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ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE BEIJING 2010 EXHIBITION
RMIT Architecture: Advanced Technologies and Emergent Practices
RMIT Architecture Curators:
Brent Allpress, RMIT Architecture Research Director &
Gretchen Wilkins, RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer
in
Students Exhibition
ABB Co-Curators: Neil Leach and Xu Wei-Guo
Machinic Processes: Architecture Biennale Beijing ABB 2010
Venue: 798 Space, Beijing
Dates: 15 October – 31 October 2010

INVITED SCHOOLS

RMIT Architecture, Australia
Bartlett, UK
AA, UK
Yale University, USA
University of Pennsylvania, USA
Rice University, USA
Princeton University, USA
Pratt Institute, USA
MIT, USA
Harvard GSD, USA
Columbia GSAPP, USA
USC, USA
UCLA, USA
SCI-Arc, USA
Paris Malaquais, France
IAAC, Spain
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
DIA, Germany
CITA, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark
Berlage Institute, Netherlands
Hyperbody TU Delft, Netherlands
die Angewandte, Austria
Tokyo University, Japan
University of HUNAN, China
University of Hong Kong, China
SCUT, China
Tsinghua University, China

RMIT Architecture
School of Architecture & Design
RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES & EMERGENT PRACTICES

The ‘Machinic Processes’ theme of this exhibition aligns with the Advanced Technologies stream at RMIT, one of three key areas of research-led scholarship enquiry within the architecture professional degree program: the Advanced Technologies stream engages with the application of advanced digital design, communication and fabrication technologies and techniques, and emergent design processes and practices; the Urban Environments stream is concerned with architectural design situated in relation to precedent, type, context, infrastructure and the urban scale; and the Expanded Field stream involves the transfer and application of interdisciplinary practices, collaborative and participatory models and responses to diverse modes of cultural production; This tri-polar pedagogical model sustains three contested areas of enquiry and research to foster a productively dynamic scholarship environment.

Teaching in the professional degree is curated through the commissioning of design studios and electives aligned with one or more of these poles, allowing students to engage with or specialise in any of these areas of study. Pathways are provided to postgraduate supervision of design research by project within the RMIT Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL), a trans-disciplinary research facility focusing on the role of digital design technologies that is supported by the RMIT Design Research Institute.

The student projects in this exhibition are drawn from design studios developed by RMIT Architecture academics and SIAL researchers within the Advanced Technologies stream. Collectively these works trial a range of approaches and positions on the role of emerging technologies in architectural research and production, united by an ambition to situate the work within broader disciplinary or cultural concerns. These projects engage with biological systems, external forces such as gravity or climate, complex computational processes, compositional procedures, material systems and fabrication techniques. The work speculates about new intersections of practice across these territories through a project-based design research approach. This is enabled by the non-standard pedagogical framework of the Advanced Technologies stream, situated in relation to other core architectural scholarship concerns.

RMIT Architecture Curators:
Brent Allpress, RMIT Architecture Research Director &
Gretchen Wilkins, RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer

RMIT Architecture exhibited projects include:

X-TREMES

Studio Leaders:
Tom Kovac, Professor, RMIT Architecture & SCI-Arc Visiting Faculty
Farzin Lofti-Jam, Studio Tutor, RMIT Architecture/SCI-Arc

Design Studio, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional) &
Design Studio, SCI-Arc Master of Architecture (Professional)

The x-tremes international traveling studios, previously run between RMIT and Studio Prix, die Angewandte, are currently being held with SCI-Arc, examining adaptable and responsive structures and systems that react to extreme external dynamic forces impacting on zero-gravity space station environments. Students are employing evolutionary structural optimisation software, Surface Evolver and the Evolversaurus plug-in for Rhino developed at RMIT and exploring diverse scripting practices. Will Hosikian’s thesis project Tropism, supervised within this studio framework, investigated compound zero gravity manifold environments. Multi layered systems of adaptive symmetry were developed while subjecting generative structures to external stimuli such as solar radiation, direct light and local magnetic field deformations. Tropistic behavioral qualities and compositionally differentiated manifold environments emerged through mediating external and internal requirements.

RMIT Architecture student:
Will Hosikian, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional)

1.1 x-tremes: Tropism, Will Hosikian, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Tom Kovac

1.2 x-tremes: Tropism, Will Hosikian, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Tom Kovac

1.3 x-tremes: Tropism, Will Hosikian, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Tom Kovac

1.4 x-tremes: Tropism, Will Hosikian, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Tom Kovac

STRANGE PROCEDURES

Design Thesis Project, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional)

Supervisor:
Paul Minifie, Associate Professor, RMIT Architecture

The Advanced Architecture pole at RMIT looks forward, extrapolating nascent issues through speculative techniques, propositions and expressions. Complex systems and their architectural analogues have been driving recent projects for Melbourne. Scripting procedures embedded within a set of compositional practices enable expressive outcomes. Jessica In’s thesis project looks Beyond the Dreams of Avarice and unpacks our new nature, seeing the instabilities, singularities and catastrophes of our financial system as material for architectural thought. Jen Wood's thesis project Unhinged Conditions proposes a Centre for Climate Research that conjures invisible forces into an almost surreal urban enclave. She recognises that the city is not just about its buildings, but how it is activated by patterns of temporal appropriation.

RMIT Architecture students:
Jessica In, Jen Wood, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional)

2.1 Strange Procedures: Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, Jessica In, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Paul Minifie

2.2 Strange Procedures: Beyond the Dreams of Avarice, Jessica In, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Paul Minifie

2.3 Strange Procedures: Unhinged Conditions, Jen Wood, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Paul Minifie

2.4 Strange Procedures: Unhinged Conditions, Jen Wood, Design Thesis, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Supervisor: Paul Minifie

FAB-PAK

Design Studio, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional)

Studio Leaders:
Gretchen Wilkins, Senior Lecturer, RMIT Architecture
Leanne Zilka, Lecturer, RMIT Architecture
John Cherrey, Lecturer, RMIT Architecture

Fab-Pak seeks to produce a series of full scale flat-packable structures by coupling reclaimed laminate sheet material and advanced digital fabrication techniques. Designed as urban installations for both London and Melbourne, the work explores systems of digital unfolding and physical re-folding, while keeping within the constraints of international shipping logistics such as weight-to-volume efficiencies and time-to-cost ratios. The projects also explored the relationship between localised material harvesting and remote manufacturing, proposing work that might proliferate across international networks and collaborative labor. Two projects demonstrate a series of new structural and architectural possibilities of reclaimed laminate sheets, an expandable urban bench and an urban wall of interlocking wave units.

RMIT Architecture students:
Mak Alex, Nik Kellina Bakti, Jonathan Barzel, Maximilien Forget, Timothy Heron, Ashini Erangi Kulatunge, Bronwyn Litera, Mathilde Lucas, Xiaozhou Qin, Oscar Sainsbury, Shann Ching Lee Yi Ting, Pei Yong, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional)

4.1 Fab-Pak: Slice Form, Jonathan Barzel, Maximilien Forget, Ashini Erangi Kulatunge, Bronwyn Litera, Mathilde Lucas, Design Studio, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Studio Leaders: Gretchen Wilkins, Leanne Zilka, John Cherrey.

4.2 Fab-Pak: Slice Form, Jonathan Barzel, Maximilien Forget, Ashini Erangi Kulatunge, Bronwyn Litera, Mathilde Lucas, Design Studio, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Studio Leaders: Gretchen Wilkins, Leanne Zilka, John Cherrey.

4.3 Fab-Pak: Slice Form, Jonathan Barzel, Maximilien Forget, Ashini Erangi Kulatunge, Bronwyn Litera, Mathilde Lucas, Design Studio, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Studio Leaders: Gretchen Wilkins, Leanne Zilka, John Cherrey.

4.4 Fab-Pak: Slice Form, Jonathan Barzel, Maximilien Forget, Ashini Erangi Kulatunge, Bronwyn Litera, Mathilde Lucas, Design Studio, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Studio Leaders: Gretchen Wilkins, Leanne Zilka, John Cherrey.

4.5 Fab-Pak: Wavewall, Mak Alex, Nik Kellina Bakti, Timothy Heron, Xiaozhou Qin, Oscar Sainsbury, Lee Yi Ting, Shann Ching Pei Yong, Design Studio, RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional). Studio Leaders: Gretchen Wilkins, Leanne Zilka, John Cherrey.

ALESSI

Design Workshop
Hosted by die Angewandte, Institut für Architektur, Vienna
with participating RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional) students

Workshop leaders:
Tom Kovac, RMIT Architecture
Reiner Zettl, die Angewandte

The Alessi MUTANTS program was a 4-week intensive postgraduate course in emergent digital directions within object and architectural design. The course aims at investigating and exploring the systems, processes, and techniques of Alessi design in the context of studio, research, and practice. The purpose is to develop scaleable geometries that will assist in the development of objects and architectural forms. The students explored design mutations with a single project, probing materials and production techniques of Alessi design. The workshop and the accompaning seminars will focus on the challenges of developing and expanding the domain of Alessi object design in the context of emerging technologies in the design and production of objects and architecture. The final review of student projects was located at the Alessi Headquarters in Omegna, Italy taking advantage of the location and presence of Alberto Alessi, Gloria Barcellini and Alessi Projects Engineer Danilo Alliata. Students will also have an unprecedented opportunity to tour the Alessi dream factory and the Alessi Museum. Professor Tom Kovac was invited to exhibit the outcomes of this workshop in the Austrian pavilion at the Venive Architecture Biennale in 2010.

RMIT Architecture students:
Sarah Lo Bianco, Mercedes Mambort, Elke Howard, Thong Huynh, N'ndrew Ng, Neo Hun Lin, James Loder, Will Hosikian, Vonne Yang, Shuyen Phoon

5.1 Alessi: Design Workshop, at die Angewandte, Institut für Architektur, Vienna with RMIT Master of Architecture (Professional) students. Workshop Leaders: Tom Kovac, RMIT Architecture; Reiner Zettl, die Angewandte

ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE BEIJING 2010 EXHIBITION AND FORUM
Architects Exhibition
ABB Co-Curators: Neil Leach and Xu Wei-Guo
Machinic Processes: Architecture Biennale Beijing ABB 2010
Venue: 798 Space, Beijing
Dates: 15 October – 31 October 2010

Exhibiting Practices include:

Australia: Minifie Nixon Architects MNA; Kokkugia; Supermanoeuvre; LAVA; BKK; UFO
UK: Biothing; Robofold; Probotics; Freeform; AKT; Space symmetry
USA East Coast: Ruy Klein; SU11; Rhett Russo; Neri Oxman; Gage_Clemenceau_Architects; Terreform One
USA West Coast: Urbana; Oyler Wu Collaborative; Atelier Manferdini; Morphosis; Casey Reas; Emergent
Europe: Wertel Oberfell; Automake; Sjors Bergmans; FOC; Studio Geenen; D-shape
Asia: Iwamoto Scott; Noiz Architects; Mass Studies; ISSHO; Architectkidd; Akihisa Hirata
Latin America: SPAN; PATTERNS; FPmod; Emmanuel Ruffo; Xefirotarch; Pablo Herrer
International: R&Sei(n); S.T.(R)ampancy; der_MecaW; (SHE)Bamboo; (DE)PollutedC; (t)Hash_Tray; underSE(a)CRE(a)TION

Project: Life Caught Unaware
Minifie Nixon Architects MNA, Melbourne, Australia
Practice Directors:
Paul Minifie, RMIT Architecture Associate Professor
Johan van Schaik, RMIT Architecture Lecturer

Many of our projects have been relational projects. They have investigated the reification of abstract entities or relationships into architectural matter through machinic processes. Streaming Houses differs in readmitting the contingent dross of the world as material for transformation. If a relational project can engage a viewer, it is through correspondence between her experience of how things work in the world. It is an empathic relationship between the becoming of the architectural object, and the becoming of the viewer. A tree and its movement, my phone's signal failure, the collapse of a stock-market, the dancer's fouette produce patterns for a viewer's understanding of constructive relations.

related links » beijing biennales

RMIT Architecture Curators:
Brent Allpress, RMIT Architecture Research Director
Gretchen Wilkins, RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer