Saturday 27 April 2013

Burley Griffin and his incinerator fetish


The Willoughby Incinerator was dedicated in September 1934 based upon a design by Griffin and his business partner, Eric Milton Nicholls. It now stands in Bicentennial Park, Willoughby [close to the leisure center], with the local council spending squillions to restore it to heritage standard as an art space. I will focus upon this building this week. Today I show you the roofline of the incinerator, and the lift to take folk like myself down to the exhibition space avoiding the rather steep, but safe enough, steps.

Why do I say 'fetish'? There is another municipal incinerator designed by WBG over in Glebe. When I google, I find that they designed and built 18 incinerators, 12 of them in Sydney, two of which are still standing. This one looks a bit like a crematorium, which figures. Show you tomorrow.

What do you think of Richard Goodwin's 2011 "Exoskeleton Lift"? Complements the incinerator - but the Art Space was open on ANZAC Day, whilst the lift was locked.


3 comments:

head in the sun said...

I'm sorry to be a bit of a thickie, but are we talking about an incinerator incinerator - for burning stuff?

When I was little we used to drive past the Toowoomba Base Hospital regularly - they had a giant smoke stack. My Mum told me that that was the hospital's incinerator. What do they burn in there? Old appendixes and chopped off legs, she said.
(yes, the same mother who told me epileptics had to wear crash helmets).

So, when you say 'incinerator' all I can think of is piles of amputated legs!

You should have bashed on the door of the lift with your stick til someone came and opened it for you.

Joan Elizabeth said...

I dunno what to think of this. Perhaps I will wait for your to reveal more.

Gemma Wiseman said...

Like the intriguing contrasts/similarities in this post! Amazing similarity of shape between the art on the lift (like an eccentric screw cap on a bottle!) and the incinerator that suddenly reminded me of Auschwitz!