UNDER CONSTRUCTION Alysia Bennett
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UNDER CONSTRUCTION Alysia Bennett
Coffered Ceiling
FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND PLANNING, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE JOHN WARDLE ARCHITECTS AND NADAAA
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he new Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (FABP), a joint venture between John Wardle Architects and NADAAA, displays an uncanny familiarity to the sequence within the former building. The entry is via a laneway-like ground floor, leading down into lecture theatres or up into a large atrium lined with studio spaces. However, unlike the old faculty, there is far greater legibility of the activity beyond these ‘public’ areas. Workshops on the ground floor open onto a north-facing courtyard; a series of exhibition spaces hug the western entrance; a faculty library opens up to a landscape berm on the southern edge; and the studio spaces lining the atrium offer views in, and beyond, to the established treetops of the heritage campus. It is this legibility of program, infrastructure and methods of construction that is at the heart of the Wardle/NADAAA design, a concept that will enable the building to act as a teaching tool for its students and as a means of communication with visitors to the faculty. This legibility also makes visible the position of this building within the lineage of the collaborators’ work, within the pedagogy of architecture schools locally, internationally and historically and, within a lineage of architectural technology and ideology. The indicator in this case is also the most visually dominant and, arguably, the most innovative element within the new building. Above the voluminous atrium spans a deep, timber-coffered ceiling from which a large form is thrust below, stopping only a few metres above the floor. Currently under construction, this plywood-lined extrusion acts as a catalyst for diversity within the atrium, →
01. Axonometric drawings show the combination of the ceiling, studio and connecting staircases, together with the existing facade extruded into the interior
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02. Staircase detail, above and below 03. Preservation of the existing facade 04. Coffered ceiling in place over the main stair core 05. Erection of the main stair core.
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FEATURE Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos
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FEATURE Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos
Void
MANAGING THE (ELEMENTAL) VOID T
he question at the basis of this brief exploration is to identify in which ways particular significances are attached to the practical components of a structure and how they can come to the fore, casting new light on the discipline. While this question ostensibly strengthens the connection between the theoretical and the practical in architecture, it is problematic: if the profession chooses to consider elements within architecture as purely individual fragments then it is in danger of working with building blocks, instead of in an integral way. Instead, working with the elements of architecture means merging the conceptual potential of the specific elements with their structural and use-related functions. The essence of an elemental object in architecture is found in its combinatory nature – and not in its potential for isolated development, which is merely a function of the building industry. There is no window without a wall, no staircase without two floors, even though they themselves can be manufactured as artefacts in standardised sizes.
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Void as element The ‘element’ in focus here is the one that has the greatest connective possibility of all: the (vertical) void. Of course, every space in architecture is by definition a void; every room in a building and every interstitial space is a three-dimensional vacancy. The void space that we now specifically refer to is however not leftover space, but a void that has been purposefully designed as such. Rather than substance coming first, matter has been accommodated to generate a dynamic void space, where everything occurs and where human behaviours reveal the purpose of the very existence of the building. All voids suggest absence and presence, density and weightlessness, as well as the interplay between something and nothing, but what makes the →
01–02. Atrium at Galleria Centercity, Cheonan, South Korea (2010). Images courtesy Christian Richters
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03. ‘Knot’ axonometric diagram for Galleria Centercity. Diagram courtesy UNStudio.
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decisions based on costs could go a long way to informing future decision-making’. Therefore this review deliberately does not include a conventional assessment of the aesthetic of MS2 and associated buildings (consisting of Lyons’ Medical Science 1 building completed in 2010, the heritagelisted Hollydene House and Advocate House). Instead, the efficacy of the building is assessed via the window system’s practical and poetic characteristics. The poetic nature of the system is described as offering conceptual links to the landscape of Hobart, the potential for ambiguous scale within the city and the support of critical thought for the researchers housed within the building. The practical effectiveness of the window is achieved by simply combining the subject element with adjacent elements, which ensured the system withstood the scrutiny of value management. Lyons guaranteed each element in the system was critical and to delete one element would dissolve the entire building facade. Having learned their lesson from MS1, where the window sunshades were deleted due to cost implications, Lyons formulated a method of communicating with concrete precasters and metalworkers for MS2, ensuring each element within the system was fabricated offsite and simply assembled onsite. In relation to the sunshades for MS2, ferrules were inserted into the concrete frame, which allowed the aluminium sunshades to be fabricated offsite and then simply bolted in place onsite. Lyons’ work in strategically integrating building elements into a window system is critical to the success of MS2 and is perhaps best illustrated in contrast to MS1, where the simplified windows exhibit lower complexity between practical and poetic features. Tsukamoto explains that it is not possible to sculpt objects using light, as a sculptor would manipulate bronze or marble, with windows perhaps our closest tool for shaping light. By ensuring the retention of the aluminium sunshades to the
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window system, Lyons activates the poetic and sculptural nature of light and shade within the building. In this way the window becomes a complex system that provides shade and thermal performance, conceptual storytelling of the surrounding context and moments for critical thought and reflection for its occupants. 04. Custom transom – detail a. Custom aluminium transom b. 24mm igu c. 80mm thk tk panel 05. Land window – plan detail – typical d. Aluminium sunshade in section e. Aluminium sunshade f. Line of precast profile 06. Facade section – typical window g. Am-04 h. In-09
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i. Wi-02 j. Fx-10 k. In-01 l. Cg-05 m. Sunshade n. 650 Precast o. Cf-04 p. Sunshade shown dashed and fixing shown indicatively q. Line of precast profile shown dashed r. Wi-02 s. Cf-04b t. 20mm carpet to slab u. Line of slab edge.
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Project Details GROSS FLOOR AREA: 9,057sqm + external space and 3,000sqm MS1
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CLIENT: University of Tasmania / DESIGN ARCHITECT: Lyons q
Architecture / BUILDER: John Holland Fairbrother Joint Venture / CONSTRUCTION MANAGER: John Holland
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Fairbrother Joint Venture / CIVIL CONSULTANT: Bonacci Group
/ COST
CONSULTANT: Aquenta Consulting / INTERIOR DESIGNER: SJB Interiors / COMMUNICATIONS, ELECTRICAL, MECHANICAL CONSULTANT: Umow Lai / ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT: Watson Moss Growcott
/ LIGHTING CONSULTANT:
Umow Lai / STRUCTURAL CONSULTANT: n
Bonacci Group / SERVICES, ENVIRONMENTAL, HYDRAULIC CONSULTANT: Umow Lai / LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT: Rush Wright / FIRE SERVICES: Umow Lai / BUILDING
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SURVEYOR: Pitt & Sherry / VERTICAL TRANSPORT: Umow Lai.
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MEDICAL SCIENCE 2, UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA
Window
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