INTRODUCTION
Name of practice: Harris Hobbs Landscapes
Location: Harris Hobbs Garden, 16 Robe Street Deakin ACT
The installation of the Ian Marr artwork into the Harris Hobbs garden is a collaboration between the artist and client.
The column and the plinth were salvaged from demolition projects in Sydney, and installed at Robe Street in December 2009.
The column is likely to be Pyrmont sandstone, quarried in the 1860’s, and was salvaged from the demolition of the 1870 constructed Coogee Court House. The plinth is likely to be Mt White sandstone, salvaged from the verandah of Cate Blanchett’s former house in Hunters Hill, during renovation works.
Special Factors
The folkloric expression is has a particular resonance for the landscape architectural practice, becoming an increasing strident response to the vagaries of dealing with clients, colleagues, consultants and bureaucrats at the end of a long year. There was also an element of incredulity in response to political tactics regarding climate change in the lead up to Copenhagen last year. Not least of the contributing factors to the conception for the idea being the cry from an immediate past president of the AILA, employed as a cathartic response to the pressures of office.
The sandstone pieces have been salvaged from specific sites in Sydney, with particular social and historical contexts, and placed together to form new associations, in a garden full of such follies and fancies.
Budget
$5,000.00
Completed December 2010
The work is sensitive to social, cultural, historical context – a classical column redolent of Sydney’s social and cultural history has been paired with a relic from a modern icon.
Response to AILA Landscape Principles
Intervene with Respect for the Present
The column makes a comment on resource supply and distribution through its use of recycled materials.
Relevance to the profession of landscape architecture, the public, and the education of future practitioners
The column has relevance to the education of future practitioners as it expresses the frustrations inherent in walking the line between what a designer can achieve and what regulations and client permit designers to achieve.
In particular it expresses the frustration of an immediate past president of the AILA and his long-suffering partner.
introduction / overview / location / presentation / Projects
2010
