The Grand Section
In 2017 Bobbie Bayley and Owen Kelly undertook an architecture and cycling odyssey from the east to west, through the guts of Australia, including Alice Springs. This was called "The Grand Section", departing February 2017 they arrived on the west coast late December 2017 , they rode 7650km of architectural study along Australia's metaphorical heart-line, Uluru's latitude. It was an attempt to better understand their own country slowly and without a bloody windscreen in the way. The pair stopped for one week in 19 places, engaging with locals, documenting and analysing the place; how and why people are living the way they are, presenting their findings back to the communities they stayed with. This cross section of studying Australia's Architecture so closely is unprecedented.
Both conventional and radical, adhering to proven architectural doctrine whilst attempting to break the mould of architecture, time was spent in ‘places’ en-route, conversing, observing, listening, documenting, studying and experiencing the variations in habitation.
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‘The Grand Section’ combines the principles of;
The Grand Tour; the educational rite of passage looking abroad for inspiration and teaching, and the architectural Drawing; Section. A crucial drawing to understand interrelationships. Together combined to make the participatory Australian based journey attempting to increase our understanding of the reality of nature of its habitations and the in-between.
A section following latitude 25 Deg as the arbiter to remove preconceptions about where one should visit. Slowness over a 10 month duration, journeying and taking refuge in landscape for shelter.
A journey by bicycle, deliberately slowing the pace. An immersive experience forcing a direct interaction and understanding of place, people and stuff.
An exhibition at each place allowed the duo to document the variations of habitation across Australia and was our exchange with the locals who gave us their time. Showing what we had observed and learned from their town to encourage dialogue of the wider public around Australian habitation and Architecture.
A system of tools was used to produce a rigorous analysis of what we saw, felt and experienced along the journey. As a homogeneous lens, our analysis sort to answer one question; How does Place influence in-habitation? and, a stolen hierarchy of; Place, People, Stuff to focus our study, ensuring the analysis did not conform to a conventional architectural appreciation.
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The broader ‘Australia’ is largely unknown. The fringe, in which 85% of Australians inhabit, is only a part of the broader whole. A typical Australian myth pervades; Girt by sea, Girth by Desert. The reality of Australia though, is in fact much more diverse than this.
It is clear as the layers and patterns of this island continent begin to be overlaid, we begin to appreciate the value and influence of the layers; geology, ecology, hard & anecdotal data have to slowly uncover and realise the nature of Australian habitation. Further overlaying the Indigenous language map and the commonwealth borders (see image on home page) it’s possible to visualise how very different approaches to in-habitation exist. All of which are outside our knowing as fringe dwellers.
Changing societal living trends and expectations, increasing urbanism and housing density, the fringe is creeping further from the ground plane into the sky and from the edges to our red center. As the fringe creeps, we have a responsibility in the built environment to have a sensibility, to go beyond replicating and continuing to transpose the generic Anglo-Saxon, mongrel-esque typologies of habitation which exist. To fully understand the reality of our own country it is crucial that we begin to explore, invest in and understand the nature of the entirety of Australia and its respective habitations
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"The Grand Section" was turned into a national touring exhibition called, "Girthy; with Slim Edges" which roamed through towns and cities in 2018 delivering Australia’s innards to its outer fringe. Giving insight into the reality of Australia, its architecture and the regional and remote areas of this incredible country, it was displayed out of a handmade recycled tent "art-gallery"!
"...the health of cities depends on the health of rural areas...the pre-condition of all economic life, takes place in the country side...to restore a proper balance between city and rural life is perhaps the biggest task in front of modern man"
- E.F. Schumacher, "Small is Beautiful"
Photos by - Dillon and Jai Parker
(click on the stops below to read the blog/ work/ Exhibition)
Stop 02 - Woodgate, QLD
Stop 09-011 - In-between (Marree to Alice Springs), SA-NT
Stop 013 - Wallace Rockhole, NT
Girthy with Slim Edges National Exhibition 2018 - 10. Brisbane, 11. Singleton, 12. Blackheath