Cassandra Fahey

Last updated

Cassandra Fahey CassFahey A.jpeg
Cassandra Fahey

Cassandra Fahey (born c. 1972) [1] is an Australian architect and interior designer residing in Melbourne. She is Director of the architecture firm "Cassandra Complex". She emerged in the public spotlight in 2000 because of the controversial 'Newman House', [1] located in St Kilda, designed for media and football identity Sam Newman. She is also known for her works on "The Smith Great Aussie Home" [2] and the BHP Billiton Healesville Sanctuary "Platypusary". Her work has received a number of awards as well as being featured in many local and international publications. [3]

Contents

Career

Cassandra completed the Bachelor of Architecture at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in 1998. [4] During her studies she traveled internationally to produce a documentary on Architects practicing at the turn of the millennium. Among these were Sir Norman Foster, Peter Eisenman, and Jean Nouvel. [5] Whilst in New York she met Richard Serra and was influenced by his sculpture in its original setting in a converted New York City garage. The effect of this can be seen later in the design of her own house, "Chameleon". [6]

Interior of Chameleon, 2001. Chameleon 04.jpg
Interior of Chameleon, 2001.

Back in Melbourne, in her earlier career she received guidance from Tom Kovac and Edmond Corrigan [4] and soon registered her own practice which she named the Cassandra Complex. In 2005 [7] Fahey was engaged in a Masters in Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne.

Fahey developed a unique approach to architecture using different styles [8] in each of her projects rather than developing a common theme. [9] Her influences within this "no one way" approach [10] have been "so-called nature", Emily Kame Kngwarreye and the "whole bang lot". [11]

Notable works

Sam Newman House

Fahey was given a completely open brief [12] for the Sam Newman House—named White Noise after Robert Venturis Term 'Billboard Façade' [13] —in St. Kilda West, Melbourne. [14] It features Cassandra's 9 m by 8 m façade design comprising patterned glass and contains a Pamela Anderson mural, [15] with a garage door opening at her mouth. [16] Post-modernism co-habits seamlessly with minimalism. [15]

It was completed in 2001 and its mural received the Best New Residential Building in the RAIA Victorian Architecture Awards. [17] The design of the house's exterior was controversial however, encountering objections and incorrect planning applications. [18] It became known as the house that Melburnians love to hate. [12]

"White Noise", Newman House NEWMAN 2 lowres.jpeg
"White Noise", Newman House

BHP Billiton Platypusary

BHP Billiton Platypussary at Healesville Sanctuary. Platapusary image01.jpeg
BHP Billiton Platypussary at Healesville Sanctuary.
BHP Billiton Platypussary at Healesville Sanctuary. Platapusary image02.jpeg
BHP Billiton Platypussary at Healesville Sanctuary.

Platypusary at Healsville sanctuary (also known as BHP Billiton Platypusary) was opened to the public on 12 May 2005. [19] Its façade comprises gold panels with inscribed leaf shapes and encloses a ponds of water running like a native creek. [12] The passing of sun over these leaves casts complex shadows and reflections onto the marble ground of the platypusary. [20]

The movement of the water through the pools provides different refractions cast upon the gold panels, reiterating the constant connection and reflection. [12] Awelye represents ceremony in aboriginal culture of Australia. [21]

Smith Great Aussie Home

Smith Great Aussie Home - Black Rock TheSmithGreatAussieHome 01.jpg
Smith Great Aussie Home – Black Rock

The Smith Great Aussie Home was designed for the self-made businessman Darren Smith. The $1.6 million "trophy home" [1] is located at Black Rock, Melbourne, Victoria. [22]

New Gold Mountain Bar

Designed by Fahey in 2003, New Gold Mountain is a bar located in Melbourne's CBD. [23] Fahey's concept surrounds an old tailors studio on the outskirts of the city's Chinatown district with a space replicating the unique theme of an opium den. Distorted images of opium smokers form repeated patterns, wallpapering the walls and soft furnishings. Upstairs tantric red wallpaper and sectioned caverns create a strong mood for conversation and company. There are glistening beads, pink opium moments and multi coloured skirts hanging from the ceiling.

New Gold Mountain, Melbourne, Australia in 2003 NGM 000059.jpg
New Gold Mountain, Melbourne, Australia in 2003

Other notable works

Husk Boutique, [24] Melbourne, CBD
Crowning Glory, [25] Monash Museum of Art
Chameleon warehouse conversion, [26] North Melbourne
Josh Abrahams House, [27] Brighton
A bathroom for Jonathan Mills
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Russell Street, Melbourne
Breamlea House
Menorah House, [28] Hawthorn (unbuilt)

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Kilda West, Victoria</span> Suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

St Kilda West is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. St Kilda West recorded a population of 2,951 at the 2021 census.

Sean Godsell is an Australian architect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Corrigan</span> Australian architect (1941–2016)

Peter Russell Corrigan was an Australian architect and was involved in the completion of works in stage and set design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daryl Jackson</span> Australian architect

Daryl Sanders Jackson is an Australian architect and the owner of an international architecture firm, Jackson Architecture. Jackson also became an associate professor at University of Melbourne and Deakin University.

Margaret Leonie Edmond is an Australian architect.

Ivan Rijavec is an Australian architect.

Wood Marsh Architecture, styled Wood | Marsh Architecture, is a Melbourne-based Australian architectural practice founded by Roger Wood and Randal Marsh in 1983.

Philip Harmer is an Australian architect. He graduated from the University of Melbourne with a bachelor's degree in Architecture, and became a Fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA). Harmer has a strong appreciation for sculptural forms and spaces that are powerfully shaped or wrought; thus, his works display the cleverness of how certain materials and details are used to represent his individual persona.

Kerstin Thompson is an Australian architect, born in Melbourne in 1965. She is the principal of Kerstin Thompson Architects (KTA), a Melbourne-based architecture, landscape and urban design practice with projects in Australia and New Zealand. She is also Professor of Design at the School of Architecture at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and adjunct professor at RMIT University and Monash University.

Matthew David Bird is an architect, artist and academic from Melbourne, Australia. He practices across a range of disciplines including interior design, set-design, sculpture, installation art and architecture. He is well known for his guerrilla-style installations, notably Alphaomega Apartment (2008) where he theatrically transformed a tiny rental apartment with reimagined prosaic materials and unbeknown to the owners.

Corbett Marshall Lyon is an Australian architect, art patron and academic who lives and works in Melbourne. He is a founding director of Melbourne architectural firm Lyons. With partners Carey Lyon, Cameron Lyon, Neil Appleton, Adrian Stanic and James Wilson he has designed many award-winning institutional and public buildings in Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">RMIT Design Hub</span> Educational / Institutional in Victoria, Australia

The RMIT Design Hub is a research, archive, exhibition, and studio space of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia located on the historic Carlton & United Breweries site.

Elenberg Fraser is an Australian architecture firm, based in Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It was established in 1998 by Zahava Elenberg and Callum Fraser, both RMIT University graduates. Notable projects include the interior design of restaurants such as Vue de Monde (2005) and Gingerboy (2006) and apartment buildings such as Liberty Tower (2002), Watergate Place (2005), A'Beckett Tower (2010), Eq. Tower (2017), Light House Melbourne (2017), Aurora Melbourne Central (2019), Swanston Central (2019) and Premier Tower (2021), all in Melbourne. Their design for the alpine hotels Huski (2005) and St Falls (2009) both at Falls Creek, Victoria, received awards for their highly sculptural qualities. In 2009 Elenberg Fraser also completed the adaptive reuse of No 2 Goods Shed in Docklands, a heritage-listed building transformed into office and hospitality space.

Searle X Waldron is an Australian architecture firm based in St Kilda, Melbourne. It is an emerging firm co-founded by Nick Searle and Suzannah Waldron in 2007. The firm focuses on projects ranging from small scale residential to larger scale urban master-planning. Some of their notable projects and design competitions include the MoCAPE and Art Gallery of Ballarat Annexe which have managed to attain various awards from the Australian Institute of Architects, including the 2012 Colorbond Award for Steel Architecture and 2012 Architecture Award for Public Architecture Alteration & Additions. Their designs have been exhibited across Australia and throughout Asia and Europe.

Shelley Jane Penn is a Melbourne-based award-winning architect, educator, urbanist and built environment advocate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eli Giannini</span> Australian architect

Eli (Elisabetta) Giannini AM is an Australian architect and director of MGS Architects in Melbourne. Giannini completed her architectural undergraduate studies at RMIT University in 1983 and Master of Design (Thesis) in 1903, entitled ‘Metro-scape’. Soon after her undergraduate studies in 1989, she joined MGS Architects with Robert McGauran and Mun Soon. In 2002 she was selected as President of the Victorian Chapter of the Australian Institute of Architects, a position occupied until 2004.

Dimity Reed is an architect, urbanist and academic. She has been involved in government advisory roles, as well as writing for both The Sun and The Age newspapers.

Jillian Meredith Garner is an Australian architect. She is a principal of Garner Davis Architects and in 2015 became the Victorian Government Architect.

Emma Young is an Australian architect, born in Sydney in 1971.

Clare Cousins is an Australian architect, interior designer, and director of Melbourne-based Clare Cousins Architects, established in 2005. Cousins served as the national president of the Australian Institute of Architects (AIA). She was awarded the Chapter Presidential Medal by the Institute for her advocacy to protect Anzac Hall. She has also received the Presidential Medal of the American Institute of Architects.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "More bang for your building". The Age. 23 April 2006.
  2. ↑ "Ambassador of taste: Eugenia Lim's The Australian Ugliness". ArchitectureAU. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  3. ↑ "Awards". Cassandra Fahey. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  4. 1 2 Jackson, Davina (15 October 2007). Next Wave: New Australian Architecture. Princeton Architectural Press. ISBN   9781568987354.
  5. ↑ "Sam Newman House". skhs.org.au. Archived from the original on 15 April 2011. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  6. ↑ Amelar, Sarah (September 2005), Architectural Record, vol. 193, pp. 108–115
  7. ↑ "PAVILIONS FOR A NEW ARCHITECTURE". RMIT Architecture and Urban Design. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  8. ↑ "More bang for your building". The Age. 23 April 2006. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  9. ↑ Crafti, Stephen (10 August 2006). "Beyond the box". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  10. ↑ "Platypusary, Healesville Sanctuary". The Age. 23 August 2005. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  11. ↑ "BHP Billiton Platypusary – Architecture Gallery – Australian Institute of Architects, The Voice of Australian Architecture". dynamic.architecture.com.au. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  12. 1 2 3 4 "The Age". Melbourne. 23 August 2005.
  13. ↑ Kalms, Nicole (31 March 2017). Hypersexual City: The Provocation of Soft-Core Urbanism. Taylor & Francis. ISBN   9781317028277.
  14. ↑ "World Press". 13 December 2006.
  15. 1 2 "Saint Kilda History Society". Archived from the original on 15 April 2011.
  16. ↑ "Sam Newman House – 270 Canterbury Road. ST KILDA [Walking Melbourne Building Information]". walkingmelbourne.com.
  17. ↑ "WhateveThe sordid tale of Sam and Pamr happened to Sam Newman's house? | Milk Bar" . Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  18. ↑ "'Pamela Anderson house' built for Sam Newman on the market". propertyobserver.com.au. 30 October 2011. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  19. ↑ "Legislation Victoria". Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  20. ↑ "Architecture Awards".
  21. ↑ "Aboriginal Shop". Archived from the original on 12 June 2011.
  22. ↑ Cassandra Complex, The Smith Great Aussie Home, The RAIA Award for Residential Architecture – Houses, Architecture.com.au, 2010
  23. ↑ "New Gold Mountain | Architecture/interiors | Peter Bennetts Architectural Photographer". www.peterbennetts.com. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  24. ↑ "Husk Collins Street – Architecture Gallery – Australian Institute of Architects, The Voice of Australian Architecture". dynamic.architecture.com.au. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  25. ↑ Kalms, Nicole (31 March 2017). Hypersexual City: The Provocation of Soft-Core Urbanism. Routledge. ISBN   9781317028260.
  26. ↑ ""Chameleon", by Cassandra Fahey for a warehouse conversion in Melbourne | Glass | Pinterest | Glass, Warehouse conversion and Warehouse". Pinterest. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  27. ↑ "Totally addicted to space: producer Josh Abrahams selling Brighton pad". news.com.au. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  28. ↑ Adams, David (13 June 2009). "Wild and wonderful dwellings". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  29. ↑ "100 Australia's Best and Brightest". The Bulletin. 26 June 2007.
  30. 1 2 "2007 Victorian Architecture Awards: Award Winner List". Australian Institute of Architects.
  31. ↑ "AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS NATIONAL ARCHITECTURE AWARDS 1981 – 2013" (PDF). Australian Institute of Architects.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.