UNSW Built Environment Architectural Computing: David Butterworth

Hey all,

Second year, second semester… The end is in sight, but still a fair way to go before my grad project at the end of next year. I’m happy to say that all my classes seem to be quite good. I’m especially keen for my first ever University elective, which the Arch Comp guys are pretty happy to see, I chose Design Modelling- Time Based with Jeremy Harkins. I took a bit of a stab in the dark in terms of choosing the elective because I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d be in for. After my first tutorial, it appears that the course is mainly 3Ds Max, which I am really excited for and hopefully I can build on my skills from 1^st year. Other electives chosen by Arch Comp students were Advanced BIM (building information modelling) and Advance Multimedia… (and others).

After first semester with the Arch Studies students, we have broken off and gone our separate paths.  We are doing a Computation Studio, which is the equivalent to the architectural studies design studio (or so I am told ?!). We are currently looking at Shape Grammars, learning to script with Java*sigh*, and processing.

My other subjects include Structures and Construction and Design Information Management, both seem fairly beneficial and interesting. I’ve included some images from last semester that I submitted which you may not have seen yet… I was very happy with my results (though my WAM has dropped 1 point). Stay posted for more….

Stadium

New skin

Stadium interior

UNSW Built Environment: Ian Robertson (MArch) – 2nd place winner at the HP Cityscape 2020 Competition

HP flew me down to Melbourne for the day on Thursday (12 august), telling me only that I was a finalist in the HP Cityscape 2020 competition, information about the competition had been forwarded to students earlier last semester, and among the posted 15 semi-finalist entries there were 3 students from UNSW (I didn’t recognize and don’t remember the names of the others). I was the only one flown in for the ceremony.

At 4:30  the reception started in HP’s new demonstration and sales center in downtown Melbourne – the 15 posted entries (out of ~90 total submissions from all over Australia) were each on an easel with a core group of 5 in the middle (including mine). At 6:00 the results were announced with a student from Melbourne Uni taking third place, me in second and an RMIT student in first place.

The projects varied greatly, but many [including all 3 prizewinning entries] centered around somehow adding programmatic density to the urban environment – mine in the spaces between buildings, the first place by parasitically grafting onto them, and the third place by making a skyscraper from Melbourne’s laneways.

Interesting to see the convergence of ideas from many different schools – demonstrating, prehaps, shared concerns about the future of the city.

Space in the city isn’t pure, and can’t be defined by simple figure ground relationships. Space flows around unvisible whorls and eddies, and tracing movement in the urban environment exposes spaces that have unknown unactivity – space we don’t know that we don’t use. These unused sites are sites for the injection of life into the urban muddle – dead space for living people.

The unvisible spaces become building envelopes.

The unvisible spaces are thirdspaces between the the face and the mask – the walls we build and the walls we experience. Why not live inside these walls?

Low-fi analysis of the space allows unnecessary detail to be stripped away – revealing the essence of the urban condition.

The natural progression of the city is of internal entropy, the example of Split Croatia demonstrates how over time the pure condition is corrupted by life – emerging over time as the space it should become.

The tool of for the analysis is a flock of boids – autonomous agents that reveal urban flow patterns.

UNSW Built Environment Architectural Studies: Vanessa Yu

Throughout these last few weeks of Semester 1, I have been quite busy with my final assignments, preparing for exams etc…so basically just the normal…

After a solid 12 weeks of uni, I must say that I now have a greater understanding of what my degree involves, compared to the first few weeks (when I wrote up my 1st blog!) as a 1st year student.  It has been quite hectic, but definitely rewarding as I have gained invaluable skills regarding Architectural design.  We have been using a range of softwares and programs throughout the courses, including Adobe InDesign, Adobe Photoshop, Unreal Tournament and Google Sketchup.

A major assignment I did for BENV1080 Enabling Skills & Research Practice involved designing and putting together an A1 & A2 panel (poster) with text explaining a specific theme of interest regarding the Sydney Opera House, which was also accompanied by a 3D extruded model of a section of the Opera Theatre.   It was the first time I had ever made a model!  I found it extremely fun, as I have always had a strong passion in craft and modeling…but at the same time, I discovered that it was terribly time consuming.  The main aim of this assignment was for us to integrate our Academic, Visual and Computing Literacy skills acquired throughout the duration of the course.

When I first started the course, I was clueless with these programs as I had never had much contact with them.  However, through tutorials and lab sessions, I was provided with an overview of the basic tools in each program, which had allowed me to produce these final posters.  On a side note, through this course, I have achieved a greater appreciation of the Sydney Opera House.

Right now, I am looking forward to Semester 2…as I am sure that it will be as enjoyable and rewarding as what I have experienced so far at UNSW.