arch-peace: latest news

High intensity workmanship for rural construction in a context of National Goals’ change - A brief comment on Rwanda

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:17 GMT

In 2003 the Gov’t of Rwanda launched the HIMO Approach to support development and construction of infrastructure. The Gov’t initiative actually put down in paper something that was already taking place: or could entrepreneurs afford the salaries or transport fees for outsiders?

The HIMO approach looks forward to: i) Creating jobs and reduce rural unemployment; ii) Provide necessary infrastructure for rural development; iii) Protect the environment; iv) Demobilse and reintegrate soldiers; v) Increasing revenues and purchasing power within rural areas.

Despite the approach might seem adequate, Rwanda is too crowded to think about rural for long term. In 3 years a new generation of English-educated students will emerge and youth’s priorities will have switched -or will switch in at least 3 more yrs- from agriculture to market, from countryside life to urban/suburban life –even if most of the schools lack electricity.

The Gov’t wants to lead the country into a competitive market, with great focus on the technology and service sectors, thus this HIMO concept will slowly die of hunger. Rural people will continue participating due to the income possibilities, but it won’t match expectations. They will not want to feel as slaves, and in this war-affected country the authorities will have to reconsider their manners.

Membership fees due in July

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:55 GMT

As of July 2009, Architects for Peace has changed the date upon which membership fees fall due. From this year onwards fees for all renewing members must be paid annually in July. If you haven't paid your membership in the last 12 months now is the time to pay!
In recognition of this policy change, the Committee of Management has agreed that all members who are financially current as of 30 June this year will be granted full financial membership for 2009/10.
Any new member who joins Arch-Peace in the period from 1 January to 30 June each year may request a pro-rata membership fee by writing to the Treasurer. The committee notes that in comparison to other organisations our membership fees are quite modest and have not been raised for several years.
We encourage all members to renew their membership this July and pay the appropriate membership fee via the link on the Arch-Peace website. Fees are only required for members from OECD countries (listed below). For students the fee is AU$15, members AU$35 and business members AU$190. There is no fee required for affiliated members from non-OECD countries.
Many thanks for your ongoing support.

OECD countries currently include: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Learning from Ulaanbaatar

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:06 GMT

In May in Vienna, I presented at a symposium on architecture studies in China and Mongolia. Adelaide University’s Centre for Asian and Middle Eastern architecture held such a cross cultural symposium when I was an architecture research masters degree student there, but with my recent year of Mongolian architectural teaching development experience (see arch-peace previously), this year’s Vienna symposium provided an exciting opportunity to meet with central European, Mongolian and Chinese researchers, scholars and architects, in a truly cross cultural and cross-disciplinary meeting with anthropologists, ethnographers, conservationists and architectural historians. The conference was hosted by Vienna University of Technology’s ‘Comparative Architectural Research’ unit, together with Vienna University’s Confucius Institute, and with UNESCO backing. I have previously lived worked and taught in Vienna, and I thought that contributing a story about this conference presentation would make an interesting editorial on cross cultural architectural education for Architects for Peace.

I prepared a report on the architecture teacher training project I had pursued in the peri-urban fringe of Ulaanbaatar in 2007-8, and extended this by reflecting on the work with architecture students at Sheffield University and London Metropolitan University. Sheffield architecture school’s doctoral research group, Lines of Flight,had invited me previously, and I worked with a doctoral planning researcher there to develop the second part of the paper. Supreeya Wungpatcharapon, who is researching participatory processes in urban planning, provided another perspective on the processes developed with Mongolian students, and the resulting conference paper was one which seemed to effectively address the frontier of architectural education in central Asia.

Delegates had come from China, Germany and Austria, and there was a small group from Mongolia. The papers ranged from ethnographical studies of vernacular agricultural building types to analyses of conservation of ancient cities. There was also a very wide range of presenters, from postgraduate students and young professors from Tsinghua University in Beijing to experienced Orient specialists from Pennsylvania, Munich, Würzburg and Hannover.

The session to which I was allocated, ‘Settlement Policy and Cultural Identity in Modern Mongolia’ comprised a paper on the Ethnic Identity of a Mongolian minority group by a Mongolian scholar in Austria, an exhibition of excursion work carried out in Ulaanbaatar tent districts by Austrian students, and my reflections on working with Mongolian architecture students, developing site analysis and brief writing methods.

I briefly presented two live projects – ‘Sanzai Eco-houses’ and ‘Yarmag Children’s Camp’- through which newly trained architects and architecture students aimed to incorporate participatory processes in their design projects, consulting with clients, and exploring options for site analysis.

The first live project, in Sanzai, on the northern periphery of the capital, is a private developer’s proposal to build four houses in an outer suburb, and to market these using an (otherwise dubious and unusual) ecological standard of accommodation, which would be habitable and energy efficient year round, from –30C in winter to 30C in summer. The second live project - another local Mongolian entrepreneur’s proposal - is to develop a nature reserve by introducing a children’s park, hotel and conference centre, in the foothills at the city’s southern edge.

The presentation and the conference session explored possible lessons to be learned from the issues of peri-urban settlement in Mongolia and future work on architecture in development being undertaken in Mongolia and other parts of Asia. A forthcoming research project by Sarah M Bassett on the Ger (the tent Russians called ‘Yurt’) Districts, planned for 2009-10, was also introduced to the conference in the context of sustainability and continuity.

Figure 1 Staff Participation levels in 6 development projects in 2008 – (white = none, grey = moderate, black = full)

First meeting

Figure 2 Staff meeting by G. Cowan

Figure 3 Graduates by G. Cowan. Sanzai - Site Analysis

Figure 4 Sanzai Site Analysis by students photo G Cowan. Learning from Las Vegas

Figure 5 Learning from Las Vegas (Venturi et al 1969).

Combining the Mongolia project review with recent work undertaken with students at London Metropolitan University in the area of participatory design and research, Wungpatcharapon and I discussed some lessons we considered might be learned from Ulaanbaatar. Despite the very different environments and resources, the processes of understanding sites and developing design briefs are not altogether different to those in other places.

Formal study of vernacular architecture in the Mongolian college is minimal. ‘Ger’ and ‘Khiid’ (home and monastery) seem to be regarded as cultural artefacts - rather than science or business which would associate them with ‘architecture’. Most students and teachers at the Mongolian college themselves live in peri-urban informal settlements of Ulaanbaatar, and are intimately familiar with the vernacular architecture of the Ger (Tent) and the self-build cottage tradition. These traditions are not formally taught at the college and they are not used as models for teaching, apparently because they are not aspirational to architecture as a modern and international form of building. The modern rituals of going to the ‘Delguur’ and ‘Tsakh’ (Shop and Market) are not studied as architecture subjects. International cultures of architecture (and to a degree Russian songs, Latin dancing etc) are regarded as ‘models’ but the mode of teaching these is didactic rather than exploratory or discursive.

The style of teaching architecture, particularly in vocational training institutions, and from my experience of tertiary colleges and universities in Mongolia, has traditionally been very didactic, rather than discursive or participatory. Therefore, the idea of collaboration in design studio, of participative site analysis and brainstorming design ideas are all unfamiliar to the Mongolian students I worked with. The experiments – with what in other settings might be fairly conventional participatory architectural studio methods - remind us that these are a developmental aspect of architectural practice which help to overcome cultural and language barriers and enable a more rigorous needs assessment for the development of an architectural design brief.

In peri-urban Ulaanbaatar, the notion of rapid deployment does not seem to be raised in architecture, despite the available model presented by the Ger (tent), which is commonplace, and apparently of little interest to Mongolian architecture students. Permanent buildings seemed to be the aspiration of architectural development, and these often take a long time in construction, spanning the seasons, and necessitating suspension of the building site during the bitterly cold winter.
In reference to the childrens’ camp scheme for Yarmag, and also for the live project for Eco-Houses in Sanzai, the notion of sustainability was used as a mere buzz-word. The need for energy efficient construction was recognised, although the amortisation cost of investing in more expensive design and materials worked against it in the view of students who did not have an understanding of life-cycle costing of buildings.

Participatory practice in architecture is a well-established concept in western, late capitalist architecture, and essential to traditional Mongolian Ger (Tent) building and possibly in monasteries. However, it was not an idea familiar to contemporary Mongolian architecture students I met, who are accustomed to more didactic and expert-led models of creating architecture – effectively, as a foreign European practice. Professors with whom I worked, and who had themselves been schooled in the west, in the European soviet capital Moscow or East Germany for example – tended towards didactic teaching styles and modes of design generation – and instructed students to copy patterns provided by them or from textbooks such as the 1965 Russian edition of Neufert’s Bauentwurfslehre. There was no sense of engagement in the translation and adaptation of foreign architectural ideas in the MCTC college, although Bat-Od’s locally written and produced architecture text book (Arkhitektur, Ulaanbaatar, 2005, 2007) suggests some ways to do this.

In the two live projects in Sanzai and Yarmag, the Mongolian students took similar approaches to developing analyses and briefs, with the advantage of real clients, real budgets and real potential outcomes. What may have been lacking in ‘academic discourse’ was replaced with actual live project experience; visiting the project sites in the north and south peripheries of the city respectively, and undertaking (apparently for the first time) site analysis, compiling design briefs and generating multiple-option original schematics.

The participatory processes employed in the live design projects here cannot be considered as an advanced level of participative practice that allows the end-users of the projects to make decision towards final design proposals. These live projects, however, allowed the Mongolian architecture students to explore alternative ways of developing architectural schemes as well as creating an open learning system in the academic environment. By opening a more dialogical space of learning together amongst teachers, students and clients (the users), the experience may encourage the students to develop alternative architecture processes and schemes that are appropriate to the Mongolian context, rather than those inspired by foreign or western styles of architectural design.

Conclusion
During the development of the Mongolia teaching work since 2007, there have been many supporters and correspondents who have taken part in critique and encouragement of the work. Colleagues undertook work in many diverse disciplines. For example, my partner Clare Hill undertook work in the textile development sector in Ulaanbaatar and Erdenet, and many other VSO colleagues and local non-government organisations collaborated on various development initiatives. Of many local and international scholars and development workers with whom I discussed developing various initiatives, an art curator and an anthropologist I met in Ulaanbaatar are keen to collaborate on a book, and the previously mentioned Chicago architect-researcher Sarah M Bassett will conduct a project on ‘Transitional Architecture’ in 2009-2010, and invites contact, at sarahmbassett@gmail.com, in regard to ongoing architecture development work in peri-urban Ulaanbaatar.

The work ‘Nomadologist in Ulaanbaatar’ 2007-2008, of an ‘architect teacher trainer’ at a Construction College, was reported in a previous article for Architects for Peace. The conference paper showed what Supreeya Wungpatcharapon and I and students reflected upon as ways of ‘Learning from Ulaanbaatar’, not only in terms of observing the resource limitations and shortcomings relative to our preconceptions, but also the potential of using the studio to develop constructive and open design processes. By reflecting on the training and live projects, and subsequent discussions about the outcomes at architecture schools in the UK, some of the insights on processes and methods can be taken from working in the rapidly changing, resource-poor environment of peri-urban Ulaanbaatar.

Under Construction - New Architecture School

Figure 6 Photo G. Cowan May 2008.

Note 1- Refer to Blog Entry - Site Analysis; initial discussion(http://nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com/2008/06/site-analysis-initial-discussion.html dated Sunday, June 29, 2008) photos http://www.flickr.com/groups/1025839@N24/

Note 2 - Refer to Blog Entry - Essential Design Skills(http://nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com/2008/06/essential-skills.html dated Wednesday, June 25, 2008)

General Photo Pool:
- http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadologist/2543151893/in/set-72157602065424017
- higher resolution images available on request from mailto: gregory@cowan.com

References:
- More about the symposium “Along the Great Wall”: http://baugeschichte.tuwien.ac.at/abk/symposium-china-mongolei/index_dt_mauersymp.html
- Participatory Techniques: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1025839@N24/
- Nomadologist blog - http://nomadologist-nomadology.blogspot.com/
- Sheffield University - Lines of Flight - PhD researchers group http://linesofflight.wordpress.com/
- London Met MA Architecture of Rapid Change Scarce Resources http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/pgprospectus/courses/architecture-of-scarce-resources.cfm
- Nomad Research http://www.innerasiaresearch.org/caroline_humphrey.htm
- Sarah Bassett http://www.elkrapidsnews.com/elk-rapids-news-features.php#ER
- Homepage - http://gregorycowan.blogspot.com/ (comments welcome)

PROJECT FOR GAZA / PROJET POUR GAZA

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:04 GMT

Un message en français qui suit :

Dear friends,

Hope you are well.

Given that the situation in Gaza has not changed since the end of Israeli attacks six months ago, the Palestinian people are still deprived of all basic necessities ie food, clothing, medical care and habitat. However, Palestinians in Gaza have surprised us recently with their ingenuity and expertise in construction. As many of you have seen, they used a construction technique based on ancient local materials such as clay and straw.

For more details, click the following link:

http://www.palestinianmothers.com/profiles/blogs/in-pictures-gazas-new-mud

At first, I was both happy and sad. I was Happy, because they found "The Solution" despite the very difficult condition caused by the Israeli blockade. I was sad, for me it’s an insult to people who has the right to enjoy all the amenities vital of today as a good thermal insulation, electricity services, drinking water and sewage system.

But over time, I found that instead of waiting for the international community which has done nothing up to date and will not do anything for that matter, it would be better than I spend in action and help these people from what is being done as technique of construction and trying to improve it.

What I propose, therefore, is to present some techniques of construction and building systems based on local materials and fit very well with “the block of clay and straw” system. Among these techniques there are the Canadian pit, the Persian wind tower as a good natural air conditioning and heating system that not require electricity. There is also the construction with straw bundle. For materials, there are natural stone, lime, hemp leaves, dried soap based on olive oil, beeswax and so on.
All these technical solutions and much more will be published in the group "Architects for Gaza - the reconstruction, starting this week.

Are there some among you who want to help me to enrich these ideas and make them pass as soon as possible to the Palestinian people. For those who are interested (e) s, please send me an email.

I hope to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Mourad Bendjennet.
email : mourad.bendjennet@gmail.com

Link of the group in Facebook « Architects for Gaza – the reconstruction »: http://www.facebook.com/raphaelmcnamara?v=feed&story_fbid=92069281740#/group.php?gid=62406365140

Chèr(e)s ami(e)s,

J’espère que vous allez bien.

Étant donnée que la situation à Gaza n’a pas changé depuis la fin des attaques israéliens il y a six mois, le Peuple Palestiniens reste encore privé de toutes les nécessités de base à savoir la nourriture, l’habillement, les soins médicaux et l’habitat. Cependant, les Palestiniens de Gaza nous ont surpris récemment avec leur ingéniosité et leur savoir faire en matière de construction. Comme plusieurs parmi vous l’ont constaté, ils ont utilisé une technique de construction très ancienne basée sur des matériaux locaux tels que l’argile et la paille.

Pour plus de détails, cliquer sur le lien suivant :
http://www.palestinianmothers.com/profiles/blogs/in-pictures-gazas-new-mud

Au début, j’étais à la fois content et triste. Content, car ils ont trouvé « La Solution » malgré les conditions de vie très difficile engendrée par le blocus Israélien. Et triste, par ce que je voyais cette situation comme une insulte à un peuple qui a le droit de bénéficier de toutes les commodités vitales de nos jours tels que une bonne isolation thermique, l’électricité, l’eau potable et le système d’assainissement des eaux usées.

Mais avec le temps, j’ai trouvé qu’au lieu d’attendre l’intervention de la communauté internationale qui n’a rien fait jusqu'à à date et qui ne fera rien d’ailleurs, il serait mieux que je passe en action et d’aider ce peuple à partir de ce qui est entrain de se faire construire et en essayant de l’améliorer.

Ce que je propose donc est de présenter de différentes techniques et de systèmes constructifs à base de matériaux locaux et qui s’adaptent très bien avec la construction en bloc d’argile et de paille. Parmi ces techniques je cite le puits Canadien, la tour du vent Persane comme systèmes de climatisation et de chauffage naturel qui ne demandent pas d'électricité; Il y a aussi la construction en botte de paille. Quant aux matériaux locaux, il y a la pierre naturelle, la chaux, les feuilles de chanvres séchées, du savon à base d'huile d'olive, de la cire d'abeilles...

Tous ces solutions techniques et bien d’autre seront publiées dans le groupe « Architects for Gaza – the reconstruction », à partir de cette semaine.

Y a-t-il parmi vous quelques uns qui veulent m’aider à développer ces idées et de les faire transmettre le plutôt possible au Peuple Palestinien. Pour celles et ceux qui sont intéressé(e)s, veuillez s’il vous plaît m’envoyer un courriel.

J’espère avoir de vos nouvelles.

Sincèrement,

Mourad Bendjennet.

Lien du groupe sur Facebook « Architects for Gaza – the reconstruction »: http://www.facebook.com/raphaelmcnamara?v=feed&story_fbid=92069281740#/group.php?gid=62406365140

Re-cap on 'Learning from Ampilatwatja', words @ bldg 50, June 2009

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:44 GMT

The lessons learnt from an RMIT design studio based in a remote indigenous community were the focus of this month's words @ bldg 50 talk. A crowd of over 50 turned out on a chilly June night to see Brendan Jones (Antarctica Architects) and Ian Watts (former General Manager of the Australian College of General Practitioners, now a full-time architecture student) present their experiences.

Brendan and Ian have run three community-engaged design studios at RMIT since 2007, each unique, but generally linked by a concern for using design as a means of improving healthcare environments. The talk focused on the 2008 'Home away from home' studio that set a group of 10 students the daunting task of designing a health clinic for the remote Northern Territory indigenous community of Ampilatwatja.

This challenging project received an enthusiastic response from the audience. Students from the studio fielded tough questions in regard to their design response and the challenges of designing for a community with its own deeply-rooted and complex system of values and needs without imposing Western assumptions and aesthetics.

Thanks to all who participated for a memorable and insightful discussion and to Brendan, Ian and students for their contribution to the ongoing dialogue of restoring cultural and physical health to the indigenous population. A video recording of the talk will be available on the website soon and we intend to present more projects addressing this theme in 2010, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, we hope you'll join us next month, when anthropologist Dr Maree Pardy will look at urban renewal + revitalisation approaches in Footscray and Dandenong.

Download the flyer for next month's talk here

Thursday 2 July 2009 :. Urban renewal + revitalisation: A tale of two cities

Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:43 GMT

Thursday 2 July 2009 at RMIT bldg 50, Orr St

Renewal and revitalisation are buzzwords around town. Drawing on preliminary findings from current research in Dandenong and Footscray, both presently subject to R & R processes, Maree Pardy considers a range of questions related to the promises of and visions for the renewal of these suburbs. Qualitative research in both suburbs has so far involved interviews, observations and conversations with policy and planning personnel, visitors, local residents and retailers. Both suburbs share rich yet diverse histories of class, socio-economics and immigrant and refugee settlement. Both also share a distinctive element of cultural diversity, which has been central to much discussion about their branding and futures. Yet, while cultural diversity is discussed, multiculturalism seems to have disappeared from many agendas.

Focusing on the difference between cultural diversity and multiculturalism, Maree will present some of the differing relations to ‘place’ among urban designers, social and urban planners and the many and diverse individuals and groups who inhabit these suburban spaces. The difference between cultural diversity and multiculturalism is outlined and deployed to suggest the possibility of an interesting discursive split arising here, as these suburbs are differentially imagined as spaces of display and/or spaces of dwelling. Maree will explore some prospects and risks that emerge from and within this split.

Dr Maree Pardy is an anthropologist who researches in the areas of multiculturalism, gender, and immigrant communities in urban Melbourne. She teaches in the Gender Studies program in the School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry at the University of Melbourne. Maree has presented a number of papers dealing with areas including identity, nationalism, multiculturalism and globalisation and authored the article "Kant comes to Footscray Mall—thinking about local cosmopolitanism" in the 2005 publication Sub Urban Fantasies. Her current research project ‘Urban revitalisation, public space and intercultural encounters’ is being undertaken with Professor Ruth Fincher, Professor Ghassan Hage and Ms Cathy Henenberg.

Download the PDF flyer for this event here

Entry by gold coin donation...refreshments provided

Eyal Weizman interview: Israel's oppressive architecture of occupation

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:57 GMT

Dissident architect Eyal Weizman explains the mechanics of Israel’s occupation of Palestine to Anindya Bhattacharyya

Prishtina is Everywhere

Thu, 28 May 2009 02:13 GMT

After NATO-led KFOR troops ended civil war in Kosovo (1999), an instant building boom changed the capital Prishtina dramatically. Within a few years its population doubled, partly as a consequence of an influx of returning refugees. Local investors profited, creating quick returns on ‘hit and run’ projects. On the fringes of the city ‘maverick urbanism’ had a different face: family clans invested family capital in large houses, built on farmland. The result was a random spread and development of the city, causing serious functional and structural problems for the future.

Prishtina is Everywhere describes, maps and analyzes the situation in Prishtina after 1999, documents problem-solving strategies, and discusses the significance of this kind of urban development for the way urban life evolves in crisis zones. The title hints at two phenomena: firstly, urban development of this type is typical for many post-conflict situations, and secondly, most of the construction in Prishtina has been financed by remittances from family members working abroad (one-fifth of Kosovo’s entire population lives abroad, specifically in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria).

This is the first of a series of investigations of urban development in post-conflict areas, initiated by Archis Interventions.

With contributions of Srdjan Jovanovic Weiss, Caroline Arnulf, Thilo Fuchs, Wilfried Hackenbroich, Irmgard Zerr, Florina Jerliu, Visar Geci, Ilir Gjinolli, Lilet Breddels, Arjen Oosterman.

Buy Prishtina is Everywhere Download Table of Contents

Public Lectures in University of Prishtina

Mon, 25 May 2009 09:10 GMT

Public lectures in University of Prishtina

Will present by prof.dr. Flamur Doli arch. VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE OF KOSOVO
prof. Xhelal Llonqari arch. SYNERGIC ARCHITECTURE-
Valon Gёrmizaj arch. CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE EXPLICATION OF THE PAST
This public lecture will take palce 28-29.05.2009 in FNA.UP

Presentation of projects by Prof Louis Sauer

Thu, 21 May 2009 19:52 GMT

Presentation by Prof Louis Sauer on his extensive work. Prof Sauer presented some of his residential and urban design work to ED2009 tutorial group lead by Beatriz C. Maturana, University of Melbourne, 6 May 2009.

Professor Sauer's projects are unassumingly social, economic and environmentally sustainable, sustainability nurtured by his conviction that "form follows function".

These projects show how the use and quality of the space can be maximised by a well thought through design offering multiplicity of uses, experiences and spatial quality. Manifested in these projects is Prof Sauer’s subtle sense of aesthetics. Yet, aesthetics is by no means the driving force behind his work, but the result of mastering the craft of architecture.
Presentation by Prof Louis Sauer

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Arts & Architecture Research high density new bauhaus

Louis Sauer: an architectural statement
Focus: The Low-rise Housing Work of Louis Sauer, Toshi Jukatu Journal of Urban Housing,
(Kajima Institute, Tokyo), pp 6 – 7, January 1980 (monograph)

Architecture is a process and a product of civilization for solving specific man-environment problems. As a process, it is an intrinsically cultural and economic action, involved with complex issues and varied participants, to achieve political purposes through technology. To the extent that the interactions of these forces, issues and participants are understood, one can become more effective in predicting and modifying the outcomes of the designed environment. By understanding the separate goals and disciplines of the individual participants in each aspect of housing, architects can intervene for greater influence upon the quality of housing and its environment.

ARCHITECTURAL BELIEF

The values and attitudes of architects are the most powerful determinants of their work. The open door to change is to understanding and working with these values and their resultant accountabilities. In order to make design choices, one must advocate a particular set of values and thus, architecture is a political process and product.

DESIGN: A PROCESS AND PRODUCT

For the architect to be in control, to be able to modify his work for predictive results, he should understand the nature of the various participants, their power and the incremental goals and resources for each of them and for each phase of the work. Design programming is dynamic and is directly linked to formal design — each design tool (site plan, elevation, detail, etc.) is in fact a synthetic statement of program and solution. This should be seen as a contingent process. Evaluative criteria are rarely explicit for those very areas most essential to the quality of architectural form. Architects are aware and highly sensitive to the values of their clients and peer group, and to the extent that these represent larger societal interests, to this extent will these larger interests be incorporated into the design program.

ARCHITECTURAL PRECONDITIONS

Normally a people develop homogeneous traditions, forms and infrastructure that satisfy their shelter needs. But when populations change and or become heterogeneous in terms of lifestyle and cultural expectancies old traditions no longer satisfy needs, and an architect's implicit understanding of the environment no longer solves the problems.

In these situations man-environment architectural relationships need to be made explicit, in order to predict the user’s fit with the final designed artefact. One problem today is that many architects understand the values of the programmer and are not sensitive to when the user’s value differ from those of the programmer. But substantial social knowledge is available to help the architect and programmers. The need for this is understood. What is not understood are the non-architectonic conditions necessary for the successful creation and use of architecture.

The final product of the architect is not under his control. To produce a lasting architecture the inter-relationship between land, finances, users, management and architectural form should be understood; however, architectural form is perhaps the least necessary to regulate – to control.

BUILDING TYPOLOGIES

Cultures produce traditions of building that efficiently solve shelter problems. This tradition, in the form of building typologies (site, building and unit), is generally given to the architect. It is only the abnormal and non-generic situation that allows the architect to produce forms outside of the tradition (e.g. Habitat by Moshe Safdie).

Fitzroy Learning Network

Wed, 20 May 2009 07:34 GMT

Fitzroy Learning Network (FLN) is a not-for-profit organisation that offers Refugees and newly arrived migrants a safe and welcoming environment to help with their transition to life in Australia. FLN offer numerous educational and social programs as well as provide practical support to help them achieve this. They also offer programs and support services to help marginalised or disadvantaged members of our community.

They have received funding to renovate a kitchen, toilet facility and storage area in their back hall as well as adding acoustic insulation to a small music studio where they conduct their after school youth education program. The back hall is a multi purpose space which is used as a classroom, a computer training room as well as a meeting room and function space. The kitchen is used daily by about 45 students to prepare morning tea and is used as a back up kitchen when they have to cater for large events that they hold several times a year. The current toilet is in a bad state and is used as an overflow storage area. They hope to have a usable toilet so the back hall will become a fully serviced space which could be hired out in the future. They re looking for innovative and energy efficient ways to renovate these spaces.

The budget is $50,000 with an option to increase if FLN are able to raise the funds. They are looking for someone to do an initial design proposal and ideally oversee the project to the contract admin stage. There is a 12 month timeline for the project but they would like to start construction in September to line up with the school holidays when building work will not interrupt the classes.

Please email your expressions of interest as well as a CV detailing any similar or relevant project experience to Kalli at kalli@architectsforpeace.org

Public Lecture :. Thursday 4 June 2009 :. Learning from Ampilatwatja

Wed, 20 May 2009 04:25 GMT

Thursday 4 June 2009 - 7.00pm RMIT Building 50, Orr St, Carlton Entry by gold coin donation.. refreshments provided.

Brendan Jones (Antarctica and RMIT), Ian Watts (Antarctica) and students from the 2008 Home away from home design studio.

Brendan and Ian will present three intense design studios run at RMIT since 2007 that tackle the idea of engaging the professional practice of architecture, the academic insititution and the 'real' world out there, and reflect, with the help of students, upon the lessons learned.

Antarctica began its work in the area of general practice and primary care in 2007 with the RMIT studio and subsequent architectural workbook, Rebirth of a clinic. This work was run in conjunction with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), and this association led to a call for expressions of interest from Aboriginal Health Centres around Australia for the 2008 studio Home away from home - Architecture for healthy Aboriginal communities. The studio's broad ambition was to help “close the gap” in the health status of Aboriginal people, compared with other social demographics. It required 10 students to work collaboratively, well beyond standard academic requirements, and produce a design for the Ampilatwatja Medical Centre located in a remote area of the Northern Territory. The group was projected into a seemingly infinite landscape and then placed in an intense and fragile community. They responded with a respectful, believable, working piece of architecture.

Seeking Asylum is the current studio being run at RMIT and explores the architectural issues of responding to the social, housing and health needs of people with severe mental health problems.