The 2012 Australian Timber Design Awards was held at the MCA in Sydney on the 27th September and as part of a lucky group of emerging architects from Sydney I had the pleasure of celebrating this year's winning projects and recognizing the continued innovation and achievement of the Australian Timber Industry.
Whether you're creating a large public space, or somewhere more personal or comfortable, timber is always the preferred choice of building material. Timber is a material that promotes touch as part of our architectural experience over any other. It was the sensory discovery that somewhere after the entrees captured our table's curiosity. This led me to focus this on the behind-the-scenes of this year's event.
Albert Einstein is meant to have said, "Creativity is intelligence having fun". A centerpiece on each table in the room was created of 18 neatly organized stacks of timber samples. The architects on our table quickly started guessing species by studying the tone, grain and, of course, smelling the samples. This invitation to fun could no longer be resisted. This quickly invited us to engage in a game of Jenga. The original Jenga was developed by Leslie Scott from a wood block stacking game her family had created in Ghana in the 1970s. The game was then introduced to the public at the famous Harrod's department store in London in 1982. That explains why the game was so familiar and to be honest, probably, together with Lego, the reason I ended up becoming an architect. All kids should play with timber blocks.
Our Jenga tower hinted of references from all over the world. It went from carving space like the Norwegian masters Snohetta, to the Dubai syndrome which we quickly undid out of fright to stand out and catch the MC's attention. With a few clever moves the team had pulled out a few local references and ended up with a cantilever that hopefully even Seidler could have been proud of.
Thank you to Wood Solutions and Forest & Wood Products Australia and the Australian Institute of Architects for the opportunity to share this inspiring evening and for a valued moment of sensory play.
You can find out more about DARCH at their website.