Grand Designs Australia showcases exciting houses from the Australian and UK TV shows along with projects by Australian homeowners, architects, builders, renovators, owner-builders and designers.

Hosted by Peter Maddison, Grand Designs Australia TV Series tells the stories of new home and the people who are building them. The popular series charts the process of elaborate design projects undertaken by self builders.

Grand Designs Australia is an information-packed magazine reaching consumers who are looking for a publication to provide them with advice and information when researching their home project. 

The perfect inspiration for home builders, renovators and decorators, subscribe to the bi-montly magazine by clicking here.

Home design is a leading national magazine featuring profiles on residential architecture and building design, interior design, decorating, kitchens and bathrooms, smart homes and outdoor living from Australia and around the world.

Home Design includes a comprehensive editorial overview of the best houses, apartments, interiors and products from around Australia blended with an international flavour of overseas architecture and products.

Be inspired and informed on the latest thinking in design, subscribe to the bi-monthly magazine by clicking here.

Over two hours discover two hundred years of Sydney’s built history on the Walk Through Time tour. Join an Australian Architecture Association trained tour guide on Wednesday 16 November to discover how architecture has helped shape the landscape of the city.

Starting at one of the oldest remaining buildings of Sydney, Hyde Park Barracks, you will look at Sydney's humble start as a convict colony and how the architecture became more and more decorative during the Victorian period.

The 20th Century brought us influences from overseas such as Beaux-Arts, Art Deco and modernism.

We will show you post-war development of modernist thinking and the way post-modernism reacted against it.

By looking at Sydney Hilton and the Queen Victoria Building, you will discover how architects converted existing buildings and gave them a breath of new life.

Throughout the two hours, you will appreciate masterpieces of different architectural styles by different architects and witness how technological advances, economic and political forces shaped our city.

Tour Details:

Location: Meet at Hyde Park Barracks, in front of the main gate, 12 Macquarie Street, Sydney NSW 2000
Time: 10.00am - 12.00pm
Date: Wednesday 16 November 2016
Tickets: $20 (Public) / $15 (Senoirs & students) / AAA Members Free

Don’t miss out click here to secure your place on the tour.

• Article: Vanessa Couzens / AAA website
• Image: Reflections of the QVB Building on the Hilton Sydney
• Photographer: Vincent Lam

Enjoy a weekend stroll through one of the first residential settlements established by the First Fleet - The Rocks. Trace the development of Sydney's oldest suburb with buildings representing the past, present and future! 

Wander through the hilly terrain and see how heritage and contemporary architecture co-exists in harmony. Discover the marks left on the district by the plague of 1900 and major infrastructure projects such as the wharves and the harbour bridge.

We will also witness the metamorphosis of the area into new residential, commercial, recreational and cultural uses of the 21st Century after the port facilities moved away in both Walsh Bay and Barangaroo.

Tour Details:

Location: Meet at the Harbourside Forecourt of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA)
Time: 10.00am - 12.00pm
Date: Saturday 19 November 2016
Tickets: $20 (Public) / $15 (Senoirs & students) / AAA Members Free

Don’t miss out click here to secure your place on the tour.

• Article: Vanessa Couzens / AAA website
• Image: View of the Barangaroo development
• Photographer: Vanessa Couzens

This Sunday Sydney Open invites you in to some of the city’s most architecturally inspiring buildings. From historic buildings tracing the story of Sydney’s beginnings, to award-winning new buildings and space that will shape the fabric and cultural life of the city for generations to come, Sydney Open is offering special access and guided tours to over 50 buildings and intriguing spaces across the CBD, Barangaroo, Walsh Bay and The Rocks.

Click here to take part in Sydney Open 2016.

• Article: Sydney Open 2016
• Image: Australia Square Tower designed by architect Harry Seidler
• Photographer: Vanessa Couzens

This weekend is your last chance to see Sculpture by the Sea, which has returned to the Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach coastal walk. The annual exhibition is in it’s twentieth year, transforming the coast into a 2km long temporary sculpture park over the period 20 October - 6 November 2016.

This years free-to-the-public outdoor sculpture exhibition features more than 100 works by Australian and International artists.

As this is the last weekend for the exhibition it’s sure to be popular. Plan your visit and take public transport. Visit the Sculpture by the Sea website by clicking here.

• Article: Vanessa Couzens
• Image source: Sculpture by the Sea Gallery
• Image: ‘Water Blocks’, Sculpture by the Sea, Bondi 2016. Artist: Tsukasa Nakahara, Japan, Keizo Ushio, Japan
• Photographer: Clyde Yee

This month one double ticket for the new Australian film ‘A Month Of Sundays’ is on offer to Australian Architecture Association Members. In cinemas from 28 April, the film stars Anthony LaPaglia, John Clarke, Julia Blake and Justine Clarke and was directed by Matthew Saville.

A MONTH OF SUNDAYS is a heartwarming dramatic comedy about family, relationships, loss and redemption. It is a tale about a Real Estate agent (Anthony LaPaglia) who is down and out, and about finding happiness with plenty of humour along the way.

Real estate agent, Frank Mollard, won’t admit it, but he can’t move on. Divorced but still attached, he can’t sell a house in a property boom - much less connect with his teenage son. One night Frank gets a phone call from his mother. Nothing out of the ordinary. Apart from the fact that she died a year ago. A MONTH OF SUNDAYS is about parents, children, regrets, mourning, moments of joy, houses, homes, love, work, television, Shakespeare and and jazz fusion: about ordinary people and improbable salvation. Because everyone deserves a second chance.  Even a real estate agent.

Click here to watch a trailer for the movie.

The double pass will be mailed to the first Australian Architecture Association Member who emails: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Please ensure that in the email subject line you type: Movie Tickets
Don't forget to tell us your full name and postal address you want the tickets sent to.

• Article & Images: Provided by Nixco
• Image 1: Film Still ‘Anthony LaPaglia’
• Image 2: Film Poster ‘A Month Of Sundays’

 

This month King Street Gallery features the work of Peter O’Doherty. Originally better known as a musician in bands such as Mental As Anything and Dog Trumpet, O’Doherty has gained recognition as a fine artist whose still life paintings explore the everyday suburban landscape and the commonplace objects of interiors.

Fibro. Brick veneer. Stegbar. Pebblecrete. Laminex. Masonite. Galvanised Iron. Slate. Tin. Wood. Even blindfolded you hear these words and know where you are. It’s not Paris. But somewhere closer, in the antipodes, in the realm of ordinary dwellings. Houses so familiar you feel you know them even if you have never stepped inside them.

Domestic materials. Random scenery. The view from the car window or the silent walk. Peter O’Doherty has painted them for a long time. Habituating his steady hand to driveways, sealed doors, drawn curtains and half open blinds. He regards the houses he paints as portraits and persists until he finds humanity within a standardised product. His argument, put forward simply, is that life is not in fact a state of heightened perpetual sensation but rather a string of small, non-descript incidents. The in-between becomes the whole.

Exhibition Details:
Location: King Street Gallery – 177 William St, Darlinghurst NSW
Times: Tuesday to Saturday 10.00am-6.00pm / Sunday 11.00am-6.00pm
Dates: 29 March – 23 April 2016

Click here to learn more about the exhibition.

• Intro: Vanessa Couzens
• Article: Excerpt from the exhibition Catalogue Essay by Anna Johnson - ‘Peter O’Doherty: Through the Window’
• Image 1: Peter O’Doherty ‘Coastal 5’, 2016, acrylic on board, 20 x 20cm
• Image 2: Peter O’Doherty ‘Monterey Afternoon’, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 122cm