Barbican

Rennie Liffen & Saran Kim

Studio Description

No talking, no running and definitely no touching.
That’s what I was told.
Inside it’s another world.
An incandescent glow in my ripple-distorted reality
This room and this city
This is an auto-
B i o g r a p h y

At 52 hertz we’ll be ok
Sun set over your shoulder
My fortress in the Metropolis
Across that past-polished threshold
The world is at our feet

Uncomfortable in the metaphor
But okay on your end is okay on mine
What a difference distance makes
Inside our familiar-far away

Now that I’m here, inside
I’ll see you in the museum of our mind

Studio D02 will develop intimate and idiosyncratic projects exploring the spatial and human dimensions of architectural composition. We will engage with the experiential and phenomenological implications of an architecture of both ‘individual’ and ‘community’. The studio project will be sited at The Barbican in London and students will imbue an imaginary immediate context with spatial and experiential profile. The studio thematically focuses on ‘archive and collection’ as a foundation for programmatic invention and seeks to understand the compositional opportunity of combined public display and everyday functions. Each student will form the functional and experiential brief for the architecture of a small building which both, displays selected works of a British sculptor and provides an everyday function for Barbican residents. Students will be directed to a series of contemporary architectural references and be encouraged to embrace a reductive and legible architectural language.

The studio promotes sensitivity and humility in architectural thought and process, but also seeks opportunities within projects to explore empowerment and social equality. Context provides this opportunity and is perceived as something beyond the physical, where narrative and imagination are the surveyors of the intricate detail of fictitious places and characterful locations, creating a unique, provocative and shared setting for projects.

Studio Outcomes

Students will explore a truly iterative design process in conjunction with studio leaders, technical tutors and collaborators in Melbourne and London, where abstract (orthographic) drawing and physical model-making are the central activities. A disciplined and methodical approach which uses drawing and modelmaking incrementally and values and exhibits every ‘trace’ of the process as the ‘archaeology of the mind’. Through these modes of working the studio will develop a singular architectural composition that explores spatial experience, landscape, structure and tectonic / material qualities. Final outcomes will be restricted to specific and consistent communication tools with a focus on the representation of ‘atmosphere’ and ‘construction’. Students will be expected to produce significant and sophisticated drawings and models throughout the semester, communicating their intentions with clarity and passion.

Studio Leader/s

RENNIE LIFFEN is a British Architect from London who has practiced in Europe and Australia. Rennie was involved in design studio teaching for many years in the UK and has been living, working and teaching in Melbourne since 2005. Rennie established Masters’ Design Studio 2 over a decade ago and this will be his twenty-fourth version of the studio and the first in collaboration with Saran Kim. Rennie’s teaching was recognized in 2022 with an ABP Teaching Excellence Award.

SARAN KIM is an alumnus of Masters’ Design Studio 2 (2022, semester 1) and a Graduate of Architecture at Architectus. Saran has four years of sessional teaching, research collaboration and assistance experience at the ABP faculty and she received an ABP Staff Excellence Engagement Award in 2023. Saran enjoys the rigorous, iterative design process and proactive design culture that Studio 2 is known for.

Readings & References

www.studio2.world

• ILA BEKA & LOUISE LEMOINE – Film – Barbicania
• JULIEN TEMPLE – Film – London: The Modern Babylon
• VEGYN – Music + Video – A Dream Goes On Forever
• THE SERPENTINE PAVILIONS – Architecture
• PETER ZUMTHOR – Architecture and Theory
• JUHANI PALLASMAA – Writing and Theory
• TADAO ANDO – Architecture + Design Process
• FLORES & PRATS – Architecture + Design Process
• ATELIER BOW-BOW – Architecture + Graphics
• LAB-LAB FOR ARCHITECTURE – Theory + Graphics

Schedule:
Monday 3pm-6pm, MSD 240
Thursday 3pm-6pm, MSD 240

Contact Handbook