AR Awards for Emerging Architecture	Honourable mention	December 2007
PHOOEY ARCHITECTS	Children's activity centre	Melbourne, Australia
Despite the fabulously whimsical name, Melbourne-based Phooey Architects (Peter Ho and his wife Emma Young) are deadly serious about issues of social responsibility and environmental awareness. Recycling is their particular forte – in a previous project for a hair salon, customers’ hair trimmings were collected, laminated and transformed into a huge and decidedly surreal chandelier. Here they turn to abandoned shipping containers to create an activity centre for children. Though containers have now become a familiar staple of reappropriation for all sorts of things, Phooey put them to energetic use, stacking them, slicing them and cutting them to create a thoroughly durable and dignified assemblage that rejoices in the colourful bricolage of its origins. A variety of types of indoor and outdoor spaces are created from the simple expedient of stacking and staggering a couple of containers. There’s a multi-functional room (for study, painting, dancing and lounging about) lined with chequered carpet tiles. Above, a series of lounges, decks and balconies provide shade in summer while winter comfort is achieved through orientation and insulation. Around the tree-lined site are an assortment of sandpits and play areas. All materials were scavenged, salvaged or recycled. Container walls were simply cut up to form awnings and balustrades and their surfaces left unpainted, so the original superscale graphics are still visible, albeit now gloriously cannibalised. All this is achieved on a predictably meagre budget, but shows what you can do with a bit of persistence and imagination. Phooey should go far. C. S. Architect Phooey Architects, Melbourne Project team Peter Ho, Alan Ting, James Baradine Photographs Peter Bennetts Email peterho@phooey.com.au