Architecture Design Electives Posters semester one, 2011
Masters of Architecture ARCH1338 ARCH1339 ARCH1340
Bachelor of Architecture ARCH1040 ARCH1041
Both Bachelor Electives and Master Electives will be balloted for via PAPER BALLOT. This means filling out and submitting a ballot paper into the Elective ballot box on level 12, building 8. The Ballot Box for Electives will be available from 1pm Tuesday 22 February until 12 midday the next day, Wednesday 23 February.
enquiries: Pia Ednie-Brown, Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Design RMIT University, pia@rmit.edu.au
melbourne.australia
Architecture
architecture.rmit.edu.au
Contents
DAY MONDAY
TIME 2.30-5.30
LOCATION UAL
Laura Harper – Urban. Housing. Scrutiny.
2.30-5.30
8.12.36
Mauro Barraco – Tree Sprawl
10.11.27
Fleur Watson – Editorial License
9.30-12.30
88.5.17/17AB
Susan Massey – Reading, Writing, & Rhetoric
10.30-1.30
45D
Mauro Barraco – SSCC Elective
3.30-6.30
88.5.18
Gretchen Wilkins – Remote Control
9.30-12.30
45A
Helene Frichot – Architecture + Philosophy
9.30-12.30
45B
Martyn Hook – Prefab for Flood
9.30-12.30
45C
Paul Minifie – A Green Primer
9.30-12.30
45D
Brent Allpress – Ornament and Countercomposition
9.00-12.00
10.11.24.
Jane Burry – Flexible 3D Modelling
1.30-4.30
88.5.20/20A
John Cherrey – Putting the Pieces Together
2.00- 5.00
9.9.13 – N Space
Peter Holmes – Design for the Sound of Architecture
6.00-9.00
8.11.39 CompLab
Tom Kovac/Michael Mei –2112 Future City Maribor
2.30-5.00
UAL
Nigel Bertram – Leisure City Space
WEDNESDAY 9.30-12.30
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Small RA Groups. Time to be scheduled with students Burry/Marmion/Wilson – Temple Sagrada Familia Salter Architects – White/Cold [Tues am or Thurs pm] Kris Green
U R B A N . H O U S I N G . S C R U T I N Y
Kingo Housing, Denmark (Jorn Utzon)
Elliston Housing, Rosanna (Ellis Stone)
This subject will take a small list of urban housing developments, both Australian and International, and study them in close detail through research, drawings and models. How exactly are these developments different from typical Melbourne suburban conditions? What potential lessons are there for new models of housing in Melbourne to such issues as housing affordability, shortage of social housing, suburban density, ageing in place and ageing with independence?
Lake Park Nursing Home, Blackburn
Byker Wall, UK (Ralph Erskine)
The subject will study and compare things like - types of land ownership - strata title, co-housing, communal facilities, life-time rental, assisted care, retirement village - ways of controlling the built environment - overlays, guidelines, rules and agreements - relationship of the individual to the whole - density, site footprint, block size, private and shared open space, size and type of dwellings, relationship of houses to neighbours - types of shared spaces - communal facilities, shared gardens, public spaces, community organisations - qualities of gardens and landscapes - exotic, native, formal, bush, cottage, productive, private and public - the nature of boundaries - built, walled, fenced, planted or invisible Students will research through original materials where possible on Australian examples, make site visits where practical, document projects through drawings, and make physical models ranging in scale from whole portions of suburbs to individual trees and fences.
Bickleighvale Village, Mooroolbark(Edna Walling)
URBAN ARCHITECTURE LABORATORY ELECTIVE Laura Harper, Mondays 2.30pm to 5.30pm, UAL, Building 45
Castecrag Housing,Sydney (Walter Burley Griffin)
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Publication + Exhibition ‘Research Assistant’ Elective - Master of Architecture Sem 1/2011 Mauro Baracco Mondays, 2.30 -5.30 pm, room 8.12.36
Students enrolled in this elective will be involved with the consolidation of a body of work that was previously completed through a series of Design Studios (called ‘Tree Sprawl’ 1, 2 and 3) focussed on areas along Merri Creek, run by myself from 2008 to 2010. These works will be consolidated into an exhibition and publication that will be produced in collaboration with Merri Creek Management Committee. Through this elective students will be involved with tasks including the following: - collection of past projects produced within the 3 design studios - editing and reformatting of these projects into a publication and exhibition Only students who have undertaken one of the 3 studios mentioned above are eligible to enrol in this elective, as it is essential that the students involved with this elective are already familiar with the theoretical framework that informs the research undertaken through the design studios and the material that was produced and that will be edited and reformatted. Any students who meet the above preconditions are strongly encouraged to undertake this elective, as this further step in the overall research process will certainly enrich the experience and work previously done, not only through the possibility to reflect on the past projects and evaluate them at a deeper and further level, but also through the dissemination of the previous theoretical investigations throughout the wider community, by sharing and testing the theoretical implications of the projects previously completed in the design studios with the more realistic dimensions, positions and expectations of the general public.
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interview Fleur Watson photography Courtesy of Doshi Levien
Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien of London-based practice Doshi Levien have garnered an international reputation for imbuing their celebrated designs with an inherent multiculturalism through signature use of materiality, colour and whimsical narrative.
ARCHITECTURE AND BEAUTY
PLURALIST NARRATIVES
CO N V E R S AT I O N S W I T H A R C H I T EC T S A B O U T A T R O U B L E D R E L AT I O N S H I P
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ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN
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Editorial License Semester 1, 2011 Wednesday, 9.30 – 12.30, 10.11.27 This elective intends to introduce students to the creative, business and production processes of design publications within the print and online publishing evironments. By researching, critiquing and evaluating a diverse range of national and international journals, publications, websites, blogs and social media, the students will develop an understanding of the production processes and develop a critical eye. A series of lectures by respected writers, photographers, art directors and editors will introduce the students to a diverse range of experience and attitudes within the design-publishing sector. Lectures will be followed up by workshops where students can beneďŹ t from the opportunity for small group sessions. Drawing from the information presented in the lectures and tutorials and working in small groups, the students will produce an ‘editorial directive or manifesto’ for their own publication and ultimately produce a limited edition publication FLEUR WATSON is a design journalist, curator and former Editor-in-Chief of MONUMENT magazine. Most recently, Fleur completed a co-authored book that investigates the complex relationship between architecture & aesthetics, commissioned by Wiley & Sons. She is the Senior Curator for Unlimited: Designing for the Asia PaciďŹ c and curated the Cultural Program for the 2008 and 2009 State of Design Festival.
Semester 1, 2011 Wed. 9:30-12:30 88.5.17/17AB Susan Massey
Reading, Writing, & Rhetoric + Building Provocations for a Rote Relationship
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[
] Tschumi on Corbusier’s Villa Savoy
[ ] captioning
In the last several years, studios have become influenced by literary theory (Roland Barthes’s The Death of the Author, Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Jorge Luis Borges’ “On Exactitude in Science”) and there has been increased engagement with fictional constructs as springboards for the imagination. But, in addition to the translation of sites from literature, and the interpreting and re-appropriation of existing narratives, writing is poised to be a function of design rather than just a framework for it. As such, this elective will explore reading, writing, and rhetoric within theory proper and without, as a means and as an end, from the notational to the annotated, questioning the relationship of each to the building, the process, the practice, and the discipline.
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“[Tschumi] proposes a
critique of the limits of architectural thought and space through the transgressive act of finding pleasure and beauty in the rotting corpse of Modernism’s first born. ” —Renata Hejduk. Death Becomes Her: transgression, decay, and eROTicism in Bernard Tschumi’s early writing and projects. Journal of architecture, 2007 Sept., v.12, n.4, p.395
As a theory practicum, this course will be comprised of lectures, discussions, and a workshop aimed at developing textual or narrative critique or expression (through presentation/ representation) and will allow you to synthesize your design coursework with the seminar’s assignments. Major Project students may find this course especially beneficial as they frame their engagement with an architectural condition as part of the design process.
SSCC ELECTIVE SSCC INITIATED PROJECTS:
GUESTT G LECTURE L E SERIES
T S R I F YEAR D N A H K O O B
Wednesdays 10.30 am - 1.30 pm Building 45 Room 45D Coordinated by Mauro Baracco and the SSCC
Semester prospective Projects:
Aims:
Continue with past semester initiatives such as the Lecture Series, first year handbook and the blog.
To learn skills relevant to working in an office in the area of project co-ordination and management. Provide a networking platform for students, staff and external professionals. Gain an understanding of the RMIT architecture school. Allow the opportunity to set up and implement self directed short term and long term projects and events that will contribute to architectural culture both within RMIT and in the broader community. - Please take note that students are encouraged but not required to stay involved with the projects after the semester end as a part of the SSCC Committee.
Interviewing lecture series speakers and other design professionals for publication and radio broadcast.
To assist in monitoring the teaching and learning activities conducted within the architecture program. Attend and contribute to architecture and design related organisations (such as the Robin Boyd Foundation and the Melbourne state of design) and their events.
Elective Past Projects: Design market Student run Lecture Series (ongoing) The Blog (ongoing)
Develop relationships with other programs in the school of Architecture and Design.
Planning stages of a first year handbook publication
To experience architecture and design culture in a context broader then the walls of RMIT Architecture.
Involvement in Robin Boyd foundation events, Open house and the Melbourne State of Design
Remote Control MODELS FOR DISTRIBUTED ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE Gretchen Wilkins Wednesdays 3:30-6:30 B88, level 5, room 18
Documenting the effects of time-delay between physical and ‘digital’ circuits. from Eye and Brain - the Psychology of Seeing, R.L. Gregory, 1966.
As industrial forms of production adapt to and integrate with informatic systems of communication, the nature of architectural practice is increasingly distributed. The distributed nature of design and production follows the general trend toward distribution of everything, everywhere, from automobile production to energy collection, social services to citizenship, news media to professional sports, all of which having to some degree relinquished a model of singularity and centralization for one of multiplicity and interactivity. The imperative to operate simultaneously within these systems requires practices and infrastructures with seamless links across time and space, local and global ‘sites’. This course endeavours to document a range of these contemporary tools - digital and physical, industrial and informational - and combine them to propose alternative models of architectural practice, and ultimately new types of work.
Elective Seminar Masters Semester One 2011 Architecture+Philosophy: Architectural Violence and Creative Resistance http://architecture.testpattern.com.au Dr HÊlène Frichot, Senior Lecturer, Program of Architecture helene.frichot@rmit.edu.au Thursdays 9.30-12.30 in Building 45, room A. Thursday evenings 6.30-7.30 when Architecture+Philosophy Public Lecture Series events are scheduled. http://architecture.testpattern.com.au This architecture+philosophy elective seminar will examine the fundamental relationship between architectural space and violence. The seminar will critically assess, through a series of set readings and seminar discussions, the ways in which violence manifests through architecture and in the context of the city. Our readings will commence with the special edition of the architectural theory journal Assemblage dedicated to Violence and Space, edited by Mark Wigley in 1993. As a retort to the many ways in which architecture is co-opted toward violent ends, for instance, through the destructive rejuvenation of cities and the erasure of urban memory, the seminar will explore modes of creative resistance. Where architectural violence becomes too oppressive, and can in no way be seen to contribute to productive socio-political relations, what then is to be done? This seminar will conclude with a workshop led by Dr Teresa Stoppani, School of Architecture and Construction, University of Greenwich, London (currently a visiting scholar at UTS) who has recently published the book, Paradigm Islands. Participants are also expected to attend all the Architecture+Philosophy public lectures (http://architecture.testpattern.com.au) presented throughout Semester 01. Participants will be encouraged to ference event at the University
attend the of Sydney,
Right to the City conSydney, April 9 2011.
Prefab for Flood _Semester 1 2011, Technology Elective available to BP250 & MC163 Students 12 Credit Points Thursday 09.30-12.30/1.30, 45B This semester we shall extend the investigations of the Prebuilt Elective to engage with the issue of the design of Prefabricated Housing that responds to flood disaster relief. The recent flooding in Queensland and Victoria have highlighted the realities of low lying towns and residences being unprepared for the consequences of rising water and the flaws of hiding behind insufficient levee banks. The elective shall look at strategies within the architecture that may allow rapid reconstruction of dwellings through prefabrication and embrace the idea that the new dwellings should respond positively to potential flood. You will produce an A1 sheet of documentation of your prototype. We will be working with Prebuilt an award winning manufacturer of prefabricated buildings.. www.prebuilt.com.au. And will focus on the small town of Creswick, south of Ballarat, which has been flooded on three occasions in the past year. This is a Technology Elective in the Urban Environments pole. Martyn Hook Note Prefab for Flood will operate in semi-intensive mode (4hours per week) for weeks 1-5 as Martyn is away April 2-20th 2011. Classes return to 3 hours a week after the Easter Break.
A Green
* Primer
Affordable, Sustainable, Multi-Unit Housing
The design of sustainable, affordable housing is an increasingly pressing matter. Not only does it require considerable architectural thought and innovation, but finding solutions is likely to become a significant part of Architect’s future bread and butter. One approach to achieving sustainability is through the holistic ‘Star Rating’ tools provided by the Green Building Council of Australia. www.gbca.org.au The green building council have recently published the ‘Multi Unit Residential v1 Environmental Rating Tool’, which will enable star ratings to be given to multiple residential buildings. Rob Adams, at the city of Melbourne, has recently published an essay which discusses the densification of Melbourne focusing on sites along existing transport routes. http://tinyurl.com/mf6abh Alejandro Zaera-Polo from Foreign Office Architects, discussed sustainability as not only an environmental imperative, but one of the most significant drivers of architectural innovation and formal opportunity. This elective will focus on understanding the GreenStar framework and it’s application to a multiple residential housing development on an inner urban site. Students will work in teams to understand the constraints and opportunities of the greenstar framework in some detail. Using this understanding, students will prepare a schematic design for an affordable apartment building that could achieve a 5-star rating under the scheme. Although there will be significant quantity of conceptual and technical content to this elective, the intended outcome is to provide a speculative vision of how our city may be sustainably transformed. There will be input from various environmental professionals, including Glenn Alman, environmental engineer at Wood and Grieve, Jim Minifie, Chief Economist at Boston Consulting Group, and others.
Subject: Elective Tutor: Paul Minifie and Friends Room: 45C Time: Thursday 9:30 - 12:30
Architecture Elective
Contemporary Ornamental Practices Elective Leader: Brent Allpress
“cultural evolution is equivalent to the removal of ornament from articles of everyday use.” (Adolf Loos) “Featurism is not simply a decorative technique, it starts in concepts and extends upwards through the parts to the numerous trimmings. It may be defined as the subordination of the essential whole and the accentuation of selected seperate features.” (Robin Boyd)\ “The anguish of the beautiful that shines through the fragility of ornament is atopian: displacing more than could any nudity.” (Franco Rella)
Ornament haunts architectural discourse and practice. Theories of the ornamental within the canon, those marginal though often pivotal passages, cross and interrupt the central texts of the architectural tradition, both constructing and internally dividing them. While modernist theory negated traditional ornament, modernist practices involved radical ornamental operations employing autonomous and abstract spatial surfaces. The representational role of ornament in contemporary architecture has remained complex and contested. This elective will explore shifts in the status of ornament and figuration in contemporary architectural practice opened up by emerging digital design and fabrication technologies and practices that challenge the economies of standardisation. Diverse discourses on ornament will be presented and debated. Project based investigations of modernist and contemporary ornamental practices will be undertaken, focusing on qualitative and performative operations and outcomes.
Thursday 9.30-12.30 Room 45D
What does it means to be able to plan the topography of a single digital model that can assume many forms without altering its structure?
How can we link models together or to their environments such that they are dynamic in response to external conditions?
This course explores these and many other questions about change and structuring models for change: issues that tax designers from all disciplines
flexible 3d modelling
for design + prototyping
Coordinator: Jane Burry + Alex Pena de Leon (formally Gehry Technologies) Time: Location:
Thursday mornings between 9.00am-12.00pm, starting 3rd March Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, Bld 10, Lvl 11 Room 24
Reviews Location:
SIAL Presentation Space, Bld 97 Lvl 3 Room 5
Enrolment
As this is a Quota elective open to all disciplines, and offered in the School of Architecture and Design in the Advanced Technologies pole undergraduate students should enrol with the course code INTE2108 and postgraduates with the code INTE2107 For more details, visit the SIAL website: http://www.sial.rmit.edu.au/projects or contact jane.burry@rmit.edu.au
Course Description The aim of this course is to give students from diverse disciplines expertise in linking these to physical modelling and prototyping. This will be achieved through skills-based instruction and hands - on project - based learning with an introduction to DIGITAL PROJECT parametric design software. It will serve undergraduates in areas of study including but not excclusive to architecture, design, engineering, jewellery, textiles, new media as well as postgraduates starting study and design practitioners seeking professional development. It introduces an approach to modelling that can be applied in design studio, postgraduate project work and professional practice. The course is divided into demonstrations and presentations with hands on exercises and work on a preliminary design task that introduces the main principles involved in associative geometrical modelling. The second component is dedicated to tutorial and seminar support for individual project - based work shared regularly within the class. There will be opportunities to generate physical prototypes using rapid prototyping and traditional modelling techniques. Projects will be reviewed in class as the principal basis for assessment.
When: Thursday 2.30 - 5.30 Where: bld. 88.5.20/20Avv Lecturer: John Cherrey contact: john.cherrey@rmit.edu.au
putting the pieces together masters elective
In this course you will explore the world of architectural detailing. If you want to understand how buildings are assembled close up then this is the course for you. The approach in the class is hands-on. Following a couple of introductory classes where we look at the principles of detailing you will commence the first of three assignments. For each of the assignments you will be give a set of plans, sections and elevations and asked to complete some of the details. The work you will detail will be award winning practices both local and international. The class will be a bit like working in an office. You produce the work and then it will be marked up for you to improve and finalize. During each class you will be given the technical know-how to assist you in working through your set of detail problems. At the conclusion of the class you will be given the real solutions for you to compare with your designs. The final set of drawings will provide a valuable resource for you in the future.
DESIGN FOR THE SOUND OF ARCHITECTURE Geometry and materials
Throughout history, the development of music and architecture have been connected by the aural experience of listeners occupying buildings. The geometry and materials that create a building enclosure establish the acoustic environment that exists within the space. Whilst some buildings achieve their aural character by accident or fortune, many buildings are designed to achieve a specific acoustic aesthetic related to performance, occupation, austerity or contemplation. This elective provides an understanding of the principles of acoustics in a series of practical, non-technical sessions directed toward demystifying this black art of design.
Our experiece as we enter spaces is our conscious understanding of the proportions, geometry, colour and texture of the space and, subconsciously, the aural character of the space. Through a series of practical examples we will explore the relationship between building function, occupation, architecture and acoustic design. These priciples will be used to consider their implications for building briefing and design where the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk will be examined. Conceptual building designs will be developed and tested to provide an assessment of how acoustic design can be integrated into the archtiectural design process. Subject: Elective Tutor: Peter Holmes Room: 9.9.13 N-Space Time: Thursday 2-5pm
Peter Holmes has over 20 years experience in the briefing, design and implementation of buildings for the performing arts. His projects range from music schools to large, multi-venues performing arts centres including the Melbourne Recital Hall, MTC Theatre, Federation Square, Singapore Esplanade, Queensland Perfoming Arts Centre and the Sydney Opera House. He has worked with local and international architects incluing ARM, Cox, BVN, MGT, DPA.
Tom Kovac
Michael Mei
Thursday 6:00 - 9:00pm 8.11.39
‘We take if for granted that supporting innovative architecture benefits society. Today this is often presented as one of the ways in which city regions or countries promote themselves in the global context to either lead the world’s creative economy, or prove that there are unique cultural imperatives at work in the social economy of a city region or state.
'Leon van Schaik'
2112 FUTURE CITY MARIBOR
PROCURING INNOVATIVE ARCHITECTURE In countries as diverse as Austria, Australia, Belgium, England, Japan, South East Asia Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the USA, retailers, institutions, local and regional government and transport authorities have established substantial bodies of work by new and emerging architects.
EXHIBITION The exhibition will describe how ‘cities’ promotion of innovative communities of practice has led to important collections of architectural works. The exhibition of world’s cities exemplary projects will provide an assessment of the effectiveness of this approach. The exhibition will look at the cities goals and how they have achieved them through procuring good architecture. ‘Procuring Innovative Architecture’ based upon the book of the same title and edited by Leon van Schaik, Geoffrey London and Beth George, will be an exhibition about promoting sustainable communities of innovative practice through such patronage? The model will demonstrate that cities can through innovation be ‘kick-started’ by importing visionary works.
Case Studies Cities: Graz, Melbourne, Brussels, London, Tokyo, Singapore, Barcelona, Zurich, Los Angeles, Ljubljana.
2112 Future City Maribor The projecs and exhibition projects a 100 year future view, scaling and engaging with architecture, urbanism, design, technology, economics, finance, education. It is anticipated that a very large user base will be accessed by existing social media networks such as facebook twitter, flickr, vimeo youtube and selected other networks to build a scalable international platform for creating large traffic by sharing and collaboration of ideas surrounding the far reaching questions relating to the exhibition and events ‘2112 Future City Maribor’.
COMMUNICATION The events will be captured and disseminated via specific digital media and social network (specify) applications. It is anticipated that this process will create a significant attention around the events surrounding 2112 Future City Maribor.
PUBLICATION The exhibition and events will be published as web based media. An online publication of photographic material, texts and video outcomes are to be made available as an ISSUU iPhone/ iPad (iTunes Book) publication.
2011 | Semester 1 | SIAL Elective Architecture & Design | Engineering | Geospatial Sciences
Temple Sagrada Familia Terrestrial Laser Scanning - Reverse Engineering Supervisor: Professor Mark Burry Research Assistant: Brad Marmion | Industrial Designer (MA) | SIAL Workshop Manager | Terrestrial Laser Scanning Specialist Research Assistant: Michael Wilson | Industrial Designer (Hons) | SIAL Research Assistant Enquiries: brad.marmion@rmit.edu.au or michael.wilson@rmit.edu.au
Students from a variety of areas including Architecture & Design, Engineering and GIS are invited to do an elective operating as Research Assistants, analysing and processing data that will be used to assist with the ongoing investigation into Gaudi’s masterpiece, The Temple Sagrada Famila. Working closely with SIAL research staff, student will gain experience and understanding into complex 3D modelling and reverse engineering techniques. This elective provides a unique opportunity to be involved with the Temple Sagrada Famila and contribute to meaningful research on Gaudi’s work. Students will measure and CAD document Gaudi’s original contributions to the temple and provide insight into Gaudi’s design methods. They will use data which was captured at the start of 2010 by a small team of RMIT staff and students that travelled to Barcelona to document Gaudi’s work on the TSF using Terrestrial Laser Scanning and engineering scanners. Practically this is a technology based subject that involves innovative modelling using Cyclone, Navisworks, Geomagics, Autocad & Rhino (with specialised plug-ins including pointools4rhino and rhino-resurf ). 3D CAD experience is preferred. There is only a few places available and classes will be more based on an assistant role, having weekly progressive updates/meetings compared to a formal class structure. Further to this, Professor Mark Burry is highly commending an application for another scanning trip to Barcelona, so if you are interested in going on an international field trip working at the TSF this elective is an ideal way to get experience, add to your folio and increase your chance of selection.
Class Time | TBA Location | SIAL Bld 97, Lev 3 | SIAL PC lab 10.11.24
WHITE / COLD 2 Positions for Research Assistants Design Elective with Salter Architects Semester 1 2011 Time: Weekly meeting (2 hours) Tuesday am or Thursday pm (confirm with students) @ RMIT Course Description Research into Victorian Alpine architecture towards publication of a book. Your work will develop skills in research methodology, graphic production and architectural critique. Victorian alpine villages are a history book of innovative architectural buildings, often by well known architects that will soon be altered or demolished as their Crown leases expire. Presently there is no co-ordinated record of this important work. This will be the third semester of alpine research at RMIT. Already students have worked successfully to build a foundation of information on early 20 Century grand hotel lodges, McGlashan Everist, Peter McIntyre and Chancellor and Patrick.
Workload You will require at least 8-12 hours a week for the semester working both independently and supported by Salter Architects. Your work will be broken into weekly elements that diarise a reflective portfolio evidencing your research strategies with drawings, notes, photos, email correspondence.
Research Project The aim of the research is to build a coordinated archive and methodology for management of the material. Your work is to source and coordinate original building documents (drawings, photos, interviews) from architects, architectural offices, lodge groups, public records held in the State Library, government departments and statutory authorities such as the Resort Management Boards and National Alpine Museum. Where no original documents are available, we would prepare measured drawings and photograph the buildings. Field trips to the mountain resorts may be required.
Alpine Design Background Melbourne architects brought all the obvious period styles and construction techniques to the ski villages then adapted those to suit alpine conditions of extreme weather, snow, site slope and views. Imaginary design and innovative engineering ideas often suppressed by the formalities of metropolitan manners and planning controls could be released on these projects. The 1960’s interest in pure geometrical plans and forms such as “A” frames, triangles, and decagons often overlayed with “nuts and bolts” detailing and use of local/accessible raw materials can be seen in lodges designed by Peter McIntyre, David McGlashan, Chancellor & Patrick and Barry Patten. There are good examples of 1970’s Californian ranch style lodges where each programmatic element is given compositional form (Howden & Wardrop at Australian Alpine Club and Koki Falls Creek). In the 1980’s, rolled and brightly coloured tubular steel framing with wire mesh screens laid over diagonal boarded forms, moved from Fitzroy to Falls Creek (Cocks & Carmichael and Graeme Gunn). 1990’s buildings are characterised by a search for local alpine authenticity where the vernacular mountain cattleman’s hut was enshrined by both architects and planners as the template alpine style (McIntyre at Dinner Plain and Greg Burgess in Mansfield). Also unbuilt schemes by Peter Corrigan, Wood Marsh and Denton Corker Marshall.
Assessment & Outcomes By end of semester you should be able to prepare a draft publication layout for at least two buildings using the graphic material and write a critical supporting essay that demonstrates an understanding of the architectural work. In time this may extend to a public presentation in lecture form, designing and mounting a public exhibition and preparation of material for publication.
The tasks will include: research and data collection of journal articles, newspaper articles, interviews and developing spatial diagrams to analysis and compare architectural spaces. With the final objective (assessment based) on production of digital presentation for June GRC demonstrating a variety of research methods and sources.
This elective course assists me in my Phd practice based research project. Including: outlining my body of work: practise treads, my relationship & work position with my colleagues & piers, and setting up spatial diagrams of my work & influences.
How could architecture be inclusive of unsafe, hazardous, unknown, and fresh attributes? How we create from risk, at the expense of potential safety, to promote exploration, experimentation and immunity? How can we create without a ‘traditional client, site, budget or program’?
ARCHITECTURE ELECTIVE: RESEARCH ASSISTANT(s) How do wild things grow? Finding a nexus between the untamed & restraint in architecture. Master of Architecture Elective Semester 1, 2011 Elective Leader: Kristin Green