completed 2008

many years ago, a young woman by the name of kalliopi vakras knocked on the door of our laneway warehouse cum home office
she had heard we were looking for looking for staff… which we weren’t but nonetheless, we went along with her proposition as she seemed very pleasant
we interviewed her, but made it abundantly clear that she was just one of many potential young hopefuls we were seeing and that the competition was stiff
we had wanted to appear professional and that we were giving due consideration to the decision
kal [as she is forever affectionately known to us] was quite unaware that as the only applicant to our non existent job offer, she was in with a good chance

after waiting for what appeared to us to be the appropriate amount of time to sufficiently pontificate… a good few days as it turned out, we offered her the job
she quickly accepted the position, failing in my opinion, to allow the appropriate amount of pontificating in return, but she was young and eager
shortly thereafter kal’s parents dropped around… we must have passed the depraved persons assessment as kal continued to come to work
or maybe I thankfully wasn’t in that day… I can’t remember it was a long time ago

years later when kal finally left she handed over her job onto someone she knew and was confident would be able to work with us
this became an office tradition that continues through to today, as generally a position in our office is passed on to a friend, rather than forcing us to go through any extensive interviewing process
as john laws would say, “ when your on a good thing, stick to it ”
and we did

unfortunately after leaving us kal went over to the dark side and started working for heritage architects
she did however become very involved in the formation of arbri [with the involvement of kim roberts whom had also worked with us]
arbri was a non for profit organization aimed at connecting under financed community groups in need of architectural advise with design practices prepared to take on pro bono work
arbri was later to morph into / merge with architects for peace

it came as no surprise that we were approached by kal and kim, to undertake arbri’s first ever project for ‘arts unlimited’

situated at the old geelong goal, arts unlimited was an initiative by the st lawrence community service to provide facilities and hence opportunity for practicing artists with a disability
the brief was to create a covered meeting place, where one could readily sit and have a chat, sketch, or set up an easel to work within a proposed drought tolerant garden

it was a privilege to talk with and be shown the work of the artists, whom arts unlimited liked to call ‘clients’

we were very taken with the work being produced, especially that of one artist who’s work was based around multicoloured matchsticks and popsicle sticks, that were used in repeated combinations
we happily incorporated this aesthetic into our proposal

with the involvement of the students and teachers from the building department at the local tafe college, our engineer doug turnbull of td&c and combined efforts of the local lions club, the project was ultimately realised

late in febuary 2008, sioux and myself ventured down to the old geelong goal for the official opening of the pergola and it’s surrounding drought tolerant garden
there was about 100 people present including the local media
we were presented a lovely certificate of appreciation
long with the lions club president, we all… except sioux whom is a strident republican… sang a rousing rendition of ‘god save the queen’ and listened to an interesting elderly gentleman give a speech that kept drifting onto the topic of women’s undergarment

so here’s to:
the empire… tally ho
arts unlimited…
architects for peace…
and most of all to kalliopi vakras….


project design team:
tim o’sullivan architect
sioux clark interior designer
kim roberts
kalliopi vakras

structural engineer
T.D&C

photographs:
multiplicity