28 June, 2011 Greece has ground to a halt. Flights in and out of Athens’ Eleftherios Venizelos Airport have been cancelled, ferries are at their moorings in Pireaus – the lifelines to the islands cut. From the Ionian to Alexandroupoli, from Thessaloniki to Kythera and Kastelorizo – the Hellenic Republic is closed for business. Meanwhile, […]
Category Archives: Neos Kosmos
Deep designs
The Australian Institute of Architects this month bestowed one of its highest accolades on Nonda Katsalidis. Not that the Melbourne architect is any stranger to awards, but as designer of the extraordinary Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania, Katsalidis shows why he is one of Australia’s most daring and successful engineers of the […]
Reinventing Greece
Global branding strategist Peter Economides is in Sydney and Melbourne this week, brimful of ideas on how to change the world’s perception of Greece. It’s all in the DNA, says the man who helped Steve Jobs rebrand Apple in the 1990s. Think Different was the campaign slogan, not ‘Think Differently’. There’s a subtle but vital […]
Talking surface language with Nick Hogios
Security is tight at Toyota’s design studio in Port Melbourne. It needs to be: the sleek and seductive designs conceived at Toyota Style Australia are not for prying eyes. With the long lead times of car design and the intensely competitive nature of the global automotive industries, protecting against leaks of images and information, is […]
Perfect Paxos
. Surrounded by sparkling blue waters, elegant harbours and tranquil bays, Paxos is rated as one of the world’s Top Twenty Great Escapes. But then it’s always been a place for a good escape: legend has it that Poseidon created Paxos by bashing Corfu with his trident to create a peaceful getaway for himself and […]
Bathing with Herodotus
Mike Sweet takes the waters in northern Evia, Greece. The healing powers of Edipsos’ thermal springs in the north of Evia have attracted politicians and artists for centuries; millennia even. Less than two hours drive from Athens, the luxurious Thermae Sylla Spa Wellness Hotel beckons at Edipsos. Built in 1890 and lavishly restored recently, the […]
Cretan Journeys: Elixirs of life
It’s a short drive from Chania into the natural beauty of the Armenoi district in western Crete and a relief to be away from the kitsch of Chania’s old town, which in April attracts the first streams of tourist swarms. They mill through the alleyways, past the shops selling ‘Miss Kitty’ towels and the other […]
Redrawing the station
At the launch of the $1 million Flinders Street Station Design Competition, Victoria’s Premier Ted Baillieu described the initiative as a vital first step in the area’s revival that would require “creative brilliance from across the globe.” Baillieu’s call-to-arms will attract the attention of the most revered […]
Industrial light and magic – a profile of architectural photographer George Apostolidis
Atrium, Mandarin Oriental Barcelona. Photograph: George Apostolidis. George Apostolidis is just about to head to Bangkok when I catch up with the award-winning photographer at his home in the prosperous Melbourne suburb of Kew. A two-week shoot in Thailand will be followed by work in Paris and then Barcelona, all for the same client: Mandarin […]
The shock of the new
Billy Kavellaris grew up living in a California-style bungalow in the Melbourne suburb of Reservor. Today the 35-year-old founder of Kavellaris Urban Design (KUD) is the face of a new generation of Australian architects who are challenging formulaic approaches to the unrelenting urban sprawl. The son of migrants from Greece who arrived in Australia in the […]
