Curiously enough, there has never been an accessible guide to the exceptional architecture of the world’s most liveable city. And certainly not a guide you can take with you as you wander Melbourne’s streets and pathways. The Footpath Guides explore the buildings that make a city like Melbourne what it is today: an eclectic mixture of eras, style and design that creates its essential character and living environment.
Footpath Guides feature clear maps, concise descriptions and accurate illustrations, showcasing notable examples from each architectural era, spanning the 1850s to the 1970s. The Guides are playful, timeless and informative. Meticulously designed in the graphic style of the era, mixing vintage patterns, retro fonts, clashing colours and abstraction.
Produced as 3 separate titles each containing 90+ pages, Footpath Guides to Melbourne is a homage to the places we love, one great building at a time.
MELBOURNE MID-CENTURY
$20
Showcases examples of Melbourne’s ‘International Style’ displaying the clean, unadorned design espoused by the Swiss modernist Le Corbusier and his contemporaries at the Bauhaus school.
MELBOURNE JOSEPH REED
$20
Celebrating 15 of our finest 19th century buildings, reflecting Melbourne’s dramatic increase in size and wealth in the late 1800s. Designed by Joseph Reed, one of Australia’s most influential Victorian-era architects.
MELBOURNE ST KILDA
$20
An exploration of the eclectic style of the playful beachside suburb, ranging from Edwardian and Victorian mansions, Art Deco and Spanish Mission apartments, through to Mid-Century Modern flats.
MELBOURNE BOX SET
$50
The Footpath Guides Box Set includes all three titles from the Melbourne series, and features 62 buildings in all.
BACKGROUND
The story of the Footpath Guides begins in a unique Melbourne city building soon to be demolished to make way for a 60-storey apartment tower. Total House, an early example of so called ‘Brutalist’ architecture, houses many architect and design firms whose offices top the building like a giant TV and an icon of post-war modernity. Dave Roper, founder of Crumpler and one of the tenants, is hosting a party on the Level 8 terrace where Jacques Sheard, independent filmmaker and architectural academic, is shooting the final sequences of a short film as part of the efforts to save the building –vimeo.com/68265293
Dave and Jacques get talking and soon an idea emerges out of nowhere. What if we put together a homage to Melbourne’s mid-century architecture?
What if it was pocket size and you could take it with you as you explore Melbourne’s city streets and laneways? What if it was designed in the graphic style of the era? The concept of Footpath Guides was born. Jacques put his hand up to do the research, photography and writing. Dave offered to be the project’s producer, marketer and if the need arose, financier.
The only missing piece was someone to design it. Dave contacted a graphic designer friend he knew would be perfect.
Sonia Post, founder of brand and digital agency Design Democracy, lives and breathes the era. Her clothes, art, style and house, even her garden, are straight out of mid-century.
Sonia jumped at the chance and after a year or so of ridiculously long hours and crazy late nights, the first three books of the series were sent to the printers. Together they feature over 60 individual buildings all illustrated, spanning from the 1850s to the 1970s. People soon realised that something like the Footpath Guides had never existed before. And that Melbourne’s diverse architecture is best celebrated on foot, with eyes ready to scan skywards. The subject is, so to speak, set in concrete.
And of course, other great cities of the world have footpaths and beautiful buildings too.
The Footpath Guides were created and produced by three Melburnians:
JACQUES SHEARD¬ – Text & Photography
Filmmaker, writer, photographer and architectural academic.
SONIA POST – Design
Graphic designer and founder of Design Democracy, style-era explorer and collector.
DAVE ROPER – Producer
Download the information related to this event here.
Title
Footpath Guides Books LaunchType
Book / Product LaunchOrganizers
From
November 27, 2015 06:00 PMUntil
November 27, 2015 08:00 PMVenue
Total HouseAddress