Tennis - The Australian Open (AO) - Another Ball Game
Aside from that other game involving a hard red or white ball (sometimes pink) that misbehaves in the air especially when new, there are crowds of people take great delight in the summer Australian Open Tennis Tournament being held in Melbourne.
Like the recent article about the Test Series Cricket in Australia, this article is not really about the art of playing first class tennis but that the venues where the games are played usually involve a significant roof structure which involves careful architectural and engineering design.
Several of the LSAA Members have been involved in these projects.
Severe Cyclone Tracy was considered to be the most damaging cyclone in Australia's history.
Although extremely small in area the wind speeds were substantial - the anemometer at Darwin Airport recorded a gust of 217 km/h before being destroyed - with sustained speeds of 189 km/h as it hit Darwin. An accepted peak speed is reported as 236 km/h.
66 people were killed either on land or lost at sea and the city was flattened. Most people were unprepared as an earlier cyclone passed by without causing havoc.
We have already witnessed three completely different Test Cricket matches between the visiting Indian team and our perhaps aging Aussie team.
If you ended up here wanting to delve deeper into this fascinating game then I am sorry.
This very brief article is to say that the venues used for these contests - or at least the stadium roof structures - are the focus for much of the work that our members are involved in.
Design Work on the Spire from 1973 - 1978
Dr Peter Kneen
My initial involvement with Sir Roy Grounds and the design of the Spire followed on from a meeting with senior engineers from John Connell and Associates (JCA) at a Conference about Tall Buildings at the University of Sydney in 1973. As a result I was engaged to carry out a complete design check on the four large spaceframe roof structures proposed for the Collins Place Project and another four roofs for the Canberra Hospital Services Complex.
The Arts Centre Spire and Meeting Sir Roy Grounds
At the end of being briefed on these two projects, we were in Andrew Goad’s office (JCA) and on the wall behind there was a drawing of a tall tapering lattice tower.
It turned out that this was the state of play for the design of the Spire for the Victorian Arts Centre.
Carols in the Domain - Demountable Fabric Structure
Carols in the Domain has become a free pre-Christmas annual Concert which features many popular national and international performers and guests. The concept was started in 1983 by Robyn Anne Hobbs OAM. See more details in Wikipedia
A Principal Sponsor has held naming rights for the event - currently (2024) being known as Woolworths Carols in the Domain.
The event is held in the Domain Gardens adjacent to the Sydney CBD, and each year the quite large stage and for many years the lightweight tensile structure covering canopy is erected.
The founding President of the then MSAA (now the LSAA) was largely responsible for developing the original PVC fabric canopy design concept.
Vision Australia's Carols by Candelight presented by AAMI is held on Christmas Eve at the iconic Sidney Myer Music Bowl venue in the Kings Domain in Melbourne!
Carols by Candlelight was the concept of Norman Banks MBE with the first event being held in 1938.
The current venue for Carols by Candlelight - since its completion in 1959 - is a pioneering, world class example of tensile architecture using stressed cables in a double curvature form to resist environmental loads (wind) and to act as an effective sound shell for music.
This is a unique tensile cablenet structure was designed by Barry Patten of the Architectural firm Yuncken Freeman Brothers, Griffiths and Simpson. Engineering was done by Irwin Johnstone.
