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Portfolio Gaudensia Olago
Fields of Influence uenc ce Among my fields of influence are a number of personal and researched projects whose focus can be categorised into: -
social process-based environmental formal/form-finding
hanging vault model antoni gaudi
hanging chain model, model japanese pavilion at the expo 2000 in hanover, shigeru ban with frei otto
foa
iris dome and folding structures hoberman design
mobile campus, n.y ftl happold
139 shelter future systems
formal process-based social
shelter frame kit world shelters grip clips robert gillis
global village shelters ferrara design
podville, burning man fest icosa village inc
hexayurt, burning man fest vinay gupta
low-tech balloon system technocraft
concr techn
rete canvas nocraft
parasite michael rakowitz
huts and low riders mad housers
rural studio variety of projects
various projects muf architects
housing design for australian indigenous people paul memmott, paul pholeros etc
dark days(documentary) marc singer
environmental
neighbourhood renewal project dhs, victoria+ rmit architecture
environmental
social
an architecture of participation giancarlo de carlo
slum clearance initiatives nairobi, kenya
environmental
Eco Home Eco Lifestyle Project A project ran by SIAL Architecture Lab, RMIT and also involving the Centre for Design and Ceres. It called for designing a sustainable home for display at the Sustainable Living Festival 2009. Through this project, I had a chance to look at systems that are in place that encourage sustainable lifestyles, and how product design can contribute to this. I designed a structural system that could be applied globally, and a concrete block that uses recycled glass bottles to strengthen it structurally, and reduces the amount of poured concrete used per block.
el Component Arrangement
Planting Panels
Concrete EPS Panels
Bamboo Slat Panels
‘Concrete glass’ blocks
A poster I designed for the follow-up project after ours, that would involve building the Eco Home for display at SLF 2009.
Eco Home Studio Project brief
There must be a better way to make the things we want that doesn’t spoil the sky, the rain or the land. Sir Paul McCartney
With the continuing degradation of the environment, sustainability within the built and lived environment is increasingly becoming important. This studio focuses on sustainability practices within the home, and is structured as a ‌.. week intensive program that calls for the construction of a portable eco home for display at the 2009 Sustainable Living Festival. Participants will include RMIT and non-RMIT students. The studio is a continuation of two previous projects: Eco Design ( Interior Design elective) and Eco Home Eco Lifestyle ( Transdisciplinary elective: Architecture, Industrial Design & Interior Design). In the previous project: Eco Home Eco Lifestyle, students like, along with various scenarios and ESD principles. As a next step, funding and sponsorship in terms of materials was sourced. Having acquired funding and materials, the project will now be to complete the design of the eco home, using the available materials and funding, and then construct it in readiness for the festival. The home will be an educational tool for the public, so that they can learn various eco principles that can easily be applied to their own homes, and work places, helping them to develop more sustainable living patterns.
Roof Section: 1. Green Roof tub. 2. Corrigated aluminium roof. 3. Damp proof layer on chip board. 4. Structural eng. timber. 5. Insulation and panelling.
Green Garden removable tubs.
Water Systems: - Plastic water tank wall. - Stores general use water as well as grey water. - A section is heated during the day to provide hydronic heating system.
Interactive green Wall. General public can plant local plants into the wall.
Floor: Removable concrete floor for thermal properties. Insulated underside as per regulations. Fibreglass matting with boarding.
Neighbourhood Renewal Project The Neighbourhood Renewal Project in Hastings’ was a government-funded regeneration project to help improve the area as well as social conditions of West Park Estate. Considered a marginalised community, it had once been, but no longer was, a government housing estate. The community was quite active in the project, with a committee of locals collaborating with us, and the RMIT team was led by Melanie Dodd, of Muf Architecture, a practice that has had extensive experience in collaborative projects, and especially in working with children to generate project ideas.
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MAP KEY
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PATH FOR WEST PARK PRIMARY DIGITAL STORY PATH FOR CUBBY BUILDING PHOTO STORY IMPORTANT SITES FOR WEST PARK PRIMARY DIGITAL STORY; 1. ENTRANCE 2. BROKEN CUBBY 3. BROKEN HOLDEN 4. KING’S CREEK 5. BIKE JUMP 6. CUBBIES
Digital Story, Cubby Building Eventually, my whole project came to be informed by a chance encounter that I had with a group of children off to build a cubby. I came along, enjoying and documenting the process, and in the end, I realised that anything I was going to propose for this site had to be small and real and enhance the experience of the site. The proposal was simple: a series of benches and dust bins, and a bird-watching hide. But it was the process that had meant the most.
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Ampilatwatja Health Centre
Ampilatwatja is a small community about 300km from Alice Springs, and the community needed to upgrade the local health centre. They specified that they wanted a ‘real proper clinic’ that would cater for the mens’ and womens’ special needs. Initial site visits were made, and a few dyas of camping just outside the community provided an ooportunity to see and experience the town, landscape, as well as meet the local indgenous people and the doctors an nurses who work at the clinic. The local women met with us, and discussed the art works made by them, which will be hung in the future clinic, and also showed us important sites in the surrounding locality. Likewise the local elders met with elders from our group to discuss their expectations for the future clinic.
Wales Street Primary School Bean Garden
The design was for a bean garden for the pupils at Wales Street Primary School, that would be decorative, as well as provide a play space, and the kids could sell the beans to teach them how to earn money. It is what I would describe as a ‘fairy garden’. The design is made of plastic backing that is folded multiple times to give a ‘lacy’or flowery feel. The spaces created act as the planting pods, and climbers made from cable ties are hung from the fence for the plants to grow up. The project was designed by Pia Ednie-Brown, and I was involved in buiding it and planting, and participating with students as a research project.
Most of the pods were set up in time for the School Music and Arts Festival, with the aim that we could give parents and children a chance to participate in making the cable-tie tendrils. We set up a cable-tie tendril station and got a few helpers, and afterwards strung up the tendrils we had made.