Kenzo Tange Lecture: Sean Godsell, “Your Feet Against My Feet: Upside-Down Architecture”

“…never have three of the primordial elements been so threatened as they are today: the air killed by pollution and carbon dioxide, the water, which is contaminated on the one hand and getting scarcer and scarcer on the other. The only winner is fire, in the form of a heat that is parching the earth, upsetting the seasons and, by melting the glaciers, inviting the sea to invade it.” —Umberto Eco, “Beautiful Flame”

Australia is hot and dry. Over 70% of the country is arid or semi-arid and sparsely populated. We are basically a giant desert about the same geographical size as the mainland US but with approximately the same population as greater Los Angeles. Despite our vast mineral wealth, water remains our most precious commodity, and fire and floods are our constant concern. For us, “the bush” is a mystical, mythical place. Australians know of the Outback, the Never Never, the Dreamtime, and the Songlines of our Indigenous communities. Here, “the bush” mediates between our colonial coastalism and the endless emptiness of the rest. These are dreamy, half-real skies.
 

Glenburn House, Glenburn, Victoria, Australia, Sean Godsell Architects. Photo by Earl Carter.