Saturday, July 24, 2010

More From the Corrugated Iron Files

Having written about architecture for assorted magazines for many years, I often find myself fantasising about the sort of 'ideal house' I would build for myself given an endless budget. I invariably come back to three key elements - trees, water and wood. More recently, corrugated iron and the the simple, pleasing forms of rural architecture have conspired to test my passion for the former. Now I'm thinking of building two houses - it seems the only way. Because at this point, a corrugated iron barn with a wooden interior, suspended in a tree hanging over water seems a stretch - even for me.
And so I continue to photograph corrugated iron buildings new and old. These shots were taken near the small Victorian town (as in the state of Victoria) of Woodend, an hour north of Melbourne, in Australia. I love the mismatched, patchwork nature of many of the old corrugated farm buildings. It's a durable material that lends itself to re-use, over and over again, and farms in both New Zealand and Australia offer a constant parade of that sort of inter-generational material economy. I'm just home from another road trip around New Zealand - two months on the road - and I'm already regretting the number of farm buildings I sailed past without stopping - all good fodder for my lively imagination and my dreams of building the perfect house. (I've written about corrugated iron on this blog a number of times. If you're interested in reading more, click on Corrugated Iron in the label line below).

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