STUDIO Studio Tutor: Dianne Peacock
The work presented in this booklet is that of students in STUDIO Studio 2, a lower pool design studio in the Architecture program at RMIT in the second semester of 2008. Students designed a studio for the practice and presentation of a performative and spatial art; a martial art or dance form of their choice. The architecture was to be small; multi-level and well resolved, with an emphasis on its experiential, spatial and representational programs. A small block in Little Latrobe Street, Melbourne acted as the site. The studio proceeded through short projects, exercises and critiques and through the production of works in series, including a multitude of physical models. Techniques such as storyboard were borrowed from filmmaking and other arts and employed to generate insights, actions and qualities often missed by conventional architectural processes. This studio was marked by a richness of approach to the project and to its formal expression. It was evident that the students acted as a studio. They engaged with the work of fellow students, initially through structured group exercises and critiques, but essentially (and productively) out of genuine curiosity and affiliation. The students are Adrian Rivalland (capoeira), Betty Tang (ballroom dancing), Eleanor Luna (Viennese waltz), Eva Ding (kendo), Haziel Mitra (kendo), Lucasta Clothier-Fairs (ballet) Marleena Mustaffa (judo), Min Zhao Lee (Tai-Chi), Patrick Macasaet (kendo) Richard Siu (Tae Kwon Do) Rima Sunato (salsa) and Tim Lee (Kung Fu). STUDIO Studio 2 was fortunate to have many guests. We thank guest critics Kim Roberts, Ceri Hann, Sean McMahon, Graham Crist, Tarek Ishak, Marc Dixon, David Beynon and Larry Cirillo plus Anna Johnson and Richard Black for their contributions, insights and excellent critiques. We are very grateful to Ceri Hann from Art in Pub-
lic Space at RMIT and theatre production, set and lighting designer Jenny Hector for a workshop on improvisational and dynamic lighting and projection of the studios’ architectural models. An image from this workshop is featured on the final page of this booklet. Cover: End of semester exhibition, installation detail.
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Model Series
A series of models was made for: a narrative; a system for vertical transportation; a sequence of movements unique to the specific dance or martial art, and scaled action figures. The action figures populated subsequent models and were later collaged into project images. Top: Haziel Mitra, vertical movement model based on the
ranking system of kendo. Left: Patrick Macasaet, action figures embodying the linear movements of kendo; Adrian Rivalland, sequence model; Min Zhao Lee, narrative model. Centre: Tim Lee, action figures, sequence model and its development. Right: Eva Ding, sequence model based on the movement of the kendo shinai (bamboo sword).
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Visual Series
A series of short visual projects began with a poster: the starting point for the project brief. It illustrated volumetric requirements, mapped a sequence of movements, and interpreted the history and culture of the art form, leading to a project proposition. Sketching, collage, composite images and storyboards that developed a sequence of
encounters with the building, completed this series. Top: Marleena Mustaffa, poster; Richard Siu, storyboard. Left: Lucasta Clothier-Fairs, Figure / Movement analysis. Centre: Haziel Mitra, Site / Model collage; Betty Tang, storyboard detail. Right: Eleanor Luna, storyboard excerpt; Lucasta Clothier-Fairs, Site / Interior collage.
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Project work
Project work took the form of drawings, diagrams, views, renderings, collages and models. Photographs of models became collage elements in scenographic images. The sectional perspective received special emphasis in developing spatial and performative qualities and in teasing out programmatic relationships between practitioners and others.
Left: Eleanor Luna, plans and mid-semester model. Rima Sunato, night view. Top corner: Min Zhao Lee, ceiling view showing columns projecting a symbolic pattern, exploded axonometric and column detail models. Centre and lower right: Tim Lee, mid-semester and final sectional perspectives showing adjustable platforms.
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This page top left: Richard Siu, internal perspectives of arena from 4th and 2nd floors. Top right: Rima Sunato, sectional perspective of Salsa Club. Centre right: Marleena Mustaffa, exploded axonometric and view of dojo from laneway. Bottom: Adrian Rivalland, sectional perspective with site context and dome edge in silhouette.
Facing page left: Patrick Macasaet, five images from a storyboard using model photographs, sectional perspective: and bottom row; Movable Components / Possible Programs diagram. Centre top: Haziel Mitra, model. Top right and below: Eva Ding, section and excerpts from “The Journey� storyboard.
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Top from left to right: Eleanor Luna, model making: stair; its curvature an expression of a captured movement of the dance; mezzanine; Patrick Macasaet, 1:20 operational model detail; Rima Sunato, model making; ramp. Second row: Eleanor Luna, illuminated model detail; Eva Ding, final model and detail; Adrian Rivalland, final
model with dome removed to reveal the capoeira Roda. Centre: improvised lighting and projection workshop using models in progress. Bottom from left to right: Betty Tang, action figures and sequence model detail; Lucasta Clothier-Fairs, action figures and sequence model; Tim Lee, action figures.
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