Neometro Issue 2

NEOMETRO ISSUE # 2 - SEPTEMBER Welcome to issue # 2 of the Neometro newsletter. As we also welcome spring in Melbourne, it is fitting to announce that Airlie Bank by Neometro is due to commence construction. See www.airliebank.com.au for details. Set among the rich cultural and architectural history of the Royal Botanic Gardens precinct in South Yarra, Airlie Bank will be the ultimate expression of what is becoming known as ‘Neometro Style’. Combining quality and craftsmanship with consideration for the environment, Neometro has applied the latest environmentally sustainable design to achieve a six-star rating. As Neometro creates and delivers bespoke architectural residences from inception to completion, in this issue we are pleased to profile a similarly committed artist and environmental innovator, Joost Bakker. His integration of art and industry into practice is an inspiration and we hope that his insights, as well as a small selection of our own, inform and entertain you. Yours Sincerely, Jeff Provan and James Tutton www.neometro.com.au
	Joost Bakker Artist 1. Who are you and what do you do? I am an artist who receives commissions to create anything from a chair to a vessel for cocktails. Currently, I am working on a new method of growing flowers and plants using 100% waste as the growing medium and combining it with worm castings. Tomorrow we are starting to build the Greenhouse in Perth. 2. What has been your greatest challenge? Staying focused on one thing! 3. Tell us about a memorable moment. It is 7pm on Thursday night, screw gun and hammer in hand, and we are following a Melbourne City Council building inspector around every corner of the Greenhouse (at Federation Square). There was a crowd waiting outside to come in and we had just worked straight through from 7am Tuesday morning. I don’t want to know what I looked like at that moment but I will never forget the relief I felt when he finally gave us the all clear. I only remember snippets of that night, but I remember every minute of the 14 days that it took us to build it. 4. Who do you work with on your projects? Georgina O’Connor. She is amazing. She reads my mind and has so much enthusiasm for everything that I do. I have a very complicated way of explaining my ideas and often move from one thing to another without realising it. Georgina just takes it all in, then comes back with perfect 3D images. When we completed the Greenhouse all the guys bought her a nail bag! Also, one night Miele had delivered all the appliances and I was so worried they would get stolen that I decided to sleep in the Greenhouse instead of the nearby hotel. About 20 minutes later, some of the guys joined me, and then another 20 minutes later Georgina turned up with blankets! 5. Where to now? A very exciting prospect has emerged from a presentation that was made to NATO in Kabul a few weeks ago. They are considering using a system of mine for new housing. This system will use straw from locally grown wheat to create well-insulated buildings. The system also allows the look and feel of the buildings to be decided by the people who are going be calling them their homes.
ARTICLES
	ACE HOTEL - NEW YORK In 1999, having already established a record label, a chain of 15 Rudy’s Barbershops and a marketing agency, American entrepreneur Alex Calderwood opened his first Ace Hotel in Seattle. Since then he has opened Ace Hotels in Portland (his hometown), Palm Springs and most recently, New York. Each hotel aims to integrate into its surroundings: Portland provides bunk-bed rooms for touring bands, Palm Springs is combined with a swim club while the interior of New York’s Ace hotel — designed by Stephen Alesch and Robin Standefer of design firm Roman and Williams — is part film set, part friend’s cool apartment. Driven by creating experiences rather than clichés, the Ace Hotel works by the idea that, while the drinks at the lobby bar should be stiff, the atmosphere should not. www.acehotel.com/newyork

	COLAB EYEWEAR Let’s call a spade a spade: ‘collaboration’ is a term often used simply as a marketing device. True collaboration, however, is about the creative process and craftsmanship of two parties combining to produce a result that couldn’t be achieved by one alone. Enter COLAB Eyewear, the Sydney-based label working with acclaimed local and international artists such as Perks and Mini, Fergadelic, Josh Petherick, Geoff McFetridge and Genevieve Gauckler. At COLAB, the artists are given full creative control across the design of both the product and additional packaging, while the technicians at COLAB assist with fine-tuning the production of these limited-edition ranges. Put simply, what you can expect from COLAB is something completely unexpected, and while many of the designs might be considered too wild for some, designs such as the Caza’s by Tonite (pictured) are instant classics. www.colab.com.au

	VINTAGE PLANT For some people, their plants are as important to them as their pets. They are companions, reminding you not only to water them, but also of your responsibility to the environment as a whole. Given their valuable role in our lives, plants deserve good homes. Vintage Plant, founded in Stockholm in 2007 by Bygg Studio, is a network of plant stories aiming to look after and relocate plants that, for whatever reason, can no longer be cared for. Vintage Plants can be donated, swapped or purchased and each transaction is accompanied by a contract of care as well an individual plant history. Having already exhibited at design festivals and hosted market stalls in Tokyo and London, the Vintage Plant Melbourne branch will be opening later this year as part of the ThreeThousand Shop in Curtin House. More details to be announced via the Vintage Plant and ThreeThousand websites. www.vintageplant.net

NEOMETRO ISSUE # 2 - SEPTEMBER

ARTICLES