People are finally returning to the CBD for work and companies like Sportsbet are making it worth their while. Designed by Hot Black and built by Plan Group, their new Melbourne office is a vibrant and colourful place to spend time.
John Wardle's Ballarat GovHub
I spent a glorious day in Ballarat last month shooting John Wardle’s Ballarat Gov Hub, a new home for up to 1000 employees on the town’s ‘Civic Hall’ site. The low rise, zinc clad building has a gabled roof and mass timber structure that reference a rural shed, and can be seen from many vantage points around the town. It sits along side the library, the 1950s Civic Hall and a park, which together will become an important precinct for community, government and commercial activities in the Ballarat CBD.
Developer: Development Victoria
Architect: John Wardle Architects
Builder: Kane Constructions and Nicholson Construction joint venture
Engineer: Aecom
Landscape Architect: Aspect Studios
Here are some images from the shoot.
Nostalgia for a high school job
Back in high school, in Sydney, I worked for several years at the Hoyts Cinemas in Chatswood. I loved that job. It provided me with more or less free access to the movies of the time. Not a bad perk for a teenager that loved going to the movies. You can imagine then, the kick I got out of shooting the new home of Val Morgan, the advertising arm of Hoyts, last year. Another fabulous workplace by the clever folks at Amicus and Hot Black.
False Warmth, 2019
A few people have asked me lately where they can see the fine art series that I’ve made over the past few years. I thought I’d share some here. This series is False Warmth, which I made in 2019 over many cold winters nights in inner city Melbourne. Before Covid was a thing…
Personality facades. The masks people wear; the inauthentic versions of themselves they present to the world to hide anxieties, depressions and traumas.
Often these masks are developed in early years to protect from feelings of inadequacy, weakness or insecurity and are carried through into adulthood.
At night, when returning home, they take off their masks. Sometimes this brings relief and sometimes it makes space for the anguish and despair to rise. The safety of home can bring comfort from a cold world but it can also bring a deeper isolation, a false warmth.
No Left Turn - False Warmth, 2019
Lace - False Warmth, 2019
Through The Cracks - False Warmth, 2019
Post Box Corner - False Warmth, 2019
The Adjacent - False Warmth, 2019
Towing Service - False Warmth, 2019
Freeway home - False Warmth, 2019
Riots - False Warmth, 2019
Skeletons - False Warmth, 2019
Shamrock Store- False Warmth, 2019
Cutouts - False Warmth, 2019
Theresaville - False Warmth, 2019
Leaving - False Warmth, 2019
A workplace in the tree tops by Futurespace and Amicus
Set amongst the treetops and behind the stunning facade of Gray Puksand’s 2020 Botanicca building, this workplace was calm and tranquil, and without doubt a great environment to work in. Designed by Futurespace and built by Amicus, this is the first in a series of workplaces I will share over the coming weeks.
A lockdown announcement, some handmade furniture and a mural
This shoot will always be memorable thanks to the announcement, halfway through, of the final (hopefully) Melbourne lockdown in July, 2021. The shoot, for furniture maker Damian Harpantidis of Harp Industries, was to capture his craft in situ, in his client’s Essendon home. The mural, which sits along side his beautifully crafted pieces was also impressive and memorable!
South Melbourne Workspace by Hot Black and Amicus Spaces
One upside of covid (you have to find them or else…) is it allows the space to share more work here on my journal. Moving away from residential and into a workspace in South Melbourne. This one is a long way from some of the offices I worked in back in the day. Architecture by Hot Black, built by Amicus Spaces with furniture from howgroup. I’d stick around for Friday drinks on that balcony!
Caulfield Penthouse by Sara Levitas Design
There are two things that always occur to me at some stage before, during or after a residential shoot. The first one is how honoured I feel that my clients entrust the documentation of their work to me. The second, how privileged I am that their clients open their homes to me and allow me to capture their private worlds. Within these homes I get to see and experience a broad spectrum of cultures and styles and their art, furniture and objects, gathered locally or from places abroad.
This Caulfield penthouse was no exception. An eclectic mix of art and objects collected over years and places. Shot between one lockdown or another, Sara Levitas Design has worked with her clients to create in her words “a truly authentic and beautiful expression of themselves in their home”.
What a wonderful thing to be a part of!
