the power of the oculus

The Oculus is a highly sophisticated computer device that allows the user to experience a virtual world by wearing a head piece. When you put the goggles on, you are transformed into an amazing computer generated world, where your imagination has no limits. You can create buildings and spaces not constrained by structure or gravity. Together with Crone Architects, Sunny Chan from Ivolve Studios, has been developing the virtual software to run off the Oculus device and other VR (Virtual Reality) devices. For example the software allows you to, stand in a luscious green courtyard and look around at a virtual world of buildings, birds, trees, people and look up at a brilliantly sunny day, or stand in a living room looking at a custom designed television cabinet you always wanted and at the marble kitchen bench, fridge cabinetry and parquetry flooring you designed with your architect. The beauty of the software is it allows you to experience a building, or interior space, without having to build it.

What we didn’t realize, was when wearing the Oculus goggles, it also has the power to transform our staff into something quiet disturbing. I was lucky enough I couldn’t see this happening before my eye, due to wearing the goggles. Extreme caution should be used when using VR headsets.

office antics

And then the fun began;

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twins

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This is why I love our office….

the colours of 20 martin place

There’s a lot going on in Martin Place at the moment. New buildings going up left, right and centre. I walked past one of our sites in the city at 20 Martin place on Wednesday night and was delighted to see the colours of the facade starting to glow.

20 Martin Place is a commercial office building designed by Crone Architects for Pembroke and built by BUILT. Its due for completion in the next few months.The facade is a shingle style, curtain wall system, with dichroic glass to the base. When light hits the facade it casts amazing reflections on the glass particularly in the afternoon.

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Australian Institute of Architects (NSW Chapter) – Champions of Change Charter

On Thursday this week, architectural leaders from 10 of the top architectural firms in Australia, signed a Charter for the Australian Institute of Architects (NSW Chapter), Champions of Change initiative. Principals of the 10 firms met at the AIA offices at Tusculum and agreed to work together over a 12 month period to promote and support equitable workplaces within the architectural profession. Firms signing the charter included; Crone Partners, Cox, Architectus, Hassell, BVN, SJB, Woods Bagot, PTW and Batessmart.

The Champions of Change Program has a simple theory behind it; men of influence have the capacity to change the status quo.

Crone Partners look forward to learning more about how we can contribute to this program and as a collective group find creative ways to help change the work environment in Australia. Our aim is to be a more rich, diverse and flexible work place attracting the best talent into the architectural profession and providing men and woman with equal opportunities.

At Crone we promote Diversity in all facets; gender, cultural, age and skills.

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aqualand’s “lindfield village” sales fury

Aqualand’s signature residential development named “Lindfield Village”, has experienced extraordinary high sales since its launch earlier this month. A sales fury, occurred during the opening Saturday of the marketing campaign, with over 90% of the 88 apartments sold within 2 hours. Over 100 apartments have now been sold and the investor and home owner market is nervously waiting for the final trench of 40+ apartments to be released. The fast sales are testament to a successful collaborative design alliance between Crone Architects and the Aqualand Development team. Good design, perfect location and a highly professional marketing campaign have proven a winning combination.

Some images below of the Development.

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How good would it be to have our buildings clean the environment rather than destroy it?

The ideas generated from this Student Design competition run by CTBUH are highly commendable. In Particular I liked the “Clean Air Tower” by Alec Balchin which responds to issues of air quality. His design for Tianjin uses industrial air-cleaning technology together with a stack effect air circulation system to clean 8.5 million cubic meters of air per year. How good would it be to have our buildings clean the environment rather than destroy it?

CTBUH Announces Five Finalists in its Student Competition | ArchDaily.

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