RMIT ARCHITECTURE DESIGN ELECTIVES

POSTERS

SEMESTER 2, 2012

Masters of ArchitectureARCH 1338ARCH 1339ARCH 1340

Bachelors of ArchitectureARCH 1040ARCH 1041

Both Bachelors Electives and Masters 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 10th of July until midday the next day Wednesday, 11th July.

Enquiries: Leanne Zilkalecturer in Architecture

leanne.zilka@rmit.edu.au

IMAGE BY ZACH YUI

DAY TIME LOCATION STAFF

MONDAY 9.30‐12.30 + 1.30‐5.00 8.7.153 computer lab  Intensive from mon 27 august ‐  fri 31st aug,  Nick Williams,John Cherrey ‐ FabPod

2.30‐5.30 8.11.51 John Cherrey  ‐ Putting the pieces together

TUESDAY 9.30‐12.30 8.11.51 Brent Allpress ‐ Contemporary Ornamental Practices

9.30‐12.30 B45C Marika Neustupny, Laura Harper ‐ Asian Melbourne

2.30‐5.30 8.11.58 Peta Carlin ‐ Kiosk

2.30‐5.30 10.11.24 A+D comp lab (previously SIAL specialist lab cap 12) Roland Snooks ‐ Strange Composities

WEDNESDAY 9.30‐12.30 B45D Michael Spooner ‐ A Carapace of Desire

9.30 ‐ 12.30 B9.1.36  Lawrence Harvery  Jeffrey Hannan ‐ Soundscape Studies

2.30‐5.30 B45D Tai Hollingsbee ‐ Climate. Response. Detail. Performance

THURSDAY 9.00‐12.00 10.11.24   Jane Burry ‐ Flexible 3d Modelling for design and prototyping

10.00‐1.00 88.5.9+½11 Vivian Mitsogiani ‐ Dematerialise3‐ 'all that is solid melts into air'

9.30‐12.30 B45D Pia Ednie Brown, Mike Hornblow ‐ Unpacking the Diagram

9.30‐12.30 8.12.38 Sean McMahon ‐ Spatiality in contemporary Japanese Housing

9.30‐12.30 8.12.36 John Cherrey ‐ Make

9.30 ‐ 12.30 B9.1.36   Lawrence Harvery  Jeffrey Hannan ‐ Ambisonic Modelling

6.30‐9.30 8.11.51 ‐ prof practice Bruce Allen ‐ International Practice

INTENSIVE FROM WEEK 7‐WEEK 13 ‐ LOCATION TO BE ADVISED Phil Burns and Martin Heide ‐ MPX installation

8.12.36+8.12.38 10am‐5pm Saturday September 22, 29 and October 6, 13 October    and  8.11.39 Computer lab 22 September 10‐1pm and 2‐5pm

SPRING SEMESTER ENROLMENTS

TBC Melbourne Ho Chi Min A Tale of 2 cities Jane Burry and Flora Salim

SATURDAY                                                                                                                                                                                     Alive Architecture ‐  SUB:Urban Diaries intensive Arch + LA 

CONTENTS

FaBPod is an intensive design and make elective which aims to design, develop and construct at full scale, an innovative pod, for working and meeting in open plan office spaces. The space will be designed to strict acoustic performance standards with the assistance our visiting international experts.

The elective will demand your engagement with new digital tools and techniques around parametric design, acoustic simulation and digital fabrication. The final, highly developed design will be fabricated using state of the art technologies, including the school’s new 5 axis milling robot, combined with traditional craft assembly processes. A considerable amount of prototyping work has already been completed, so you can be assured that your involvement will result in a highly refined end product.

The elective will run in intensive mode commencing with an intensive design week (August, 27th - 31st mid semester break) where our experts will introduce to relevant theory , associated software and digital fabrication approaches. Following this week and the completion of the design, we will two full days a week through the month of September fabricating and assembling the pod. During this period you will learn the skills and techniques required to see the design through to actuality.

Where: Computer Lab 8.7.153 for intensive August week, School workshops for fabrication, Level 7 Project Space for assembly.When: August 27th -31st (digital tools) September (weekly fabrication workshops)What: Parametric software techniques and tools including Rhinoceros, Grasshopper and Digital Project. Fabrication will utilise a Kuka robot and associated software.

Who: Brady Peters (CITA, Denmark) Nick Williams (SIAL, RMIT) John Cherrey (RMIT) Jane Burry (SIAL, RMIT) Daniel Davis (SIAL, RMIT) Alex Pena de Leon (SIAL, RMIT)Credit: 12 credit point elective School of Architecture & DesignCommitment: 110 hours

enquiries: NickWilliams,SIAL nicholas.williams@rmit.edu.au

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 and mechanistic tectonics. 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 through selective reverse engineering, focusing on qualitative and performative operations and outcomes. The emphasis is on what ornament does, with a particular focus on the counter-compositional role of ornament in mediating and curating junctions and disjunctions between differentiated systems and scales of relations. Students will be encouraged to explore informing and contested dialogues between critical discourses, project based analysis and design production through seminar presentations, a series of project case-studies and a culminating critical essay/project which may investigate and propose selective design applications. Tuesday 9.30-12.30 Room 8.11.51

This elective will involve the design and fabrication of small-scale composite prototypes. The focus of the course will be on the relationship between computational design tech-niques and material behavior. In particular we will be looking at how rigid and semi-rigid materials can be combined to create composite materials. This is neither a standard com-putational design nor digital fabrication elective, instead we will be exploring the architectural implications and opportu-nities suggested by this material design approach - what are the strange architectural outcomes of this composite logic?

Digital tools such as grasshopper and rhinoScript will be introduced within the design process. The digital fabrication component will include using the CNC mill, 3D printing, and the Kuka Robot. Composite fabrication will include, casting with silicon and fibreglass composites.

The course will run from weeks 1-6 intensively, while the second half of the semester will be used to fabricate the outcomes of the intensive design period.

TUESDAY 2:30PM - 5:30PM | ROOM 10.11.24

STRANGE COMPOSITES DIGITAL FABRICATION ELECTIVE ROLAND SNOOKS

Beyond the poetry of architecture and metaphor, buildings interact with its immediate environs through a multiplicity of scientific phenomena. These are measurable and defined technical parameters that, if well understood by a designer, can be manipulated through architectural interventions to create beautiful and rational buildings. The first part of this unit examines the science of climate and the fundamental laws of physics in building design. Sustainability of the built environment is founded on science, not pop culture ideals or product endorsements. To demonstrate this, the second part of the unit traverses the globe to bring international best practice in sustainability into the classroom: investigating criterion of sustainability, defining performance and benchmarking outcomes.

tech unit elective

CLIMATE. RESPONSE. DETAIL.PERFORM-ANCE.Tai Hollingsbee Wednesday 1430-1730 in B45D

elective

Coordinator: Jane Burry + Michael WilsonTime: Thursday mornings between 9.00am-12.00pm, starting 19th JulyLocation: Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, Bld 10, Lvl 11 Room 24Reviews SIAL Presentation Space, Bld 97Location: Lvl 3 Room 5

Enrolment:

For more details, visit the SIAL website: http://www.sial.rmit.edu.au/projects or contact jane.burry@rmit.edu.au

As this is a university-wide elective open to all disciplines, undergraduate students should enrol with the course code INTE2108 and postgraduates with the code INTE2107

C d

m-12 00pm

FLEXIBLE 3D MODELINGfor design + prototyping

This course explores these and many other questions about change

and structuring design that tax designers from all

disciplines.

Course DescriptionThe aim of this course is to give students from diverse disciplines expertise inparametric modelling and in working between digital and 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 exclusive 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 and there will be weekly assessment milestones

Predator 1987 Ball-Nogues 2009 Likeness Quaranteedby David Mach 1994

The Matrix 1999 Pixels by Patrick Jean 2010 sunken monument by Ricky Swallow 1999

Inception 2010

VIVIAN MITSOGIANNI

DEMATERIALISE3

A DESIGN ELECTIVE (advanced architecture) in which we will undertake design experiments into design technique and process – focussing on form and material composition. 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 fi nd 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 is the base unit of composition of an object and what would it mean to alter this base unit in size, shape and density of composition? How is this useful for design?

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 diffi culty of the familiar and the known in process-based experimentation?

We will look to art, fi lm, science (and other disciplines) for techniques and processes that we can co-opt and use in architectural experiments- focussing on their use-value for design. 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.

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>want to explore form and material>who like reading and doing/making.>very suited to “pre-major project” students

Notes: Contemporary processes and techniques are not incompatible with ambitions and ideas in architecture BUT somewhere along the way (particularly in advanced architecture but also those dealing with “material explorations” in wider design circles) the techniques and material explorations themselves 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.

Thursdays 10:00am - 1:00pm 88.05.09STARTS IN WEEK 02** NB In week 06 (only) class will occur on Monday afternoon

A DESIGN ELECTIVE (advanced architecture).

*After Marx and Engels and Marshall Berman** After Hal Foster

ALL THAT IS SOLID MELTS INTO AIR*

Circle packing Digital Fabrication Digital Fabrication Texas: Aerial View

Unpacking the Diagram:diagramming and architectural filmmaking

Pia Ednie-Brown, Mike Hornblow

Thursdays, 9.30-12.30, building 45, room D

From Greg Lynn’s animations in the 90s through to the contemporary film experiments of MOS (Meredith and Sample), the last 20 years have seen moving images playing an increasingly important speculative and propositional role in architectural discourse.

Similarly, the diagram – as both a notation (a type of drawing) and as a philosophical idea about the relations that abstractly define things (an elusive property of experience and composition) – has developed signifi-cantly across the last 20 years of architectural discourse.

This elective will explore the potential of film as part of an architectural repertoire, and the way in which film media might be used to ‘unpack the diagram’ of ideas, buildings and other architectural acts.

Students will explore:– theories of ‘the diagram’ as a philosophical idea, critical device and generative design tool. – how diagrammatic concepts and methods may allow us to develop a transdisciplinary understanding of the creative process.– ways to analyze films and film composition techniques through dia-gramming. – relationships between films, diagrams, and buildings. – how to produce short, experimental films.

Tools will include 2D/3D design for compositional analysis of film(s), video editing and remixing, and multichannel video presentation for fur-ther spatial transposition and transformation.

A short film will be produced as part of a workshop with a series of practitioners and philosophers of the diagram (Brian Massumi, Erin Man-ning, and others) in August. Students will have the opportunity to devel-op their own ideas and design responses, through class presentations and collaboration, graphical journal / essay, and video media.

By the end of the course students will have a deeper understanding of conceptual, technical and pragmatic approaches to both diagrammatic abstraction and architectural filmmaking.

Spatiality in Contemporary Japanese Housing

Teaching /Learning Objectives

In Japan there is a somewhat different approach to the understanding/ conception of space, particularly with regard to the mapping and drawing of space. I’m interested in how we can engage, learn from and utilise these approaches and thereby employ ideas from Japan in the production of buildings.For many reasons Japanese designers often utilise/exploit usefully the entire volume of a building, how can we adapt/learn from this approach in development of the spatiality of our buildings? In exploring these ideas I would ask that students consider/develop their own strategies for spatial manipulation in their buildings via a detailed exploration of precedent work through drawing, plan, section, elevation and model making with the aim of translating these investigations into their design proposals in studio.

I would like students to gain exposure to some of the lesser-known Japanese architects. We will also look at typical mass/bulk builder apartments, work that is generally done more inventively in Japan than in Australia with the aim of gaining an insight into space planning/utilisation in more generic building types.

We will be dealing with basic conceptual ideas regarding planning and spatial manipulation the elective will aim to emphasize the development of skills relevant to design decision making and representation/communication.

Tutor: Sean McMahonTime: Thursdays 9:30am - 12:30pm in 8.12.38

INTERNATIONAL PRACTICE� Architectural Design Elective Semester : 2, 2012 Tutor : Bruce Allen Locat ion: 8.11.51 T ime: Thursday, 6:30 – 9:30pm

International Practice is a seminar elective for 12 -15 students and is part of the Professional Practice program. The course consists of introductory sessions by Bruce Allen followed by student presentations of papers. On three occasions during the semester a guest is invited to join the class for dinner at a budget restaurant. Course Object ives

The objective of the course is to provide students with an understanding of globalization and issues of International Practice. The seminars provide an opportunity for students to share their knowledge and experience. The issues covered include but are not limited to cultural identity, cross cultural management, ethics, politics, design transfer and regionalism. Assessment

1. Presentation of a seminar paper covering a theoretical topic related to international design. (40 marks)

2. Presentation paper presenting a critical case study of a building designed in the student’s home country by a foreign architect. (35 marks)

3. A short essay summarizing the presentations. (15 marks)

4. Semester journal of ideas. (10 marks)

COURSE: Bac 1/2/3 Intensive ElectiveTIME: Saturdays 22&29/09, 06&13/10, 9-17h FORMAT: Intensive WorkshopsPLACE: 8.12.36 / 8.12.38 TUTOR: Petra Pferdmenges (info below)

In SUB:URBAN DIARIES you’ll apply a de-sign method that combines ACTING and MAPPING in order to TEST eventual long term interventions. In small groups you design and realize an URBAN ACTION in a suburban open space. RECORDINGS of the action & reactions will nourish the ma-king of your DIARY. The approach is a way of PLACE MAKING through QUICK & SIMPLE means and allows you to learn from its IMPACT. Through reflective ANNOTATIONS (drawings, interviews,...) you’ll mea-sure and communicate SUCCESS and / or FAILURE of the temporary intervention. Outcome of the elective is a SHORT MOVIE.

For examples please check: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1dVOnbN-8Ihttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jffnMSktEjchttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT_i0qlliEA

TUTOR: Petra Pferdmenges is an architect running the research-based practice Alive Architecture (www.alivearchitecture.eu). The multidisciplinary platform reclaims the public role of designers by making social challenges explicit through unsolicited projects. Since 2010 the tactical design approach is developed further through a PhD (project research @ RMIT Melbourne & Sint-Lucas Architectuur). Petra Pferdmenges teaches design & theory at Sint-Lucas Architectuur & at the ULG in Belgium. Previously she worked for five years in renowned architecture offices throughout Europe (Edouard Francois in Paris, Josep Llinas in Barcelona, Architecten Cie in Amsterdam and ARJM in Brussels) after having completed the International Master in Architecture at the TU Delft, Netherlands.

COURSE DESCRIPTION //

City infrastructures can now rely on a wealth of new information and technologies, enabling them to sense and respond intelligently to the needs of their growing populations.

This intensive Spring elective is an opportunity to work in multidisciplinary groups with students based in Melbourne and Ho Chi Minh to address complex environmental challenges in these two very different cities.

Students from Computer Science, Media and Communication, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture, together with RMIT Vietnam, will work together to gather real world data and information, fi nd rapid ways to analyse it, compelling ways to represent it and use the insights to make design proposals in two contrasting contexts.

This course is within the IBM Smarter Planet/Smarter Cities objectives.

DATES //

SPRING SEMESTER 2012 THREE WEEK INTENSIVE 3-21 December

Format: Two half-day seminars with follow up individual and group work, one-week intensive workshop based in Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, followed by classes in Melbourne. Seminars and classes will be held in Building 97, SIAL Presentation space.

Introductory seminar: Wednesday 29th August, 2pm - 4 pm

Follow up seminar: Thursday 11th October, 2pm - 4 pm

One week in Vietnam: 1st - 9th December, followed by 2 weeks in Melbourne.

Note: Students will fund their own return travel to Ho Chi Minh from Melbourne.

HOW TO ENROL //

As numbers in each discipline and institution are strictly limited, you will be asked to submit an Expression of Interest.

Computer Science Programming Project 3:COSC1268 (undergraduates)COSC1476 (postgraduates) COSC2223 (Vietnam students)

Master of Architecture elective: ARCH1338, ARCH1339, ARCH1340

Landscape Architecture Design Research Seminar: ARCH1359, ARCH1360, ARCH1362, ARCH1366

Media and Communication elective: GRAP2257, GRAP2256

Contacts: fl ora.salim@rmit.edu.au / jane.burry@rmit.edu.au (Architecture and Design) / margaret.hamilton@rmit.edu.au (Computing Science) / jeremy.yuille@rmit.edu.au (Media and Communication)

MELBOURNEMELBOURNE ++ HO CHI MINHHO CHI MINH

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

APPLY VIA ONLINE EXPRESSION OF INTEREST:

http://www.rmit.edu.au/architecturedesign/twocities

EOI MUST BE SUBMITTED ONLINE BY COB FRIDAY, 13 JULY 2012.