FORMFIELD 4 2112Ai

Master of Architecture Design Studio 2012

STUDIO LEADER: VIVIAN MITSOGIANNI

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Tags BioFormfieldMasters Design StudioSpeculative Campus ProjectVivian Mitsogianni

This studio was a part of the 2112Ai Project, the work was exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2012 in the Australian Pavilion and the Slovenian Pavilion in exhibitions curated by Professor Tom Kovac and Fleur Watson.

The studio speculated on future university learning environments in light of the changing nature of contemporary education affected by new digital technologies, demographic changes and changes in pedagogy. It used as its base point of departure the increased importance of social spaces on campus and anywhere/anytime learning and sought models that amplify and increase opportunities for social interaction – while simultaneously allowing for discreet learning spaces. We took as our base point of departure research that points to scenarios that might see the dispersal of the university through the city or alternatively the congregation of the city back into the university. We considered the implications of globally networked institutions and learning environments on physical space and speculated about how the university might be made porous and have a renewed and charged civic function in a city.

The studio was also a laboratory for technique and process-based experiments that focussed on using systems, devices and networks from disciplines external to architecture, to consider how the behaviour of these can be co-opted to inform and re-examine core architectural relationships. Process-based experiments were developed and tested through a series of iterations. The studio favoured and considered the generative potential of “uncertain conditions” and where multiple often contradictory conditions are embedded within each other. It also investigated mis-appropriating and amplifying the potential of existing typologies that have strong social or gathering functions for use in the process experiments.

In relation to the future we asked “when was the future?” because many of our ideas of “future” were established, aestheticized and frozen in a different time – mid 20th century in the case of some highly influential sci-fi examples. The studio asked in the absence of any pre-emptive knowledge how is it useful for architecture to think about the future and considered William Gibson’s line that “the future is already here it’s just not evenly distributed”.