DRI Future Fabric of Cities Flagship 2012

VIVIAN MITSOGIANNI

FOUNDING DRI FUTURE FABRIC OF CITIES FLAGSHIP RESEARCH LEADER (2009-2013)

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Tags BioDRI Future Fabric of Cities FlagshipVivian Mitsogianni

Vivian Mitsogianni was the founding research leader for the Future Fabric of Cities Flagship program in the RMIT Design Research Institute (2009-2013), one of three Flagship research program in the DRI.

This document captures a snapshot of the DRI Future Fabric of Cities (FFC) research in 2012.  Our mission in 2012 was to support activities and projects that would build research concentration in areas of established strengths and develop the projects in order to contribute to the major Flagship exhibition and 5-year DRI review which occurred in 2013.

The projects in the Future Fabric of Cities Flagship explore innovative propositions around the questions that arise in the future design of cities.  These questions are approached from a range of perspective and scales, both physical and virtual, but share a concern for venturous project-based research and research through design.  The research in the Flagship is concentrated in four main areas: Emerging Environments, Design Process and Modes of Exploration, and Advanced technologies and the Urban Realm.

The research in the DRI FFC is transdisciplinary with strong links to industry as well as strong local and international connections and collaborators.  DRI FFC researchers this year collaborated with researchers from; Aalto University Helsinki, ESTAB Barcelona, The Bartlett UCL, UK, TU Berlin, QUT Brisbane, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen, TU Delft, Netherlands, Harvard GSD, University of Melbourne, Monash University, Concordia University Montreal, University of Montreal, Princeton University, UTS Sydney, Texas A&M, Politecnico di Torino, ENSA Toulouse, University of Waterloo, Canada.

2012 saw the RMIT opening of the Design Hub which has provided a home for the activities of the DRI as well as the opening of the RMIT Swanston Academic Building designed by Lyons architects.  The DRI FFC Work/Learn Laboratory along with the RMIT School of Architecture + Design hosted a public lecture by Carey Lyon (an RMIT Adjunct Professor) to make public the innovations in learning environments in that building. The lecture was introduced by DRI FFC researcher Professor Leon van Schaik AO who had a key exhibition titled “Procuring Innovative Architecture”, which focussed on innovation in architecture and its basis in spatial intelligence and included a number of case studies including RMIT’s procurement of architecture.