RMIT ARCHITECTURE MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO BALLOTING POSTERS SEM 1 2015
MEME
Semester 1, 2015, RMIT Master of Architecture Studio
IAN NAZARETH
A Meme is a uniquely identifiable unit of architecture: a structure, a form, a program and typology. It is a gesture and cell, through which formal operations might occur: extrusions, duplication, multiplication, mutation, and hybridisation. The Meme is a model to prototype urban form through architectural operations. It may well be an embedded cultural analogue, defining a new public realm.
urbanism. Using the residential and mixed-use typology as a ground for speculation, the studio will investigate and develop fresh narratives for urban habitation. Projects will be located in Melbourne’s CBD and its fringe, considering both infill strategies and incremental growth. The brief is to deploy the ‘residence’ as a means to rigorously test processes, patterns and logics for growth and diversification.
The complex processes through which metropolitan regions develop implies that they can no longer be understood holistically, but rather as aggregates and an assembly of urban projects. The city and hence its form is dynamic and kinetic. The studio is premised on urban form and the potential to explore new structures and strategies for urban intensification within densely packed cities.
Cycling through themes of imitation, replication, hybridisation, transformation, etc., projects will operate at multiple resolutions: unit, cluster, city block, precinct, and various scales: domestic, neighbourhood, city etc. The work will also address cultural traits and social-economic issues that accompany urban architecture.
Existing domestic typologies, whether ‘generic’ apartments, capsules, units etc., or informal housing developments and spontaneous ‘pop-up’ cities, require scrutiny. While such units begin as discrete entities, the clustering and collection of programs within the city engenders an
Tuesdays, 17:30 - 21:30, Location: 8.12.042
Meme, is a term conceived by Richard Dawkins, a concept that relates to the replication, mutation, and evolution of ideas and information and hence culture, much in the same form as genes propagate themselves. The studio references Dawkin’s hypothesis reformulating it in the practice of architecture and designing cities. Image Credit: Grundrisse, Housing Solutions for the Immaterial Worker, Microcities
TAKE ME TO THE RIVER Tutor: VICKY LAM TIme: WEDNESDAYS 5:30PM Location: 045.01.005A This studio will explore the 4km winding stretch of Yarra River that forms the boundary of Abbotsford. Contrasting landscapes lie along these riverbanks, from the pastoral setting of Abbotsford convent surrounded by a children’s farm to large swathes of industrial sites that include the Carton Breweries. New large-scale residential developments have also appeared. The Main Yarra Trail, a major commuter bicycle and pedestrian route that connect the North Eastern Suburbs to the city is interrupted along this part of the river. There will be a series of design exercises that address the competing visions of the Yarra as a civic amenity, a commercial infrastructure and prime real estate.
THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS
POLITICS & ARCHITECTURE TIM PYKE + MARK RAGGATT RMIT Building 45 Tuesday from 6:30pm
heterotopia: the river, the bay, the existing fabric and a networks city of and, and, and... RMIT Master Of Architecture Semester 1, 2015 Room 08.12.042 Wednesdays 5.30 pm Tutors: BAU; James Brearley, Steve Whitford, Jens Eberhardt
studio propositions
no longer structured around a simple linear hierarchy of forms, multiplicity The built forms, spaces, spaces, orders, or a singular aesthetic, with a orders, images and clearly defined sense of aesthetics of the contemporary city are the purpose or direction. It has become a multiplicity result of a multiplicity of of inter-connected coeconomic, political and existing social systems, cultural forces. While connected in all some existing planning directions. and design discourses and strategies are This studio will engage useful in dealing with with a range of recent these forces, it could theory that may provide be argued that others other concepts and other are not coping with the scale and intensity; or the tools for urban designers to intervene with the dynamic, complex and pluralist character of the contemporary (multipli) contemporary metropolis. city. As part of a contemporary pluralist society, the city is
the matrix, the smooth, the complex, the sublime Of prime interest for this studio are those theories that present other ways of seeing form, space, order, and aesthetics.
blunt urbanism The blunt instruments of height control, land use planning, and traffic engineering have left city spaces devoid of any semblance of vision beyond a place for land speculation and profit taking. sharp urbanism What strategies can be used to infuse the city with a vision of quality and the complexity of life, a vision beyond the pragmatic and the narrow definition of economics as profit making? site 2.5km2 Urban Renewal Fishermans Bend, Port Melbourne
FORD Studio Outline Upper Pool Tutor SIMONE KOCH
The announcement that FORD will cease operations at its Campbellfield site in 2015 is seen as further sign of the long term trend in the demise of local manufacturing in the global market. Arguably Australia’s high input cost makes us uncompetitive against the emerging economies. We are interested in the flip side of this, which is to identify and accommodate on the soon to be vacant Campbellfield site the new and emerging industries that are currently driving those input costs. With industry established, we’ll transform the site by stealth into a model for suburban development, through the addͲhoc accrual of built form and landscape. 1: 100,000 1: 10,000 1: 200 1: 50
SITE IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CITY (TRAIN LINE) SITE IN IMMEDIATE CONTEXT (FOREST RESTORATION) POPULATED SITE (WEEKLY DESIGNS: FACTORY/SHOWROOM, ARTIST STUDIO, TRAIN STATION, HOUSING, SCHOOLS, POWER STATION,SHOPS, FARM, TRAM STOPS) INCLUDING REVIEW AND REITERATION DETAILED INVESTIGATION OF SELECTED DESIGNS
Samuel Conkie 2014
Tuesdays 9.30-1.30
masters studio run by Emma Jackson
‘When the Pilbara was developed in the 1960s, the governments and the industries of the day tried to replicate Perth’s suburbs — 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, backyard, hills hoist, Was this a good idea for the Pilbara? Were Perth’s suburbs a good idea for Perth? How would Geoff Howlett, Iwan Iwanoff & Sergio Leone do things differently? If things had been done differenly would the Starship have bought Led Zeppelin to Newman on the 17th February 1972? Imagine that. WELCOME TO THE NEW NEWMAN
THE NEW REAL The medium in which architecture operates is the material reality of the world. Far from being a reductive constraint it is a delirious plenitude that encompasses everything that exists. In this space the role of the architect is as an agent of change, identifying approaches, vectors, tactics and techniques for deforming and developing material formations. “Design practice [is] not a system of actions committed upon matter but rather of actions that place within it.” The studio will depart from a position of informational ‘fullness’ through which the mechanism of iterative versioning, or conceptual folding, is the principle technique used to effect new designed formations. Versioning refers to an approach through which design is carried out using rule based techniques through an open ended or evolutionary process. Design outcomes are understood as one of a series of potential solutions, with authorship applied through the act of selection, or embedded
in the rules that structure the process. This process can be applied to an abstract form or in case of the studio a mechanism to drive vectors of change through existing material. The studio will explore generative techniques through the design of a mixed use tower in Melbourne. Students will be expected to develop their own suite of processes, and formulate a critical position on the studio themes, including the use of precedent in the design process, and the role of open ended design in the urban field. The studio will attempt to challenge the typology of the point tower in Melbourne and speculate on new possibilities that deform the type to expand its formal capabilities.
John Doyle | Wednesday Evenings | 8.12.41
The memorial historically has played an important role in the definition of ‘monumentality’ and has provided a significant contribution to urban planning. An object, a space, a place that is representative of a significant historical event or individual. REMEMBERING builds on the thematics explored in previous design studios PLACED AND LESSCHURCH. The studio will question the role of the memorial on a day to day basis - the provision of an important social construct. Place making. Traditionally considered as an object, landmark or landscape the studio brings into question what other programs could be incorporated within the memorial. It questions the role of monumentality verses passive integration. What does the memorial become? In some instances large sections of land are dedicated to memorials defining place making through landscape to allow for the gathering of people. The studio will examine the program through an occupiable tower structure in an attempt to reconsider the manner in which the memorial can be experienced and utilised. The role of landscape will be examined and how this might influence the response to ‘tower’. Students will be engaged with model making, rigorous site, program and precedent analysis reviewing the role of the memorial as a civic entity while engaging with a vertical architectural condition. Sections, sections, sections. The precedents that will be used as key architectural drivers throughout the semester include: Roosevelt Memorial – Louis Kahn, Peace Memorial - Kenzo Tang, Vietnam Veterans Memorial – Maya Lin, Milwaukee County War Memorial - Eero Saarinen
Upper Pool Design Studio S1 2015 Wednesday 5.30PM-9.30PM
Urban Environment – Medium Scale Amy Muir
REMEMBERING
tripods loading for Global Tech 1 offshore wind farm
future factory As a futurist William Gibson travels to Japan to refresh his ‘sense of place.’ Why? Because he believes that “all cultural change is essentially technologically driven.” This studio shares that position, and will revisit the factory as a way to consider future cities.
Factories can now, finally, return to the city - and they should, having much potential to drive cultural, architectural and economic change around them. It was the specific, intensive demands of 20th century mass-production that pushed factories toward peripheral industrial zones. But the ‘new industrial revolution’ looks and operates quite differently, with cleaner, smaller and more distributed production systems. Indeed, close proximity of producers to design, service and knowledge sectors proves vital to the ‘innovation ecosystem’ that cities so desire, but outmoded planning codes restrict. This studio will propose new architectural models for (re)integrating manufacturing into the city. Our Future Factories will be tested on Melbourne’s city blocks and edges, be typologically experimental, and ultimately strive to envision a productive future city. Master of Architecture Studio Gretchen Wilkins Tuesdays 9:30 - 1:30 Design Hub 100.6.2-1
Master of Architecture & Master of Urban Design Studio
THE HCMC UNDERGROUND HO CHI MINH CITY semester 1 2015
Dates: Commences 3rd March (Week 1) in Melbourne- Tuesday Nights Design Hub workshop in HO CHI MINH CITY april 9-21 studio reconvenes for weekly meetings and finishes week 12
GRAHAM CRIST
Program Director Master of Architecture
HELEN DUONG Architect NH Architecture
HOANH TRAN
Director: HTA Pizzini Architecture, HCMC
ARCHIE PIZZINI
Director: HTA Pizzini Architecture, HCMC
GRETCHEN WILKINS Program Director Master of Urban Design
Ho Chi Minh City AKA Sai gon is undergoing major tranformation and this includes the construction of its first underground metro transport line.The project has recently started construction and is due for completion in 2018. The city currently has an amazing and chaotic culture of scooter transport. The great metropolitan underground systems have tranformed those cities for 100 years. In Ho Chi Minh City this will happen at the same time as the exposion in western luxury goods and, iphones and social media. What will this transformation mean for the city in the future? What can design contribute to that situation? In this studio we will carry out an urban scale design project structured around the proposed transport system, with a series of themes and sites. The underground as an urban place; mobilty as an urban driver; smart and viirtual cities; skinny interventions. There will be a strong focus on observation and evidence; thinking strategically and thinking at a big scale.
TRAVEL COSTS (approximate) Airfare $900-$1,000 approx Accommodation $500-1,000 depending on hotel/apt/ rooming QUESTIONS: Please email graham.crist@rmit.edu.au CHECK FOR MOBILITY GRANTS THROUGH RMIT EDUCATION ABROAD
KL, City of Museums rethinking kuala lumpur around its museums
SELANGOR VISITOR CEN
Within a 5km radius of Kuala Lumpur’s national Muzium Negara there are 18 other museums. The museums are in disrepair, the sites they occupy underutilised and their exhibits tired and poorly maintained. No wonder then that KL is not known for its Museums. This studio will examine the potential for the city to become known as a City of Museums, and how site planning, architectural language, and exhibition design can facilitate this. Each student will be assigned a museum, will analyse its governance model, its
funding base, its audience reach and its curatorial agenda. Also,students will collect the data outlining the relationship between each museum and accommodation, transport, retail, the river and other cultural institutions. Armed with this information, each student will propose a re-design of their assigned museum with a view to more efficient use of space - and in doing so make available a piece of land on which they will propose a design for a sympathetic yet commercially viable development.
NATIONAL ART GALLERY BIOMEDICAL MUSEUM
PUCUK REBUNG GALLERY SCIENCE CENTER
AQUARIA KLCC
MARITIME MUSEUM MAYBANK MUSEUM JADE MUSEUM POLICE MUSEUM
TELECOMMUNICATION MUSEUM TEXTILE MUSEUM ISLAMIC ARTS MUSEUM NATIONAL MUSEUM
PLANETARIUM ROYAL MUSEUM
Students will be required to fund travel to, and accommodation in, Kuala Lumpur for one week in March. jan van schaik is a director of mvs
PETROSAINS
BANK NEGARA MUSEUM
ASIAN ART MUSEUM
architects, who specialise in public when:
Tuesdays
6:00 > 10:00
Where:
offices of Mvs architects
buildings in the cultural sector and have a number of projects
site visit: 21st > 29th March
under construction in KL. For more
Contact: jan.vanschaik@RMIT.edu.au
information visit mvsarchitects.com.au
ROYAL MALAYSIAN AIR FORCE MUSEUM
KL, City of Museums, semester 1 2015
“NO...I AM SPARTACUS.” Tutor: Simon Drysdale Wednesday evenings 6pm+
In his 1910 speech “Citizenship in a Republic,” Theodore Roosevelt expressed so perfectly the task of pursuing greatness: “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” “ No..I am spartacus” is a design studio about misappropriating facial/terrain/crowd recognition ideas and applying them to architecture and the urban construct. Themes of an implied urban environment, heritage, privacy, pattern, field, implied boundaries and suggestive camouflage applied to town planning application issues will be explored.
COOEE the Desert calls
SHU HE HOLL ARCHIVES JEAGER
Outback Urbanism "Arid and semi-arid desert lands make up 70 per cent of mainland Australia – a total of about 5.3 million square kilometres", and though, "Australia's desert landscapes, regarded as the ‘outback' of Australia, are a powerful symbol of place, and have inspired and helped define Australia's identity”, FIFO (fly in fly out), has been preferenced to exploit and develop our red centre to the exclusion of the development of its outback towns…the cusp of change beckons……
COOEE will develop typologies for Outback Urbanism sited in or in the vicinity of Alice Springs Students working in groups of three or more will draw on our rich outback heritage including, Aboriginal Desert Cultures, our exploration history, outback literature and art, its fauna flora and investigate historic and contemporary arid urban types like Masdar, to develop models for Australian Arid Architecture and Urbanism.