2014 via 1946-1996
Extract from Visions & Voices:
Curtin University Celebrates 50 Years of Architectural Education.
Essay by Duncan Richards
Showing posts with label crit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crit. Show all posts
20.4.14
13.8.12
CASA Reverse Critique
Amidst the current media debate of 'Architecture and Criticism' the second Reverse Critique was recently held on the Blue Carpet Level of Building 201. Organised by Curtin Student Architecture Association (CASA) this ongoing event aims to reverse the typical positions of student and staff in their roles as presenters and reviewers of work pinned up for critique. The understated styling of the poster advertising the event concealed the secret longing of the student body for some form of 'get even' with staff. Those to be lined up in the theoretical crossfire of pinup board and student firing squad were Simon Pendal and Stephen Neille who were discussing their recent exploration of transportable housing types, Dr Elizabeth Karol championing her own home's good intentions of sustainability, Sambit Datta highlighting the conundrum that is servicing an architecture of learning, and Leonie Matthews and Paul McDonald expelling the pleasures and pitfalls of pro-bono work for various sporting communities up in the hills.
11.5.12
Response to FJE’s review of Duckworth-Smith’s PS12
FJE invited me to respond to his commentary as (while stuffing our faces at lunch last week) we disagreed over both his reading of Anthony Duckworth-Smith's presentation at the last PS12 and Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. Our views on that seminal novel we shall keep for elsewhere. FJE’s comments addressed by this post are here: FJE's Comments.
FJE's main critique of Duckworth-Smith seems to be that his project is both too narrow and too broad in focus. My impression of FJE's criticism was the following: Firstly as an architect D-S should be presenting a resolved building design as a 'solution' to his site of investigation - that is that his project is too broad. Secondly, that as a resolved building design this should deal fulsomely with all aspects of design quality - that is that his project is too narrow. (I note that FJE levels neither of these criticisms at Weller.)
FJE's main critique of Duckworth-Smith seems to be that his project is both too narrow and too broad in focus. My impression of FJE's criticism was the following: Firstly as an architect D-S should be presenting a resolved building design as a 'solution' to his site of investigation - that is that his project is too broad. Secondly, that as a resolved building design this should deal fulsomely with all aspects of design quality - that is that his project is too narrow. (I note that FJE levels neither of these criticisms at Weller.)
This broad-narrow criticism does not seem to engage with Duckworth-Smith's work on the grounds it was presented. D-S's presentation of his work did not claim to ‘solve’ these potential sites, but to engage with them, and address one of the perceived (or actual) resistances to their development. Contrary to FJE I find D-S's acoustic-based enquiry of these sites timely in direction and focus. I view this as one of the many possible routes of enquiry into the question "How can Perth become more dense?" Which to my mind is the question immediately raised by Weller’s (amongst others’) assertions that it must. There are a plethora of possible answers to this question and some have geographic locations and building forms that would have more spatial and lived quality than others.
D-S starts a move in one such direction of quality from a review of amenity by mobility in Perth's suburbs. He has located a typology – the East-West bus corridor – that to my knowledge has not yet been addressed in this context. (Our old highways and suburban railway stations have for example received much more attention. Perhaps they are more glamorous.) D-S draws on his specific skills and interests to address one significant constraint to this site – acoustics – while acknowledging the work of others who have worked in similar sites with different focuses.
Where FJE's criticism fails is in not being able to locate D-S's work within a developing field of enquiry. Within this context D-S’s work opens up more specific questions and possibilities for exploration. To my mind this 'opening up' is a research success, rather than failing.
D-S starts a move in one such direction of quality from a review of amenity by mobility in Perth's suburbs. He has located a typology – the East-West bus corridor – that to my knowledge has not yet been addressed in this context. (Our old highways and suburban railway stations have for example received much more attention. Perhaps they are more glamorous.) D-S draws on his specific skills and interests to address one significant constraint to this site – acoustics – while acknowledging the work of others who have worked in similar sites with different focuses.
Where FJE's criticism fails is in not being able to locate D-S's work within a developing field of enquiry. Within this context D-S’s work opens up more specific questions and possibilities for exploration. To my mind this 'opening up' is a research success, rather than failing.
9.4.12
Manjimup SHS Science Laboratories - JCY
On
the edge of Manjimup, a large inland town in WA’s South-West, is a
multi-purpose educational campus which has expanded since 1999 from a
Senior High School to include a TAFE, a primary school, and an Edith
Cowan University facility.
Three science laboratories and an accompanying staff office have been constructed in the northern part of the campus, replacing transportable buildings that used to house the senior high school’s physics and chemistry labs.
Three science laboratories and an accompanying staff office have been constructed in the northern part of the campus, replacing transportable buildings that used to house the senior high school’s physics and chemistry labs.
31.3.12
WA Architecture Awards: Presentation to Juries - Live blog
We 'live blogged' the event on our Facebook page.
Here it is, as it happened:
9:06 Interior 9am - starting the Presentation to Juries liveblog.
9:19 Interior LM "what are you two vegemites doing here?"
9:21 Interior Bollig Design Group - Augusta Margaret River Shire civic administration (interior category). Smooth presentation to start the day, building had strong regional elements.
9:24 Interior PDFs need ctrl+L-ing.
9:27 Interior DMG - Crown Mansions: Opulence is the theme.
9:28 Interior presenting 'the shots'.
30.9.11
Architecture & Culture 302 presentations
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| there is something different about building 201 today... |
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| coffees and hot chocolates are primed and ready |
26.7.11
2.10.10
design: complex - week 8 review transcript
Wednesday 22 Sept 2010, Building 201 (Blue Carpet Level), Curtin University.
FJE (student), S (lecturer), A (guest critic)
F: um ok well my initial moves I suppose were... I wanted to... I kind of like how the site was with its railway lines, bus station and horseshoe bridge and so I decided to keep those things and leave the City and Northbridge divided from each other, so I've... turned the horseshoe bridge into this inhabited bridge with this element which comes around the bridge. Then the foyer comes up here to the main auditorium, which is also serviced by these back of house areas which split along the railway line. Trucks can come up here. All the workshops go up towards the auditoriums, the performers areas are housed along here. In terms of edges I've responded to this edge of Northbridge here with these elements here, there will probably be non-opera house program here in the ground level to try to integrate the building into the city more.
A: Is that that the railway?
F: That's right. So they've already sunk one line which links up to the underground station, so I've left that sunk as it is now, but the other one is still on the surface.
A: So does this [indicates model] become part of the building program?
F: No it's staying as a bus station. I've looked at integrating it into the program but I haven't really found something more useful for it than it being a bus station. the building connects with it here, but it sort of sits slightly apart from the building I suppose, but as close as it can still allowing for the buses. With the elimination of the this platform here, you can come up off the platform and come up onto this bridge. This becomes a large public square suitable for performances and things, there's a smaller and much more intimate square on the Northbridge side - that corner always gets so packed with people because they are coming across, I think there is an opportunity there to make it something larger and more interesting
S: So what's the core idea?
27.7.10
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