Bark is hiring exceptional design professionals, join our Noosa team!
Positions
• Graduate of Architecture / Experienced Architect;
• Archicad Technician / Building Designer
Bark Architects is a regional architecture practice based on the Sunshine Coast since 1997. We are a small team of between 5-7 designing and delivering a diversity of projects, from bespoke residential through to public architecture, fostering a diverse ‘hands on’ learning experience in a concept to completion approach with our team.
Roles
• Full time, permanent position;
• Noosa, Sunshine Coast Studio;
• Generous Salary package commensurate with skills and experience;
• Archicad software proficiency;
• Sunshine Coast based ideal;
• April 2024 start available;
On Offer
• Become a significant part of an ‘open studio’ coastal Practice;
• Diverse projects, wonderful clients, amazing sites;
• Design focused approach, characterised by a uniquely crafted response to people, landscape, climate and place.
• Lead projects from ‘concept to completion’ alongside experienced architect Directors;
• Bespoke coastal hinterland ‘open studio’ relaxed work environment;
• Hands on’ concept through construction experience;
• Supportive team, professional development, mentored role;
Skills and Experience
• Advanced Archicad Skills and experience;
• 2 – 3 Years Experience minimum;
• Motivated team player;
• Ability to lead projects, with Directors support;
• Lumion / Twin Motion skills highly desirable;
• Photoshop and Indesign Skills required;
• Technical IT capacity advantageous;
April 2024 start available.
Apply ‘In Confidence’ with Email CV / Folio to info@barkdesign.com.au
Candidates must be currently eligible to live and work in Australia on a permanent basis.
In 2016, Bark director’s Lindy Atkin and Steve Guthrie were appointed by the Australian Institute of Architects as Creative Directors for the second Regional Architecture Conference which was an honour and indeed a privilege.
Our chosen theme for exploration was ‘evoke – the art of Architecture’ which sought to celebrate the nature of evocative architecture, art and landscape that exists when designing atmosphere’s for human experience.
International and national speakers were curated from personal experiences with architects and architecture travel and drew on Lindy and Steve’s personal and intimate experiences of architecture over a recent decade.
Taking cues from the inaugural regional conference, Spirit of Place in 2013, ‘evoke’ aimed to set a memorable benchmark for a regional but no less globally connected national AIA event conference experience, held in Townsville, North Queensland.
Below is Bark’s introductory welcome address to conference attendees by Steve Guthrie, which framed the ideas behind ‘evoke’.
Ronchamp Chapel, France, Le Corbusier
“Good morning everyone and thank you for coming!
As Creative Directors, the genesis for our theme ‘evoke’ has developed from our travels in architecture over the last 15 years or so.
When setting the course for how ‘evoke’ could ‘play out’, we recalled our memorable experiences in architecture during our travels in Scandinavia, Europe, and particularly in Japan over the years.
We have planned ‘entire trips’ around the exquisite buildings of Corbusier, or Zumthor, Aalto , and Kuma , and reflecting on those memories, became the catalyst for curating our speakers for you.
So ‘evoke’ is all about evocative experiences offered by architecture, that authentically connect people to ‘time, place and landscape’.
The memory and feelings of places can have lasting effects, such as the ‘light and shadow’ forming the edges and volumes in Corbusier’s Ronchamp, in France.
I distinctly remember an overwhelming feeling of joy and sorrow, at the same time, being in the sacred spaces inside Ronchamp.
Up until then, I had probably underestimated the power that some architecture has to move us emotionally.
Theme Vals, Switzerland, Peter Zumthor
We have all had memorable experiences in architecture that make us ‘feel something’, and it’s the architect’s ‘ability and process’ to orchestrate this emotion that we really wanted to ‘tap into’ with ‘evoke’.
Zumthor’s baths in Vals, Switzerland is an absolute feast for all the senses – it feels like floating in a dream.
Those moments in evocative architecture, which are so rich in emotion, tap into all our senses to heighten the human condition.
The ‘art of architecture’ in ‘evoke’s’ title, actually refers to the architect’s ability ‘to mould space to create emotion’ as the ‘ultimate’ art of space making.
Witchcraft Memorial, Vardo Norway, Peter Zumthor
On the way to Theme Vals, in Switzerland, we had been fortunate enough to meet with Peter Zumthor in his Haldenstein studio, where he showed us models and drawings of some future projects.
One of them was the Witchcraft Memorial in Vardo, in Norway which became one of the destinations on our next trip to Scandinavia a few years later.
Our pilgrimage to Zumthor’s Witchcraft Memorial in the Arctic Circle, was a journey to ‘evocative architecture’ in an ‘epic remote landscape’.
The atmosphere orchestrated by Zumthor here is fully charged with emotion and it is so embedded in the memory, culture and landscape of the place.
Aalto Studio, Helsinki Finland, Alvar Aalto
Aalto and the Scandinavian design sensibility has always been inspiring since its introduction to us by Brit Andresen at the University of Queensland.
In Finland, we experienced Avanto’s work en route to the 2012 Aalto Symposium during an ‘Aalto’ trip, where we met architect, Anu Puustinen who was speaking at the Symposium.
Last year we met Shimul Javeri Kadri when we were both invited speakers at a design conference in Hyderabad, India.
We have stayed in Tim Hay’s Storm Cottage within the epic landscape of Great Barrier Island, New Zealand.
So, we set out to draw personal connections into ‘evoke’, the threads of our own experiences in design, so that this regional conference could be a really personal and intimate event celebrating architecture.
Harpa Concert Hall, Reykjavik Iceland, Henning Larsen with Olafur Eliasson
In 2014, we gave a talk about our regional practice, Bark, at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik, and it was here that architecture and art were side by side in adjoining studios, that made us reflect on the crossovers that exist when ‘thinking about’ or ‘teaching’ architecture as an art.
The collaboration between Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson and Henning Larsen Architects at the Harpa Opera House has made an extraordinary building for this Nordic city.
Harpa deploys exquisite light, colour and movement for sensual engagement and dramatic experience.
Katsura Imperial Villa, Kyoto Japan
‘Japan’ has always held our heart and imagination, traditional Japanese architecture and the aesthetic notion of ‘wabi sabi’ resonates with us during every visit – ‘it’s addictive’.
Katsura Imperial Villa represents an outstanding example of seventeenth century Japanese architecture and in some ways perhaps the first modernist building.
According to Bruno Taut in 1933, It is “…so beautiful it moves you to tears” and “you savour it deeply with the senses”!
Horai Onsen, Atami Japan Kengo Kuma
It was the Horai Onsen in Atami, Japan where Lindy and I first came in contact with the beautiful work of Kengo Kuma, 10 years ago, and the ambiguity of dark spaces in his Nezu Museum in Toyko, more recently, that encouraged us to try and bring Kuma San to Townsville.
After an ongoing correspondence, we met with Kengo Kuma at his studio in Toyko in July this year.
Our discussion touched on the sensory aspects of his architecture, as well as the ‘edge’ between nature and building, which has so much potency Kuma’s contemporary projects.
As well as the relationship between ‘water and the body’ in Japanese bathing ritual.
Actually, Water as a ‘medium’ in the experience of architecture will be a common thread with a few of our speakers.
Nezu Museum Tearoom, Tokyo Japan, Kengo Kuma
Once Kuma san agreed to speak at ‘evoke’, our amazing lineup of speakers became such a complimentary and natural fit to the overall theme of ‘evoke’.
During our session teleconferences across timezones , we have been really excited by the synergy between our hosts and all the speakers, as well as, the common threads and connections that have been emerging over the last few months.
Our main desire is that you leave ‘evoke’ feeling inspired by the passion of the conversations which are about to unfold today and tomorrow, about evocative space and architecture that really makes you feel something!
It is these sorts of ‘global’ inspired conversations grounded in ‘regional’ place that may ensure regional architecture in Australia remains evocative and relevant to its culture and place.
More than 320 people attended the awards ceremony on Friday night at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, where Bark Design Associate, Phil Tillotson was presented with the award during the presentations to all the top projects.
The awards jury citation read; “Initially a site specific installation fashioned from an uncannily simple and beautiful kit of floral shaped ply and mirror plates, yet with wit and ingenuity the artwork has been regrown with increasing refinement and resonance in three settings to date. Pedagogy and collaboration employed in the process is laudable.”
As architects, ‘Growth’ by BarkLab was an opportunity to explore our collaborative arts practice, a experimental design and making process involving a dedicated team of UQ lecturer Michael Dickson and architecture students. Our art practice is pursued, through ‘Bark Lab’ to reciprically inform our ideas and design sensibilities in our architecture.
Images – On stage, Bark Design Architects Associate, Phil Tillotson (middle), Richard Kirk, AIA Queensland Chapter President (left), Liam Proberts, AIA State Jury Director (right),
Lindy was announced by the President of the Queensland Chapter, Shane Thompson, to be the first female to host the state awards event, so she accepted the position with great pride and enthusiasm, receiving congratulatory feedback from attendees for her professional role on the night. The event and exhibition of award finalists were designed by creative directors, Kirk (formerly Richard Kirk Architect).
Thirty-five of the state’s most inspiring and leading architectural projects were honoured at the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2013 Queensland Architecture Awards at the award-winning Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. As Public architecture, the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane by Wilson Architects and Donovan Hill (Architects in Association) received the top honour on the night, the F.D.G Stanley Award for Public Architecture, along with the G.H.M. Addison Award for Interior Architecture. The Robin Dods Award for Residential Architecture – Houses was awarded to James Russell Architect for Bisley Place House.
In 2008 on our way to the Venice Architecture Biennale, we visited acclaimed Pritzker Prize winning Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor in his Haldenstein studio, where he described a witchcraft memorial he was designing for a site in the Arctic Circle. Four years after that conversation, in August this year, we were flying to Vardø over the snow capped mountains, bluey grey fjords and glacial lakes of far north Norway. Our conversation and thoughts were still brimming and stimulated by ‘Crafted’, the 12th Alvar Aalto Symposium that we had attended and all of the Aalto buildings that we had been so lucky to experience in Finland during the days before this flight.
We had travelled almost 14,000 kilometres north from Noosa Heads in Queensland to a latitude of 70 degrees into the Arctic Circle, and we were finally looking northeast from the Norwegian mainland across the icy Barents Sea to the windswept, treeless, most northeast island of Vardø. Amidst the distant pitched roofs and timber clad houses in earthy pastel tones, two structures held presence in the late summer evening light and were scaled more towards the vast landscape – the vertical white spire of Eyvind Moestue’s 1958 Vardø church and the horizontal white line of the Steilneset Memorial built in 2010, which is a beautiful collaboration between Swiss architect Peter Zumthor and the late French-born, American artist Louise Bourgeois and the reason for our journey to this end of the earth.
Our pilgrimage to the port town of Vardø on this month long Nordic architecture sojourn, followed the memorable visit to Zumthor’s studio, where he showed us through his projects, the myriad of exquisite models and explained the design of ‘a witchcraft memorial project he was designing with an artist in far north Norway’. We stood looking across the water at all 125 metres of this distinct skeletal white line, which ‘underlined’ the town of Vardø at the edge between water and land, 64 kilometres from the Russian border. We descended 88 metres below sea level, as we drove through the 3km long sub-sea concrete tunnel towards Vardø, an experience reminiscent of a scene from James Bond’s Dr. No. At 7.00pm, we arrived to a misty, sleety evening of near freezing 4 degrees, illuminated with an omnipresent horizontal half light which stayed into the very early hours of the following morning. Our walk through the narrow streets after dinner was narrated by the eerie calls of seabirds, most of the houses we passed, had lamps glowing in their square proportioned curtainless windows, which gave us comfort that we were not alone on the island, even though everyone else seemed cosy inside. We wanted to spend as much time discovering and experiencing the reason for us being in this chilling part of the world, so we were dressed to deal with the arctic climate. It wasn’t long before our extremities felt the cold but any discomfort was anaesthetized by the growing anticipation of Zumthor’s architecture over the brow of the hill.
Our town map gave us the clue as to how we wanted to arrive that evening and so we walked past the gates of the 1307 Vardø Fortress, through the little cemetery, past the small black and white timber Vardø Chapel and down towards the haunting site of the 17th century Vardø witchcraft trials, where 77 women and 14 men were tried and burned at the stake. Seen from the cemetery glowing in the bluey half light of the midnight sun, the Steilneset Memorial, which commemorates the 91 persecuted victims, many of which were indigenous Sami people, came into plain view as another significant ‘underline’ beneath the distant treeless mountains on mainland Norway, along the jagged rocky coastline. It is a two part composition – a long white line and a black dot, also the black and white colour scheme of the nearby cemetery chapel. It consists of two structures designed by Zumthor – an infinitely long structure of bleached ‘driftwood’ timber frames encasing a stretched canvas cocoon structure and a dark glass cube.
In an interview with ArtInfo magazine, Zumthor described his collaboration with Bourgeois as simply, “I had my idea, I sent it to her, she liked it, and she came up with her idea, reacted to my idea, then I offered to abandon my idea and to do only hers, and she said, ‘No, please stay.’ So, the result is really about two things – there is a line, which is mine, and a dot, which is hers… Louise’s installation is more about the burning and the aggression, and my installation is more about the life and the emotions [of the victims].” After what seemed like hours wandering around the rugged site, finding some respite from the wind within Zumthor’s canvas version of the tunnel that brought us to Vardø, the bitter cold finally ushered us back to shelter for the night.
If it actually got dark that night, we didn’t see it. We awoke early to more cries of seabirds and the lapping of harbour water outside our window and to the sight of Vardø port against a magnificent crisp blue sky, a reminder of our big blue sky down under. After a savoured breakfast of ryebread, cheese and pickled Herrings, we headed to the Pomor Museum (Vardø’s Russian history) where we met with Andreas Hawkenes and spent the next two hours discussing the history, politics and stories of the region, and being Vardø born, a true local’s perspective of the Steilneset Memorial story. It was delightful to meet Andreas in person after our lengthy email conversations during months beforehand. The sleet of the previous night had cleared to reveal the clearest, biggest blue sky. We spent the day in places between Steilneset and as many vantage points on the island as we could find to view the memorial in its context.
‘Memory Hall’ is a long fabric enclosure shaped like a herring fillet, supported by hundreds of bleached ‘driftwood’ frames, inspired by the remnant fish drying diagonal timber structures that stood abandoned in nearby fields. The timber structure holds the canvas cocoon up off the ground and allows daisy like flowers to proliferate from the rocky ground below. Its walls, white on the outside, consist of stiff fabric stretched by stainless steel wires into a regular pattern, are suggestive of sail rigging. Ninety-one small, square windows recessed in metal frames punctuate the walls at irregular heights. Entered via a timber ramp, the structure is light to the touch – the inner surfaces of the walls are black fabric which resonates in the wind. Each window represents a victim of the witch trials identified, along with details of each individual’s ordeal on hanging plaques. Ninety one small light bulbs suspended in the windows give a feeling of endless movement along a torchlit corridor, a sensation enhanced by the raised timber catwalk underfoot. The effect produced by the varying heights of the windows and lights, the elevated walkway, and the square, recessed views of the outer world are very theatrical as in much of Zumthor’s emotive work.
In stark contrast, a few metres away, a reflective black glass cube pavilion, encloses Bourgeois’s installation, a terminus of high drama after the studied quiet of the long ‘tunnel’ interior. “The Damned, the Possessed, and the Beloved” is an unforgettable vision in this rugged landscape. A steel chair centred inside a volcanic cone of off-form concrete burns perpetual flames from its seat. Seven huge oval mirrors, angled above the chair on slender pylons, twist the flames and viewer into sinister shapes and distortions. The timber and canvas hall celebrates the lives of those lost, whereas the glass cube expresses the horror.
As well as the experiential quality of the architecture within and its presence in the bigger landscape, it was utterly moving as each of the victims was represented as a unique and valuable person in the memorial. Each had a shining light and a small square window both for looking into and for looking outwards. As we boarded the small plane to take us to Oslo via Kirkenes, we were silent whilst our thoughts were about our 24 hour pilgrimage to Zumthor’s memorable and poignant architecture – our journey was unexpectedly touched by the history and geography of this magnificent Nordic landscape.
Published on Architecture Australia AAU. Click Here to view.
Noosa News editor Gail Forrer recently reported on Bark directors, Lindy & Steve’s month long Northern European Architectural Adventure.
In 2008 on their way to the Venice Architecture Biennale, Noosa architects Lindy Atkin and Steve Guthrie of Bark Design, visited acclaimed Pritzker Prize winning Swiss Architect Peter Zumthor in his Haldenstein studio.
“At the time he described to us a witchcraft memorial he was designing,” Steve said.
“He was collaborating with New York artist – Louise Bourgeois – and it was to be built in place called Vardo, in Norway, 64 klms from the Russian border into the Arctic Circle.”
Four years after the conversation, a trip from the Norwegian mainland through a 3km long sub-sea concrete tunnel to the completed 120 metre long timber, canvas and glass memorial on the isolated, windswept island was a key highlight in the couple’s recent Nordic architecture tour.
After a month away, they are just a few weeks home in their Tinbeerwah studio. But they are still buzzing with excitement after visiting countless Modern buildings designed by Northern European architects of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Their trip took them from Helsinki to Amsterdam, through summer in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Holland, starting with the ‘Crafted’ Conference – the 12th Alvar Aalto Symposium in Finland.
Alvar Aalto is the great modernist architect of the Nordic world; his work is dotted throughout Scandinavia but concentrated in his homeland of Finland.
“The Aalto Symposium was a gathering of over 400 architects with amazing international speakers,” Lindy said.
They went on to visit key Aalto buildings throughout the country from Aalto’s Helsinki Studio and the Aalto family’s experimental summer house isolated within a beautiful Beech forest in Finland’s lake country.
Through their tour they checked into ancient churches, chapels and even extraordinary cemeteries.
“The Ecclesiastical architecture was amazing,” Steve said.
The Chapel of St Lawrence north of Helsinki is designed by Avanto, the architecture practice of a young Finnish couple, also speakers at the ‘Crafted’ conference.
In Stockholm Gunnar Asplund’s Woodland Cemetery is a world heritage site for its significant landscape and architecture integration.
The Bagsvaerd church in Denmark by Jorn Utzon, the mastermind of the Sydney Opera House, “is inspirational for its masterful use of natural light, concrete and timber, but with a strong Japanese aesthetic” Steve said.
“The dynamic roofscape of the new Oslo Opera House by the Norwegian architects Snohetta provides an amazing public gathering space on the city’s waterfront”.
Throughout many of the diverse sites, Lindy and Steve noted a lack of defining boundaries such as balustrades, railings or fences. This dearth of signposts led to what Lindy described as a: “Seamless, and integrated urbane feel.”
“It’s not so regulated (as Australia); people are responsible for their own actions.” Lindy said.
In Amsterdam they marvelled at the green and free flowing transport system, particularly the mainstream use of bicycles. But that too, has its quirky side.
“Every year the Amsterdam council fish about 15,000 bikes out of the canals,” Lindy said.
“They are all parked together so closely, if one falls in the wind, they all go.”
The ‘Eye’ Dutch Film Museum is a very recent addition to Amsterdam’s waterfront and is a “contemporary inspiration inside and out, and lauded by the locals” Lindy said.
Fresh after holidays and bursting with inspiration, Lindy and Steve are a powerhouse of ideas.
Lindy said, “The Nordic tour will fuel our ‘Global’ design philosophy which aims to position Bark as a ‘global’ thinking architecture practice working within the place specific ‘local’ context of the Sunshine Coast”.
Dream Build is a new series about Aussies who have been lucky enough to turn the dream of building their own home into a spectacular reality. The ABC Series will feature the our very own Maleny House on ABC1, Sunday 19 August 2012 at 8.15pm. Clients share their experience of throwing down ambitious and challenging briefs to their architect in the hope of creating a ‘one in a million’ home. The architect will reveal their design secrets and how they rose to the challenge to give their client the home of their dreams.
It aired on Sunday the 19th of August with over 750,000 viewers tuning in nationally! The program was followed up with lots of great feedback from our clients and friends. Thank you so much for all your support and we hope that you enjoyed the program. If you missed the show or would like to have another look, you can check it out out here on the ABC website.
Current Queensland Chapter President Shane Thompson’s mandate includes promoting architects and architecture in regional areas, assisting with the advancement of women in architecture and advocating the critical role of architects in the design of the built environment.
These are all very relevant contemporary issues in our profession which resonate strongly with Lindy and the Bark Design Architects team and we look forward to assisting the Institute and broader architecture profession in Queensland.
Bark was invited to present a design entry for the ‘Australia House’ competition in Japan, along with a selection of other talented Queensland-based entrants at an event held last night at the Australian Institute of Architects headquarters in Brisbane. Organized by the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in Japan, the design competition drew 154 entries from a wide range of practitioners and students from Japan, Australia and beyond.
‘Australia House’ is used for art installations during the contemporary international arts festival, which takes place every three years in the mountainous Echigo-Tsumari region of Niigata Prefecture. The house provides a space for Australian artists to live, work and present their artwork, whilst also serving as a venue for joint projects between Australia and Japan.
Bark participated in a site inspection tour in July to get a feel for the environment and landscape of the project in order to prepare Bark’s application. A photograph of the site is displayed below.
The event was organised by ArchitectureAU and the AIA, with presentations made by Mara Francis (second-placed B.A.M.F.), Andrew Wilson (Chie Konno/NMBW Queensland Office), Jim Gall and Benita Tunks, Stephen Guthrie and Lindy Atkin (Bark Design Architects/Tripod Studio cdi/Arup), Paul Hotson (Phorm Architecture + Design), and Michael Dickson (University of Queensland).
For more information, please click here to go to the ArchitectureAU website.
The full day tour will see participants visiting stunning residential architecture projects on the Sunshine Coast and hinterland designed by leading architects Kerry Hill, Shane Thompson, John Mainwaring, Bark Design Architects and Richard Kirk Architect, including lunch at historic Yandina Station Homestead.
Places are limited and the images show a taste of what will be experienced on Sunday 13th May 2012.
We thank the following Architects and their Clients for their involvement:
Shane Thompson – Bryden House
Richard Kirk – Chamberlain House
John Mainwaring – Dragon House & Viridian Noosa
Kerry Hill – Ogilvie House
Yandina Station by Robert Fleming
For more information on the ‘Experience’ tour please click here.
