Urban Island 'Cuttings' book launch

Thursday saw the opening launch of our Urban Islands book, edited by Joanne Jakovich, my Ph.D student. The launch took place at Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, accessible only by water [ferry/water taxi], an urban island of the kind alluded to in the book. In Joanne's words:

"Urban Island (n):
a post industrial site devoid of program or inhabitants;
a blind spot in the contemporary city;
an iconic ruin;
dormant infrastructure awaiting cultural inhabitation."

It is a book of writings by architects, urbanists, artists, academics considering ‘Islands + Urbanism’, ‘Sydney + Cockatoo’, and ‘Works + Critiques’, [the latter arising from the Urban Islands studio held on-site in 2006 in Sydney]. The University of Sydney Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning Faculty will again hold its architecture studio at Cockatoo Island in 2007. It is my hope to hold the Interactive Sound Design studio there in 2008.

‘Cuttings’ Urban Islands vol.1
Ed. Joanne Jakovich
ISBN 1-920898-55-7 University of Sydney Press 2006, 276pp.



Chapter contributors from Sydney University include: Kirsty Beilharz, Liz Bowra, Tom Heneghan, Jin Hidaka, Olivia Hyde,Joanne Jakovich, Ingo Kumic, Henri Praeger, Dagmar Reinhardt, Tom Rivard, Jaime Rouillon, Marc Aurel Schnabel, Nguyen Khang Tran (Sam) and Satoru Yamashiro.