay in the urban environment.

These staircases spiralled in the same direction.
















I liked the patterns formed by the uprights crossing over the steps - accidental rectangles.

Now I'm curious - do the spiral staircases in the northern hemisphere turn in the same direction as the ones in the southern hemisphere, or, like water going down a plughole, do they go in the opposite direction?

Herye Bee Dragynes

A short break from knitting …

JJ and I took an evening walk yesterday to look for dragons.

You can find dragons just about everywhere, even, if truth be told, inside yourself.

We found this one close by. It’s not very dragonish; more like a grinning foolish puppy.

A couple of blocks away was this slightly more convincing beastie.

Just around the corner from home, this one lurks on the roof ridge. Its tail has a rather frivolous curl. The house resident came out as we were admiring the dragon. She said it was okay to take the photo, and told us of other dragons nearby.

And so we found one - a magnificent example; truly dragonish.

It’s amazing what you can see if you look up.