Carnegie Local Brooke Barker Supervisor: Dr. Michael Spooner
When boundaries are narrowed, the horizon becomes local. Welcome to Carnegie Local! This project is a proposal to put Carnegie (Victoria) on the global map through an international expo operating under the theme of the local. The condition of the collective local arises when boundaries become narrowed; place is isolated and defined within its own physical or metaphysical borders. Through the tightening of this lens, idiosyncrasies of the local are revealed: distinctive, peculiar characteristics that develop into the hyperbole of itself. This project understands this condition as a civic presence and uses the expo to exemplify and celebrate. The Carnegie Local is an event in which a collection of pavilions are the architectural consequence of devouring the identity of Carnegie through the framework I have assumed of the collective local. One in which the narrowing of boundaries reveals and celebrates idiosyncrasies. One that proposes that this condition of the local is one that is globally shared. One that overlays the absurdity of my own experience of the local; a seal as the town mascot, projected onto the global stage not only by offering the world's whitest beaches, but also a full-scale Stonehenge. Click here for portfolio
Anne Butler Memorial Medal Semester 1, 2020 Supervisor Statement Brooke’s project examines the suburbs as a stage for a network of expositions following the skyrail through Melbourne, with Carnegie identified as having regional influence. This project constructs both an architectural outcome and the procurement framework for the exposition. The framework reflects the roots of the suburb of Carnegie, renamed in 1909 with the hope of securing funding from the wealthy Scottish American industrialist of the same name. Brooke hails from the isolated town of Esperance in Western Australia, globally marketed as the epitome of Australia’s infinite horizons of blue waters and white beaches. It is unfortunate that the town’s full-scale copy of Stonehenge is not as equally celebrated. Brooke considers the unique social and cultural structures along a short strip of Kooyong Road, adopting the eccentric independence that is uncovered as an attitude to make architecture with. Against the backdrop of our global inertia, Brooke is emphatic, the local is to be celebrated. The Carnegie Gift Card is accepted at more than 30 shops! _Dr. Michael Spooner