Amelia Smith : Thesis Folio

AMELIA ROSE SMITH 697917

SAMPLE of WORK MC-ARCH 2018/19 & BA-ARCH 2017

STUDIO 18 | ExLAB; CON{TEXT} INFLATED CONCRETE TEXTILES STUDIO E (2019)

TUTORS: DARCY ZELENKO & DANNY NGO GRADE ATTAINED: 84 From the outset the brief of Studio 18: Articulated Matter was to focus on digital fabrication technology as a part of an overall experimental design process.

This experimental design process aims to “innovatively save material, create novel geometry and design unique effects.”

The studio is structured similarly to other ExLab subjects, in that the initial explorations center around material “play”, where the student gains an extensive vocabulary of material techniques, with the push towards innovative methods of material manipulation.

The second half of semester focused on the “articulation” of these material explorations into

architectural outcomes, with the key question “What is a smart articulation of matter in architecture?” the driving thesis of our later explorations.

Throughout the second half of the semester our initial explorations into; material, machine, and technology had to be reconsidered and built upon in order to develop responses to our thesis question.

Throughout the studio, we were able to come into contact with multiple materials, methods, skills and processes, and as a result the final outcome is an amalgamation of eight people’s answer to the question; “What is a smart articulation of matter in architecture?”

The first assignment; “Matter: Kit of Parts” was undertaken across the first six weeks of the semester and broken into three distinct parts; Material, Machine and Technologic. The accumulated knowledge, material, machine and technical/digital knowledge gained from this intensive period of exploration made up the “Kit of Parts” that guided our methods and processes throughout the semester.

Each task (a|Material, b|Machine and c|Technologic) was split over a two week period, the first of which focused on quick iterative tests in order to build up methods and processes utilising the specified material/equipment/digital tool.

The second week focused on developing a final “Fragment Model” that was generated by critically reflecting on and then developing one of the techniques explored in the first week.

01 | KIT OF PARTS : PLASTIC MATERIALITY

Amalgamate was set up more like a traditional architectural project; we had to select a site, develop a brief, develop a design response to these inputs, and document through architectural drawing conventions the results. We also had to make a model that could either be scaled, or be a fragment of our design that would occupy a 1m x 1m x1m volume.

06 | Sectional Perspective

Amalgamate was an incredibly useful task in addressing the broader thesis question of the class; What is a smart articulation of matter? Because of the scale and the purpose which it made us consider.

I thought that it was significant as well, that the task was to design a shelter, rather than a pavilion or an exhibition piece, as it grounded it more in functional space.

02 | AMALGAMATE : FOLDED PLASTIC PAVILION

The final project that we executed over the last four weeks of semester continued the material research started by the Concrete group. Who were exploring the potential for lightweight, textile imbued concrete structures which could be inflated, minimising any other form-work.

The studio interrogated the duality between matter and architecture, whilst everyone acknowledges that we can’t have one without the other, especially as a student, architecture is always held above ‘matter’. Reflecting back on the course of the semester, its clear that the importance of matter in architecture is its ability to make design real, physical, useable.

For me personally this has been the biggest lesson,the discrepancy that occurs when one thinks that whatever is designed on the page or the screen will materialize in an uncompromised form. A smart articulation of matter in architecture, is found in a design process grounded by our physical reality but that aspires to the transient abstraction of an idea.

03 | ARTICULATE : CON{TEXT}

179

DEFLATION SEQUENCE...

BIG D

A T A

WHAT IS THE CONTRIBUTION OF ARCHITECTURE TO YOUR PROJECT? This question was posed to the studio by Tom Kvan at our initial presentations, and it shaped the way in which we considered (or re-considered) the purpose of not only our project, but also the works of Archigram that we were interrogating.

The ‘contribution of architecture’ was a question that we pursued with a doggedness throughout the class, in the context of Archigram architecture was used to create human experience and interaction through the re-imagining of the city. For us (Brendan and Amelia), the year 2019 does not feel full of hope, but rather a kind of dread that through a process of passive surrender we are giving ourselves over to a uniquely dystopian future of environmental crises, social isolation and corporate exploitation.

The future that we see is ambiguous, our vision is one in which architecture’s role is to interpret data in order to create experience.

The questions that we wish to posit are; who is the architect? And whose is the data?

We thought that the best way to make the input of data into a system tangible was to make a model that was both sculptural and interactive, that could enable you to visualise the ease and passivity of giving over personal data.

The model has a CNC milled base (spray painted) overlaid with clear etched perspex, PVC pipes to carry wires, clear vinyl tube to carry LED strips between the blobs, and the coloured laser cut perspex of the blobs themselves. We set up Arduino boards and proximity sensors so that whenever someone engaged with the sensor in the top of the blob, a randomly programed coloured light would shoot out of the blob and run through the LED strip to the next blob in the system.

ELI M A BRENDAN PEARCE &

TH MI S A

STUDIO 05 | PETER COOK TUTOR : JUSTYNA KARAKIEWICZ STUDIO D: GRADE ATTAINED 81

“

IMAGINE YOU ARE A MEMBER OF ARCHIGRAM AND THE ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THE YEAR... ARE THESE PRINCIPLES STILL RELEVANT? HOW CAN CONTEMPORARY ISSUES BE ILLUMINATED BY THE TECHNIQUES OF ARCHIGRAM?

“

The brief of this studio is outlined above, we were given a brief period of pre-teaching to do research and start developing a concept that engaged with the basic tenants of Archigram.

We were interested in developing the idea of data as a resource of the ‘future’, in a similar way to the ‘futuristic’ treatment of technology in the work of Archigram.

The photos above highlight the construction of the interactive model that we made to demonstrate the way

that we give our data over to unknown corporations, and companies every day; voluntarily. We wanted to use the physicality of a model to bring our necessarily conceptual ideas out of abstraction and into some kind of expressive and interactive reality.

One of the reasons that the model was so brightly coloured and ‘playful’, was to encourage, or attract the interactions of as many people as possible. We wanted to create something that was interesting and alluring, but

with unknown and possibly malintent towards those who freely gave their data over. in ‘Big Data’, the hope and optimism that Archigram treated technology with, and their belief that it would be a tool to make the future a ‘better place’ is interrogated. Throughout the studio we sought to speculate on the future of the city through the lens of a Archigram, however the city of the future that we saw was complicated, unsustainable and less liberated than the city of 50 years ago.

STUDIO 35: MANIFEST(O) Studio D (2018)

Tutors: Camilo Cruz & Fjalar De Haan Grade Attained: 84 The brief for Studio 35 was to design a system, or “meta-design” that would govern the creation of architectural artifacts, employed over site across an extended time frame of 50 years. These systems and outcomes were aimed at creating immediate as well as long-term solution to homelessness in Melbourne’s CBD.

We wish to utilise the adaptive and evolutionary power of architecture to contend with the prevalent unrelenting and insidious issue of homelessness in the Melbourne CBD. The project’s strengths lie in it’s ability to adapt to the needs of it’s user within an expandable, organic and beautiful structure.

The structure is designed not only to facilitate the construction of dwellings but also to give back to the city, and its citizens, by bringing dynamism and growth to the unused vertical space of the street.

If this project were to have a manifesto it would come in a series of seemingly contradictory phrases; ATTRIBUTES_CATALOGUE

CONTEXT

HOMELESSNESS

In 2012, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released a new definition of homelessness (not including homelessness in Indigenous populations). The ABS definition designates homelessness as a lack of one or more of the elements that represent ‘home’. These elements may include ‘a sense of security, stability, privacy, safety and the ability to control living space’

ROUGHLY

1300 PEOPLE EXPERIENCING HOMELESSNESS AT ANY TIME

HOMELESSNESS IN MELBOURNE CBD

250 VISUALISING_COMPONENTS

UNIQUE

INDIVIDUAL

COLLECTIVE

ARTIFICIAL

ORGANIC

PUBLIC

PRIVATE

ART

ARCHITECTURE

APPROX.

800 PEOPLE IN ROOMING HOUSES

INCREASE

PEOPLE SLEEPING ROUGH IN THE MUNICIPALITY

REASONS

APPROX.

150

150

PEOPLE IN CRISIS ACCOMMODATION

STAYING WITH FAMILY OR FRIENDS

MALE

74%

79%

74% INCREASE IN ROUGH SLEEPERS 2014 TO 2016

MEN MAKE UP THE MAJORITY OF ROUGH SLEEPERS

FEMALE

14%

WOMEN AND ‘UNSURE’ MAKE UP THE REMAINING 21%

SOLUTIONS

24%

DOMESTIC AND FAMILY VIOLENCE

20%

FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

>

IMMEDIATE ACTION REQUIRED FOR ROUGH SLEEPERS

16%

HOUSING CRISIS

>

TRANSIENT HOUSING

8%

INAPPROPRIATE AND INADEQUATE DWELLINGS OTHER RELATIONSHIP ISSUES

> REMOVE SOCIAL STIGMA AROUND HOMELESSNESS AND THE HOMELESS

5%

OTHER ACCOMMODATION ISSUES

>

PRIMARY HOMELESSNESS PRIORITISED ABOVE

4%

HEALTH ISSUES

>

SECONDARY AND TERTIARY HOMELESSNESS

2%

TRANSITION FROM CUSTODY AGREEMENT

>

ENCOURAGE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

ITINERANT

>

HELP THE HOMELESS GET BACK ON THEIR FEET

>

GIVING BACK TO THE CITY

>

STRUCTURE AS A CITY WIDE ART INSTALLATION

11%

1%

PRIMARY HOMELESSNESS

MODULAR

APPROX.

> INTERWEAVE AND ELEVATE SHELTERS THROUGHOUT THE CITY

1%

LACK OF FAMILY OR COMMUNITY SUPPORT

8%

OTHER

META_DESIGN BRIEF

TIME FRAME

2050

NO. OF HOMELESS

0

INTERVENTION TYPE

Architectural

PLACE

City of Melbourne Location

SITE ANALYSIS

CONTEXT

POLICY

Physical

Typology Emotional

VIEWS / VALUES

Amenities Mental

Objective Design Decisions

EVALUATE

Commission

Future

GENERATE

Aesthetic

CITY OF MELBOURNE

Existing Planned Potential Initial Ongoing

FINANCE

AUTHOR BIAS

Orientation

Needs

PEOPLE

EVALUATE

Form

ACTUALIZATION

Subjective Design Decisions

Variety Public Art Installation

VISION

Rhythm

EVALUATION

Colour Style

PERSONAL CONTEXT

TIME

DESIGN PROCESS EVALUATE DATA INPUTS

STRUCTURE

Objective Design Decisions

INDIVIDUAL UNITS

GENERATE EVALUATE PERSONAL DRIVERS

Subjective Design Decisions

EVALUATE

ADAPTATION

FITNESS FRAMEWORK

SHARED SERVICE UNITS

IMPLEMENTATION SITE_01 EVALUATION

SCENARIO_01

SCENARIO_02

ADAPTATION

EVALUATION

SITE_03 ADAPTATION

EVALUATION

ADAPTATION

GEN_01

GEN_02

GEN_01

GEN_02

GEN_01

GEN_02

EVALUATION

ADAPTATION

EVALUATION

ADAPTATION

EVALUATION

ADAPTATION

GEN_01

GEN_02

GEN_01

GEN_02

GEN_01

GEN_02

Generation Zero is the initial deployment of our design on Site 01. The evaluation of Manifest(o) through the Fitness Framework laid the ground work for the establishment of lineages.

01 | VISION

SITE_02

The design of Manifest(o) at this initial stage, aimed to develop a symbiotic relationship with its built surroundings.

This manifested through the attachment of the structure to the existing buildings, as well as the placement of the spine columns in the pre-existing nature-strip.

The intention of Manifest(o) is to elevate individuals experiencing homelessness off the ground. This housing-first approach assumes housing as a basic human right and aims to re absorb this marginalized group back into the community.

The objective of Manifest(o) is to realise in a sustainable and grow-able way, the city as a place of hope, beauty, and nature alongside the city as an urban, concrete mass wrapped in glass.

Exterior Perspective rendered using VRay Photoshop for post-processing.

y and

Form Finding from Site Analysis These diagrams explore the location of each Victorian Prison in relation to the site of West Melbourne by the extrusions and rotation of frames along the four directional axes.

Initially the spatial relationships of these locations were explored physically through the use of highly malleable clay.

Once a general understanding of the macro relationship between sites were understood, I generated a Rhino model to further explore the intricacies of the relationships between transition centers, prisons and the volume of Melbourne’s urban fabric.

STUDIO FIRE SPACE, BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO FIRE (2016)

From these explorations and analysis, the form of Space, Between was generated so that each panelised face of the facade linked the building to the wider issue of rehabilitation throughout Victoria.

Site analysis made with a mixture of Photoshop and Illustrator linework based on clay models.

TUTOR: STEPHANIE LIDDICOAT GRADE ATTAINED: 79

‘Space, Between’, explores the temporary processions between spaces, and how this transition can metaphorically act as the transition between states of being.

It aims to celebrate the fringe condition of both society and West Melbourne, reconnecting people with their humanity and the city with its suburbs.

The act of moving between states is articulated through visual, sensory and spatial patterns which not only demarcate the functional elements of the building but also encourage collaborative efforts, ultimately creating the space for isolated groups to reclaim their sense of agency.

One of the most interesting and in my opinion vital elements of the site was the presence of two correctional facilities; in particular the Judy Lazurus Transition Centre.

I wanted ‘Space Between’ to actively engage with the ‘fringe condition’ of the site by taking the notion of transition and threshold conditions and then extend the experience of the transitory throughout the building.

The transient nature of the site expresses both socially and physically, the significance on the social fabric as well as the physical growth of this specific part of West Melbourne.

I wanted the idea of transience and thresholds to be absorbed into the building’s design, especially throughout the its form, use of materiality, colour and texture.

The forms throughout the building attempt to subvert binary oppositions such as; open v. closed, solid v. void and frame v. infill, instead attempting to explode the movement between states.

Exploding the Frame Diagrams produced with Illustrator, based on hand sketches and 3D explorations in Rhino.

This emphasis on capturing the process of transition in order to celebrate flux, uncertainty and change.

The functional requirements of the brief were altered considerably to allow for the integration of all of the stakeholder groups, importantly I defined the Therapeutic Well Being Program as an articulated rehabilitation program called ‘Reclaim’ whose aim was the reintegration of ex-offenders back into society.

These diagrams explore the transition between two states; imprisonment vs. freedom. I have abstracted these states of being diagrammatically, through the metaphor of a barred window juxtaposed with an open one.

By retaining straight linear elements of both the bars and the frame, an element of consistency and history is maintained and linked to the personal narratives of the building’s users. The diagrams document the key design elements of irregular, stretched ‘bars’ and offset, shifted ‘frames’.

The development of my form and facade came from my explorations with physical models and sketches trying to articulate the essential architectural elements that express the different states of being between incarceration and everyday life.

This manifesto is not about style, aesthetics, representation, or sensation. It is not about an architectural object, an ‘ism’, or a blind allegiance to critical discourse.

This manifesto is about questioning, redefining, and expanding the design process in light of the consolidation of computational design. It is about defining the potential of digital praxis, digital not as a tool, but as a system of thinking which has the capacity to manifest organic complexity throughout the architectural object’s life-span.

The point of inflexion on a continuous curve demarcates the moment that convex becomes concave and vice versa, it encapsulates a moment of duality and contradiction integral to the notion of entanglement in which the conditions of being and not-being, inside and outside are possible at one and the same time. Entanglement combines without compromise the abstract, praxis and object, the sum of each element results in the composition of the whole and yet each element also maintains its vital primacy.

Architecture sits at this point of inflexion, balanced between the symbiotic relationship of architectural theory to architectural object. The responsibility that is tied to this privileged position requires the architect to move past simply creating an object of beauty and representation, and instead strive for a process that enables both a conceptual and physical engagement with the past, present, future, and with the urban, social, political contexts of their time.

Practice today cannot escape the paradigm-shifting effect of digital technologies and computational space. The digital is often singled out as being revolutionary, a radical unprecedented break with the past, an ahistorical tool, in reality this is far from true. The praxis of computational (parametric) design enables architecture-as-process rather than as outcome, a process which achieves unprecedented engagement with the traditions of practice and the creativity of innovation as entwined strands of a holistic approach, rather than dialectically opposed concepts.

DECAY AND CONTINUITY digital praxis | beyond the blob

ABPL90117 21st CENTURY ARCHITECTURE SM2 2018 This image, along with the text, are excerpts from the “Manifesto” written as the culmination of the subject 21st Century Architecture. The manifesto was an opportunity for me to trash out my own sense of direction and purpose within architecture, and my own desire to work in highly creative, conceptually innovative and radical ways.