53behind the scenesReview of book, behind the scenes, about the politics of planning Adelaide

52the ARts ARchitectsteve Grieve talks major new Fringe hub the depot and other arts projects

54FAb lAbAustralia’s first fabrication laboratory opened in Adelaide last year

the depot, Photo: sam noonan Photographer

Australian Instituteof Landscape Architects

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ThE ADELAIDE REVIEW mARch 2013

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52 ThE ADELAIDE REVIEW March 2013

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David Knight

since moving to Adelaide from sydney in

1978, steve Grieve, director of Grieve-

Gillett, has been a major part of the arts

fabric of Adelaide. he has been involved

in major arts projects such as the lions Art centre,

tandanya, JamFactory and Adelaide studios, as

well as Fringe and Festival venues such as Adelaide

Festival’s infamous Red square for the 96 Festival.

Red square influenced new major Fringe venue

the depot, an open-air hub located on the site of

the old Franklin st bus depot.

Grieve, who was recently named the AiA

President (sA chapter), joined the Fringe board last

year. he was the chair of country Arts sA for six

years and a director of Regional Arts Australia, as

well as a participant on a host of other arts boards.

“it’s a sense of community responsibility,” Grieve

explains about his arts affiliations. “Why do people

stand for parliament? Why do people join councils?

the arts architectWith new Fringe venue the depot, architect steve Grieve continues his three-decade career of combining two loves – the arts and architecture.

You just develop an interest and get involved.”

Grieve says completing jobs that combine the

arts and architecture, such as Glenside’s recent

Adelaide studios for the south Australian Film

corp and the new home for the Adelaide central

school of Art, which is in the same precinct, is

“enriching and important”.

“i happen to enjoy being involved with the

arts, so the projects we tend to do are involved

with that. but we, Grieve Gillett, do a lot of

infrastructure projects; railway stations, lots of

stuff in the public realm, work in universities,

i’m working on the new hospital, so they are

typically in the public realm.”

the depot, an open-air Fringe venue that hosts

entertainment facilities, bars, pop-up food stalls and

more, continues the Red square tradition of using

shipping containers to build walls and define space.

“there’s a connection in that we used shipping

containers at Red square and basically that’s

because they were cheap. You can use shipping

containers really effectively to define space. not

only are you building walls and defining spaces but

also you’ve got all these containers that you can use

for storage. it makes sense. there were a number

of things we looked at but shipping containers

were readily available and a logical thing to use. it

certainly has a connection back to Red square but

it’s certainly not based on Red square, as such.”

Grieve Gillett joined the depot project after david

o’sullivan rang Grieve to say he was part of a group

interested in developing the former Franklin st bus

depot into a multi-purpose arts venue.

“he knew of my involvement in earlier Fringe

and Festival projects over the years such as Red

square and things like that. he sent me a brief

and invited me to have a discussion about it.”

Grieve invited two of his younger staff members,

dino Vrynois and Jessica macdonald, to join him

for the discussion, as they had their “fingers on the

pulse”. Vrynois is now deeply embedded in the

project as the depot’s creative manager.

“he’s [Vrynois] been able to bring in an array of

different people. the graphic designers, fashion

industry people and all these different food stalls. he’s

got connections with those guys and brought them

in and made them all work together, which is great.”

the depot has been able to tap into different

communities by hosting the food truck expo

Fork on the Road as well as pop up stalls such

as bar 9 and cantina. then there are the nightly

local and national bands and events such as

colourpalooza. this sense of bringing together

different communities is an important part of what

makes arts venues work, according to Grieve.

“no matter if you are in the city, the country

or wherever, to get arts venues to work, and i

think the depot fulfills this, it must have a multi-

faceted appeal. it must appeal to different groups

in our community, so they all go to one place for

different reasons but then they intermingle and

cross-pollinate. location is really important, as

well as the connection to different communities.”

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the depot the depot

ThE ADELAIDE REVIEW March 2013 53

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Grieve believes that Adelaide can host

three major Fringe and Festival hubs

(barrio, the Garden of Unearthly delights

and now the depot) over the mad march

period, not forgetting other venues such

as tuxedo cat, Arcade lane and Gluttony.

“if we go back to the early 80s, it was

either the Fringe or the Festival where

it happened. it was one of the other. in

some ways the Fringe started to be the

focal point of that march period for quite

a while from 84 to the mid-90s and really

Red square gave the Festival its big focal

success, in my view. it appeared there

was only enough audience for one or the

other. From 96 onwards the audiences were

building and you could sustain two focal

points and they could co-exist. After Red

square the Festival had the squeeze box

then the Persian Garden and now barrio

and they’ve all been really successful. the

audiences are built, so Adelaide can sustain

a much larger arts festival audience. now

we’ve got the Garden, barrio and the depot

as three different focal points and they’ll be

others that grow and develop.”

the-depot.com.au

grievegillett.com.au

John Bridgland

here’s a new Adelaide resource that pulls together the technical and sometimes volatile political threads

of town planning during a specific period and is a significant historical reference. this book would be useful for any south Australian curious to know how our inner city’s older as well as more contemporary fabric was shaped. decisive political and bureaucratic tussles were played out, particularly between the period 1972 and 1993, and continue to shape government policy within the city’s boundaries today.

in the case of this work, what was originally

a 2010 University of Adelaide doctoral history

thesis has now been edited into a book by the

University of Adelaide Press.

the author, dr michael llewellyn-smith

Am, brings exceptional credentials. UK born,

but sydney-based when this personal story

begins, he moved to Adelaide in 1974 to become

the city council’s first city planner, a new role

that was to mould council and government

planning policy and procedural development

in Australia’s ‘Athens of the south’. between

1977 and 1981 he also was a commissioner

of the powerful city of Adelaide Planning

commission and between 1982 to 1993 he was

the council’s town clerk (the equivalent of chief

executive today). he was thus an insider par

excellence, and the book’s title is not overstated.

consistent with his original objective, there

is historical research on Adelaide’s early years

from about 1840 and the century that followed,

but the work then moves quickly to the 1960s and

particularly to the period 1972 to 1992 when the

council had its own planning and development

control policies and legislation. it was matter

that induced ‘creative tension’ between local

and state government during those years. much

of the book is preoccupied with the changing

cast of players on the city planning stage during

that period, and their effect on the evolution of

planning tools, technicalities, and the strategic

and statutory complexities.

to add more colourful thread to the weave, in

recent years (2007 to 08) the author undertook the

challenging task of interviewing 47 participants

20 years after that period, including ex-premiers

and ministers, mayors and deputies, and key

planning advisors and bureaucrats. some

provide fascinating insights; the ‘in-hindsight’

recollections add a deeper perspective.

the work is not without flaws. hints of

the academic tone remain, an unavoidable

result when a thesis has been the original

source. however, the interviews lighten it up.

the historical chronological approach, while

appropriate, may have been more readable had it

instead focused on a narrative based on themes.

but to pay his due, the author does end chapters

with brief summaries, and concludes the book

with a distillation of key planning principles.

For any city observer who has been snared

in the sticky politics of the past two decades’

iterations of city development plans, from

high-level investors, architects and developers

to city residents objecting to small and quirky

developments just beyond their boundaries, one

principle is perhaps the most sobering. “Planning

is a political tool, not a technical process.”

At the december 2012 book release, launched

by lord mayor stephen Yarwood – a former

professional planner who confessed he had

not yet read it – he concluded: “i also want to

say that i’m sure we’ve been writing our own

chapters in the last few months and years and

those stories will continue for ever and ever,

and ever.” considering the profound changes

made to the city plan by the state government

with the concurrence of his council in 2012, his

observation confirms another of the author’s

key themes: “Planning is also a continuous

process, with cycles of information, investigation,

decision, action and review...”

booK ReVieW: AdelAide citY PlAnninG Politics FolloW A FAscinAtinG histoRicAl tRAil

one final observation – still on the theme

of cycles. A number of key Adelaide planning

decision-makers appear to have been employed

in cycles, and dr llewellyn-smith, who worked

separately from council for about 18 years, is

now back – this time as deputy lord mayor

and, until late last year, a council member of

the influential council-government capital city

committee. And the city council is pondering

whether to re-create an old role and employ

another chief city planner, after many years

without one. clearly, there’s a need.

behind the scenes – the politics of planning Adelaide

‘An insider’s account of the history of the city of

Adelaide and of city/state relations from 1972–1993’.

dr michael llewellyn-smith Am

University of Adelaide Press.

Paperback $50; PdF download free.

adelaide.edu.au/press

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the depot Red square

54 ThE ADELAIDE REVIEW March 2013

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Absolutely fabLeanne Amodeo

Adelaide’s creative industries continue

to thrive due in large part to the strong

sense of kinship and collaboration that

exists in the city’s many creative hubs. From the

long-established Gray street Workshop to the

newly formed artist-run-initiative Fontanelle,

these studios and galleries are vibrant breeding

grounds for experimentation and innovation.

that they are underscored by a strong sense of

community goes a long way in guaranteeing their

ongoing growth and the far-reaching success of

many of their affiliated artists and designers. so

when a new kid appears on the block that can

benefit both hubs and practitioners alike it’s well

worth standing up and paying attention.

this new kid goes by the name of Fab lab Adelaide

and it has been in operation since november 2012.

Funded by the south Australian Government’s

department of Further education, employment,

science and technology (dFeest) and managed

by AnAt, it is housed in a modest-sized space of

the Adelaide college of the Arts. in an exciting coup

for Adelaide it is the first fabrication laboratory in

Australia and as such belongs to an international

network of over 100 fab labs, first founded in

the Us by Professor neil Gershenfeld from the

massachusetts institute of technology (mit).

As a free-access community workshop, Fab lab

Adelaide offers small businesses and individuals’

digital fabrication on a personal scale. “We’re still

a model in development because we started from

scratch,” explains AnAt and Fab lab Adelaide

manager Karen marsh. “but it’s a model that can

be replicated throughout Australia.” dFeest’s

initial funding is for six months only and so

achieving long term sustainability is the current

business goal. the provision of opportunities for

local creative communities, however, has been in

place from day one.

Fab lab Adelaide’s available resources include

a laser cutter, milling machine, vinyl cutter and a

selection of 3d printers – the 3d touch, UP! and

three makerbot thing-o-matics. these printers

are extrusion types that use fused deposition

modelling (Fdm) to create a three-dimensional

object from a digital model, which involves plastic

being melted via a motorised mechanism and then

laid down in successive layers. the technology

behind these 3d printers is impressive and is made

all the more expedient by their free and open

source software (Foss). “this means that their

source code is made open and freely available,”

says marsh. “And therefore people from all

over the world can contribute to enhancing and

evolving the printers’ functionality.”

designers that use Fab lab Adelaide’s 3d

printers are able to rapid prototype small-scale

objects and parts at a much faster rate and with

much less expense. Whereas once upon a time

prototyping was handmade by a manufacturer

who charged accordingly, designers are now

able to do it themselves using 3d printers that are

the size of desktop printers. For designers this

basically removes the often lengthy and costly

production process and allows them greater scope

for experimentation. it’s an incredibly appealing

proposition that not only has the potential to

change the face of the manufacturing industry,

but that places more emphasis on the designer’s

actual creative process. With the possibility for

numerous iterations and countless revisions, the

romantic notion that there is increased freedom

during the creative process translates practically into

an extended trial and error period, which although

necessary was often considered a luxury curtailed

by both time and cost.

the Fdm technology utilised by Fab lab

Adelaide’s 3d printers may give the printed object’s

form relatively good definition, but the result is

quite crude. designers will still need to send their

prototypes elsewhere for final manufacturing, which

often takes place offshore. Retaining at least part of

the manufacturing process onshore, however, will

still prove to be cost effective.

it may very well only be a matter of time before

3d printing technology evolves to include rapid

manufacturing, so that the final manufacture of

small-scale objects and small parts also rests with

the designer. Architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars of

Amsterdam-based architecture practice Universe

Architecture recently announced plans to construct

an entire house using a 3d printer. the d-shape

can produce sections measuring up to 6 x 9 metres

in size and the house, with a proposed completion

date of 2014, is in the form of a mobius strip. in this

respect 3d printing may very well have implications

for the construction industry as well.

Fab lab Adelaide might not have the capacity

for the scale of construction made possible by the

d-shape, but what remains its most valuable asset is

its accessibility. designers, artists, hobbyists, small

businesses and students alike can benefit from the

technologies on offer. And, in fact, what defines

the global Fab lab network is an ethos of sharing

and collaboration. it lends any Fab lab in the

world creative strength at a grassroots level and

for Adelaide; this means the potential for further

experimentation and innovation amongst its many

creative hubs and practitioners.

fablabadelaide.org.au

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56 ThE ADELAIDE REVIEW March 2013

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