NEW BOOK FROM PHOTOGRAPHER WERNER AMANN CAPTURES THE "GOLDEN ERA" OF RAVE

 Kein Morgen contains over 15,000 pictures from Berlin, Frankfurt, Dortmund, New York, Paris, Riccione and Zurich

Laurence Grigorov is director at a leading residential property development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. The company specialises in high-end luxury residential developments.

As an avid electronic music fan, Laurence Grigorov listens to music regularly especially during exercise.

A new photobook has been published, which captures the energy and culture of raving in the early ‘90s through a series of portraits.

Taken at hundreds of club nights, raves and afterparties from Berlin, Frankfurt, Dortmund, New York, Paris, Riccione and Zurich – Kein Morgan documents the people of the parties through over 15,000 “close up and emotional” portraits, according to the book’s description.

The photographs were shot by Werner Amann with accompanying words written by Leif Randt, and the book is published by Spector Books.

Shots from legendary clubs and events feature, including Berlin’s Tresor, Love Parade, Mayday in Dortmund, Frankfurt’s Omen (founded by Sven Väth), E-Work, Limelight, Tunnel and Sound Factory.

Last year, to celebrate its 30th birthday Tresor released a photobook Tresor: True Stories. It featured photographs from throughout the history of the club alongside compiling stories from party-goers.

The book also tells the story of the club being discovered by Dimitri Hegemann, Achim Kohlberger and Johnnie Stieler, after coming across the abandoned vaults that now made up the club’s original space. After opening in 1991, the club operated there until 2005, when it was forced to close down but reopened in 2007 at its present location on Köpernicker Strasse.

The club’s record label arm also announced a reissue series to go alongside the celebrations, including reissuing much of electro legends Drexciya’s back catalogue. Last month (January 2023), it repressed a classic 2002 solo album from former member James Stinson, ‘The Cosmic Memoirs Of The Late Great Rupert J. Rosinthrope’, made under his Shifted Phases alias.

Text & images courtesy of www.mixmag.net

THE MEDIAN IN ROSEBANK

As director at a residential property development company based in Johannesburg, South Africa, Laurence Grigorov keeps abreast of development news and information. Current and upcoming commercial and residential projects offer Laurence Grigorov an insight into market trends both in South Africa and internationally.

Messaris Wapenaar Cole Architects was commissioned at the end of 2014 to design what was intended to be a 14-floor apartment building. With its prime position in the heart of the busy hub of Rosebank, The Median was envisaged by the client as a building which was to be the icon of nouveau apartment living in Rosebank. This was already a tall order, given that in most cases a building of this nature, complexity and size would only feasibly be completed about five years later. The design would thus have to be at least five years ahead of its time. What the brief required was a world-class response.

The site is on the corner of Tyrwhitt and Cradock Avenue, the gateway to the pedestrianised upper Tyrwhitt Avenue, where it intersects the north / south pedestrian artery from the Mall of Rosebank to the taxi rank at Jellicoe Avenue. The site, as with most urban sites, is compact and consequently the footprint of the building is small. Access and egress for both vehicles and pedestrians are on Tyrwhitt Avenue, occupying most of the south façade at street level. 

To accommodate the required level of parking as well as the services required, the building extends five levels below the street, making the total height of the final building 21 storeys. The excavation required to accommodate this was possibly the deepest hole in Rosebank at the time. This required careful planning and precision engineering to achieve without compromising surrounding structures and services.

The basements and the ground floor are occupied by services and parking with the exception of a small retail offering addressing the building’s contribution to the Rosebank retail precinct, vehicular access and a small entrance lobby for pedestrian access to and from the street.

Above the street, the 140 private apartments surround a 15-storey covered atrium away from the busy streets. The apartments are ultra-modern, mostly two-bedroom apartments, with a pocket of one-bedroom units catering for ‘semigrators’ who commute to and from Rosebank, and four luxurious penthouses on the 14th and 15th floors.

The finishings are elegantly pared back to allow the purchasers to decorate their apartments in any colour and style. The apartments face outward, with views directed diagonally from the building to secure a feeling of space in what will ultimately become a totally high rise environment. 

As The Median finds itself in the centre of the action in Rosebank, it was decided not to add communal facilities other than the pocket park in the atrium. The building surrounds abound with activities and nightlife.

A project realised over many years, with many iterations, The Median now stands as the forward looking, modern building the architects envisaged from the start in 2014.

Text & images courtesy of Architect & Builder Magazine