This documentary is a treasure trove of modernist architectural eyecandy, like a Taschen coffee table book come to life. ‘Visual acoustics’ is a coinage of photographer Julius Shulman, and the film is a celebration of his decades of work shooting architecture. Shulman was so intimately connected and concerned with promoting the homes created by the great American modernists (Wright, Gehry, Neutra et al.) that the film doubles as a celebration of that entire era, one which he was arguably pivotal in defining. Most architecture films tend to focus on the contemporary creation of large public buildings. Visual Acoustics takes the opposite approach and is all the better for it: it takes us into domestic spaces and talks with the people who have lived in them for decades. Shulman, a spry nonagenarian, has maintained long-term relationships with the architects and the owners of the homes he documented and he gives us a privileged entrée to the kind of iconic houses most of us can only dream about. — AL  (http://www.nzff.co.nz/n7678.html?region=1)

Sadly Julius Shulman (98) died on Wednesday 15th July 2009 at his home in Los Angeles. But the film will be screening Sunday 26th July 6:15pm (Te Papa), Wednesday 29th July 11:15am (Paramount) and Sunday 2nd August 11:45am (Paramount)

The Wellington Civic Trust is running a Symposium soon, on the area around the Basin Reserve. When they get their act together, they will no doubt update their website to have more information on it - in the mean time, keep the 8th of August free.

I suspect there will be Read the rest of this entry »

Award winning architect Chris Moller discusses a project inspired by Thoreau’s book Walden and the Citroen 2CV prototype. Click-Raft is a creative and sustainable response to the current economic situation. At the Wellington Museum of City and Sea. 23 August, at 5.00pm

Competition closes on 24 August. Get your 1 x A3 page down to Wellington Waterfront fast (Shed 6, North Queens Wharf).