01. INTRODUCTION
My name is James Sciessere, and I am a third year Architecture student, enrolled in the Bachelor of Environments course at the University of Melbourne. I was born in Mlebourne, and have lived my entire life here - however my background is Italian and Macedonian, from my father and mother’s sides respectively. The catalyst behind my intrest in architecture is family oriented, as the entire generation above me work in the building industry in some capacity. I was especially interested in the
design subjects offered to my while I was at high school, so it seemed like a natural progression to undertake this study - combining both my interest in working in building and design. The aspect of this subject that I am most drawn to is the idea that we would be enabled, through the mediums offered, to turn our ideas into tangible realities. I am looking forward to exploring both my limits, and the limits of the programs and fabrication lab.
02. DESIGN FUTURING CASE STUDY 1: SHANGHAI LIBRARY (2016) Client : Pudong New Area Planning and Land Authority, Pudong New District Propaganda Department (Cultural Media Bureau), The Architectural Society of Shanghai China, “Time Architecture” magazine. Project Location : Shanghai, China Area : 110,000 m2 Program : Library + information resource center
This concept was the receipient of the 2016 International Young Architects Design competition, beating over 200 entries in the process. The title of the project is labeled ‘Library at home’, and this idea serves to be the main crux when looking at what the designer is aiming to achieve. In accordance with the reading Speculative Everything: Design Fiction, the reason I chose this concept was to further explore the notion of innovation not necessarily being dictated by apocolyptic scale events and needs, but also by smaller scale things. Applied to this specific instance, the designer can be said to be creating a space in which would attract people, as, currently, the main issue with libraries is that with the advancement of technology, they are becoming more and more obselete. The concept ‘Library at home’ is the designers attempt in mending the gap between society and their library. The means in which this is achieved is through the layout of the spaces and their interactions. Four open levels provide distinct library environments, each connected to exterior gardens at every level, as well as to each other, resulting in a continuous public interior. The cylindrical space also maximises the surrounding spaces, as the footprint of the park level is small. This addresses the issue of a compacting urban environment, while still maintaining a degree of legibility regarding the overall scale of the surrounding city, in line with an increasingly modern line of thinking.
02. DESIGN FUTURING CASE STUDY 2: ROOFTOP REMODELING Architect: Coop Himmelbrau Date: 1983 (Concept design), 1987 (Construction) Location: Vienna, Austria
Coop Himmelbrau’s Rooftop remodeling was a deliberately provocative idea, with the aim to ‘break the mold’ of the contemporary style of design. The structure itself is parasitic in nature, as it looks ot be emanating from the surrounding building - due to the fact that it is an extention out from an existing roof. The inovation from this project stems from the manner in which it was designed - leaning heavily on digital programming to facilitate the unbalenced and asymmetrical form that it takes. The use of fragmentation is something that has been propegated throughout architecture since, with a notable example being our very own Federation square. This opened up a new scope in which forms could be designed in as, these new chotic forms took over from the refined and meaured style that had been developed over the years. It is apparent through this form that design can act as a catalyst for forward thinking, as with new precendents out forth, the perception of normality continually changes.
03. ALGORITHMIC DRAWINGS