Open House Melbourne: A Guide

During the week I posted an article on Everguide, ‘Everguide’s 2013 Open House Weekend Trail’.

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Calling all adventurers, explorers and architecture appreciators: Open House Melbourne is making its way to town and we’ve created a nifty little guide to help you sift through the 101 iconic buildings opening their doors for the public to wander through. You’ve only got one weekend (Saturday 27 July – Sunday 28 July) to jam-pack as many nosy visits into these rarely accessible architectural gems, so you’d best get your map out and dust off your old compass because we’re about to embark on a blazing trail of discovery. Prepare to get off your couch because this will be much better than those Grand Designs re-runs you’ve been watching.

Let’s start big with Eddie McGuire’s Palace, otherwise known as the Channel 9 Studios. Conveniently located at 717 Bourke Street, Docklands, it’s an easy one-minute walk across the bridge from Southern Cross Station. Channel 9 are going all out and letting visitors channel their inner Ron Burgundy with specials tours of the Nine News studio. Keep yourself occupied until the next episode of The Newsroom and stroll through Peter Hitchener’s natural habitat to see how it all works behind the scenes. You’re even allowed you to sit in his throne for a gloriously staged photo shoot that’ll make your friends studying journalism quiver with jealousy.

While you’re in the Docklands you might as well pay a visit to the LEGO Education Centre. Make your own architectural marvel during OHM with the LEGO Green City Build. You’ll be given a 25 x 25cm base plate and some green LEGO pieces to create your own mini city which will be added to everyone else’s culminating in a massive green LEGO metropolis. (Warning: make sure you’re wearing some sturdy shoes because standing on a LEGO block is the worst pain known to man.)

You think architects work in normal people offices? Please, save your sub-standard interior designs for someone else. It only makes sense for an architecture firm to have a state-of-the-art studio. Swing by DesignInc at GPO Level 2 and see how these acclaimed architects operate behind closed double-glazed glass doors. Staff members will take you through the impeccable space whilst showing off some of their drool-worthy presentation boards, drawings and building models along the way. Animal Collective might be able to settle for four walls and adobe slats, but not these guys. You’d better polish up your architectural lingo for this one.

Designed by the brilliant John Wardle Architects, The Urban Workshop has brought little ol’ Lonsdale Street into the future. It’s a commercial building so not many have seen what’s inside its über-modern glossy exterior. While you can’t go and annoy the people working on levels 1-32, this tour takes you straight up to the top floor with incredible views of everything from the Treasury Gardens to the MCG. The tour also includes a history lesson of the precinct provided by historian Michelle Summerton. (If you’re not too busy pressing your face up to the glass, that is.)

While we’re talkin’ about John Wardle, they just so happen to share a building with printing wizzes Spacecraft and they’re both letting you trawl through their creative workplaces at 25 Rokeby Street, Collingwood. Two-for-one!

Even residential buildings are taking part in OHM, which means you can finally walk through a place way out of your league at the most leisurely of paces without an intimidating real estate agent eyeing you off. As far as out of your league apartments go, they don’t get much fancier than the newly-built Guilfoyle. Located at 39 Coventry Street, South Melbourne they’re practically next-door neighbours with the Botanic Gardens – now that’s when neighbours become good friends. These tours will take you beyond the foyer and into the actual apartments. Rich people role-playing is highly encouraged but try not to get too attached as you gaze out into the city skyline view. It’ll only end in heartbreak.

If you thought it was impossible to up the grandiosity, continue with a sticky beak into 171 Collins Street. Renowned for its mind-boggling all-glass interior and breath taking views across the Yarra and sporting precinct, brace yourself for some serious oohing and ahhing. It’s a rare opportunity to go inside without burly security guards with names like Butch and Boris shoving you back onto the curb.

By now we’ve seen quite a lot of modern architecture, so let’s go back a couple centuries with the heritage-listed Tasma Terrace (2-12 Parliament Place, East Melbourne). Built all the way back in 1878, this historical 3-storey terrace still has its original Victorian architectural features and furnishings which you can soak up in their entirety with a self-guided tour. They’re also offering something called the ‘Murder Tour’ which sounds a little ominous, so maybe watch a few episodes of Ghost Hunters and take down some notes just in case Tasma Terrace has its own resident Nearly Headless Nick floating around.

Continuing with the old, InterContinental Melbourne The Rialto are giving special tours of the historic gothic building which was originally built in 1889. The tour enters from 495 Collins Street and goes all the way through the modern Atrium and includes a special viewing of the original hydraulics used for the lifts. If you feel a bit silly going on a tour usually done by our foreign tourists, just apply a slight New Zealand accent and no-one will suspect a thing.

By now it’s late Sunday afternoon and Open House Melbourne is drawing to a sad close, so we’ll finish with a trip down the rabbit hole to ArtPlay. They’re hosting a special Alice in Wonderland-inspired exhibition calledHouse of Cards, and everyone is cordially invited. If (like me) you’ve wanted magical shrinking powers ever since that infamous scene, this is the officially the next best thing. Head down and design your own giant-sized playing cards and then build with them. Simple. All materials are provided so feel free to go completely Mad Hatter with your creations. Bonus points if you can make a giant house of cards.

This doesn’t even cover 10% of the architectural goodies on display during the Open House Melbourne weekend, so if you’re keen to weave through some more off-limits labyrinths, or want to catch some more of the special exhibitions and talks on offer, visit their official website.

On another note, the six shortlisted designs for the international design competition to help rejuvenate and restore Flinders Street Station were unveiled today. You can now have your say through the People’s Choice Award online voting system on which designs you love and loathe. The Flinders Street Ballroom was revealed the other week as the mystery building for OHM.