TURNING

Rennie Liffen & Marijke Davey

Studio Outline:

‘Tell me of beauty?’ said the mouse to the whale.
‘… krill, my dear, a swarm of krill.’
‘what is it of krill?’
‘krill… they dance in the sunlight, the
sunlight, it dances, it dances through them,’

The mouse tried to imagine.

‘And you, dear friend, tell me of beauty?’
‘beauty… beauty is returning to my small
dark corner of the world. It is the place
where I feel safe.’

TURNING is a studio about beauty. As day turns to night ….the studio will explore the acts and rituals that we build ourselves and our lives around. The shared experiences, within our community, the singular experiences within ourselves, and the spaces that exist between. How do they transform? How do we transform ourselves?

We will develop intimate and idiosyncratic works of architecture that truly explore and reveal the human dimensions of contemporary life. Everything will be drawn. Drawn upon, drawn with hands, tracing the patterns that embody a human life. We will engage with the experiential and phenomenological implications of an architecture of both ‘individual’ and ‘community’ and will take inspiration from the extraordinary work of the enigmatic English-born musician, visual artist and social activist, ANOHNI. We will consider the role of architectural space as a component of empowerment for those on the margins of mainstream society. Narratives detailing our ‘outsiders’ will be developed in conjunction with our writer-collaborator to form the functional and emotional brief for the architecture of an Antechamber and Hortus Conclusus sitting within the dystopian reality of an imaginary post-industrial landscape.

Studio Leaders

RENNIE LIFFEN is a British Architect from London who has practiced in Europe and Australia. Rennie was involved in design studio teaching for twenty years in the UK and has been living, working and teaching in Melbourne since 2005. This will be Rennie’s eighth Masters CDE studio and his first in collaboration with Marijke Davey.

MARIJKE DAVEY is a graduate of architecture from RMIT. Marijke is interested in the social contexts within which architecture is created and experienced and understanding that architecture is something that cannot be created alone or in isolation from everything else. There is always a conversation to be had.

Learning Outcomes:

Students will explore a truly iterative design process in conjunction with studio leaders and studio collaborators, where orthographic drawing, descriptive writing and physical model-making are the central activities. A disciplined and methodical approach which uses drawing, writing and model-making incrementally and values and exhibits every ‘trace’ of the process as the ‘archaeology of the mind’. This will include the rigorous exploration of a single architectural composition including spatial experiences, environment, technology and materiality. Each student will design an ‘Antechamber’ (a building for preparation) and ‘Hortus Conclusus’ (enclosed garden) and final outcomes will be restricted to specific and consistent communication tools exploring digital techniques of drawing + making. Students will be expected to produce significant and sophisticated drawings and models throughout the semester which communicate their intentions with clarity and passion. Students will make three self-directed visits to films and exhibitions in Melbourne.

Reading and Reference:

• ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS – Music + Performance + Associations,
• ANOHNI – Music + Performance + Associations;
• CHARLES ATLAS – Video Art;
• PETER ZUMTHOR – Architecture and Theory;
• JUHANI PALLASMAA – Writing and Theory;
• PIET OUDOLF – Landscape and Theory;
• LAURETTA VINCIARELLI – Watercolour Painting;
• EMILIO AMBASZ – Architecture and Theory;
• JAMES CORNER – Landscape Architecture;
• TADAO ANDO – Architecture and Process;
• JAMES TURRELL – Installation Art / Architecture;
• TINO RODRIGUEZ + VIRGO PARAISO – Painting;
• KAZUO OHNO – Butoh Dance;
• JOANNA CONSTANTINE – Performance;
• WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE – Play (Midsummer Night’s Dream);
• PHILIPPE PARENO – Video Art;
• ROSS COULTER - Photography

ST1/02 Monday 12pm - 3pm, MSD Room 142
ST2/02 Thursday 6:15pm - 9:15pm, MSD Room 140