mapIInvestIgatIve DesIgnIng as an approach to archItectural creatIvIty
EditEd by stanislav Roudavski
mElbouRnE school of
dEsign
univERsity of mElbouRnE
Map I 2010
Melbo
urne scho
ol o
f desIgn
un
IversIty of M
elbourn
e
Contents
EDITORIAL 7
INTRODUCTION 13
gENERATIvE ObjECTs 21
MATERIAL DIAgRAMs 41
bIOLOgICAL gROwTh 69
CREATIvE pROvOCATIONs 79
pARAMETRIC DIAgRAMs 97
sCRIpTINg & MAkINg 109
MAkINg fOR shOw 139
MAkINg AT fULL sCALE 163Lawrence Clifford and Adam
Markowitz, Digital Design Applica-
tions elective, 2010, led by jules
Moloney. photo by stanislav Rou-
davski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.03
ConCept, DireCtion, Design anD eDiting
stanislav roudavski
Design & Layout
Josh Fitzgerald, Chris gilbert
Content Curation anD graphiC Design
gwyllim Jahn
Content Curation
edward Blanch, Jonathan Brener, phuong Le
Cover artwork
Design and photo by stanislav roudavski. project by
Jonathon Long
CoorDination
Michele Burder
Copy eDiting
Louisa ragas
printing
adams print, 58 Leather street, Breakwater viC 3220
issn: 1839-5724
inteLLeCtuaL property
Copyright of this publication belongs to the Faculty of ar-
chitecture, Building and planning, university of Melbourne
and the respective authors of the included content. we
welcome reproduction and reuse but request that you
fully acknowledge the relevant authorship and inform
us about your usage of the materials in this publication.
DisCLaiMer
the university of Melbourne has used its best endeavours
to ensure that the material contained in this publication
was correct at the time of printing. the university gives no
warranty and accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or
completeness of information and the university reserves
the right to make changes without notice at any time in
its absolute discretion.
puBLisheD By
Melbourne school of Design, Faculty of architecture, Building and
planning, the university of Melbourne, viC 3010, australia; www.
msd.unimelb.edu.au
ContriButors
eugene Cheah, Colony Collective, steve hatzellis, Justyna ka-
rakiewicz, tom kvan, Janet Mcgaw, Jules Moloney, stanislav
roudavski, alex selenitsch
proJeCt ContriButors
Mohamad Faiz akhbar, priscilla ang, Laura Bulmer, edward Blanch,
Jarrod Caveny, Jen yea Chang, shyn yi Cheah, Colleen Chen,
Zhong Chen, Matt Choot, Lawrence Clifford, Colony Colllective,
evan Dimitropoulos, David Fitzwillian, Floodslicer, kenny Foo, neo
Fu, shima ghafouri, rob gray, Cheryl heap, Jingyi heng, adam
herbert, Fu shen ho, yan hou, gwyllim Jahn, rachel Jones, gumji
kang, goh kai kheng, antry Lau, adeline Leng, Xiao Liu, Chris
Loh, Jonathon Long, gaurav Malhotra, adam Markowitz, scott
Mason, Lorraine Meinke, peter Muhlebach, Craig Mullens, tan yee
peng, anne gaelle poussin, angelica rojas, alex selenitsch, golnaz
shariat, hiroko shirai, sun shuli, peter spence, James spillane,
Fereshteh tabe, wilson tang, nicole the, Michael thomas, Michael
thomas, Melody tong, Danh truong, giovanni veronesi, alex wong,
Foong Chern wong, kathy wu, wong Chern Xi, Zhengzhan yang,
hong yi, hong yi, keong pei yi, Ji yoon, Jang yunkim, henry tan
Chia Zeh
This spread: Mould City by Colony
Collective. Mould growth over city
grid.
Next spread: scott Mason. Digital De-
sign Application elective, 2009, led
by bharat Dave. Detail of a paramet-
ric facade system. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.05
eDitoriaL
by stanislav roudavski
By the way of an editorial, here are some notes on the ambitions
and the practical context of this publication.
intenDeD purpose
when i was asked to edit the the Melbourne school of Design’s
eyes publication that had acted as a snapshot of everything that
happened in the school in a given year, i hesitated. i felt that an
all-inclusive overview, like the eyes, can usefully exist – wit-
ness those produced by many leading architecture schools – but
should be curated and edited by students rather than academ-
ics. For students, it is a valuable experience and a meaningful
credit. For a faculty member, it is an unrewarding exercise of
passing judgement. with this in mind, i suggested replacing the
all-inclusive format with a themed publication that responded
to the expertise, interests and editorial judgement of its current
editor, promoted a particular topic within the field and could be
framed with a coherent and defendable – even if idiosyncratic –
selection criteria. it seemed that the work of the school could be
better promoted by a coherent publication that could delve deeper
into the conceptual issues. i wondered whether the lack of breadth
resulting from greater depth could be compensated by instituting
a series of monographs, all edited by experts in their fields and
complementing each other. this reflection was formulated as a
practical idea by associate Dean (engagement) peter raisbeck
and the Director of the Melbourne school of Design philip goad
who took it to the Dean, tom kvan, and the Map series was born.
theMe
My decision was to focus on the theme of investigative designing.
this theme was dictated, simultaneously, by pragmatic concerns
of what was available/showable and by the desire to promote a
particular attitude towards creativity and designing. interest in
investigative designing comes from my conviction that digital tools
and techniques significantly influence contemporary architectural
designing and human creativity at large. i believe that the discus-
sion of this digitality in design is important because its
contributions are frequently misunderstood. its potential,
or its faults, are seen to be confined to geometric explo-
rations (and these are very interesting and valid too) – i
believe the implications are far broader. thus, within this
book the overarching theme of investigative designing is
utilised as a frame to reflect on the potentials and prac-
tices of digital technology, even if some of the included
examples do not utilise computers. this publication can
only hint at the richness of this topic but – i hope – can
serve as a trigger for more serious investigations in this
area, as well as manifestations of some interesting ex-
isting achievements. My other frequent impression is
that the changes brought about by digital technologies
are understood as something detached from the estab-
lished flow of architectural discourse. in response, the
other motivation behind this publication is to demonstrate
how non-digital techniques – grounded in architectural
history – could support computational and generative
methodologies.
intenDeD auDienCe
My intention to campaign for investigative designing and
some of its particular techniques is directed towards cur-
rent and future students who sometimes do not know that
this work occurs within the Melbourne school of Design.
similarly, i wanted explain the origins of this work to
colleagues within the university and beyond. i envisage
directing my new and old acquaintances to this publica-
tion for an indication of the on-going activities at my
place of toil, especially when the online version becomes
available. i know that others intend to use this publication
to inform potential students and for broader purposes. i hope it can
be useful there too, especially when/if it takes its place amongst
the future alternatively themed issues of the Map series.
seLeCtion oF work
the selection of work was a difficult task. as someone who only
recently joined this university, i began by surveying the students’
work in the school’s exhibitions and publications. i failed to distil
these general impressions into a worthwhile vision of a compre-
hensive book and this is when the idea of a topical monograph
emerged. with a specific theme in hand, i sought to identify the
staff members whose work appeared to be compatible and ap-
proached them for content. obtaining the work that could be
published in a monograph of acceptable visual and conceptual
quality proved difficult. i was determined to adhere to a rigorous
selection system even if my task required foraging amongst the
available. My criteria were as follows: all of the work included in
the publication had to be conceptually coherent as well as practi-
cally sustained. projects had to do what they declared they were
doing and their processes/outcomes had to be understandable
to the design team. this criterion excluded many projects that
declared very interesting ambitions but left them at the level of
ideas. another important criterion stated that all of the included
projects had to be supported by the visual evidence suitable to
the book format. this meant high-resolution, unlabelled images
and adherence to the basic principles of visual communication.
again, much of in-principle interesting work had to be excluded
because it was not supported by such evidence. the third criterion
stipulated that the work had to complement the general theme
without repeating the contributions already provided by other par-
ties. this led to some radical editorial decisions that – by design
and necessity – dissociated the included content from the rich
and heterogeneous contexts of the source projects.
MAP 1: 2010 P.07
Left: Laura bulmer, parametric Min-
iature gallery (detail), Digital Design
Applications elective, 2010, led by
jules Moloney. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
Right: priscilla Ang, Cheryl heap,
jingyi heng, Abstraction fabrica-
tion studio, fragment of a prototype,
2009.
the book is divided into chapters that include content
produced by particular individuals or groups. this content
was largely – but not always – produced within 2010
and almost always – but with some exceptions – within
the university of Melbourne. however, each chapter has
a topical title that is suggested by me rather than by the
authors of the content. these chapters promote specific
non-repeating sub-themes without attempting to give
comprehensive information about particular studios. i
hope the contributors agree with my interpretations of
their work or at least find them suggestive. however, i
expect that in many cases my emphases are different
from theirs. i take the blame and invite those who would
like to know about the included projects in more detail
to approach the contributors directly.
graphiC styLe
with coherence in mind, i attempted to produce a lay-
out that could balance the extremely diverse content by
employing book-wide rhythms and colour coordination.
at the same time, i did not wish to present individual pro-
jects, or the book as a whole, as fully resolved, completed
and static. the book is about explorations that challenge
materials at the appropriate standards. specifics of these
standards can be decided on a per-volume basis, but
serious critical engagement needs to drive the narra-
tive if the series is to become credible to an external
audience as an intellectual contribution rather than as a
promotional exercise. i hope that this volume will moti-
vate future editors, designers and contributors whether
they agree with my interpretation or not. Believing that
the richness of the work within the school, or the field
at large, can be best represented though a co-presence
of simultaneous contrasting perspectives, i look forward
to these future stories.
the capability of participants and from this standpoint, all of its
projects are but sketches of future potentials.
the book relies on two major guiding principles or – rather –
ways of seeing the available content. Firstly, i see the book as a
continuous flow of provocations with no clear boundaries between
projects or themes. in response to this perception, my design
decisions were to: make the boundaries between chapters fuzzy
by not aligning them with page edges; allow images and head-
ings to wrap page edges; allow images to split into multiples; and
introduce vertical lines and tint panes to suggest multiple levels of
depth. secondly, i saw the book as a field of exploration that could
reward its readers in several ways. in response, the book allows
the reader to flick through quickly, paying attention to images only.
in support of this mode of access, it attempts to present the visual
evidence as suggestive traces rather than didactic explanations
that depend on textual content. simultaneously, the book attempts
to slow down the experience for those who become interested
after the first quick encounter. to achieve this objective, the design
attempts to encourage the reader to move back-and-forth through
the book through strategically discontinuous placement of images
texts and captions.
suCCesses, LiMitations anD Lessons
i hope that the book can usefully serve its purposes by establishing
a precedent for the Map series, testing the new mode of curation
and presenting an idiosyncratic but coherent visual outcome. it
is not without significant limitations: its visual evidence could be
stronger and its textual descriptions more developed. we need to
institute a system that encourages students and other contribu-
tors to produce more daring work and prepare the descriptive
MAP 1: 2010 P.09
This spread: In Marcus white’s
studio, students used a raytracing
engine to cast light from a desir-
able viewpoint and map where that
light intersected built form. with
this technique, they could visually
distinguish elements of the building
that allowed for desirable views, and
remodel their design accordingly.
This diagram captures the process
of the raytracer that casts randomly
directed light paths from within the
focus zone evaluates their intersec-
tions with the surrounding buildings.
As this evaluation can be quantified,
it would be interesting to allow the
computer to drive the design moves
through a genetic process, as op-
posed to intelligent guesses made
by the designers themselves in an
attempt to improve upon the evalua-
tion. Diagram by gwyllim jahn.
MAP 1: 2010 P.011
the introDuCtion to the iDea oF Map
as a series oF Monographs
Professor Tom Kvan, Dean
with this volume, we initiate a new series of publications entitled Map,
celebrating the work of the Melbourne school of Design in the Faculty
of architecture Building and planning at the university of Melbourne.
established in 2008, the Melbourne school of Design (MsD) has claimed
a leading role in propelling the debate in design across all professional
disciplines contributing to conceptualizing, realizing and managing the
world in which we live - now and in the future.
a broad term with many implications and meanings, design can be un-
derstood here to be the deliberative act of engaging with the contingent
to realize an opportunity. By this, i mean that design is never removed
from the need to address the realities of materials, contextual conditions,
policies, natural laws and all other exigencies that exert influence on
our capacity to realize an outcome. that outcome, however, is not just
a product; it is a product with a future role in the communities who will
use it. thus, design might result in a building but it might also result
in a planning policy, a new material or a new process in construction.
william J Mitchell, prolific author on matters digital and urban and a
graduate of our Faculty, defined “designing” as “the task of producing
and recording the controlling information” in the processes of production.
as a consequence, a “design” can be understood as a “resulting body
of information” (Mitchell, 2003). without diluting the particularities of
each, this definition embraces then the writing of policy, the drawing of
lines, the making of a model or the preparation for construction on site,
as well as heritage strategies.
our role as a leading research and education institution is clear: we
must encourage debate and challenge orthodoxy. as our professor of
Construction, paolo tombesi, recently observed (tombesi, 2010):
in the end, it is up to [academia] to facilitate the adoption and
dissemination of a cultural paradigm in which architects may
find themselves in a (group) discussion on buildings but also
industrial systems, on spatial semantics but also procurement
strategies, on materials but also industrial relations and train-
ing programs, on project budgets but also project priorities. of
course, implementing this agenda requires adjusting curricula
[and] devising teaching strategies that can expand the idea
of design as an activity broader than architectural design.
with this understanding, it is clear that designing is an act of
research. as we frame, discover and test the body of infor-
mation which we will convey, we rely on a range of research
techniques. in each of our professional domains, conventions
and paradigms of research will guide specific approaches to
such research, be in it the form of papers, sketches or models
offering propositions, critiques or provocations.
the initiation of this new series, Map, is part of our efforts
to carry such a debate into a broader realm, illustrating our
contributions through the work of students and staff.
Danh Truong, Digital Design Appli-
cations elective, 2010, led by jules
Moloney. photo by stanislav Rou-
davski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.013
Left: hong Yi, parametric Miniature
gallery, Digital Design Applications
elective, 2010, led by jules Moloney.
photo by stanislav Roudavski.
Right: jang Yunkim, parametric
Miniature gallery, Digital Design
Applications elective, 2010, led by
jules Moloney. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.015
introDuCtion to the Current voLuMe.
in this first issue of Map, we are probing in particular the concept of
investigative design and creative research in architecture. Drawn from
exhibitions and studios held during 2010 in the MsD, the body of work
presented here spans the small scale to the large, embraces discover-
ing, doing and making and delivers these in a wealth of modes, such
as models, diagrams, scripting, provocations and manifestations. in
this, it draws upon work by students and academic staff in the school.
throughout the history of design, we can observe the manner in which
practice addresses new technologies. with the introduction of perspec-
tive representation, for example, came a change in the conceptualisation
of urban space (wittkower, 1973) . the potential of a new material - iron
- was recognised in the nineteenth century by viollet-le-Duc, among oth-
ers, who engaged with new materials, iron in particular, and associated
new technologies (Benevolo, 1977 ; viollet-le-Duc and hearn, 1990). in
his writings in the latter half of the nineteenth century, viollet-le-Duc
explored the architectural potential of iron, cast and plate, as readily
reproducible components with distinctive structural properties. the
practice of design continues to examine our understanding of processes
and materials in light of additional capacities enabled by new tools or
methodologies.
the introduction of digital tools and techniques has done much to en-
able such research but, as the examples presented in this issue of Map
demonstrate, it is clearly not the privilege of such approaches. the
contributions by alex selenitsch and Janet Mcgaw develop research
through engagement of the physical, both models and existing urban
experiences.
in his essay, selenitsch examines through artworks the contexts of
design, from a priori assumptions to operative decisions (‘rules’ in
language) which act upon the exigent, such as materials, sites and
impingements during the process. working on individual products with
rule systems to guide their evolution and a variety of manual or machined
techniques, we remark on the diversity of the pieces.
Janet Mcgaw articulates the changes in our curriculum to demonstrate
how research now intersects with the architectural thesis. students in
the thesis studio employ a range of research methodologies to develop
their exposition, in this case, place making. in the studio de-
scribed, the topic was that of indigenous place making in
particular. the outcomes are illustrated by way of the research
and projects of four students.
Four of the papers here directly engage with digitally ena-
bled approaches to design. of the developments that have
had profound impacts on our lives, it is the advent of digital
systems that have had the most profound change in recent
times, not least in the practice of our professions. while the
capabilities for documenting and modeling are widely known,
more profound and subtle potentials are now being realized.
Framing our approach to these new opportunities, Bharat
Dave identifies that the practice of design continually exists
in a tension between cultures of science and the humanities
and between action and theory. we have established three
opportunities to explore these productive tensions through
digital approaches, namely the production of Digital space,
Contemporary Digital practice and Digital Design applications.
in contextualizing modes of digital engagement, the subjects
offer students the opportunity to situate current theories in
attitudes to practice.
Justyna karakiewicz identifies that digital representations of-
fer a new perspective on architectural diagramming. exploring
the realm of diagramming, she introduces parametric systems
and exposes students to the potential for conceptual diagrams
utilizing the power of computational methods.
studies in the Melbourne school of Design attend to fun-
damental issues of architecture and our situation. as urban
populations increase globally, issues of such increased popu-
lations need to be addressed either through increased area
(sprawl) or increased concentration (intensification). using parametric
research techniques, the studio led by Marcus white identifies and then
tests dimensions of urban experience by pushing them to extreme levels
to challenge rhetorical positions. in the traditions of engineering testing,
the models created are brought to failure so that the consequences
can be examined.
Computation can of course be carried out by non-digital devices. in work
presented here, steve hatzellis explores the experience of analogue
computing complementing the digital and Colony Collective explores
the biological.
it is our practice to work beyond an ideology and without a dogma.
we can observe in some institutions that particular approaches are
granted such status; for example, digital approaches are often the pre-
sent dogma. steve hatzellis challenges this by noting the theoretical
groundings for digital engagement in architecture has yet to be estab-
lished. in his studio run over several years, studiohatzellis, he asks the
students to embrace the analogue and the digital, working across these
two modes, partaking of diagramming, scripting, interaction design and
performativity to develop a theoretical foundation for their own work.
the analogue approach to computation is carried a step further by
the Colony Collective, a team inclusive of colleagues on our teaching/
research staff, students and alumni, assisted by the school of Botany in
our university. working with the generative capacities of mould organ-
isms and interpreting these into digital evolution, the team develops a
proposition for urban communities.
the contributions by stanislav roudavski and eugene Cheah bring these
strands together. in the former, the act of exhibiting connects designing
of an artefact with the act of delivering that artefact into place, in this
instance the wearing and exhibiting of the product. the work of eugene
Cheah’s studio drew upon patterns of pedestrian behaviour in a confined
space and resulted in the manufacture and installation of a sculpture
that redefined the space and suggested new behaviours or circulation.
MAP 1: 2010 P.017
specifically, roudavski engages students in design thinking through the
use of digital systems and has redefined the boundary between concep-
tualizing and manufacturing. as bounded by contract and conventional
forms of practice, architects hand over their design ideas to the con-
struction and manufacturing phase at an earlier stage than is necessary
when the design process is digitally supported and the manufacturing
digitally driven. in this first-year subject, roudavski introduces students
to the transition from ideation and making through the use of process-
oriented designing and contemporary digital processes. By posing an
approachable topic of the making of headgear, the students are moved
beyond their propensity to naïve referentially to a focus on exploration.
the work by eugene Cheah, skins 2010, takes this to a larger scale
and immerses the students in the transition from generative exploration
of form through to manufacture. Developing the dialogue of skeletal
structures to claddings of an architectural skin, the studio extends the
design embrace to final delivery.
the perspectives on design presented in Map illustrate the breadth of
design enquiry engaged in the Melbourne school of Design.
reFerenCes
Benevolo, L.: 1977, History of Modern Achitecture, M.i.t. press, Cam-
bridge, Mass.
Mitchell, w. J.: 2003, Constructing Complexity, university of sydney,
sydney.
tombesi, p.: 2010, on the Cultural separation of Design Labor, in p.
Deamer and p. Bernstein (eds.), Building (in) the Future: Recasting Labor
in Architecture, princeton architectural press, new york, pp. 216 p.
viollet-le-Duc, e.-e. and hearn, M. F.: 1990, The Architectural Theory of
Viollet-le-Duc: Readings and Commentary, Mit press, Cambridge, Mass.
wittkower, r.: 1973, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism,
academy, London.
The next chapter features the work
from three exhibitions:
Ovals sketchbook, 2009, 26 draw-
ings in sketchbook, pencil and ink
on paper, exhibited in Constellations:
A Large Number of small Drawings,
RMIT gallery, 344 swanston street,
Melbourne victoria 3000, 8th April
to 26th june 2010.
35 sculptures, 2008-2009, various
found timbers, various sizes, ex-
hibited as IMROvIsATIONs: blocks
and sticks, place gallery, 20 Tenny-
son street Richmond victoria 3121,
9th june to 3rd july 2010. www.
placegallery.com.au (‘artists’, then
‘Alex selenitsch’, then ‘2010 exhibi-
tions’)
Mack’s stack, 2007, found card-
board, 95 items, one die-cut stack,
94 folded objects, stack 10 x 31x
18.5cms, objects variable, but aver-
age 14 x 16 x 14cms each, exhibited
as Out of the box: 94 variations, Craft
victoria, gallery 3, 31 flinders Lane,
Melbourne victoria 3000, 22nd Oc-
tober to 27th November 2010, www.
craftvic.org.au (‘exhibitions’, then
‘past’, then ‘out of the box - 94 vari-
ations’)
Right page: Alex selenitsch, Loop #4,
2009, various timbers on blackwood,
39 x 48 x 28cms, photo Michele
fuller, from IMpROvIsATIONs, place
gallery.
MAP 1: 2010 P.019
Alex SelenitSch
generative objects
Alex SelenitSch
generative objects1.0 introDuCtion
this essay deals with three groups of artworks which were exhibited in
Melbourne in 2010. the works will be described through three stages
of composition: the acceptance of a priori decisions, the invention of
rules and their performance, and final outcomes. Behind this, there is
the contention that all three phases of creativity must be evident in the
work itself when completed. the three works are ovals sketchbook,
iMprovisations, and Mack’s stack.
1.1 ovaLs sketChBook
this is an a5 sketchbook, containing 26 drawings. it was exhibited in
a survey show of drawings by different creative professionals – paint-
ers, sculptors, fashion designers, composers and architects. the ovals
drawings were placed in the last category. their un-architectural nature
prompted the curators to ask for a few notes. this is what was sent:
“My interest in rule-driven compositions of dynamic groups began with
spatial typographic experiments in the late 1960s. Since then I’ve real-
ised that the elements in the composition need not be letters. Most of
my drawings continue to explore the unique positions of adjacent similar
elements in relation to the pattern of the whole field. I look for a kind
of aggregation associated with herds, flocks and crowds. And perhaps
cities… AS, March 2010.”
generative objects
generative objectsthe book was displayed in its own vitrine, resting at an open page, with
high-resolution copies of three other pages placed next to it.
1.2 iMprovisations
this was a collection of 35 small sculptures, including wall reliefs,
freestanding reliefs, and objects in the round, exhibited in a single space
at a commercial gallery. eight books open at appropriate images were
placed under the display tables as evidence of the works’ heritage. the
books showed images of works by hans arp, kenneth Martin, alexander
rodchenko, gustav klutsis, Lucas samaras, piet Mondrian, imi knoebel,
and kasimir Malevich.
the artist’s notes reproduced in the gallery’s flyer listed the following
creative rules for the works:
“BaCk grounD ruLes for the works:
1) all timber pieces = off-cuts from the one workshop (from teaching
programs);
2) all pieces as found, with no further machining;
3) pieces added incrementally;
4) surface to surface with glue: no interlocking;
5) size of finished work from held in one hand to held in two hands;
6) all of the above to be ignored as necessary to achieve (7):
7) pieces added until a balance of movement and stasis is achieved.”
1.3. MaCk’s staCk
Mack’s stack is one work, 94 works, or perhaps a number in between
one and 94. the work was exhibited in a single space at a state-funded
gallery. as well as the 94 works and a pile of leftover die-cut cardboard
sheets, images of three related previous works, from 1994, 2004 and
This spread: Alex selenitsch, six
out of eight, 2009 (detail), pencil on
found paper sheet, 30 x 20.5cms,
from Constellations, RMIT gallery.
Next spread: ovals sketchbook 2009
(detail), pencil and ink on paper, 26
drawings in A5 sketchbook, from
Constellations, RMIT gallery.
MAP 1: 2010 P.023
2008, were shown to place the new work into the context of the art-
ist’s oeuvre.
the following statement was pasted to the wall to one side of the work:
“while clearing out one of the side rooms in my father-in-law’s house,
i found a slab of die-cut cardboard pieces, designed to be folded into
a small open-top container. this was a few days after he had died. he
lived for 94 years and spent much of it collecting and hoarding poten-
tially useful, but obviously leftover materials and objects. he was also
a maverick, given to idiomatic gestures of difference in an otherwise
conventional life.
the slab of cardboard was first salvaged by him, and then salvaged for
a second time by me, another collector and hoarder. Before it made it
to the boot of my car, i resolved to do something interesting with it. a
few days later i began to fold the pieces into objects, but deliberately
not in the way the designers had intended.
each cardboard piece was made into one object using only the existing
fold-lines and cuts. in the end, i also curved some of the cardboard
ends, bent over some of the small tabs and used glue to fix the forms. i
worked towards and then stopped at 94 objects, as an elegy or tribute.
some of the objects became profiles, some emerged as toy-like scoops,
sleds and vehicles, some as trays, some even became containers, more
elegant in my opinion than the quick-snap thing originally intended.
the 94 objects don’t appear to have exhausted the die-cut’s potential.
i originally thought i might stop at 20 or so, but at every consecutive
ten or so objects, i was amazed at what new combinations and forms
could be produced from such an apparently restrictive starting point.”
2.0 sets
all three works use repetition. none of the works use identical repetition
or seek such a condition – in fact, the opposite is true. the repetition
is variable, so that a constant can be deduced as a principle or set of
relationships. if an object is cloned, or exactly repeated, then all of it is
principle, and the creative tension between idea and matter is defused.
variable repetition points to the condition of sets. all three works form
coherent groups by being sets. a set has members, which are independ-
ent entities – in this case compositions. the members of a set share a
characteristic or property, and all other properties of each member are
ignored. in materialised systems or objects, ‘all other properties’ may
be reduced but never completely erased, even in attempts at perfect
simulation or reproduction. often ‘all other properties’ are exaggerated
and multiplied so that some pleasure is obtained from seeing through
the surplus to the set definition.
the three works discussed here are all sets, but variously so, with the
third work, Mack’s stack, exemplifying a special case of sets, which
is theme and variation. in this ubiquitous way of producing a multiple
artwork, the set definition – the theme – is varied in example after ex-
ample, and the differences in the examples, far from being ignored as
would be usual for a standard set, are brought to notice. the variations
are then compared to the theme and across each other.
2.1 ovaLs
the ovals sketchbook drawings has a set definition, something like:
‘pencil ovals of equal size, filling a page, with each oval on the page
marked in ink in the same or similar way’. via the sketchbook, these
drawings are also part of another set – more sketchbooks which explore
field configurations of oval-like shapes and their markings, these being
known – at this point – only to the artist and some of his colleagues.
MAP 1: 2010 P.025
Alex selenitsch, left: ovals sketch-
book 2009 (detail), pencil and ink
on paper, 26 drawings in A5 sketch-
book, from Constellations, RMIT
gallery.
This and next spread, left: Light scat-
ter, 2010, beech, 32 x 31 x 17cms,
photo Michele fuller, from IMpROvI-
sATIONs, place gallery.
Next spread, right: hAhA Dada (hom-
age to hans Arp), (detail), 2008,
handrail slices on oregon, 20 x 21
x 4cms, photo Michele fuller, from
IMpROvIsATIONs, place gallery.
MAP 1: 2010 P.027
the sketchbook as an object is obviously part of a larger set of sketch-
books by the same artist on other themes, an even larger one of the set of
a5 sketchbooks in general, and so on. But here, the ambit of the creative
work is abandoned for the general world, which for set theoreticians, is
also an interlocked and nested structure of a very large number of sets.
2.2 iMprovisations
the timber sculptures are a relatively complex assembly of sets, some
being conceptual, and others perceptual. the title iMprovisations
is a set definition which is received before examination of the works
takes place. on examination, it becomes obvious that the works are a
single set of constructions made of pieces of wood, of constant section
with machined surfaces, put together in spatially complex ways. there
are also two subsets. the first set uses a larger piece of wood as an
armature or ‘ground plane’ from which the composition of smaller pieces
is compounded. the second subset has no such armature in that all
elements in the one composition are the same.
2.3 MaCk’s staCk
of the three works, Mack’s stack is the most obvious set, and also the
most deviant. there are two related sets. one is the remaining stack
of die-cut cardboard flats; the other consists of the folded objects. the
stack of remaining die-cut sheets is aLL set definition. any individual
variation or unique property, such as a different edge colour or mark
and bump from handling, and so on, is likely to be small and hardly
perceivable over the attention range of the composition.
once the 94 variations are approached, there is a dissonance between
the known die-cut origin, and the many kinds of objects. obviously, all
are the same as far as cardboard area and fold-lines are concerned,
but their final form is highly variable. in considering or imagining the
sub-groups, the initial set definition which is based on the physical
properties of the die-cut sheet must be abandoned and spread into
different kinds of categories. some variations are containers and the
set definition is therefore one of function. some are similar geometric
compositions and that set definition is geometric. some are suggestive
MAP 1: 2010 P.029
Alex selenitsch, IMpROvIsATIONs:
blocks and sticks, 2010, north wall
installation, photo Michele fuller.
Next spread, right: Loop #4, 2009,
various timbers on blackwood, 39
x 48 x 28cms, photo Michele fuller,
from IMpROvIsATIONs, place gallery.
MAP 1: 2010 P.031
of other objects (wheelbarrows, bow ties, scrapers etc) so that those set
definitions take on a metaphoric/structural tinge. Many of the variations
belong to a number of sub-sets.
Because the initial set of definition (the die-cut sheets) is so clearly
visible, each of the variations is easily compared to it, and then to the
others around it, so the classic theme and variation effect of attractive
difference is invoked.
3.0 aCtuaLity Matters
the semantic arena of these works includes a priori decisions, the
making of the object, and judgements on the outcomes. in other kinds
of works, where a priori decisions and making procedures are hidden,
or ignored at the presentation of outcomes, those parts of the creative
process are important only in so far as they allow the final work to come
into being. But in the works being discussed here, a priori decisions, the
making process and the outcomes are intended to be equally visible, and
the relationships between them sum up the whole work. the concept of
the set is used as the strategy to link the three phases of composition.
3.1a ovaLs – a priori
the sketchbook is a standard commercial product, the pencil likewise,
the ovals come from a drafting stencil, and the pen, a standard fountain
pen filled with black ink. some preliminary trials of added pen strokes
were made on loose paper: these were then discarded. For the exhibi-
tion, a single sheet of such trials for another sketchbook was submitted,
but not shown.
3.1B ovaLs - Making
the drawings in the sketchbook were done at home, in the evenings,
while sitting on a sofa and watching television. each drawing was initi-
ated by a field of pencil ovals whose configuration was derived from
some aspect of the page, but also from the rule of not repeating previous
configurations. Further, all ovals were to be clearly visible as separate
individual forms. spontaneous and ad hoc decisions were possible for
both oval configuration and ink infill. More ovals could easily be added,
and some of the in-fills were designed to work in rotation. the in-fills
were sometimes magnified or altered to suit. all such decisions were
MAP 1: 2010 P.033
directed towards the gestalt of the finished drawing. see rules 6 and
7 in 1.2 above.
3.1C ovaLs – outCoMes
the book format clearly indicates that all drawings are to be considered
as a whole. it also structures the first of two effects of surprise. the first
effect is the change from page to page, where there is a pause and
physical action due to the page being turned over. Memory and expecta-
tion affect the surprise: the pencil and ink materiality continues, but page
and oval configurations change. the second effect of surprise is weaker,
but occurs on the single page, when the ovals and their markings are
compared over that single composition.
3.2a iMprovisations – a priori
the title iMprovisations suggests some kind of balance between
structures and spontaneity. the eight open books, held in the trestles
under the tables, give an indication of the work’s historical and con-
temporary domain. the books also show that the domain is supplied
through publication, which allows for an a-chronological and placeless
appreciation of these other artist’s works.
3.2B iMprovisations - Making
the general title of these works refers to the similarity of their making to
the experience of playing improvised music. in such music, the context
of the performance and immediately previous events can be very sug-
gestive – often dictatorial – for any momentary action. in music, the
moments come very quickly, relentlessly, but in these timber sculptures
the practicality of gluing and clamping slowed the improvisations, or
rather, pulled them apart to a ‘moment’ every six to twelve hours.
the stick/slat pieces needed no initiating piece. Called jumble algo-
rithms, after their rule of successive addition and rotation against the
flat edges of the stick’s profile or section to achieve a scattered effect,
these compositions could be started by just gluing two sticks together.
other pieces began with the selection of a ‘ground’ piece against which
other pieces could be placed. these began as reliefs with additions
parallel to the picture plane of the ground piece, but soon under the in-
fluence of the jumble algorithms, rotation was introduced and exploited.
Like the ovals drawings, the procedure for each piece was additive,
element by element, but not simply so.
This and next spread: Alex sele-
nitsch, Mack’s stack, 2007, (detail),
photo by Robert Colvin, from Mack’s
stack, Craft victoria.
at the start of any piece, blemishes or standout features of the
‘ground’ piece were used as positioning marks. Later in the im-
provisation when a figure began to emerge, this was considered
in the next placement. a working rule was that each element
should be perceivable as such – this generally meant that the
ends of sticks had to be visible and clear of overlaps to avoid two
touching sticks being read as a single piece.
3.2C iMprovisations – outCoMes
the making procedure and the desired result (see rules 6 and
7, quoted in 1.2 above) produced, first of all, a sense of play, as
evidence of the maker’s experience and in the engagement of the
viewer; and secondly, a sense that the sculptures might be images
or even the results of natural events or forces. an unintended ef-
fect, but obvious when the material source is considered, was the
sense of precision, due to the machined finish and sharp edges
of the timber pieces, and also the rule of showing each piece of
timber as whole and individual.
3.3a MaCk’s staCk – a priori
the display of the remaining die-cut sheets shows the pre-con-
dition of the 94 variations.
images of three previous works by the artist suggest that the new
work continues and develops existing themes. the n variations
of the Southern Cross (1994) is a work of 211 constellations us-
ing the same figure of five points – the southern Cross. the two
books Cut, Tear (2004), were altered page by page in a single
continuous flow of operations, wherein what had just happened
would influence the next action. the Rothko Vowels (2008) are a
set of concrete poems with the subject of revealing the hidden or
un-sayable. revealing the ‘hidden obvious’ is an underlying idea
in the 94 variations of Mack’s stack.
MAP 1: 2010 P.035
3.3B MaCk’s staCk - Making
a general description of making these pieces is given in 1.3 above.
the variations were made at home over four days of continuous work,
Friday to Monday, with time off only for meals, sleep and occasional
errands. they were made in two rooms, at a workstation on a table, and
at the sofa, again, while watching television. the pieces accumulated
in three rooms and looked like an invasion of small animals occupying
the domestic landscape. the exhibition of them as a field of equally
spaced objects on a neutral plane missed this quality. the production
of the variations was intuitive and sustained by constant contrast of the
piece under construction to the others preceding it.
3.3C MaCk’s staCk – outCoMes
no general observations of the project as a whole were made while
making: the following observations were made possible when viewing
the installation of the exhibition, and were used as the basis of the artists
talk held on the 6th of november.
Firstly, the initial die cut piece, the starting point, was already a work
bearing much thought and effort By others: hardly a neutral or fun-
damental piece of matter. using it for pulp, or as a flat sheet for further
cutting might take it back to such a condition, but the die-cut piece was
used as it is. secondly, the assumption that the given folds could be
done in any rotation greatly increased the number of potential folds, and
therefore objects. after the first few folds, successive folds were unpre-
dictably limited. this interlocking of potential and limitation was difficult
to grasp as an algorithm, but easy to handle physically and spatially.
thirdly, the one template, and the simple set of rules, produced not only
variations, but different kinds of objects. variation were expected when
making began, but not distinct and separate types (or species) which
exist in different cognitive frameworks. Fourthly, there were no bad
results: there were no rejects. there were no trial or prototype objects,
and the method of assembly so simple, involving folding, gluing and
clamping with pegs, that there were no ‘mistakes’. all resultant objects
were accepted as part of the work.
4.0 aLL together
the way that a priori decisions, making and outcomes were exhibited
in the three works discussed above, were specific to each occasion.
the following is an attempt to generalise each of these phases
through a list of potential strategies.
4.1 a priori strategies
a) the given material or medium may provide a history, a spe-
cific group of exemplary uses or techniques, or a set of physical/
chemical properties.
b) the material may already have been given shape and use by
others, and thus appropriated for new use. this is the condition
of the found object, which could easily extend to found systems
and found processes. For this to work, the found object has to
be drastically shifted in context or use, otherwise it is just a use,
or re-use.
c) the acceptance of a genre, or type, or archetype allows for
unique manifestations. examples range from ‘still life’, to ‘pan-
theon’, to ‘haiku’ and so on.
d) the category of type can be tailored to a specific case, where
an individual artist can nominate works by other artists as a priori,
or the artist’s own previous works could function as such.
MAP 1: 2010 P.037
this list grades the strategies in their apparent frequency, with
the least frequent as a) and the most frequent as d).
4.2 on ruLes
Creative rules are better if:
a) they provide for the initiation of the work and its continuation
through specific instructions. they are better as a script or recipe
rather than a description of the final outcome. inclusion of the
material/system properties and the limits thereof is an advantage;
b) they allow non-rule-based intervention at any stage. this is
particularly important if errors occur, if context changes during
making, or if outcomes are unacceptable. under those conditions,
there is an interaction between explicit system and intuitive im-
plicit judgement. Behind this is the observation that not everything
in a physical action involving skill can be foreseen;
c) the context of the rules can suggest different and additional
rules for further action, if an impasse or dead-end is reached; and
d) they suggest or make a gaMe. one can then approach the
rules in the same way as in a game, by following, interpreting
or subverting.
4.3 the gestaLt
the final outcome towards which a priori conditions and rules of
making are directing must be evident as a separate condition,
not just as a mechanical outcome, or trace, or history of making.
a final composition must:
a) work as an attractive proposal where the outcome is not only
logically clear, but surprising. this can happen when an aspect of
Alex selenitsch, Mack’s stack, 2007
(installation view), found cardboard,
one die-cut stack, 94 folded items,
stack 10 x 31 x 18.5cms, object vari-
able, average 14 x 16 x 14cms each,
photo by Robert Colvin, from Mack’s
stack, Craft victoria.
MAP 1: 2010 P.039
materiality or system previously ignored is fore-grounded, when
the gestalt transcends the rules, and when the artist applies the
game or rules with elegance and flair;
b) provide provocative internal relations, so that it can be taken
into other categories of interpretation and use, where other people
can point to the composition’s characteristics and locate them in
the wider world; and
c) provide inspiration for further creative work.
5.0 generaLLy
generally, there are far too many options for action when an idea
or concept or observation establishes the will/direction of a work.
rules provide a useful way of restricting options, and in their
invention, can help set out what is important for a work and what
is not. Just as importantly, they can help to bypass habitual or
clichéd ways of working. rule or game-driven invention and mak-
ing is contrary to the way a conventional professional designer
works. professional methods attempt to fully predict the final
object, depict it as such and then require others to turn the design
into a production sequence. the concept of the ‘art machine’ is
modelled on this ideal professional role. in an ‘art machine’, all
decisions on making, composition are preset and the artist’s job,
after the invention of rules and settings, is merely to switch on
the machine and wait for the outcome to emerge without any
further input. this is the designer’s position in theory: in practice
subjective restrictions, ad hoc interventions and mistakes inform
the professional designer’s daily life.
Steve hAtzelliS
Material DiagraMs
Steve hAtzelliS
Material DiagraMs
Material DiagraMsDigitaL v1
Digital architecture has emerged from technological appropria-
tion and as such has only recently started to develop a plausible
theoretical discourse. unlike most architectural styles at the end
of the 20th century that emerged from a theoretical agenda, Digital
architecture has had to post-rationalise its position in architectural
discourse and has attempted to emancipate the discipline of ar-
chitectural design from a linguistic and representational critique
of the post Modernist milieu. although it is common to sideline
digital architecture to the realm of technology, it has been the
power of computer visualisation and the complexity of its formal
language that allowed it to surpass previous architectural design
discourses. By creating a new genre of architecture that could
not have been previously possible but for the use of new digital
apparatuses, digital architects have re-initiated the debate. in
this respect, it is an area of design that is still leading exploration
into new forms of non-standard architecture.
DigitaL v2
Digital experimentation has given way to digital research and ap-
plication: we are now in the post digital age. having learnt from
earlier periods of digital avant garde experimental art and archi-
tecture, we are now applying these techniques in more radical and
This and next spread: model by
foong Chern wong, Mohamad faiz
Akhbar and shyn Yi Cheah. project:
Eden on the Yarra River, studio In-
forme v4, 2009.
MAP 1: 2010 P.045
critical projects. the early fascination of translucent ephemeral affects
derived from misappropriation of animation software have given way
to a multitude of research based agendas regarding interaction design,
CnC and rp fabrication, diagrammatic modularity, scripted geometric
systems and parametric urbanism.
inForMe v6
our design studio focuses on progressive research into digital experi-
mentation and its application to non-standard architecture. the design
research aims to provide a setting that fully critiques and explores the
implications of the digital through a rigorous testing of the architectural
form and the making potential inherent in digital technologies. one
of the most distinguishing and important features manifested in digi-
tal architecture is its performance-based essence. the work aims to
reinvent Modernism by appropriating the techniques of diagramming,
scripting, interaction design and performativity. the Digital is explored
by the interplay of virtual and analogue material systems exploration.
By reworking the principles of the Modernist mass production system
we seek an agenda of modulation and specificity within the generic
modes of Modernism. the rework starts as accurate mappings and
diagrams. the parameters are not symbols nor metaphors, but rather
quantitative information, diagrams that are translated and mapped onto
the generic material system as an exercise of performative modelling.
the principle paradigm is the strategy of attaining highly differentiated
non-standard organisations from systems that are in their initial or
generic mode, highly standardised components.
the projects displayed in these pages are from students who have
undertaken at least two studiohatzellis’ digital studios. these students
are gifted digital designers with a propensity for material and formal
making. the crafting of architecture has moved from a purely physical
materiality to include digital material systems. these systems are tested
within the software systems that create them prior to repeat testing in
small scale analogue maquettes. these models help us to explore the
spatial and structural limits inherent with digital play.
keep playing.
hiroko shirai. The model explores
minimal surface geometries us-
ing Abs plastic rapid prototyping
techniques. It maps the movement
of a ballerina as curvilinear forma-
tions. final Thesis, Master of Digital
Architecture programme, University
of Technology, sydney, 2005.
MAP 1: 2010 P.047
far left: peter Muhlebach and Rob
gray. Research Models, final thesis
project, folded geometries, studio
Informe v4, 2009.
Left: wilson Tang et al, students
undertaking Informe v2. Model
constructed using rapid prototyping
knife card carding machinery. final
thesis project, studio_Informe v2,
voronoi Tower, 2008.
Right top: Yan hou. The model ex-
plores minimal surface geometries
using fabric and acrylic. The fabric
geometries are distorted in relation-
ship to flows of people. The map-
ping was undertaken at a railway
station when the crowds ebbed and
flowed, the kinetic analogue model
responded accordingly. Research
model, Master of Digital Architecture
programme, University of Technol-
ogy, sydney, 2006.
Right bottom: geo-soft sculpture,
rapid prototype by steve hatzellis,
2005.
MAP 1: 2010 P.049
Left page: research model, Master of
Digital Architecture programme, Uni-
versity of Technology, sydney, 2006.
Right page, left: gaurav Malhotra.
The model explores ideas of atomic
accumulation and the potential of
biomimicry to help develop a respon-
sive architecture. soap bubbles were
studied prior to constructing this
model made from straps of paper.
gradation of size is based on map-
ping crowd behaviours. Research
model, Master of Digital Architecture
programme, University of Technol-
ogy, sydney, 2006.
Right page, right: Matt Choot, In-
forme v2 thesis design studio. This
model is constructed using laser sin-
tering rapid protoytping techniques.
final thesis project, studio Informe
v2, 2008.
MAP 1: 2010 P.051
This and next spread: foong Chern
wong, Mohamad faiz Akhbar and
shyn Yi Cheah, Informe v4 thesis
design studio, 2009. The model is
constructed from stretch fabric and
high tensile wire. It expolres the
potential of spatial formation using
tensile fabrics reminiscent of frei
Otto’s earlier experiments.
MAP 1: 2010 P.053
MAP 1: 2010 P.055
MAP 1: 2010 P.057
This and previous spread: johnathon
Long, prominent hill habitat. final
thesis project, studio_Informe v6,
lasercut plywood models, 2010. This
thesis proposes a new architectural
typology to transform the current
Australian miner’s living/working
protocol. It challenges the common
perception that a miner’s ‘home’ and
family must remain in a major city
while the miner flies in and out on a
rotation roster. This thesis argues the
feasibility of a habitation facility to
support and sustain mining families
in the arid climate of outback south
Australia. It examines the existing
conditions of mining villages in
south Australia and proposes a new
living community of up to 360 people
for the operations workforce of an
underground mine.
MAP 1: 2010 P.059
Michael Thomas, Research project,
Moon Capital Competition, studio
Informe v6, 2010.
MAP 1: 2010 P.061
This and next three spreads: Michael
Thomas, Research models, final the-
sis project, City Translations, studio
Informe v6, 2010.
MAP 1: 2010 P.063
MAP 1: 2010 P.065
MAP 1: 2010 P.067
biological growthMichael Thomas, rapid prototype
model, final thesis project, City
Translations, studio Informe v6,
2010.
Nam auctor cursus ante, quis fringilla risus
biological growthMAP 1: 2010 P.069
biological growth
colony collective
biological growthMAP 1: 2010 P.071
colony collective
previous and next spread: Mould
City by Colony Collective, rendering
by floodslicer.
This spread: Mould City by Colony
Collective, physarum slime mould
growth.
Mould urbanism is an urban system which reconfigures the relationship
between humans, shelter and collective settlements. Mould urbanism
proposes that the garlands of the vitruvian primitive hut offer a new be-
ginning for exhausted cities made of inanimate materials. the urbanists
of the future will be indistinguishable from gardeners.
in 2050, australian suburbs and cities will look disappointingly similar
to today and will desperately require new sources of energy and water.
Mould urbanism is a response to the carbon production choking the
earth’s cities and suburbs. Mould will not save us, but if we learn how
to tend it new and rich possibilities will emerge.
Mould began in the outskirts of the suburbs. it first settled in eaves,
gutters, downpipes and cisterns; anywhere where once there was water.
Mould colonies formed and reformed, thickening where opportunity and
the inhabitants allowed. along with shelter, the mould also provides food
and fuel. the mould grows across, over and through the old infrastruc-
ture of the city. Mould replenishes the water table.
the mould is an urban architecture which needs direct solar energy. it
changes and responds to the sun’s orientation during the seasons. it
waxes and wanes with the moon. it is like a foam that aerates itself when
happiness abounds. pores will form in the mould so it can breathe. Liquid
vessels and reservoirs will form in the mould both as heat sinks and as
stores for excess reserves. Mould factories will produce new products.
the mould will adapt to the seasonal and diurnal cycles of its inhabitants.
Mould urbanism reconsiders the australian suburbs and city of 2050
as a family of sensual experiences which reverberate with the earth’s
atmosphere, climate, and seasons. Mould is an integrated, interacting
system of environs. it will be the setting for new rituals and harvest
festivals. the architecture of the mould allows a new realm of sensual
experiences to come into play for its inhabitants. Mould is shamanistic.
the mould is a living organism of the community nursed by the sun.
it nurtures life and offers protection to all within its realm. the mould
MAP 1: 2010 P.073
helps its inhabitants to release new energies which then reverberate
within it. this promotes bio development instead of techno degeneration.
Mould urbanism bridges the gulf that divides an urbanism based on
digital diatoms from an urbanism based on radical community politics.
the form of the future city is beyond composition, not beyond compre-
hension. it requires continual attention, but eventually it will overwhelm
all intentions, good, bad or otherwise. Mould urbanism evokes both the
responsive intricacies of biological organisms and those vessels which
give form to plastic material. the mould is a system that is at once or-
ganic and parametric. it possesses growth patterns that are to an extent
predictable and controllable, as well as being random and surprising.
Mould urbanism exists in a state of flux, creating environments that
change in response to what the city and suburbs need.
Mould, only barely within our control, is both a destructive and a re-
generative force.
Colony is a collective of architects and urbanists who produce utopian
vision in response to today’s climate crisis. Our inspiration is the archi-
tecture of the 60s mashed with the suburbs of Corrigan. Our inspiration
is Yona Friedman, Archigram, Superstudio and Archizoom.
Colony Collective is Madeleine Beech, Jono Brener, Nicola Dovey, Fu
Tun Han, Peter Raisbeck and Simon Wollan.
Colony Collective was assisted by the School of Botany, University of
Melbourne. Our thanks to Kaija Jordan and her colleagues for samples,
lab support and advice in the early experimental stages of this project.
Our thanks also go to Sam Slicer and FloodSlicer for 3D visualization
and animation, and to Bharat Dave and CRIDA at the Melbourne School
of Design, University of Melbourne, for technical advice and resources.
Mould City by Colony Collective, ren-
dering by floodslicer.
MAP 1: 2010 P.075
Mould City by Colony Collective. Left:
mould growth over city grid and river
intersection. Right: mould growth on
road striae.
MAP 1: 2010 P.077
creative provocations
creative provocations
JAnet mcgAw
Mould City by Colony Collective.
Outer suburban mould growth.
creative provocations
JAnet mcgAw
Left: Craig Mullens, williams Creek
Dreaming, architecture thesis, 2010.
Right: Lorraine Meinke, get hatched,
landscape architecture thesis, 2010.
creative provocationsMAP 1: 2010 P.081
the university of Melbourne has phased out its Bachelor of ar-
chitecture programme, replacing it with an approach to higher
education that aligns with the international trends in the us and
europe. we now offer an undergraduate degree in ‘environments’
to students seeking a career in the fields engaged with the built
and natural environments: from environmental management to
engineering, from property to planning, from architecture to land-
scape architecture. students have an opportunity to be broadly
grounded in issues that interface with a range of disciplines. Fol-
lowing the Bachelor of environments degree, we offer a profes-
sional architecture program at Master’s level. this has involved a
significant shift in approach from the traditional conclusion of an
architectural education with a ‘major project’ to a conceptually
driven design ‘thesis’. students are expected to engage in design
research, a multi-modal research enquiry that includes a range of
methodologies: quantitative, qualitative and creative. outcomes
are a combination of design and text that demonstrates an ‘an-
swer’ to their research proposition. Because of this approach,
teaching staff are encouraged to bring their own research interests
and expertise to bear on a studio and to work in interdiscipli-
nary contexts. as an investigator on an arC Linkage grant into
indigenous placemaking, we offered a range of interdisciplinary
studios for architecture and landscape architecture students that
asked students to re-imagine placemaking in Melbourne in light
of research into the settler-colonial city, indignenous placemaking
practices and contemporary indigenous culture.
Design for indigenous communities is notoriously difficult. there
are only nine aboriginal architects in australia, so non-indigenous
architects invariably end up engaged in the design of projects
for indigenous stakeholders. how does one avoid a new path
of colonisation of indigenous culture, or perhaps worse, appro-
priation? treanha hamm and Laura Brearley, in their joint paper,
“ways of Looking and Listening: stories from the spaces between
indigenous and non-indigenous knowledge systems” (2009) ask:
“how do we perform justice – where do we begin? how might we
make a difference against the backdrop of the dispossession and
marginalization of indigenous people? what would it look like to create
spaces in the academy for research (and here i think one could equally
substitute City) incorporating indigenous ways of knowing without
appropriating or colonizing?”
a collaborative approach was at the core of our studio. a parallel semi-
nar series co-taught by indigenous academics, architects (three of the
nine were involved) and stakeholders, exposed students to core issues.
Brearley and hamm argue that an indigenous concept of ‘deep listening’,
is central to collaboration of this kind. they define a new methodology for
research practice that has its roots in a concept shared by a number of
different language groups describing the process of deep and respectful
listening when a narrative is shared.
Left: Craig Mullens, williams Creek
Dreaming, architecture thesis, 2010.
Right: project by Craig Mul-
lens. As a reminder of what has
been superficially covered, wil-
liam’s Creek re-emerges from
the drain that contains it dur-
ing times of abundant rainfall.
Elizabeth street’s position in a
valley causes runoff to flow into
its path, occasionally recreating
the seasonal ferocity for which
william’s Creek was known pri-
or to and during the early years
of colonisation. Image source:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/
gemmajones/4446963060/
MAP 1: 2010 P.083
Lorraine Meinke, Nests.
MAP 1: 2010 P.085
Deep listening has a reciprocal relationship with self-reflection, a pro-
cess that allows the story of another to critique one’s own ways of
viewing the world. rueben Berg, a gunditjmara man from western
victoria and graduate in architecture from the university of Queensland,
encouraged students to enter into the issues from their own experiences.
a number of our students are not australian, with no prior knowledge of
indigenous culture or, indeed, the post-colonial history of dispossession.
thus, the pathways students followed into the indigenous stories they
heard and researched were diverse.
Melbourne wurundjeri elder, Margaret gardiner, speaks of a long history
of cultural centre projects - longed for, even designed - that have never
been built, due to insurmountable hurdles with land acquisition, finance
and political will. part of the challenge is an absence of broader public
commitment to the idea. the studio speculated that when a sufficient
wave of desire and determination rises up within the populous as a
whole, obstacles will seem less difficult, and politicians and financiers
more committed.
students were asked, not to design a building, but to design, make or
enact an ephemeral installation, or ‘critical spatial practice’ in the real
space of the city as their outcome. architect and theorist, Jane ren-
dell, defines ‘critical spatial practices’ as a range of creative practices
between art and architecture that are more provisional and conceptual
than architecture traditionally is, and more site specific and spatial
than art practices traditionally are. non-negotiable criteria were that
the site had to be in the public domain, occupation could not be illegal
or permanent and the cost of the ‘practice’ had to be less than $100.
this served a number of pedagogical aims: 1) make students see that
architectural practice as has social ramifications; 2) make students
translate conceptual ideas into a material and spatial outcomes; 3) make
students engage with bureaucratic and technical aspects of design.
one of our research linkage partners, the Melbourne City Council’s
indigenous arts programme, was actively involved in smoothing the
road into the ‘real space’ of the city. they identified the possibilities of
using these students’ work to begin a process of collective ‘imagining’
as an important outcome.
This and next spread: Lorraine
Meinke. Lorraine invites passers-by
to participate in re-making indige-
nous place in Melbourne through the
planting of indigenous saplings. This
art work seeks to inform the broader
community of the issues concern-
ing declining tree health within the
municipality and engage the public
in a positive act towards alleviating
the same issues in the future. It does
so by inviting members of the public
to take the nest away with them and
adopt the indigenous plant it con-
tains. In doing so, the foster parent of
the plant becomes its caretaker and
custodian and is thus responsible
for its future health and wellbeing
which, in turn, will help bring life
back into the city.
MAP 1: 2010 P.087
students engaged in substantial research into indigenous and early
colonial histories, geographies and precedents within architectural
practice and discourse. through this research, they developed a wide
range of design interventions that critiqued the place-making practices
of settler-colonial society, including performances, projections, ‘site
writings’, gifting, collaborations, infiltration of the print media by stealth,
and installations.
ronit eisenbach and sarah Bonnemaison’s recent book, Installations
by architects (2009), chart the history of full scale prototyping as a
pedagogical tool throughout the 20th century from the Bauhaus to Mit,
to the royal Danish academy in Copenhagen and the Bartlett. while
they were used throughout the modernist period as a vehicle for tech-
nological innovation, the post-modern shift in art practice that created
the term ‘installation’ has provoked architects to consider real-scale
installations as a prospect for social engagement beyond the academy.
MAP 1: 2010 P.089
Xiao Liu, Urban Memory and Amne-
sia: Remembering and forgetting
Through Monumentality, Architec-
ture Thesis, 2010. This project focus-
es on the settler-coloniser practice
of recording memories in the urban
environment through building monu-
ments and statues. The selective
commemoration of particular events
and figures has resulted in amnesia
of the indigenous past as part of
our collective memory. This project
reveals that, in some instances, col-
lective memories have been manipu-
lated through false representations
and altered contexts.
eisenbach suggests that it is probably not what architects bring to the
practice of making installations that is interesting, but how the practice
transforms architectural thinking. installations are immediate, allow for
discursive response of the city/audience and give agency to architects
to act critically, inventively and with relatively low risk. as such, they
can be usefully integrated at the core of investigative designing as
discussed in this monograph.
Bonnemaison, sarah, and ronit eisenbach (2009). Installations by
Architects: Experiments in Building and Design (new york: princeton
architectural press)
Brearley, Laura and treanha hamm (2009). ‘ways of Looking and Listen-
ing: stories from the spaces between indigenous and non-indigenous
knowledge systems’, in Creative Art Research: Narrative methodologies
and Practices, elizabeth grierson & Laura Brearley et al. (eds) (rotter-
dam: sense publishers), pp. 33-54
eván DiMitropouLos
eván Dimitropoulos’ research focused on the site of the ancient falls in
the yarra river, and more specifically, the changes to the flow of water
since colonisation. the falls were the only natural crossing point for
several kilometres and were used by the wurrundjeri for hunting on
the southern marshy riverbanks at dusk. the pounding of the falls had
created a deep, widening in the river that settlers used to turn their
tall ships after disembarking goods and passengers to the new colony.
within 30 years of settlement, the falls were destroyed with dynamite
to mitigate against seasonal flooding upstream. as the freshwater by
this stage had been polluted by the untreated waste of a city that had
grown to 1,000,000 million, the ecological consequences of mixing
salt and freshwater went largely unnoticed by colonial settlers. Com-
mercial trade of water had emerged as far back as 1839, five years
after settlement, in response to the pollution. this century, commercial
trade in water has re-emerged as an escalating phenomenon. Despite
Melbourne now having one of the least contaminated water supplies in
the world, bottled water consumption has risen dramatically in recent
MAP 1: 2010 P.091
years. By 2005 australians’ drank 550 million litres of bottled
water, almost 30 litres per capita, and only a small fraction of the
plastic containers were recycled.
indigenous author, tony Birch, spoke at our seminar series about
another practice of commodification peddled by settlers in mid-
19th century Melbourne: ethnographic photography. Melbourne’s
indigenous people were dressed in ‘traditional’ garb, placed in
studios, or asked to stage ‘mock battles’ and photographed. it was
a practice that tony Birch argued assisted in creating the myth
of indigenous culture as primitive, which led to their subjugation
and dispossession. eván approached the state Library and koorie
heritage trust for permission to use some of these photographs
in his critical spatial practice. he brought together these three
stories: the destruction of the falls, ethnographic photography
and the trading of water in a flash mob that he convened and
choreographed.
using digital social media and radio, he invited people to Queens-
bridge, the site where the falls once stood, on saturday 23 october
2010 at 3pm. each participant was issued with a bottle of water
that eván had re-labelled with archival ethnographic photographs
overlaid with excerpts from letters between Melbourne’s surveyor
robert hoddle and colonial secretary and police magistrate, wil-
liam Lonsdale in 1838-39, regarding an attempt to dam the river
at the point where the falls once stood. it references aboriginal
artist, Leah king-smith’s work ‘patterns of Connection’, that re-
contextualised similar portraits with her own paintings and pho-
tographs of australia’s bush. eván had distributed, via facebook,
detailed instructions for a performance of pouring the water back
into the river in memory of the lost falls. the event was filmed and
uploaded later onto the internet. the state Library have requested
a copy of the book that documents the work for their collection.
This spread: Eván Dimitropoulos, The
falls, landscape architecture thesis,
2010. Eván’s project is a ‘critical spa-
tial practice’ that explores past and
present consumer culture in Mel-
bourne. The practices of such a cul-
ture dispossessed Indigenous people
of their lands and exploited their wa-
terways. This event re-imagines the
area where a waterfall once divided
the river, challenging assumptions
about indigenous history and culture
through engagement and reflection.
Next spread: Eván Dimitropoulos.
bottle and bottle lable.
MAP 1: 2010 P.093
Craig MuLLens
upstream from the Falls, was a tributary known by early settlers
as the river townend and also williams Creek. it was a seasonal
waterway that discharged into the yarra river along what is now
known as elizabeth st, one of the central north–south streets in
the uncompromising grid of streets laid down by surveyor, robert
hoddle. robyn annear writes poetically about the problems of this
conjunction in her imagined history, Bearbrass, telling of shoes lost
in the mud and a punt that was established at one time to transport
pedestrians from one side of the street to the other. the failure to
develop an adequate sewerage system meant that elizabeth street
flowed with excrement by the 1940s and epidemics of dysentery,
cholera and typhoid were rife. work began on the subterranean
drain we now have under elizabeth st in the 1840s and william’s
Creek disappeared.
Craig Mullens created an interactive film that re-imagines eliza-
beth street as a river which he projected from the vacant office
of a building on the corner of Flinders st onto the blank side wall
of a nearby building in elizabeth street. the projection included a
textual narrative about williams Creek and invited people to share
their own ‘dreamings’ by uploading related videos on a website.
Xiao Liu
Xiao was an international student from mainland China. his route
into the stories of indigenous australians was via the history of
communist China. tony Birch had spoken to the students about
the contrasts between settler colonizer place-making, that used
monuments to permanently mark the landscape, and
indigenous place-making, which finds place within
the natural landforms. Xiao researched the practice of
monument-making by Mao, and the processes of deter-
ritorialising the monuments after his fall. Xiao argued that
Melbourne’s monuments are similar, telling only half of
the story of australia’s settlement.
Burke and wills have been immortalized in bronze on
swanston street. they led a tragic expedition of discovery
into the heart of australia and both perished in the pro-
cess. Xiao discovered through his research that only one
of their expedition crew survived the trip, relying on the
support of the aboriginal tracker who is recorded in only
two early paintings. Both he and the tracker have been
deleted from the sculptural record of the story. similarly,
the bronze sculpture “three Business Men who Brought
their own Lunch” on the corner of swanston and Bourke
st celebrates the legacy of early colonists Batman, swan-
ston and hoddle. robert hoddle was the early surveyor of
MAP 1: 2010 P.095
specific plant species information and planting instructions, infor-
mation about the significance of the site to the aboriginal people of
Melbourne, and speculation about what the landscape in the area
consisted of prior to colonization. “By accepting the gift,” Lorraine
writes, “the recipient is acknowledging the mistakes of the past
and reinforcing their own positive notions of what is valuable in
the indigenous landscape.” all but two of her nests were ‘adopted’,
and she received encouraging feedback from many participants.
Melbourne and Captain Charles swanston, gave his name to the street
on which they stand. it is well known that Batman offered blankets
to local wurrundjeri for land, now known as Batman hill, in the south
west part of central Melbourne. wurrundjeri elder, william Barak was
believed to have been at the meeting and signing of the ‘treaty’. Xiao
developed two installations to reinstate these important indigenous
figures into the sculptural record: the aboriginal tracker positioned to
climb a ladder up the podium to join Burke and wills, and Barak, clad in
business suit, as the ‘Fourth Businessman who Brought his own Blanket’
placed between two of the characters who seem to deliberately turned
to look the other way.
Lorraine Meinke
Lorraine Meinke’s research into the landscape of contemporary Mel-
bourne revealed that 7000 mature exotic trees, predominantly english
elms and London planes that line Melbourne’s major boulevards and
city streets, will be cut down in coming years. Lack of species diversity,
stress from a decade of drought and old age have combined to hasten
their decline. Meinke found that indigenous species had been trialled
at times, but there was general public outcry and the trees were often
ringbarked. a parallel investigation into aboriginal dreaming stories
revealed that life and death have a cyclic relationship in aboriginal
culture. aboriginal remains were traditionally either returned to the
earth, their ‘spiritual mother‘ or placed into the fork of tree on a person’s
traditional lands.
Lorraine mapped 26 sites of indigenous significance from a range of
sources and developed a critical spatial practice that brought these
stories together in a series of ephemeral installations. she obtained
permission to work on 18 of the sites. From collected artefacts from
each site, such as twigs and discarded rubbish, she fabricated a series
of 18 distinct nest-like forms. these were returned to the site with a
papier-mâché egg-like vessel containing an indigenous sapling and a
laminated tag appealing to passers-by to ‘help me!’. inside was detailed
information on the problem of dying trees within the City of Melbourne,
paraMetric DiagraMs
JuStynA KArAKiewicz
paraMetric DiagraMs
JuStynA KArAKiewicz
This diagram was produced for a
project by peter spence, paramet-
ric Urbanism studio. The project is
about visualising data and mapping
information to produce form (in this
case a height field). The project
mapped multiple levels of urban
data (the image shows higher levels
in Melbourne CbD) as spatial repre-
sentations. for example, the project
speculated about relative symbolic
significance of urban sites by meas-
uring the social network activity that
referred to them in photographs. by
combining the topographic maps
with the data-driven spatial over-
lays, these diagrams can inform
future design decisions.
paraMetric DiagraMs
Diagrams are not a new phenomenon. Many of them appear to
have been created long before any written language had been
defined. one of the oldest diagrams of the city comes from Catal
hayuk, probably drawn around 6,500 BC. some prehistoric dia-
grams not only inform us about city’s physical structure but also
about its social and organizational structure. it has been argued
that we can read in these diagrams even more, such as the struc-
ture of the spoken language of the people who inhabited these
places.
even if diagrams do not convey information literally, they are
significant tools by which to understand and illuminate. in more
recent times, there has considerable interest in the role of diagram
in the design process.
in this studio, we focussed on a particular type of diagram, the
diagram which serves as a condenser of information. Clearly,
diagrams can do much more than that; for example, diagrams
often bring ‘time and action’ into a design exploration in a way
that 3D models or drawing cannot. Diagrams can introduce into
our work qualities or aspects that cannot be articulated otherwise;
diagrams work when they extend and enhance our capacity to
understand. Ben van Berkel (1999) has observed that “an image
is a diagram when it is stronger than its interpretations”.
in examining diagrams within studio teaching, we are introducing
the students to two key ideas. the first is that the diagram can
concentrate or condense the essence of the information being
MAP 1: 2010 P.099
explored; the second, and more difficult, is to enable us to engage
in a mode of abstraction that takes us beyond our preconceptions.
Design learning necessarily relies on precedents, but this strategy
can become a crutch and blinker our capacity for designing by
limiting exploration in a search of the known.
the studio starts by introducing the diagram as a condenser of
information as an initial step in design process. after identify-
ing representative or relevant data in a design opportunity, we
explore meaningful techniques by which to present and examine
these data; this is a particularly challenging task if the subject of
investigation is the city. park (1925) observed that city could not
be viewed as purely a physical entity:
“The city is, rather, a state of mind, a body of customs and tradi-
tions, and of the organized attitudes and sentiments that inhere
in these customs and are transmitted with this tradition. The city
is not, in other words, merely a physical mechanism and artificial
construction. It is involved in the vital processes of the people
who compose it; it is product of nature, and particularly of hu-
man nature.”
it is easier when representing a city to separate the experience
into the physical and the intangible; thus, physical models trace
the geometries, reports and tabular data describe other facets.
Common diagrams of cities include those of figure ground, poros-
ity, movement, use, age of buildings, etc. such diagrams promote
specialisation, yet we acknowledge that segregation of knowledge
fails to help us grapple with urban issues. Furthermore, isolating
aspects of the cities into representations encourages strategies to
examine each element as represented, while we acknowledge that
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
A technique by shima ghafouri,
parametric Urbanism studio.
This project is about visualising
relationships between points of in-
fluence in a city. These points are
imagined as magnetic charges that
influence a field. The field is visu-
alised with curves that run perpen-
dicular to the charge direction. This
approach allows to organise subjec-
tive sampling of urban environments
(e.g., smell or noise) as data that can
be visualised in unexpected/sugges-
tive ways and utilised to inform de-
sign choices.
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0101
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
A technique by shima ghafouri,
parametric Urbanism studio.
a city can be better understood as a complex adaptive system, an
approach that requires us to represent multiple systems.
one of the most difficult problems related to design and even
more when teaching design, is our inability to move beyond pre-
conceptions. Borrowing from social theory, we might suggest
that we are working within our “frame” or “schema”, a context
of stories, anecdotes and stereotypes that we used to interpret,
understand and respond to design opportunities. while such
frames may be extremely useful in our daily life in order not to
overload our brain with too much information, in the design context
it will lead us to fail to register much that could help us in the
design process. we are only aware of “framing” when we find
the reason to change “the frame”, and this is why diagramming
techniques can be powerful - design can start when you become
aware of your re-framing.
the two types of diagrams we have introduced, condenser and
abstractor, can be understood in another way. in this studio we
suggest that one may be understood to represent “knowledge of”
and the other “knowledge for”; where “knowledge of” describes
how things are, and the “knowledge for” how things may change.
parametric systems are used as they require the user to explicitly
articulate the component elements to be engaged and the relation-
ships between them. the graphic outputs can then be understood
by the user to represent the relationships of the components; with
multiple elements and diverse relationships, the outcomes are
beyond those which might be drawn manually. through these
NOTES: Project is about visualising relationships between points of in�uence in a city. These points are imagined as magnetic charges or poles that produce a �eld. The �eld is materialised with curves that run perpendicular to the charge direction.
USE LAYERS TO EXTRACT DRAWINGS
IDEAS: relates closely to pete/daves project whereby some kind of intrinsic measuring of the city produces a body of data that can be formally materialised in unex-pected ways.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0103
A technique employed by Edward
blanch, parametric Urbanism studio.
Intentions for movement held by pe-
destrians in the city are visualised
using simple particle behaviour.
particles (representing sound) are
emmitted from points within a city.
Their paths are traced to represent
spaces that can “hear” the source
sounds. particle reflect off building
surfaces and aggregate into sug-
gestive patterns. This diagrammatic
visualisation can be used dynami-
cally to evaluate consequences of
design choices.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0105
tools, the students can interrogate their abstracted understanding
of a situation and drive postulations by manipulating parameters
or relationships. Most importantly, the process exposes the ease
by which facile form may be generated and misinterpreted as
proposition. thus, the transition from diagram to proposition is
explored explicitly.
while there is much to understand about diagramming, we have
found this studio enormously rewarding as the design outcomes
we have observed were not those we would have predicted as
each student starts on their design process.
reFerenCes
Berkel, B. v. and C. Bos (1999), Move (amsterdam: un studio &
goose press)
A technique employed by Edward
blanch, parametric Urbanism studio.
particles emitted from a location
congregate around a point of interest
without approaching too close. This
dynamic diagram can demonstrate
a spontaneous creation of urban
rooms that are defined by the be-
haviour of the people. visualisation
of such events can inform and guide
spatial design decisions.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0107
scripting & MakingbhArAt dAveJuleS moloney
scripting & MakingbhArAt dAveJuleS moloney
Left: giovanni veronesi, Digital De-
sign Application elective, 2009, led
by bharat Dave. surface composi-
tion using transformations of cones.
photo by stanislav Roudavski.
Right and next spread: Antry Lau.
Digital Design Application elective,
2009, led by bharat Dave. Modulated
surface wrap around a pedestrian
bridge. photo by bharat Dave.
scripting & MakingbhArAt dAveJuleS moloney
to undertake in-depth exploration of the nature of operative knowl-
edge or how it has evolved in architectural design discourse is too
ambitious a task to attempt in brief space. however, it may be pos-
sible to briefly resurrect some recurring and persistent questions
that follow design disciplines, in practice and in pedagogy. how
do design disciplines situate themselves between the two cultures
of sciences or humanities? which specific dimensions of these
disciplines elevate them from being mere vocations or professions
to accord them significant bodies of knowledge? how do worlds
of ‘theory’ and ‘practice’, or teaching and research inform these
discussions? are there modes of teaching and research in these
disciplines that are peculiar and different from those in sciences?
while some of these questions may be partially answered, oth-
ers have elicited only tentative and provisional responses. ever
since the French academy royale d’architecture was established
in 1671 as the first institution to offer studies in architecture in
europe, oppositional tension keeps resurfacing between scientific
and designerly modes of teaching, research and practice.
these tensions are now playing out with different intensity fol-
lowing developments in digital information and communication
technologies. the worlds of intuitive and creative design are now
colliding with highly ordered and logical worlds of computer
representations and operations. echoing some challenges that
underpinned formation of the Bauhaus curriculum and birth of
new sensibilities against the changed industrial and political con-
ditions of the early 20th century, the rise of calculating machines,
their miniaturization and prospects for global connectivity pose
different transformative challenges for pedagogy and practice in
design disciplines.
against this background and faced with an opportunity to evolve
components of the new graduate program, how does one move
forward? the rapid pace of developments in digital technologies
MAP 1: 2010 P.0111
MAP 1: 2010 P.0113
and diffusion in architectural design practices and pedagogy have
fostered an experimental climate in which provisional explora-
tions outpace sustained theoretical reflections and consolidation.
instead of subscribing to a particular digital ideology or approach
that may represent only a passing fancy, we have developed three
graduate subjects that address contemporary fluidity of thinking
and approaches in digital design. each subject provides connective
threads to theory, research or practice in architectural design as a
focal reference. in framing these subjects, the underlying intent is
to contextualize how distinct modes and ends pursued in theory,
research and practice are sometimes mutually reinforcing and at
other times in opposition.
proDuCtion oF DigitaL spaCe explores theories and technolo-
gies of representations ranging from analog to digital and their
implications on the production of space. the subject focuses on
digital technologies and their consequences on reconfiguration of
vision, knowledge, professional practice and embodied experience
in material and virtual spatial design environments.
ConteMporary DigitaL praCtiCe focuses on impacts of digital
technologies on professional practice and services. it explores
This and next spread: jonathon
Long, parametric Miniature gallery,
Digital Design Applications elective,
2010, led by jules Moloney. photo by
stanislav Roudavski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0115
MAP 1: 2010 P.0117
A technique employed by jonathon
Long, Digital Design Applications
elective, 2010, led by jules Moloney,
image 1. Diagram by gwyllim jahn.
Initial planar geometry is extended
to the boundaries of the fabricated
shell - a process that could be ap-
plied to any contoured model de-
scribed as simple polylines.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0119
issues such as emerging forms of professional practice,
status of professional knowledge and skills, use and value
of digital information in design, and digital fabrication and
assembly of contemporary buildings. the subject involves
guest lectures by practicing designers and case studies of
real projects.
DigitaL Design appLiCations offers a conceptual overview
and hands-on introduction to research topics and applica-
tions in digital design using symbolic representations and
operations. the subject introduces algorithmic thinking and
explorations of design spaces, generative techniques for var-
iational designs, designing for parts and whole relationships,
and technologies of material fabrication and assemblies.
A technique employed by jonathon
Long, Digital Design Application
elective, 2010, led by jules Moloney,
image 2. Diagram by gwyllim jahn.
Central volume bounded by the in-
tersected lines.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0121
jonathon Long, Digital Design Ap-
plication elective, 2010, led by jules
Moloney. physical model. photo by
stanislav Roudavski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0123
This and next spread: kenny foo,
parametric Miniature gallery, Digital
Design Applications elective, 2010,
led by jules Moloney. photo by stan-
islav Roudavski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0125
MAP 1: 2010 P.0127
MAP 1: 2010 P.0129
previous spread: fu shen ho, para-
metric Miniature gallery, Digital De-
sign Applications elective, 2010, led
by jules Moloney. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
This spread: hong Yi, parametric
Miniature gallery, Digital Design
Applications elective, 2010, led by
jules Moloney. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
Next spread: Danh Truong, paramet-
ric Miniature gallery, Digital Design
Applications elective, 2010, led by
jules Moloney. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0131
MAP 1: 2010 P.0133
This spread, left: model by shyn Yi
Cheah, Digital Design Applications
elective, 2009, led by bharat Dave.
photo by stanislav Roudavski.
This spread, right: model by golnaz
shariat, Digital Design Applications
elective, 2009, led by bharat Dave.
periodic patterns inspired by the per-
sian tessellations. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
Next spread: model by Michael
Thomas, Digital Design Applications
elective, 2009, led by bharat Dave.
parametrically woven surface for a
pedestrian bridge. photo by stanislav
Roudavski.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0135
MAP 1: 2010 P.0137
Making for showTechnique used by kenny foo, Digital
Design Applications elective, 2010,
led by jules Moloney. surface is ap-
proximated with panels which are
then offset based on distance to at-
tractors. Model is fabricated in two
layers to give it rigidity and produce
light effects by way of overlapping
geometries. Diagram by gwyllim
jahn.
StAniSlAv roudAvSKi
Making for show
Digitally fabricated paper headpiec-
es. student projects from semester
1, 2010. Exhibited as hEADspACE
2, wunderlich gallery, University of
Melbourne, 2010. In shot, projects by
jarrod Caveny, jen Yea Chang, Col-
leen Chen, Zhengzhan Yang, ji Yoon.
video frame by stanislav Roudavski.
StAniSlAv roudAvSKi
Making for show
MAP 1: 2010 P.0141
This and next spread: headpiece by
Zhengzhan Yang, semester 2, 2010.
The concept for this headpiece is
derived from an analysis of surface
cracking.
architectural education needs to respond to the rapidly increasing
utilisation of computation in architectural design. Digital fabrica-
tion in particular is gradually gaining prominence as a fundamental
shift in design development and construction. Being able to fulfil
“informed manufacturing potentialities [becomes] a principal
strategy in realising innovative contemporary architectural design
intentions” (kolarevic & klinger, 2008, p. 7). the contemporary
condition of rapid change and intense experimentation poses a
difficult challenge for architectural education because architecture
schools have to introduce the new knowledge in parallel with its
emergence.
earLy Design stuDios
the design studio is an essential device of architectural education.
it supports experimental exploration of concepts, representations,
materials and processes, introducing students to the designerly
ways of thinking. its usefulness as a place of learning through
making is confirmed by the artisan traditions, Dewey’s (1916)
philosophy of education, Bauhaus’s vorkurs and recent research
(temple, 2007).
the role of the first-year studio is particularly important. it helps
students to form initial ideas about design and architecture, to
establish the foundations of their personal creative practice or – as
legitimately – to convince them not to specialise in architecture.
these first encounters with designing introduce students to wick-
ed problems and the ways to tackle them. Most new architecture
students need to abandon their preconceptions about design-
ing because their understandings of creativity are often naïve
and their knowledge of useful architectural precedents – mini-
mal. Moreover, design studio work typically requires significant
transformations in learning behaviour, away from habits formed
MAP 1: 2010 P.0143
during pre-architectural education. such transformations
can be challenging and uncomfortable. to minimise their
re-occurrence, it is important to initiate students into creative
processes able to provide an enduring foundation for their
learning and practice.
Digital design thinking
Discussing the challenges for architectural education in his
work on design pedagogy, oxman (2008) persuasively argues
that contemporary design teaching needs to be founded on
new digital design thinking rather than on templates typical
for paper-based workflows. today’s computational capabili-
ties introduce associative and performance-based processes
that were not available in the pre-digital era. these new
methods change the conventional relationships between
such fundamental categories as ideation and making or form
and material. reflecting the new capabilities afforded by
computing, recent architectural theory moved away from
once dominant notions of formal knowledge, typology and
representation to new concepts that prioritize dynamic gen-
eration in response to performance criteria and the linking of
design development to the affordances of material systems.
Next spread: hEADspACE 2 parade
hosted by signal art studio, Mel-
bourne, semester 2, 2010. The head-
piece in the shot designed and worn
by Adam herbert.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0145
MAP 1: 2010 P.0147
the need for change can be even greater in foundation courses
that typically focus on explorations of shape, colour, rhythm, light
and idiosyncratic experimentations with materials rather than
on issues of performance, generation and emergence. the new
emphasis on processes and materiality requires new vocabulary,
new domain knowledge, new practical skills and – consequently
– new approaches to teaching.
struCture oF the Course
the section draws examples from one course, a constituent of a
Bachelor of environments program at the university of Melbourne.
this course, entitled virtual environments, is intended as an in-
troduction to the use of representation in architecture, landscape
architecture, urban design and other allied disciplines. the course
is structured around a practical project – called heaDspaCe –
that necessitates learning about design precedents, encourages
understanding of digital architectural design theory and convinces
students to develop essential skills through practice. the heaD-
spaCe project asks students to design and build geometrically
complex sculptures that can be made from paper and worn on
the head.
the course consists of four modules. in Module i (engender),
students use drawings and physical scale models to develop
three-dimensional forms from the analyses of dynamic processes.
in Module ii (Digitize & elaborate), students use orthographic pro-
jections, contouring techniques and/or point clouds to describe
their models and convert them into three-dimensional computa-
tional representations. these representations are then modified
and extended with digital modelling techniques. in Module iii
This spread: hEADspACE 2 exhibi-
tion, headpiece by Zhengzhan Yang,
semester 2, 2010.
Next spread: hEADspACE 2 exhibi-
tion, in the background video frame
a headpiece designed and worn by
Zhong Chen, semester 2, 2010. In
the foreground, headpiece by james
spillane, semester 2, 2010
MAP 1: 2010 P.0149
(Fabricate), students use computer software to unfold their models
into two-dimensional components that can be cut out of paper.
these components are then used to manufacture self-supporting
paper structures, manually or with automated cutting machines.
in Module iv (reflect & report), students produce documents
describing their projects. these documents include justifications
of design logic, evidence of analyses and precedent studies, pre-
cise geometric descriptions, how-to manuals and depictions of
headpieces in context.
previous versions of this course – coordinated by a different
team – involved quasi-architectural project content (such as ki-
osks) and formal exercises (such as the task to represent a set
of geometric shapes in orthogonal projections). Motivated by the
ambition to teach representation in relationship to the princi-
ples of digital architectural design, two semesters ago stanislav
roudavski (with the help of John Bleaney, the senior tutor at the
time) restructured the course to incorporate digital fabrication
as its core technique. we adjudged that the building-scale briefs
were a distraction for the new students who lacked previous
design education. predictably, their design proposals were un-
critical copies of bland (or kitsch) commercial architecture. the
complexity of architectural problems undermined students’ ability
to focus on heuristic, conditional and iterative development. in a
course with the institutional remit to teach representation, there
was no time to teach design history. another solution had to be
found. By replacing a series of small quasi-architectural projects
with one comparatively abstract theme – the headpiece – we
were able to free resources that allowed us to accommodate
a challenging conceptual change and move from conventional
experimentation with different design media to an exploration
of digital architectural design with computer-enabled fabrication
at its core. as a result, we were able to give students an op-
MAP 1: 2010 P.0151
headpiece detail, project by
weisheng Ng, hEADspACE 1, se-
mester 1, 2010.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0153
portunity to produce completed objects rather than tentative
descriptions of proposals, such as drawings or physical scale
models. we also asked students to cope with unfamiliar and
unusual processed-based themes that discouraged uncritical
adoption of existing design solutions or unthinking importa-
tion of conventional building types. to encourage emotional
investment and make students feel greater responsibility for
their projects we organised for the designs to be demonstrated
in a prominent public event during a specially staged “fashion
parade”. For young people whose creative personality is still
in formation and who – many as teenagers – are particularly
conscious of their public image, such public exposure can be
highly embarrassing or highly rewarding. a public event at the
end of the course caps a prolonged development process with
a distinct and picturesque resolution reframing a potentially
dry project as a socially meaningful and emotive encounter.
Learning outcomes
the focus on digital fabrication allowed a move away from out-
moded emphasis on typologies, formal representations, visual
precedents and arbitrary ideas. instead, the structure of the
course prioritises gradual, iterative development that searches
for outcomes by exposing initial concepts to different media,
techniques, contingencies and materials.
in addition to emphasizing these new concepts, this digital
fabrication ascribes new meaning to the traditional tools of
architectural ideation and development, including descriptive
geometry, paper sketching, collaging and physical modelling.
working with these media within the framework of digital ar-
chitectural design, students become accustomed to transfer-
ring design content into different representational forms and
learning their comparative characteristics. integrated into the
process underpinned by digital fabrication, traditional tech-
niques, for example those borrowed from fine art, can
enhance and guide digital experimentation. to illustrate,
in the virtual environments course, students were asked
to base their designs on an existing dynamic event, for
example that of ink dissolving in water, plant extending
towards light, a match bursting into flame, a sand dune
pushed by the wind or a stalagmite rising from a floor.
having made a reasoned selection, they had to utilise
several forms of representation for the analysis of the
chosen phenomenon. this analysis could be conducted
through a variety of sampling techniques ranging from
a frame-by-frame review of a video sequence to the
staging of a practical sedimentation process.
Forms possible via computer-assisted fabrication are
unconventional and directly refer to the current state-
of-the-art experimentation in architecture. exposure to
such forms and associated methods encourages stu-
dents to question their preconceptions of architectural
designing and its products. instead of continuing with a
typical romantic image of a designer as an idiosyncratic
creator, the students experiment with process-based
approaches. Because relevant theory and precedents are
less obvious to newcomers, the students cannot rely on
existing knowledge and have to engage in independent
MAP 1: 2010 P.0155
search for the relevant conceptual context and the exist-
ing communities of practice. in our experience, this need
has the capability to inspire the students and tutors alike.
it can also leave behind weaker students who are unwill-
ing to do independent research. Making them understand
and assimilate deeper theoretical implications remains our
primary challenge.
introduction of fabrication allows students to develop ideas
in response to the contingencies of making, closer to the way
design happens in practice and, in extension, to the more
typical approaches to architectural education that support
students through ideation but frequently do not provide op-
portunities to engage with production.
the digital fabrication workflow requires coordination
between different media and skill sets. By focusing on a
holistic challenge of fabricating a complex form, this ap-
proach provides a context that demonstrates how multiple
types of media satisfy different pragmatic needs. working
on the project, students acquire skills in physical model-
ling, sketching, drawing, photographing, digitization, three-
dimensional modelling, unfolding, fabrication, writing and
desktop publishing.
engaging with such challenges in the context of digital fab-
rication is particularly useful because it results in easy-to-
perceive successes and failures. if the final paper headpiece
does not assemble, it is clear that a geometric mistake has
been made. as a result, “[w]orkmanship becomes evident
as a category of design decision-making, not simply as
a by-product or something that might be spoken of at a
designer’s whim.” (temple, 2009, p. 220)
reFerenCes
Dewey, J.: 1916, Democracy and education: an in-
troduction to the philosophy of education, Macmillan,
new york.
kolarevic, B. & klinger, k. r. (eds.): 2008, Manufactur-
ing Material effects: rethinking Design and Making in
architecture, routledge, new york; London.
oxman, r.: 2008, ‘Digital architecture as a Challenge
for Design pedagogy: theory, knowledge, Models and
Medium’, Design studies, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 99–120.
temple, s.: 2009, initializing the Discipline of De-
sign in the First project(s), proceedings of the 25th
nCBDs (national Conference of the Beginning Design
student), Louisiana, usa, J. sullivan and M. Dunn,
219–226.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0157
MAP 1: 2010 P.0159
previous spread: hEADspACE 2 Exhi-
bition, semester 2, 2010. In hte back-
ground video frame, a headpiece
designed and worn by Anne gaelle
poussin. In other shots, headpieces
by David fitzwillian, gumji kang,
james spillane.
previous spread, bottom left: head-
piece detail, project by Colleen Chen,
hEADspACE 2, semester 2, 2010.
This spread: hEADspACE 2 parade,
signal art studio, Melbourne, semes-
ter 2, 2010.
In the shot, a headpiece designed
and worn by james spillane.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0161
fragment of a photograph by john
gollings.
eugene
Making at full scale
eugene cheAh
Making at full scale
Making at full scale
MAP 1: 2010 P.0165
the skins 2010 Design studio in the Master of architecture
programme at the Melbourne school of Design, Faculty of
architecture, Building and planning, university of Melbourne
designed and built a permanent ceiling installation in the
ground floor concourse of the faculty’s building in the parkville
campus in late 2010.
the construction of the ceiling required 4600 minutes of
laser cutting, 378 hours of pre-fabrication, and 3 days of
on-site installation.
Materials used were 300 sheets of white and translucent
polypropylene, 16712 steel eyelets, and 200m of stainless
steel cable.
the result is a series of 784 modules, 341 are white plastic,
443 are translucent. each is unique, with differing proportions
and directionality.
the ceiling installation explores, firstly, the shifting relation-
ship between permeability, perspective and movement; and
secondly, the function of the concourse as both a circulation
route and a gathering space.
the overall form is a record and study of stationary and
moving bodies within the concourse. it maps and reflects
Unless mentioned otherwise, the
work in this section is produced
during skINs studio, 2010. student
participants: Neo fu, Rachel jones,
goh kai kheng, Adeline Leng, Chris
Loh, Tan Yee peng, Angelica Rojas,
sun shuli, fereshteh Tabe, Nicole
Teh, Melody Tong, Alex wong, kathy
wu, wong Chern Xi, keong pei Yi,
henry Tan Chia Zeh.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0167
The work of the skINs studio con-
tinues a sustain research theme that
exlores formal potentials of digitally
fabricated and parametrically con-
trolled geometries.
previous spread: priscilla Ang,
Cheryl heap, jingyi heng, Abstrac-
tion fabrication studio, 2009.
Right: Cheryl heap, Abstraction fab-
rication studio, 2009.
the activity in the concourse. empirical activity and usage data
gathered over the course of a 24 hour period was used as the
starting point for the parametric model.
the most intense gathering spaces create peaks in the undulat-
ing surface, while a circulation path is carved in between these
spaces as the troughs of the form.
the modules create large, permeable openings at gathering
spaces that correspond to main entryways such as the stairwell
and elevator doors. Large, overlapping, enclosed modules mark
independent, discrete gathering spaces, such as those around the
display shelves. the modules in between shift gradually from more
open to more enclosed, larger to smaller, creating a controlled rate
of change in the permeability of the skin.
the modules are grouped to open up and allow views through the
skin, directed towards key vantage points from the main entry
doors at either end of the concourse. as one passes through the
concourse, the ceiling gradually opens and closes in areas, shift-
ing its permeability in relation to the viewer, variously appearing
and dissolving.
Material, technique and form are interdependent. the studio ex-
amined this relationship within the context of the contemporary
cultural, economic and industrial landscape of mass customiza-
tion.
the studio was interested in the translation of the virtual to the
physical. students considered the production and realisation of
MAP 1: 2010 P.0169
MAP 1: 2010 P.0171
architecture informed by the seamless integration of processes
of generating design information and industrial production. this
integrated exchange of information has led to forms of architec-
tural production that bring designers deeper into the complexities
of making, assembly, and material formulation. the aim was for
students to develop an understanding of digital design and fabri-
cation technologies, as tools for managing a complex negotiation
of material, geometric, manufacturing, and assembly constraints
and the resulting effects.
through the exploration of these techniques, it was intended that
students would discover new forms of collaboration with industry,
challenge conventional methodologies, and suggest a future in
which designers are much more engaged in the total process of
architecture – re-associating design and making.
students investigated current industrial contexts, covering both
material production and manufacturing processes. Materiality
was a key design parameter, through its constraints of struc-
tural behaviour, available sizes and suitability to specific working
techniques. together with fabrication techniques, material perfor-
mance was a key determinant of the final design. From these, new
solutions were sought, utilising digitally-driven methodologies to
extend existing, and create new, possibilities.
This and previous spread: skINs
studio, 2010. Diagrams showing the
geometric operations used to pro-
duced the distorted hexagon grid of
the final installation.
Nest spread: A series of images
showing the construction of a typical
module. Compare with the bottom of
the following spread presenting the
same process as a diagram.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0173
MAP 1: 2010 P.0175
MAP 1: 2010 P.0177
From gottfried semper’s principle of Cladding in the 19th
Century, through to Mies van der rohe’s “skin and bones”
in the 20th, the separation of architectural skin and struc-
ture has been a central topic. this studio continued this
line of inquiry. students explored the complex and dynamic
relationship between architectural skin and structure. the
intersection, interstice and interdependency of the inner
envelope, outer envelope and load bearing structure, were
points of investigation. these conditions were the means
to explore, address, condense and bring together the
aesthetic, functional, technological values, of the project.
Top: student participants assemble
the installation.
bottom: an example of the documen-
tation used to manage the complex
logistics of fabrication.
Next two spreads: construction tools
and techniques.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0179
MAP 1: 2010 P.0181
MAP 1: 2010 P.0183
The installation in situ. The image
shows the suspension system of the
structure. photo by Eugene Cheah.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0185
Right and next page: completed in-
stallation. from original photos by
john gollings.
MAP 1: 2010 P.0187