Ecosphere Developing an exhibition of propositions for a university Campus in India
Ecosphere Developing an exhibition of propositions for a university Campus in India Elective (Industrial Design, Arhitecture and Landscape Architecture), 12 Credits, March 2009 Lecturer: Soumitri Varadarajan (soumitri.varadarajan@rmit.edu.au) with support from Fiona Harrisson (Landscape Architecture, RMIT University) Contact Hours / Duration: 2 hours per week over 12 weeks. [24 hours contact] Non-Contact / Self Directed Hours: 8 hours per week over 12 weeks [96 hours expected] Location: Building 87.04.03 Time: 1.30 pm –3.30 pm Mondays Introduction An ecosphere is a world in miniature, a tiny slice of life sealed off from the outside world. It could be described as an ecosystem in a bottle. Materially closed, but thermodynamically open, it takes no additional material from the outside but still allows heat and sunlight in. Ideally an ecosphere is selfsustaining. Once sealed, the animals and plants contained in it should be able to survive indefinitely, by cycling carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and other elements. The project seeks to visualize an ecosphere like campus – a gated community of people who live in a world where they recycle everything and can trade old stuff for new but are pretty much self sufficient. You can imagine a campus where the buildings become hosts to permaculture vegetation, where people grow their food, and are self sufficient in energy. Such a campus would point the way to the future of the way we live and go about our business of doing the things we do. The project is real and aims to develop a organic model for a campus for the client – a new university being set up in New Delhi, India. The University has a School of Design. For the elective I am hoping to put together a hothouse of excited students from Industrial Design, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture – who will visualize, depict the campus and define the systemic organism that is the university. The end point is a proposition of a visual-digital ecosystem. Potential projects: This is to start you thinking. However you have to arrive at your own proposition. Ecosphere (6 projects) – AUD in context, description of the campus environment in India a.
No sewage pipe – extreme water use challenge i. Clothing care ii. Washing, cooking and cleaning b. Zero waste – no garbage out of campus c. Energy – self sufficiency d. Food – Urban agriculture e. Subterranean bunkers – cool room f. Transport – No personal vehicles and sharing Key Learning objectives The course has a specific area, closed-ecosystems, and a particular way – making a quick social contribution to get in the zone (pro-bono design), immersion in the works on the ecosphere (lots of reading and research) and speculation (on a world that could be) – to go about the semester. Content Understanding closed systems and acquiring a way to think about the sustainability (here and now) that is extreme and purely idealistic. Methods Sketch design, research, propositional design
RMIT Industrial Design/ Ecosphere Elective 2009/2
Online Resources http://campaignprojects.wordpress.com/ and Blackboard (TBC) Activities There are three things you have to do in this course: 1. Bushfire bunker: This is a warm up exercise and is your experience for pro-bono work in design. You are required to develop a sketch scheme in the best traditions of pen and ink drawing as exemplified in the Whole Earth Catalog. In addition you are required to solicit 4 additional works from architecture students of RMIT and Melbourne University through the process of organizing an outdoor/ on-the-street community workshop. The whole process and all activities will have to be documented in video – with an audio commentary from you. The assignment will be done over two weeks – week 1 your sketch submission, week 2 solicited sketch submission. You will assist in the upload; the sketch book to ISSUU and the video to the ecosphere channel (BlipTV) for a screening (wk 4). 2. Develop a detailed project: For submission to the Buckminister Fuller Challenge in September 2009 – prize money 100,000 $ US. You are required to develop a design proposition for a chosen aspect of the ecosphere - such as water or vegetation. Your submission will be in the appropriate format required for the competition. 3. Exhibition: You will be required to submit your work to be pulled into a catalog (for a review of works by Architecture + Design magazine) and an exhibition to be held in New Delhi in early 2010. Your work and other work to be done in a studio in semester 2 will be pulled together and depicted as propositions for the ecosphere aimed at the potential campus and the systemic organism that could be the built-university for AUD in Delhi. Deliverables What you deliver at the end of the project – Digital, Report/ Folio, Model/ Prototype – will be proposed by you and discussed with the tutor. Format All papers have to be submitted in a prescribed format. Evaluation The course will adhere to the spirit of ‘grades at the beginning of the course’ – and so you will indicate your grade aspiration (as a letter grade). Your grade will be validated at the end of the semester through a peer review process. Readings and References A reading list will be handed to you in the briefing session in class.
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