(the inaugural) brisbane open house

some people travel overseas to view old buildings, marvel at interesting architecture and smart use of urban spaces. next saturday (2 october 2010) brisbanites will have a local "free of charge and rare opportunity to discover the hidden wealth of architectural, engineering and historic buildings nestled around the city", at the inaugural brisbane open house event.

with a simply clever logo design that matches the event slogan of "unlock your city", i was keen to get on board and support this event which is made possible by its various sponsors and partners, and of course a team of volunteers. it's probably too late to sign up to be a volunteer for this year, but hopefully there's always next year and many more to come!

the concept is based on similar open houses held in london, new york, dublin, and borrows heavily from the resources of past melbourne open houses. for 2010, brisbane open house will have 20 buildings available for viewing/touring, and are anticipating about 10,000 combined visits during the day. see the event listing for a full list of buildings, where you can download fact sheets of each building. also available is a map and program for the day, so you can plan your visits. unfortunately some of the buildings are only open for pre-booked tours, and all these tours are full. but this still leaves 17 other places for you visit. so come along, bring some friends/family and support the brisbane open house objectives, which are to:

• foster an appreciation and understanding of the value of architectural, urban design and design excellence
• increase engagement between the city of brisbane and its residents and visitors through promoting the contemporary and historical architectural attractions of the city
• create a sustainable annual event similar to that of london, new york and melbourne open houses
• increase awareness of all aspects of the built environment - not only the architecture but also the urban spaces that occur between our buildings
• promote public awareness of good design and environmentally sustainable design in the subtropical city of brisbane

there's also a "focus on BOH" photography competition running in conjunction with the event. details don't appear to be up on the website yet, but from what we were told at the volunteer briefing session, entries will be accepted up to 15 october, in one of five categories:

1. exterior
2. interior
3. detail
4. people/crowds
5. series - up to 5 images of one building

there is a small monetary prize of $1000 which i believe is the total prize pool, so probably $200 per category.

ps. i'll be on volunteer duty at the first church of christ, scientist in the morning if you want to pop by and say hello :)

brisbane parks with basketball rings

thanks to a $20 voucher from team amart all sports (click here to join), i've decided to improve my meagre stock of sporting equipment. first up was some tennis racquet over grips for my weekly-ish hits. i put the rest of the credit towards a hand pump. the pump is meant to complement my next planned purchase: a basketball that i can use to shoot some hoops, which i haven't done for ages and occasionally get an itch to do. my preliminary inquiries suggest i'd best not hold too high hopes for my townhouse body corporate approving the installation of a backboard and ring on the existing tennis court. i might try my luck anyway, or see about purchasing one of those "portable" units and asking permission to leave it on the common property. failing that, it means going for a 10-15 minute walk each way to a nearby park where i've seen a half court and ring. there's also a ring on the open grounds of a nearby church, but i'm not sure how they'd like randoms using their property... again, i could just ask...


anyways, back to the point of this entry. i wondered if there was a list somewhere that would show me which parks in brisbane have basketball facilities. after a bit of searching, i found it on the brisbane city council website. well technically it's a listing of parks by suburb, which you can scroll through / search for "basketball", or any other facility you'd like to locate (eg bbqs, playgrounds, water, toilets, rebound walls, shelter etc). access it here:  http://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/facilities-recreation/parks-and-venues/parks/parks-by-suburb/index.htm. some facilities get their own listing, such as skate parks.

i was quite surprised to find that there are 3 parks within 15 minutes walk of my home with basketball facilities (including the one i already knew about, which was pretty busy the last/only time i visited). i happened to be driving near enough the other two this afternoon to swing by and scope them out, so now i'm all prepared to do some shooting. just as soon as i get a ball. until then, there's always basketball on the wii sports resort :)