RMIT ARCHITECTURE ELECTIVE OFFERINGS – SEMESTER 1, 2015 Radical Strategies Leanne Zilka Compound Cities Simon Whibley Material Jan Van Schaik 100YC world Wide Workshop Jose Alfano, Brent Allpress, Tom Kovac, Michael Mei Lets start a family Peter Knight Practice Research Placement Emma Jackson Making John Cherrey Putting Pieces Together John Cherrey Incubator Gwyllim Jahn Strange Composites Roland Snooks Extra Ben Ackerman and Vanessa Mooney Truss Exercises John Doyle Waterfronts Danielle Peck and Helen Walter Research Assistant Positions Intricate Assemblies Nicholas Williams – please contact tutor directly – this is not a ballot option Exhibition Assistants John Doyle – please contact tutors directly – this is not a ballot option  

In Italo Calvino’s novel, Invisible Cities, Marco Polo describes the cities of his experience to Kubla Kahn

Proceeding eighty miles into the northwest wind, you reach the city of Euphemia. where the merchants of seven nations gather at every solstice and equinox.

Now I will tell how Octavia, the spider-web city, is made. There is a precipice between two steep mountains: the city is over the void, bound to the two crests with ropes and chains and catwalks.

This is not true of Zoe. In every point of this city you can, in turn, sleep, make tools, cook, accumulate gold, disrobe, reign, sell, question oracles.

What is later revealed is that Polo is not in fact describing different cities, but the same city, Venice, over and over again, from different points of view, through different lenses.

Our contemporary cities are the most complex of human creations, their physical realities dependent on forces that are both concrete and abstract, operating locally or from across the other side of the world. This is seen, acutely, in the cities of our region - those cities still in formation - shaped by economics, ecology, infrastructure, trade, immigration and cultural specifi cities as much as they are by the activities of planning and design.

Compound Cities is an elective in urban exploration, of cities within the asia/pacifi c region that will develop skills in urban analysis, research and architectural representation. The work undertaken in this elective will form part of the Compound Cities Exhibition to be held later this year.

The elective will be undertaken in three parts. Each part will be focussed around an event, with a break in weeks 6-8.

Part 1 - Explorations (week 1-5)Weekly Research exercises culminating in weekend drawing workshop with RMIT staff and local invited critics.

How might a city be understood through the relationships of its defi ning components? How might other cities assist in exploring such particularities? How might other urban representations, such as fi lm, or art, or literature provide insights into what a compound city is?

Part 2 - Speculations Weeks (Weeks 9-12, symposium day week 16)Weekly Research exercises culminating in symposium with RMIT staff and international invited critics.

What happens to a city when these components shift, or new ones are introduced? Do territories appear or vanish? How can the urban character of a city be adapted to these new compounds?

Some themes explored will be:the twin city and the sister city / the constructed and ecological city / the digital and visible city / cities of locality and logistics / cities of immigration and borders / city of layers / the personal and infrastructural city /

MArch BArch Electivethu 10:30-1:30 design hub, level 5

Simon Whibley andguests

Compound Cities

material, semester 1 2015

A single brick is mundane, but hundreds and thousands of them stacked together are a deeply moving and fascinating phenomenon. What are the materials that buildings are made from? How do architects decide which ones to use? Where do they come from? How do they go together? How long do they last? How are they priced? Each material has its own constraints and qualities defining how they react to the environments we place them in, how long they last and what their ecological

footprint is. Each has its very own look, touch, feel, smell and temperature. Some can only be ordered in large quantities from large outlets and some are only available through bespoke fabricators. Navigating all these variables is daunting. This subject will teach you what to look for, where to look. It will outline the pitfalls and arm you with the skills necessary to communicate with suppliers and

contractors, to articulate your choices to your clients and to expand your knowledge to empower you to create compelling architectural languages.

Alvaar Aalto’s Kulttuuritalo Helsinki, 1955 - 58

materialthe stuff that architecture is made from

when: thursdays 9:30 > 12:30

where: design hub, level 6

ContaCt: jan.vansChaik@rMit.edu.au

RMIT University has instigated an

elective subject in the Masters

Course which enables students to

be placed within a practice for 12

weeks.

During that placement the student

is exposed to various roles within

the participating practice which

creates R+D projects for the stu-

dents to work on - these may take

the form of competitions, inde-

pendently derived speculative pro-

jects or possibly primary research

within a particular field defined

by the office.

The project is an opportunity to

interact with an office and a pro-

ject team, and develop skills

in data gathering, analysis and

visual communication.

Briefing session Monday 3rd March

3,30pm Design Hub Pavillion 1 L10

participating practices:

NH Architecture ARM lyonsantarctica Minifi e van Schaik index

reflections on

MAKING

Lecturer : John CherreyLocation Level 7 workshop - 8.07.79 Times Thursday 9.30 - 12.30 &2 x intensive MAKING weekend workshops - dates TBAElective is suited to both Bachelors and Masters level studentsAssessment: folio of works & succinct journal

Architecture is all about MAKING in one form or another.Architecture is all about MAKING in one form or another.

In this elective you will explore one area of making in archiIn this elective you will explore one area of making in archi-tecture, the MAKING of physical objects. You will consider tecture, the MAKING of physical objects. You will consider ideas about making including conception, design, scale, ideas about making including conception, design, scale, precision, tolerance, materials and process. precision, tolerance, materials and process.

MAKING is a complex task and at its best it requires a synMAKING is a complex task and at its best it requires a syn-thesis of many things. To be excel in MAKING, reflection thesis of many things. To be excel in MAKING, reflection both during and after creation is essential; reflection will both during and after creation is essential; reflection will form a key part of the work you produce. form a key part of the work you produce.

The work produced will range in scale from very small obThe work produced will range in scale from very small ob-jects, to models and larger scale furniture scale designs. jects, to models and larger scale furniture scale designs. This is a workshop based elective. We will make use of This is a workshop based elective. We will make use of much of the remarkable array of equipment to be found much of the remarkable array of equipment to be found within the school. At the completion of the elective you will within the school. At the completion of the elective you will have broadened your skill base substantially both is have broadened your skill base substantially both is making by hand and with analogue and digital equipment. making by hand and with analogue and digital equipment. You will have sharpened your sense of materials by resolvYou will have sharpened your sense of materials by resolv-ing a range of task given to you. And lastly you will have ing a range of task given to you. And lastly you will have developed a far more sophisticated approach to questions developed a far more sophisticated approach to questions and process of MAKING.and process of MAKING.

putting the pieces together

masters elective

Thursdays 1.30 -4.30SAB 080.08.009Lecturer - John Cherreyjohn.cherrey@rmit.edu.au

In this course, you will explore the world of architectural detailing.If you want to understand how buildings are designed and constructedclose up, then this in the elective for you. The approach is hands-on.Following an intoduction where we examine the principles of detailing, you will be commence the first of three assignments. For each assignmentyou will be given a set of architectural drawings and asked to complete a a selection of the missing details. The work you detail will be form award winning practices, both local and international. the class will be like working working in an office; you produce the work and then it will be marked-up for correction and improvement. During the class, you will be given the technical know-how to assist you in working through yourset of detail problems.

INCUBATORˈɪŋkjʊbeɪtə/noun

Thursdays, 9:30-12:30Design Hub (100.6.002-1)Gwyllim Jahn

an enclosed apparatus in which premature or unusually small babies are placed and which provides a controlled and protective environment for their care.

a place, especially with support staff and equipment, made available at low rent to new small businesses.

The elective provides a working laboratory for students to develop fundamental programming skills and electronic hardware prototypes capable of augmenting, manipulat-ing, constructing or subverting their surrounding environ-ment. A recent swathe of simple, accessible, cheap, networked microcontrollers (see the ‘flutter’ board, punchThrough’s ‘lightBlue Bean’, Espruino Pico, Intel Edison etc) provides the opportunity to embed intelligence in wearable devices whilst allowing those devices to communicate with laptops, phones, and one another. What opportunities does this provide architects to better understand and provoke changes in human habits, natural environments, building function or urban phenom-ena? What are the creative possibilities afforded to us through the design of hardware as well as software behaviours and systems? The elective will depart from the traditionally ‘slow’ medium of Architecture in favour of a model of “architectural product design”

The elective operates as an incubator (2.) with students working in small teams to develop their concepts and conduct device research, feasibility studies, soft and hard prototypes, scenario and use analysis and branding design. In considering the application of our designs to particular sites or ‘habitats’, we are incubating (1.) the birth of simple robotic organisms, exploring how architectural ideas can be translated to behavioural responses, communication protocol and hardware designs.

1.

2.

Weeks 1-4: Hardware introduction _ device brainstorm-ing/research _ introduction to programming in Processing and Arduino

The elective will begin by introducing students to the Processing programming environment in the form of weekly in-class workshops. These workshops will cover funda-mental programming concepts and provide the grounding for understanding and implementing extensive arduino code libraries in projects. Students will be provided with electronics equipment from week 1 in order to dive in to the development of hardware prototypes.

Weeks 4-10: Bodies _ Habitats _ Behaviours

Teams will develop hardware devices capable of wirelessly sensing their environment. The elective will provide support in the form of workshops for the design and development of 3d printed ‘bodies’ for these devices. Students will work on scenario and branding design of the devices, and speculate on possible rule-based behaviours.

Weeks 10-12: Scenarios _ Identity

Teams will document the performance of devices within selected habitats and scenarios.

What you will learn:

Fundamental programming and scripting skills Computational principles of emergence, behavioural and algorithmic designApplied design skills in the design and rapid prototyp-ing of 3d printed objects/hardwareFundamental skills to construct simple, functional electronic devicesSpeculative and creative computational design approaches

Note: No programming or electronics knowledge is required, though students should be familiar with 3d modelling in rhino or maya and willing to work closely in teams.

or, Fast Design of Slow Robotics: How to Design Habitats for Single Sense Robotic Organisms

This elective will involve the design and robotic fabrica-tion of small-scale composite prototypes. The focus of the course will be on the relationship between computational design techniques and material behavior. In particular we will be looking at how rigid and semi-rigid materials can be combined to create composite materials and how compos-ite components join. We will be exploring the architectural implications and opportunities suggested by this material design approach - what are the strange architectural out-comes of this composite logic?

In the elective we will use the Kuka robots in addition to other CNC and digital fabrication tools. The prototypes will be constructed from materials including vacuum formed plastic, carbon fibre, fibreglass, silicon, and extruded plastic.

FRIDAY 11:30AM - 2:30PM | 100.06.002-1

STRANGE COMPOSITES ROBOTIC FABRICATION ELECTIVE

ROLAND SNOOKS

NORTH

NORTH

1951

1971

1996

2013

2050Y

2050Z

1888

1928An inquiry in to planning and urban design methods and conventions that are to be revealed through various readings in to Melbourne’s Strategic Planning history.

Continuing an analysis of Melbourne’s Urban Growth, students will collate data in order to put forth an argument for a particular approach towards the accommodation of an expected population growth of 3.5m people over the next 35 years.

Students will then seek to describe a set of metropolitan gestures that will act as catalytic moments that activate urban amenity and facility.

What is the future shape of Melbourne?

Open to bachelors & masters.

Vanessa Mooney | Ben Akerman

Friday 9:30am-12:30pm

Room 45.1.5

Nirvana fallacy The nirvana fallacy is a name given to the informal fallacy of comparing actual things with unrealistic, idealized alternatives.

It can also refer to the tendency to assume that there is a perfect solution to a particular problem. A closely related concept is the perfect solution fallacy.

Xtra! #3

truss exercises

This elective will examine the truss structural system in the context of small to medium scale architecture, focusing primarily on the use of timber or timber-steel composite structures in design. In domestic construction it is one of the core building elements that is consistently pre-fabricated.

The elective will challenge students to better understand the structural and morphological principles of the truss, looking at non-standard and asymmetrical truss structures, and the truss as an inhabitable structure. We will work both through physical modelling, and digital modelling and begin to engage with digital analytical tools such as Karamba, through the Grasshopper platform.

These exercises will be tested through a 6 week intensive design exercise for a 5x5m pavilion for the Sydney Sculptures by the Sea Festival. Students will be working in teams to produce a design that is both tests the limits of the material systems explored, and that is realisable using domestic construction methods. Subject to financing, one of the designs will be built and exhibited at the festival and there will be opportunities for students to follow the design through documentation and delivery.

This elective requires strong computer skills in Rhino and grasshopper, a familiarity with timber frame construction, and an appetite for risk. The work load may vary depending on whether the build is funded, so please don’t apply unless you’re prepared to commit. If you have any questions please contact me on john.doyle@rmit.edu.au

6 WEEK INTENSIVE (6 hourS pEr WEEK) WEEK 5 - WEEK 11. FIrST CLASS MoNDAY 30/3 12:30 8.11.47.

W A T E R F R O N T S

Students will work with a selection of case study waterfronts from Australia and around the world in the aim to analysis and discuss ‘what makes a good waterfront’? As industry continues to vacate centrally located water’s edges, and working waterfronts are made redundant, how can we meaningfully re-engage these areas beyond just tourism and housing? Students will produce a series of architectural analyses and use the catalogue of their fi ndings to refl ect on the Australian condition, specifi cally Melbourne’s waterfronts.

WHY ARE THEY OFTEN SO AWFUL? WHAT ARE THE WORLD’S BEST WATERFRONTS? HOW CAN WE LEARN FROM THESE?

RMIT Elective : Wednesday 6:00pm with Helen Walter + Danielle Peck

I N T R I C A T E A S S E M B L I E S : DIGITAL DESIGN & ROBOTIC FABRICATION FOR TIMBER

Intricate Assemblies is design/make research at the intersection of digital design and robotic fabrication techniques. It engages two research projects exploring potentials for timber construction througha combination of advanced technologies and traditions of material craft.

Four students are sought to support these two research projects. You will have an opportunity to learn and apply parametric modelling, python scripting, robotics and CNC machine programming, all while getting hands-on experience with material. Students with either strong digital skills or strong experience in making are preferred. The results of each project will be exhibited and published.

This is a research elective in which you will work closely with RMIT researchers and key industry partners on funded research projects.Project 1: SuperCLT, designing and prototyping custom massive timber components for large scale timber construction. Partnered with Supermanoeuvre architects, Bonacci Group, and Forest and Wood Products Australia.Project 2: LaminateTorque, designing and fabricating custom freeform laminate components with robotics. Partnered with Deutsche Schule Melbourne and RMIT Design Research Institute.Research coordinator: Nicholas WilliamsPlease email if interested: nicholas.williams@rmit.edu.auRegular contact time: Thursdays 10am - 4pm, RMIT Design Hub.

GRADUATE EXHIBITION ASSISTANTS REQUIREDThe Architecture Program requires 5 enthusiastic assistants to help with the organisation of the Semester 1 2015 Major Project Exhibition. You will work closely with the Exhibition Coordinator (John Doyle) in the design and curation of the show, graphic design of posters and PR materi-als, as well as the organisation of sponsorship, live music and DJs, catering and all of the other things that go to make a succesful event.

The majority of the work will be in the second half of semester, when we will meet weekly as a group to discuss preparations. There will be a crunch period in the week prior to the event, however you will be given VIP access the pre-opening cocktail party on the night.

The team is limited to 5 people only. You will receive credit towards an elective for your time. This is not availabe through electives balloting. If you are interested please contact Exhibition Co-ordinator John Doyle directly - john.doyle@rmit.edu.au