Architecture Design Electives Posters semester 1, 2012
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.
enquiries: Pia Ednie-Brown, Associate Professor, School of Architecture and Design RMIT University, pia@rmit.edu.au
melbourne.australia
Architecture
architecture.rmit.edu.au
cover image from Roland Snooks.
The Ballot Box for Electives will be available from 1pm Tuesday 21st February until 12 midday the next day, Wednesday 22nd February.
Contents
DAY MONDAY
TUESDAY
TIME LOCATION 12.30 – 3.30 8.11.47
Mauro Baracco – SSCC Elective
2.00 – 5.00
10.11.24
Roland Snooks – Fibrous Assemblages
2.30 – 5.30
B45 C
Louise Wright – All Change
WEDNESDAY 9.30 – 12.30 8.10.23
THURSDAY
Leanne Zilka – Found in Translation: architecture-fashion
9.30 – 12.30 B45 D
Mauro Baracco – Gathering History
1.30 – 4.30
10.11.24
Roland Snooks – Intricacy: robotic and digital fabrication
1.30 – 4.30
8.11.42
Paul Minifie – Rumble in the Jungle
9.00 – 12.00 10.11.24
Jane Burry & Michael Wilson – Flexible 3D Modelling
9.30 – 12.30 Lvl 7 workshop
John Cherrey – Make
9.30 – 12.30 8.11.51
Vivian Mitsogianni – Dematerialise
2.30 – 5.30
88.5.20/20A
John Cherrey – Putting the Pieces Together
6.00 – 9.00
8.11.39
Tom Kovac, Michael Mei, etc – 2112 Ai (100YR City)
6.00 – 9.00
8.11.39
Tom Kovac, Michael Mei, etc – VVC 3.0
SMALL or Research Assistant GROUPS Time mostly to be scheduled with students ARM office – Urban Futures Roland Snooks – Strand Formations Harriet Edquist – Homesteads of the Western District Graham Crist – Speculations on Future Cities – Solaris Juliette Anich – Industrial Design elective: Practicing Sustainability (Tuesdays 1.30 – 3.30, 88.5. 9) Jan van Schaik with Stuart Harrison – Rural Urbanism. The Mildura Population Project
SSCC ELECTIVE SSCC INITIATED PROJECTS:
GUESTT G LECTURE L E SERIES
T S R I F YEAR D N A H K O BO
Tuesdays 12.30 - 3.30 Mondays 12.30 - 3.30 pmpm 8.11.47 45 Room 45B Building Coordinated by Coordinated byMauro MauroBaracco Baraccoand andthe the SSCC SSCC Committee student representatives Aims: 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.
Semester Prospective Projects: Interviewing lecture series speakers and other design professionals for publication and radio broadcast. Continue with past semester initiatives such as the Lecture Series, first year handbook and the blog. 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 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
FIBROUS ASSEMBLAGES ALGORITHMIC DESIGN ELECTIVE ROLAND SNOOKS This algorithmic design elective will explore the generation of fibrous assemblages, the emergence of pattern and form through agent-based techniques. This methodology considers the source of form to operate at the smallest scale of matter - the interaction of individual fibers that lead to the generation of complex order and the emergence of architectural form and organization. The elective will operate primarily through the generation of drawings and three-dimensional form through scripted techniques. The course will examine complex systems, in particular the logic of swarm intelligence, and how these systems operate through multi-agent algorithms. A methodology will be introduced that encodes simple architectural decisions within a distributed system of autonomous computational agents. It is the interaction of these local decisions that self-organizes design intention, giving rise to a form of collective intelligence and emergent behavior at the global scale. The first half of the semester will focus on scripting technique and methodology within Processing, while the second half of the course will rigorously explore the affects that are generated and look at how this becomes the basis for designing a series of drawings and three dimensional geometries. The course will be heavily engaged in scripting, however no scripting or programming experience is required or assumed.
MONDAY 2PM - 5PM | 10.11.24
all change
Design Elective + Studio Architectural, urban and landscape projects of localized and networked systems in the Wimmera region
ARCHITECTURAL THINKING AND CLIMATE CHANGE Architects are used to integrating complex systems, competing needs and seemingly polarised aims. Through the design process, they move towards the whole through research, case study, speculation, and testing. This dynamic process often leads to innovative and provocative combinations of program, siting, and built form where outcomes can be far reaching, addressing issues beyond the traditional domain of the building. It is just the type of process and thinking that is so critical to addressing complex issues of climate change. How and where people live, work, produce their food, share community activities, participate into the world from their specific places and how these solutions interact with the natural environment must be re-thought to combine sustainable social and environmental solutions. These issues land at the feet of traditional concerns of architecture: land use and urbanisation, big and small systems and relationships. What role can architecture play? THE STUDIO This studio will place architectural design in a leading position to develop design based solutions to climate change by considering the traditional concerns of land use and urbanisation anew. The studio will focus its investigations on some rural and urban contexts of the Wimmera region, located approximately 350 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. The urban, architectural and landscape projects developed through the studio will involve investigations into the conservation, rehabilitation, consolidation and expansion of the natural and rural, leftover, brownfield and green reserve areas; they will look at urban planning that focuses on open spaces and will offer solutions in response to the ecological significance and links to natural systems that are provided by these open spaces. These projects will also engage with the notions of distributed and networked systems, opportunistically taking advantage of spatial, cultural, geographical and urban conditions that exist in the investigated sites in order to propose productive landscapes and combinations/interactions of programs which might also accommodate new housing, civic amenities as well as working, commercial and community spaces. THE ELECTIVE This elective will support the all change design studio. Taking the case study method as an important part of an architect’s research process, students will study examples of how strategic and catalytic architecture is played out through program, siting, multi-use and lack of hierarchy between landscape, infrastructure, architecture, and more and more, ecology. Guided by the tutor, guest lectures and site visits, students will build a body of research unpacking a breadth of understanding of approaches to sustainability and, what role design can play. Students will be required to: 1. Collaboratively produce a single document that collates the research 2. Individually produce a text supported by drawings and images that demonstrates critical thinking on the role/s of architecture in climate change response. 3. Participate in the maintenance of a Blog. BOTH THE STUDIO AND ELECTIVE It is not compulsory that students undertake both the studio and elective, however IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to do so, as the studies and research undertaken in both the subjects will be closely interconnected and consistently shared. SITE VISIT In the initial phases of the studio (through the Labor Day weekend, that is: from Saturday 10 to Tuesday 13 March), there will be a study trip in the area. This is an essential moment in both the studio and elective research. It is compulsory to attend. We’ll camp and visit the towns and landscapes of the area, meeting with local communities and urban planners + collecting information and researching in general in preparation for the projects that will be developed throughout the semester. CONCLUSIVE INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP This studio is part of the European/Australian Joint Collaboration Project: DARC - Designing the New World: Developing Architectural Education in Response to Climate Change. This collaboration involves exchanges and co-operation between the 6 following schools: RMIT University, UTS Sydney, QUT Brisbane, ETSAB Barcelona (Spain), ENSA Toulouse (France), Turin Polytechnic (Italy). At the conclusion of the studio (June 2012, exact date tbc) an International Workshop will be organized by UTS Sydney, in which the final outcomes of the studio will be publicly presented by tutors and students. Students are encouraged to attend. UPPER POOL STUDIO RUN BY MAURO BARACCO TUESDAY 9.30-1.30PM B 45 C
UPPER POOL ELECTIVE RUN BY LOUISE WRIGHT TUESDAY 2.30 - 5.30PM B 45 C
FOUND IN TRANSLATION Leanne Zilka (architecture)
Tania Splawa-Neyman (Fashion)
Fashion and architecture draw inspiration from each other and also inhabit common ground through “the power of observation, and the creative use of imagination� (Mori, T in Immaterial: Ultramaterial). This elective explores both mutual and divergent processes across these disciplines as students from both architecture and fashion design step into the others shoes. From the individual to the collective, this fosters the sharing of ideas and concepts, and experimentation with techniques that relate to the different scales and applications of the disciplines. Students are required to engage with a series of exploratory exercises within interdisciplinary groups, focussing on techniques in relation to form and the body. The process of making is driven by both the handmade and the digital. The final project generates a prototype for the body and building, where the lines of fashion and architecture will be blurred.
FASHION / ARCHITECTURE ELECTIVE Time: Wed. 9.30-12.30 Location: 8.10.23
G AT H E R I N G H I S T O RY
Research and Studies for a Book of History of Architecture Elective, Sem 1-2012 Wednesdays, 9.30 - 12.30, Building 45D Tutor: Mauro Baracco
This elective bridges between the fields of communication, history/theory and design. The aim of this elective is to reconsider, as well as compile, select, file and catalogue material related to the History of the 20th Century Architecture that is taught within the Bachelor of Architecture. These above activities are toward the preparation of a book of History of Architecture. It is expected that more electives of this type will be run through the next few semesters in order to get to the finalization of this publication. In this inaugural elective students will be guided by the tutor in various correlated activities concerning the selection and cataloguing of archive/bibliographic material including images, drawings, photos, etc. (not text) of historical works that are mainly but not exclusively form the 20th Century. Students will also be expected to spend time in sourcing existing images (in the form of both physical slides and bibliographic material from books, magazines, journals, etc.) and scan them into digitized images to be used in the History lectures and the book of History of Architecture. In light of the tasks and learning approach that is described above, students undertaking this elective will effectively operate as ‘research assistants’, being exposed to different aspects and angles of the preliminary preparation phases that typically inform the production of a book. In doing this, students will have the possibility to research through an amazing world of archive/bibliographic images, many unpublished, that would also trigger possible further reflection, and personal re-interpretation, on the design approach of seminal architects and theoreticians of the 20th Century. This elective is highly recommended for students who: 1. have recently undertaken the History of the 20th Century Architecture course, thus with memories of the contents of this course that are still relatively fresh; + 2. have performed well and enjoyed all aspects of this course; + 3. have a desire to deepen and further test the application of their previous theoretical framework and general research (from the time they undertook the History of the 20th Century course) into new study techniques involving now the re-investigation of theoretical concepts through the formation of catalogues (rather than the production of written papers) in which images and drawings are rigorously grouped and filed, and yet can also potentially open up to forms of re-interpretative categorization (for instance, by establishing degrees of affinity and/or empathy between works and architects of different cultural, social, geographical and historical background); + 4. wish to exercise and perfect the essential technique of being rigorous; + 5. understand that such an elective may offer the possibility to indirectly/laterally further reflect on their previous studies in history of architecture, despite having to meet guidelines and related deadlines set up by the tutor with a direct and specific concern for the collection and re-ordering of archive/bibliographic material into catalogue(s); + 6. think they can tick [X] all of the above conditions!
INTRICACY ROBOTIC + DIGITAL FABRICATION ROLAND SNOOKS This elective will explore highly intricate ornamental and tectonic architectural geometry created through emerging robotic and digital fabrication tools. RMIT School or Architecture and Design has recently acquired an array of world class digital fabrication tools that include a Kuka Robot, high speed 3 axis mill, water-jet cutters and other CNC manufacturing equipment which enable the fabrication of geometries not previously feasible. The elective will offer an introduction in both digital and fabrication tools capable of generating a high level of intricacy. Software tutorials will be run to introduce the basics of both Grasshopper and Python scripting for Rhino. The iterative nature of these tools enables highly intricate patterns and forms to be generated. Students will be taught how to operate the robotic and CNC fabrication equipment and will initially test each of these through a series of short projects to acquire the skills in using and understanding the limits and possibilities of the tools. The main project for the semester will involve the generation and fabrication of a highly intricate ornamental or tectonic prototype at 1:1 scale. The projects will be undertaken in small groups – each group will be responsible for funding the materials for their project, however sponsorship will be sought for the projects where possible.
WEDNESDAY 1:30PM - 4:30PM | 10.11.24
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 Coordinator: Jane Burry + Michael Wilson Time: Location:
for design + prototyping
Thursday mornings between 9.00am-12.00pm, starting 1st 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 skill -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.
make bachelor elective Thursdays 9.30 - 12.30 Level 7 workshop Lecturer - John Cherrey email: john.cherrey@rmit.edu.au
In the MAKE elective, will spend the semester exploring a whole range of materials and techniques - paper & card, plastic sheet, plaster, resin, metals, timber‌‌ fabrication, casting, soldering, painting, vac forming, CNC maching, additive manaufacting, water and laser cutting. Making is a great way to help you develop your design ideas or as as starting point for design. Over the course of the semester, you will discover a whole range of techniques, which will allow you to make great models with relatively little equipment in your studio space. We will also work with the amazing range of conventional and digital equipment available in the school workshops. Everyone can cobble together a model of one sort of another but it always takes a lot of time: more than you can ever imagine. Throughout the semester you will be given the opportunity to develop techniques that really can save you time - not just minutes but days.
.
A DESIGN ELECTIVE (advanced architecture).
Thursdays 9:30am - 12:30pm 8.11.51 A DESIGN ELECTIVE (advanced architecture) in which we will undertake design experiments into form, design technique and process. The question of dematerialisation (formal, cultural, social, spatial) will be investigated as a red herring through which we will consider wider questions and ideas. What can dematerialisation as a contemporary condition brought to architecture allow us to find for architecture? What does a building look like in its dematerialised form – what propositions can be developed for architecture (surface, arrangement, spatial conditions, representation and so forth) by seeking to explore formal dematerialisation? What does the word even mean? What can we learn from artists and scientists about materialisation (or dematerialisation)? Can we use the physical presence of architecture to explore its absence – its erosion – its void? THE RETURN OF THE REAL**: How do we deal with representation and the difficulty of the familiar and the known in process-based experimentation? We will look to art, film, science (and other disciplines) for techniques and processes that we can co-opt and use in architectural experiments? We will produce: a series of architectural propositions that may manifest themselves in a number of forms; ornamental facades, spatial arrangements, models, drawings, material explorations. After initial set experiments (and tips on setting up process-based experiments in which we appropriate techniques from other disciplines to develop architectural propositions) students will be given the room to pursue their own interests and develop their own experiments.
2
DEMATERIALISE ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR* VIVIAN MITSOGIANNI There will be no brief – no site – just the space to undertake formal explorations and experiments into the design process – no empty formalism – just loaded form (culturally, politically) – and discussion about how architecture can engage with things far greater than the necessary certainty and banality of the medium (doors, walls, roofs). This elective would suit students interested in the following: >understanding how to develop process-based (rule based, generative) experiments that are based on techniques and processes external to architecture. >experimentation and practicing generating architectural form >embedding architecture within wider cultural/socio-political discussions >struggling with architecture and meaning >developing their skills in understanding how architecture might be judged >who like reading and doing.
Notes: Contemporary processes and techniques are not incompatible with ambitions and ideas in architecture BUT somewhere along the way (particularly in advanced architecture circles) the techniques were mistaken for the ideas….we will explore what it might mean to struggle to lead with ideas. This elective considers architecture as being able to engage with ideas and meaning much greater than itself….it seeks to discuss how we might struggle to do this… how we might judge what we produce and how we can develop techniques to assist us to ‘load’ the architectural project.
Predator 1987
Ball-Nogues 2009
Likeness The Matrix 1999 Quaranteed by David Mach 1994
Pixels by Patrick Jean 2010
sunken monument by Ricky Swallow Inception 2010 1999 *After Marx and Engels and Marshall Berman ** After Hal Foster
When: Thursday 2.30 - 5.30 Where: bld. 88 level 5 room 20/20a Lecturer: John Cherrey contact: john.cherrey@rmit.edu.au
putting the pieces together
Carlo Scapa - detail Olivetti showroom , Venice
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 that of some award winning Melbourne architects. 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.
Tom Kovac
Fleur Watson
Michael Mei
Martyn Hook
Keith Deverell
Thursday 6:00 - 9:00pm 8.11.39 2112 Ai (100YR City) A group of international thinkers and educators think about the future of Maribor and show how multi-disciplinary and collaboration are essential conditions for future innovation. Every year the European Union awards the title of European Capital of Culture (ECOC) to one or more cities. The city holding this prestigious title hosts a series of important cultural events. In 2012, the European Capital of Culture is Maribor in Slovenia. As part of the ECOC festivities, 2112 Ai (100YR City) will investigate and identify disruptive patterns of global change and envisage impacts on architecture, urbanism and life in the extreme future. 2112 Ai represents cultural and city engagement at the highest level and communicates how new forms of practice are responding to external demands on architecture.
2112 Ai
Director and curator Tom Kovac and Fleur Watson will be leading a huge group of thinkers and educators. Tom Kovac is a professor of Architecture at RMIT University, and visiting professor at the Southern California Institute of Architecture and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Fleur Watson is a PhD research candidate within RMIT's architecture program, an architecture and design curator, author and former editor-in-chief of MONUMENT magazine. Together they offer high-level experience in the areas of practice-led research and the curation of large-scale events, and are proficient at ensuring industry engagement, trans-disciplinary collaboration and public dissemination.
13th Venice Architecture Biennale SIX INNOVATIVE FORMATIONS TO CHALLENGE INTERNATIONAL VIEWS OF ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE AT VENICE Six of Australia's most innovative architecture practices have been selected to exhibit within the Formations exhibition at theAustralian Pavilion during the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012. Presented by the Australian Institute of Architects and devised by Anthony Burke, Gerard Reinmuth and TOKO Concept Design, Formations: New Practices in Australian Architecture aims to provoke debate about the changing role of architects and the 'formations' in which they practice. Formations will showcase Australian architectural practices that are challenging conventional perceptions and definitions of what it is to be an architect and the possibilities for the profession to make significant contributions to new domains of work through innovative 'practice formations'. The exhibition participates in the current global discussion about the evolution and future of practice, placing Australia's most forward-thinking architects at the heart of this conversation. In October 2011, the Institute issued an open call for expressions of interest from architects and architectural practices across the country. A total of 124 submissions were received, varying from practices working in architecture and city making to small strategic projects, objects, installations and media. ‘Formations’ will highlight “the unconventional and world-leading innovative range of architectural practice types being developed across Australia”. The Australian Pavilion will be transformed into a “soft landscape of connections and possibilities”, featuring a series of installations or ‘formations’ responding to the light-filled, sculpted pavilion interior. Each installation will be designed as “spaces of real world innovation”. AIM Students will participate in the design and production of the Venice Architecture Biennale 2112Ai exhibition design. Students will be involved in the process of developing the exhibit—from a concept through to a physical, three-dimensional exhibition. The Venice Biennale will engage students in innovative, creative and practical solutions to the challenge of developing communicative environments in a virtual and three-dimensional space
Tom Kovac
Fleur Watson
Michael Mei
Thursday 6:00 - 9:00pm 8.11.39
VISUALIZING THE VIRTUAL CONCOURSE The VVC focuses on public behaviours that sustain creative
communities.
Virtual
environments,
when
supported by a spatially unifying concept, offer the possibility that learning communities in the digital city can be both more dispersed and more intensely related than heretofore. While sites such as facebook allow viral clustering of individuals with like interests, we ask what kind of relationships between real and virtual environments offer support to teaching and learning communities.
AIM Students will be exploring relationships between real environments, rich in sensory and spatial information and virtual
environments
developed
around
emerging
communication software application CORUS that is information rich.We are proposing the creation of web based user generated, virtual application to be used for content vizualisation as part of the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale and the 2012 European Capital of Culture. Students will assist in the design and development of the iPhone and iPad application exhibition environment and learn about data vizualization techniques and application development.
Martyn Hook
Keith Deverell
Research Assistant Electives (small groups)
ARM
URBAN FUTURES
THE PURPOSE OF THIS ELECTIVE IS TO RESEARCH AND COMPILE PROPOSITIONS TOWARDS URBAN FUTURES FOR AUSTRALIA FULL CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN WHERE CREDIT IS DUE. THIS ELECTIVE IS CONCERNED WITH THE COMPLEX AND CONTRADICTORY PROCESS OF GENERATING ARCHITECTURAL FORM AND THOUGHT. THIS ELECTIVE IS ABOUT HISTORY. THIS ELECTIVE IS ABOUT THE FUTURE. THIS STUDIO IS ABOUT WHY THE LOCAL STILL MATTERS. WE WILL BE UNEARTHING A LOCAL HISTORY THROUGH THE PRISM OF ARM’S ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE. THIS ELECTIVE IS ABOUT THE FORM AND DISPLAY OF THE PROPOSITIONAL. THIS ELECTIVE WILL INCLUDE SITE VISITS, LIBRARY TIME, OFFICE TIME, MAPPING, READING AND GRUNT WORK.
FLEXIBLE HOURS @ARM ARCHITECTURE LEVEL 11/ 522 FLINDERS LANE
STUDENTS WILL BE EXPECTED TO WORK WITH ARM ONE FULL DAY A WEEK.
STRAND FORMATIONS RESEARCH ASSISTANT[S] ROLAND SNOOKS This research will use algorithmic design methodologies and robotic fabrication to produce a strand-to-surface prototype. This course requires 3 students to work closely with Roland Snooks and the office of Kokkugia in the design, development and fabrication of a fiber-composite prototype. This research will look at the intersection of Kokkugia’s research with strand based generative algorithms, composite fabrication research and RMIT’s newly acquired Kuka robot. This research will involve working out of both Kokkugia’s office in the Melbourne CBD and the fabrication workshops at RMIT - approximately 1-2 days per week [times negotiable]. Knowledge of either digital fabrication equipment or scripting would be beneficial, however it is not necessary.
RESEARCH ELECTIVE Semester 1: 2012
Homesteads of the Western District of Victoria: an investigation
Lecturer: Seminar time:
Prof. Harriet Edquist to be finalised at the first week’s meeting: Wednesday 29th February 9.30am RMIT Design Archives Building 15 Level 2
speculations on future cities: SOLARIS This project seeks assistants for a team of 2 or 3, with Graham Crist and the office of antarctica. The project will create designs which examine the implications for urbanism, of new technologies in the next 100 years. We will we speculate on vertical cities and solar wind towers for three different hypothetical locations. The project should develop your knoweldge and skills in a range of fields: 1. advanced architectural technology: specifically solar wind turbine towers 2. extreme urbanism in three conditions: Maribor (2012 European Capital of Culture) Hanoi (Asian post colonial city) Karatha WA (brand new city) 3. communications: develop your modelling and visualisation skills The times for contact are negotiable. For more information contact Graham: graham@antarc.com.au
practicing sustainbility Critiquing of contemporary sustainability | Industrial Design Elective | Juliette Anich The world needs a design revolution, so why not become a revolutionary designer? This course will immerse you in the critical sustainability challenges of our time and equip you with the detailed knowledge required to make a positive change. Our current culture of design demands convenience and readily accepts wastefulness. However the impacts and implications of this are becoming far greater and more widespread than previously imagined. This course will review your ‘role as a designer’ in this culture and provide you with the resources and opportunities to make informed decisions on how you would like to participate in, and shape this culture. You will be asked to investigate, critically analyse and surmise issues as diverse as population, the carbon tax, food security and lifecycles of products through short writing tasks and graphic communication. The class will balance individual and collective work through two major projects; a personal design manifesto and a collaborative class demonstration of the semesters’ work. Juliette Anich will be your guide through the semester. Her current PhD studies around an alternative food system will inform, inspire and challenge you during this course.
Tuesdays 1.30-3.30 | 88.5.9
ELECTIVE: PUBLICATION DEVELOPMENT
RURAL URBANISM - The Mildura Population Project SINGLE RESEARCH ASSISTANT ELECTIVE JAN VAN SCHAIK WITH STUART HARRISON
Jan van Schaik and Stuart Harrisson are seeking a single research assistant to develop a publication on the Miludra Population Project. The publication, already sketched out, is aimed at disseminating the results of a 2011 workshop and public symposium. These are a result of a teaching and research collaboration between: • RMIT University, • ENSAM France, • Tohoku Institute of Technology and Tohoku University.
The workshop was designed to a brief developed with: • the Mildura Rurual City Council and • the Mildura Development Coorporation. The elective will teach skills in layout, design and publication and will result in a published document, which will be widely disseminated and for which the research assistant will receive design accreditation in the publication. The research will be conducted under the direction of Jan van Schaik of Minifie van Schaik Architects and Stuart Harrison
of Harrison and White Architects and a presenter on RRR “The Architects”. This will be an opportunity to learn from Jan, who directed the Mildura Population Project, and who has significant experience in print and media publication. The task will be to take the publication from its current state all the way to pre-press ensuring that the content of the work is artfully and clearly represented, edited and proofed.
1 MILDURA POPULATION PROJECT - PUBLICATION ELECTIVE
Classes will be conducted regularly on Wednesday day afternoons a time convenient to all. Contact: Jan van Schaik e43303@rmit.edu.au 0411 724 427