Lyons : The Pursuit of Ideas - Reflection

This reading is from Architecture Australia and Looks at the Lyons architectural practice and below is my reflection on the reading-

I found this article quite interesting as is about a relatively young practice that isn’t a hero architect firm that builds right in the prime locations where many people are exposed to it. They build in areas that aren’t “traditional concepts of civic beauty” to quote the reading. And that most of their architecture has ornamentation in their exterior facades relating to ideas pulled from the context in which the building is to be integrated.

This ornamentation was enabled by digital technologies more accurately computers, as they are used by the practice as tools to generate forms for abstraction. This I found most interesting as it is an approach or inspiration that could be applied in similar ways to my design project.

This ornamentation on the skin is not the only thing that Lyons focuses on the firm also looks at other aspects of the architecture like the changing typologies as mentioned among other things in the text is it also something to consider.

Another aspect that stood out in the reading was the representational aspects of the architecture and that the practice looks at ideas and ways of finding inventive representations to put across in their architecture. And mentioned in the text that these generators for ideas tend to be specific to the brief or context not just abstractions that come out of thin air, and this is important to note. As this is what makes their architectural project stand out and have merit in my opinion. This also is an important part of my own design and the methods and ways of thinking and coming up with ideas to apply to my design project.

Australian Baroque Reading Reflection

Australian Baroque (2001) Reflection – Architecture Australia March/April 2001

With this reading it was hard to connect with what the article as what was being described in the text was hard to visualise and understand this wasn’t helped by the hard to make out photos and diagrams provided. The ideas put across of the knots and the five sided string were able to be slightly grasped but still did not make a lot of sense much like the rest of the ideas, while they could be understood they were hard to visualise. After a brief investigation into clearer photographs it a lot of it still was not clear how these ideas came together, possibly due to the deconstructivist nature of the building making it hard to see what was present and its chaotic nature, which was related to the fact that Australia was still finding its culture or style as there are a mixture of design elements that relate to the rest of the world and also some that are distinctly Australian.

The brail on the external walls is what stood out the most as it is a form of ornamentation that has the aesthetic appeal and also a meaning embedded in it which makes the invisible culture of Australia visible (to those that can read brail). It makes visible something invisible, apparently much like the rest of the building as told in the reading.

The brail is an interesting way to embed a message or messages into a building and open up new paths to possibly explore and investigate in further studies and research.

Technology Fail

In an interesting link to my folie - which explored how technology had somewhat failed or was not up to a task and then can be helped by human interaction/ intervention.

My internet connection has been somewhat intermitent lately for some unknown reason. It is a Next G wireless internet conection (due to the fact i live just that bit too far from the exchnage) and it keeps droping out and having to reconect. Sometimes it fixes it self others it involves me having to reset the modem and the wireless network in which is runs through also.

While not completly related to architecture it is realated to digital technology and due to it being in it relatively early stages it still needs some help or intervention.

Tutorial 2 - Week4?

Its all been a bit of a blur lately and havent had a chance to post up nearly as much as i would like to.
During the second tutorial we split into groups to better manage the time but from it I got a few main points that need to be explored / researched or looked into

-Define the perameters of project (concept?)
-information development
-experiment (site analysis - kind of lost now i think about it?)
-Develop the core concept - from the folie -

The Function of Ornament - Reflection

In the first tutorial a reflection on a book section from The Function of Ornament was set as task which will go towards the assesment. Below is the refelction on the reading.

 The Function of Ornament cover

This reading was interesting and insightful and showed me a new way of thinking about ornamentation and architecture and how to think about both of them. The fact that interior and exterior of buildings have become much more disconnected from each other due to the increase in HVAC systems and also the need for ‘blank spaces’ as mentioned in the reading because the client is not known at the outset of the project and can change over time. This is interesting as it can create a more interesting project as it possibly needs more thought than a project with a definite client.

A section of the text that I found interesting was “lt [ornament] is not a mask determined a priori to create specific meanings”(p.8) and another passage from the paragraph also appealed was “At times ornament becomes an ‘empty sign’ capable of generating an unlimited number of resonances.” These two sections of the text give a new way of thinking that I like to think about, and would be interesting to look into further as not everything has to have a “hidden” meaning to it to appreciate it. Overall the aspect of ornamentation is interesting as it allows for some freedom of expression and allows for more exploration in architecture and could lead to some interesting design concepts or ideas, Ornamentation can be an important part of architecture and is an area that can go in many directions of feel.

Another interesting aspect of ornamentation that is talked about in the text is its depth which is something I have not explored greatly in any of my past designs and would be something that can be improved and built on, the text has certainly give me a lot of food for thought towards the way I thing about an approach design in the future.

First theme group tutorial

On the 11th March 2010. The first Ornamental Ants theme group tutorial took place, and we presented our Folie Designs  (shown below) and also discussed the main theme of the group Ornament and Stephen our tutor showed us some intesting examples of ornamentation present in architecture.

The first of many posts

This blog has been created to help document the development of my architectural design 5 (DAB510) project - Contextual and Spatial Parameters. 

The project is to design a swiming pool for the Howard Smith Warves located in Brisbane under the northern side of the Storey Bridge. In the coming posts there will be updates to the development of the project design.

- Stewart