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atrium 2002

faculty of architecturebuilding and planningthe university of melbourneissue one

Towards a Design–Research Culture

Jeff Turnbull Retires

Alex Selenitsch

Personal Chairs Awarded

Books

Graduates Reflect

Struggle in the Studio

Monitoring Greater Melbourne

Designing Woomera

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In April we learnt that Seng Lim Nikolauz Cheong had been jointly awarded the RAIA/BHP Student Biennale first prize for 2002. This is the top recognition in Australia for recent graduates and undergraduate students in architecture, and was a cause for celebration but not surprise because another of our graduates, Lewis Hunt, had won it in 2000. (It is a biennale and so is only offered every second year.) In fact, recent graduates/students of the University of Melbourne have won the award on the last four occasions, and have similarly scooped up the major share of the other prizes offered through the national competition – we have topped the pool in Australia for the past eight years. We can be similarly positive in reporting achievements from our other programs: Property and Construction, Urban Planning and Development, and Landscape Architecture.

Of course none of this should be surprising. The intakes into all our undergraduate programs come with the highest tertiary entrance rankings of all such programs in the country.

We can be equally positive about our staff. In April Philip Goad was offered a Chair of Architecture, and Kim Dovey a Chair of Architecture and Urban Design (and both, I am pleased to say, accepted – congratulations to Professors Goad and Dovey). Additionally, Miles Lewis was

appointed to a Personal Chair in 2001 and Professor Graham Brawn continues to add to our strength. In the architecture field we have four professors, which is three more than any other school in Australia.

The professoriate is supplemented by our Professorial Fellows, who of course carry the title of professor. In June we were able to welcome six additional Professorial Fellows to the Faculty: Charles Choguill to Urban Planning; Steve Calhoun and Rodney Wulff to Landscape Architecture; and Julie Eizenberg, Sumet Jumsai and Geoffrey London to Architecture. Thanks to them for their generosity in agreeing to join us.

We are constantly attempting to further strengthen the Faculty and early this year we were joined by Richard Reed in Property and Construction, and Kevin O’Connor as an Associate Professor in Urban Planning. We expect to make further appointments in Architecture and in Urban Planning later this year. Indeed, we have a policy of annually 'testing the market' in what is really a never-ending search to increase the Faculty’s intellectual capital and quality of our programs. And that, as they say, is the good news. However, we also have to report the retirement of Jeffrey Turnbull and the recent departure of Stephen Cairns for Edinburgh. Last year we sadly farewelled Professors John Friedmann and Leonie Sandercock as they moved on to the University of British Columbia. All leave with our best wishes and warm affection.

To conclude this account of staff changes, I need to mention that I will be stepping down as Dean in December after an eight-year stint. (I am looking forward to giving more time to my PhD students and my academic writing.) The new Dean will be Professor Ruth Fincher, currently Professor of Urban Planning in the Faculty. Ruth comes with an unparalleled reputation for high scholarship, inspiring leadership, enthusiasm and fairness, and she is greeted with goodwill from all.

Two further good news stories need to be reported. The first is exceptional: in July we occupy the old (but refurbished), eccentrically beautiful Baldwin Spencer Building as a significant addition to our

premises; then next year we will also move into the Old Commerce Building. These will represent an increase of about 20% in the space available to the Faculty and thereby facilitate major improvements in our teaching and research. They will also, rather symbolically, have us occupying two sides of the central Concrete Lawn, with the Student Union and the University Administration facing us on the other two sides. An appropriate focus for the University! Needless to say, the present Architecture and Planning Building remains ours.

The second good news story is routine, but more significant for that. Our international links, collaborative arrangements, joint studios, exchanges, research activities etc. continue to expand and we can report new initiatives in 2002 involving Indonesia, Taiwan, China, Germany and France. In those and a range of other countries, longer established relationships have been further developed and deepened. The vigorous internationalising of the Faculty’s curriculum, staffing, student body, research and collaborations has been the special hallmark of my era as Dean.

This is the first issue of Atrium. It is intended as a newsheet, to inform our friends of events and changes in the Faculty. The purpose of this Introduction has been to set something of a context in which the items that follow can be read. More of that context can be found in EYES, our annual report of student design work, in ~ise which similarly samples student textual projects, in the annual Research Report, and of course on the Faculty’s webpage, at:http://www.arbld.unimelb.edu.au/

FROM THE DEANProfessor Ross King

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JEFF TURNBULL RETIRES Another beginning: reflections on retirement

The class teacher at primary school would ask us at the end of the year: what do you want to be? When I was nine years old I changed from saying ‘a carpenter’ to ‘an architect’. At home the educational goal of going to university was a given. My father had designed our new house, and he had done the joinery work himself on the beautiful timber finishes. He would give my notepad pages of soft-pencilled house plans patient and practical critique, pointing out the complexity of functional room adjacencies. My childhood fantasy was to be someone involved in the production of housing for everybody, with houses as nice as our clinker-brick with half-timbering. This ambition to be an architect occasionally faltered when I would imagine being a painter, or an actor, or a multi-millionaire.

The score I obtained for year twelve would not admit me nowadays to architecture at the university. Today you have to have an ENTER of around 95 to gain admission. But I relished architectural studies, combining them at the end with postgraduate studies in town and regional planning. An independently wealthy American colleague of my father in timber research engineering, Charles Berolzheimer, offered to sponsor me and another five students to undertake postgraduate studies in the U.S.A. I was admitted to Master of

Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, where a masters student was required to do ten well-paid hours per week as a research or teaching assistant to one of the professors. I was assigned to Charles Moore, and the most intellectually stimulating and spiritually satisfying two years of my life ensued. I caught a bad dose of the teaching bug. After graduation and further teaching experience I chose to return to Australia, and pestered Professor Brian Lewis to give me a job. For forty years I have enjoyed teaching architecture, feeling privileged, enthralled, and fulfilled. But now I must leave; I much prefer to go with a bang than a whimper.

I have taught subjects in architectural design and history at every undergraduate level, and I was the first coordinator for the Master of Architecture (by Design) program, working with Graham Brawn and Haig Beck. Previously, George Tibbits had encouraged me to develop and present the Faculty’s first subject in 20th century architecture studies. Great satisfaction was achieved with the investigation program that I devised and ran for some years with research and presentation on practising Melbourne architects. I wish that I had published much more in this area. During twelve weeks in early 1988, I was teaching at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the inaugural fellow in the Griffin Exchange Program between the Melbourne and Urbana-Champaign schools. This teaching and research exchange commemorates the Griffins,

Walter Burley Griffin having graduated from the University of Illinois in 1899. Out of respect and gratitude for my good fortune I saw every Griffin-designed building then known in Illinois and Iowa and I joined the small and competitive cohort of Griffin scholars.

Presently I am reaching the end of the eight years part-time PhD candidature. My topic is 'The architecture of Newman College, University of Melbourne', designed and built by the Griffins in 1915–18. I am analysing the program, planning, construction, and form of this magnificent stone-finished reinforced concrete building in terms of the precedents then available to the Griffins. I love sleuthing, and from this analytical method has emerged a coherent interconnected realm of architectural literature and theory, motifs and elements, ideological and spiritual commitments. My supervisor, Dr Angela Hass, provides inspiring guidance as I surf around in my inquiries and findings, and wrestle with the writing.

Thank you to all who came to my ‘farewell’ on my sixty-fourth birthday. The Beaurepaire Centre is my favourite modern

building on campus. I am very fond too of the Leonard French mural upstairs. The exhilarating view from the huge Trophy Hall windows overlooking the University oval toward the college towers was saturated that day in glowing late-afternoon sunshine. My especial thanks go to Janne Morrison, Libby James, Carol Buchanan, and Michele Burder who conceived, organised and conducted the event with such grace and obvious pleasure. The food was delicious. I was delighted and greatly moved by the speeches from Tony Mussen, Philip Goad and Susan Hunt. My lifelong friend and sister, Anne Russell, was there, as were other members of my family, including my cousins, construction and engineering professionals, Robert and Douglas Turnbull. The whole evening was magical.

Already I miss working with students.

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For forty years altogether I have enjoyed teaching architecture, feeling privileged, enthralled, and fulfilled

I joined the small and competitive cohort of Griffin scholars

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Miles Lewis by Philip Goad

Years of Concrete in Australia (1988), Victorian Churches (1991), Melbourne—the City’s History and Development (1994), and Suburban Backlash (1999). This last book was an attack on the decline in the quality and implementation of town planning in Victoria. Numerous book chapters, articles and papers on architectural and building history, urban conservation, urban renewal, planning and housing policy have meant that Miles Lewis’s name is synonymous with incisive and encyclopaedic academic expertise.

A fierce and vocal critic of various aspects of contemporary town planning, Miles is constantly called upon to comment on architectural matters in the media. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the RAIA Robin Boyd Environment Award 1973, RAIA Walter Burley Griffin Award 1982, and RAIA Merit awards 1979 and 1983. He has received Royal Australian Planning Institute (Victorian Chapter) Awards for Excellence in 1994 and 2000. He has also held visiting academic positions at the University of Sydney and University of Auckland.

Miles’s principal area of teaching and research has been the history of architecture, with special emphasis on the cultural dissemination of building technology, embracing topics which include the history of unbaked earth construction, the transmission of stonemasonry techniques in the Dark Ages, primitive

PERSONAL CHAIRS AWARDED TO MILES LEWIS AND PHILIP GOAD

construction methods in Australia, 19th century prefabrication, and the development of reinforced concrete.

As a by-product of this activity, Miles has been a champion of conservation and heritage across Australia, and a critical player in the retention of some of the nation’s most significant historic buildings. In the conservation area, he has been involved in the development of the International Charter on Vernacular Architecture and of the Australian Burra Charter. His current projects include: International History of Traditional Building; Portable Buildings of the Nineteenth Century; Australian Building—a Cultural Investigation; and Melbourne Mansions. This last project includes a database of all of Melbourne’s prominent 19th century houses.

The Faculty extends its warmest congratulations to someone they all know as a wit, raconteur, gourmet chef, bibliophile, crossword fanatic, a man of punctilious principle, and as well, of course, the Faculty’s most eminent scholar: Professor Miles Bannatyne Lewis.

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A fierce and vocal critic of various aspects of contemporary town planning

Miles has been a champion of conservation and heritage across Australia STOP PRESS

Miles Lewis was awarded an AM, Member in the General Division, on the 2002 Queen's Birthday honours list. The honour was awarded 'for service to architectural history, heritage protection and urban planning, particularly through policy development and professional organisations'.

Miles Lewis, one of the Faculty’s best-known academics has been made a Professor. This is a great honour, and for many this will not come as a surprise—it will be regarded as a necessary and long overdue appointment. Miles has performed at the level of Professor for more than a decade. He is Australia’s expert on the history of architecture and its technology, the vernacular, and 19th century Australian architectural history. He has been with the University since 1948, when he was a founding member of the University Kindergarten! He even gained his primary school education within the present University grounds before leaving temporarily to gain his secondary education, after which he returned to obtain bachelors degrees in Architecture and Arts, and finally his PhD.

Miles has been at the head of virtually all the societies associated with his discipline. He is currently Vice-President of the Comité International d’Architecture Vernaculaire and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. He is a past president of the Town and Country Planning Association of Victoria, past president of the Society of Architectural Historians Australia and New Zealand, past president of Australia ICOMOS, and past president of the Council for the Historic Environment. He is the author of seven books: Victorian Primitive (1977), Don John of Balaclava (1977), The Essential Maldon (1983), Two Hundred

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Philip Goad by Julie Willis

the development of the modern house in Victoria. Philip combined his research efforts with periods of practice, working with Perrott Lyon Mathieson on the Telecom (now Telstra) Tower in Lonsdale Street, Melbourne (one of the finest buildings erected in the Melbourne CBD in the late 20th century) and was project architect for the extraordinary Building 8 at RMIT with Edmond & Corrigan. From 1988, Philip, in practice with Michael Fink, turned his attention to smaller-scale work, undertaking mostly domestic commissions.

Philip was appointed to a full-time position at the University of Melbourne in 1992 (the same year he completed his PhD), taking on the Master of Architecture (by Design) program, as well as teaching in design and history. The demand for Philip in academia forced the dissolution of Goad Fink in 1995 and since that time he has become one of the most valued members of the Faculty’s staff.

Philip’s contribution to architecture has been extensive: he has curated exhibitions, including one at the Museum of Victoria; was a consultant on conservation studies of the National Gallery of Victoria, the Victorian Arts Centre, and the Sidney Myer Music Bowl; been a past chair of the Buildings Committee and Twentieth Century Buildings Committee of the National Trust (Victoria); was a past

president of the Society of Architectural Historians, Australia & New Zealand; was a past editor of the refereed journal Fabrications; has been a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles, the Bartlett School of Architecture, Columbia University and MIT; and has been awarded (with others) two Small ARC grants and two Large ARC grants, totalling some $250,000 in funding. This is not to mention his publication record, which includes numerous highly-regarded published papers and book chapters, and the books Melbourne Architecture (1999), Troppo: Architecture for the Top End (1999), Durbach Block: the Luminous Space of Abstraction (with Harry Margalit) (1999), Architecture Bali: Architectures of Welcome (2000), and New Directions in Australian Architecture (2001).

Philip’s promotion to Professor was a well-deserved and appropriate honour. We hope that the rewards of professorship enable him to continue his strong contribution to architectural thought and education in Australia.

Dr Philip Goad was promoted to Professor in 2001, an important step in his illustrious academic career. His numerous publications, grants and roles within the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning and other institutions, coupled with the demand for his skills as a teacher and supervisor, attest to his talent and passion for architecture.

Philip began his undergraduate study in architecture at the University of Melbourne in 1979. His ability in architecture was noted early on, with one of his lecturers labelling him as ‘someone to look out for’. He lived up to that expectation, by winning the Nell Norris Prize (awarded to the student with the top marks for the year) in every one of the five years of his course. If that wasn’t enough, he also won the inaugural Edward and Penelope Billson Prize in his final year of architecture in 1984.

Interested in pursuing further study in architecture, Philip intended to enrol in a Masters degree at the University of California, Berkeley, upon winning the inaugural Henry and Rachel Ackman Scholarship in 1985. Instead, prompted in no small part by George Tibbits who was concerned that Philip’s talents would be forever lost to the United States, Philip enrolled in a PhD at Melbourne, examining

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His ability in architecture was noted early on, with one of his lecturers labelling him as ‘someone to look out for’

He has become one of the most valued members of the Faculty’s staff

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MONITORING GREATER MELBOURNE

Figure 3: Location of Employment in Melbourne

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Monitoring Greater Melbourne, a collaboration between Associate Professor Kevin O’Connor and the research section of the Department of Infrastructure, was recently released.

Just as the commercial world is accustomed to receiving an annual statement on the progress of major corporations, so urban planners and policy makers need a regular insight into the patterns of change within metropolitan regions. This information can provide a critical input into decision-making on policy, while providing the opportunity for community and commercial interests to understand the change that is occurring around them. More effective planning of the metropolitan area could flow from this insight.

The report builds on Kevin’s experience with the project called Monitoring Melbourne, published over a 10-year period while located at Monash University. That project showed how information on population, housing and the construction of a wide range of building could be used to understand change in the metropolitan area. The new report follows this approach, but with a wider geographic scope, including Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula, and some new information on land subdivision.

Results confirm the strong performance of the Melbourne economy within the national context over the past seven years, best illustrated in the steady level of new building and the upward trend in the share of national non-residential construction located in Melbourne. Figure 1 shows that the metropolitan area (with around 18% of the nation’s population) has attracted 25% of the new investment in the past year. That will be felt in a wide range of new buildings including offices, factories and warehouses, as well as population-serving activities like schools and hospitals.

That same vitality has been expressed in the housing market, where Victoria’s share of new home construction (mainly located in Melbourne) has increased from around 18% in 1995 to over 30% in 2001 (see Figure 2).

The location of employment in 1998 (Figure 3) shows that some of the effect of this development has been felt in the inner city, which accounts for 28% of Melbourne’s jobs, but also in a series of suburban regions; two regions (the Inner East and Inner South) both have over 10% of the metropolitan areas jobs; another four regions have around 8% of total employment.

This shows that Melbourne is a fast growing metropolitan region where suburban development forces are strong.

These results have important implications for planning policy. They suggest that, as Melbourne attracts more investment, it will accommodate it in a dispersed way. Shaping government policies to facilitate that outcome (like the continued re-location of hospitals and schools) as well as encouraging the expansion of private sector employment, perhaps associated with the major regional shopping centres, could provide accessible work for the expanding workforce in the metropolitan area.

The data assembled in this project will be used in further research into the vitality of Melbourne and will be incorporated into classes in the Faculty.

Monitoring Greater Melbourne is available from the Department of Infrastructure.Associate Professor Kevin O’Connor teaches in the undergraduate and postgraduate Urban Planning and Development programs. He is co-author, with R.Stimson and M.Daly, of Australia's Changing Economic Geography: A Society Dividing. Melbourne. Oxford University Press. 2001.

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Urban planners and policy makers need a regular insight into the patterns of change within metropolitan regions

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7Desert island dreamWoomera project students (from left) – Isabel Agahi, Erwin Taal, Hui-Chuan Wang, Stuart Pope and Gerard Everson - with an early concept model of town facilities and artefacts collected from the site during their field trip.PHOTO: Michael Silver

Students from the Master of Architecture (by Coursework), Master of Landscape Architecture and Master of Urban Design as well as the undergraduate architecture and landscape architecture programs participated in this design studio.

DESIGNING WOOMERA

Inspired by a visit to Woomera, University of Melbourne architecture, landscape architecture and urban design students have set out to produce a new design for the future of the remote South Australian town.

As part of their course, the 23 students conducted a four-day fieldtrip in the Woomera region, meeting pastoralists, environmental scientists, opal miners, Department of Defence officials, Aboriginal liaison officers and residents of Woomera village.

According to design studio leader, Andrew Saniga, Woomera was chosen because it offers a diverse range of topics to explore, real-life design projects to undertake, and scope for different layers of interpretation.

“We wanted to engage the students into thinking about planning and design in a context that is historically rich and generally unfamiliar. The phenomenon of rural towns battling for survival is an issue we see as well worth exploring,” explains Andrew.

“Woomera was established in 1947 as a site for developing and testing rockets, satellites and missiles. The testing is now largely over and the town that was once home to more than 7000 people is now down to around 300.

“We consider Woomera to be perfect for this project—it is far from urban centres and surrounded by arid lands and salt lakes. It is very much like an island,” he says.

The studio project encompasses physical, cultural and social layers that define Woomera’s past and present within the Australian perspective and the international scene, including the many years of space research, the Aboriginal community and the detention centre for asylum-seekers and refugees.

The students’ work to date has been analytical and conceptual and it will form the basis for actual projects that could shape the future direction of Woomera Village and its planning and design.

“Our landscape students are already designing a park for the middle of the village as part of the Department of Defence's plan to scale down Woomera’s size and facilities,” Andrew says.

The students displayed 35 of their Woomera project works-in-progress in the atrium recently.

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Our landscape students are already designing a park for the middle of the village

JAKARTA 2001Three major events were held in Jakarta, Indonesia during 2001.

Joint ConferenceThe Faculty joined Fakultas Teknik, Universitas Indonesia at Depok, Jabotabek in sponsoring an international seminar 'Urbanisation in the Information Age: New Perspectives on the Transformation of Fast Growing Cities in the Pacific Rim.'

Papers grappled with a range of issues relating to urban economics, kampung regeneration and inner-city planning. Among the list of speakers were eight of our postgraduate students. Their topics included:w Land Scquisition in Indonesian Urban

Development: the Location Permit

w Informal Housing in Jakarta, Indonesia: the Struggle for Land

w The Urban Kampung, a Question on Identity

w Jakarta Transport Problems: Lessons from Studies and Policies

Alumni and friendsAlumni and friends of the Faculty attended a dinner and seminar evening at the Kempinski Hotel, Jakarta. The evening, co-hosted by the Dean, Professor Ross King and Senior Fellow, Mr Hugh O’Neill, was attended by 50 practitioners, among them recent graduates and former Colombo Plan graduates from the 1950s and 1960s. This was an opportunity for the Faculty to express its gratitude for their guests' ongoing support, enthusiasm and commitment to the University.

Masters Design Studio'Jakarta and pagan urbanism' was a 10-day field studio run for Master of Architecture by Design students. Each student assembled information about a region designated by a double page spread from the Jakarta street directory. Particular attention was paid to themes such as interminacy, grey zones, ephemerality and ‘stretched’ conditions. Methods included drawing, photography, souveniring, writing, reading and sound recording.

The studio concluded with an exhibition in Melbourne where intricately generated maps, sections and speculative projections for this part of Jakarta were presented and discussed.

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URBAN DESIGN:TOWARDS A DESIGN–RESEARCH CULTURE

by Dr Darko Radovic

The UniverCity for Shenyang from 14 countries and from every continent except Africa. They all contributed to the quality that was recognised by the competition jury which awarded the third prize to an entry whose agendas included, but were not preoccupied by, the possibility of an award.3

The enormous research potential of the Shenyang project greatly influenced our decision to enter this competition. The main research aims were derived from the key conceptual idea that the new campus of proposed size is, actually, a new city. Thus, the University became the Univer-City and offered ground for explorations of different aspects of urban planning and design that range from conceptual ideas on 'urbogenetics' and the 'Chineseness' of urban and architectural expression, to pragmatics of urban design guidelines and rules for their implementation. Team members were asked to bring in their own research interests and to explore them within the physical and cultural contexts of the project.

Our aim was not a project in the traditional, 'developers'' sense. As Giedion would say “instead of a definite general project … city development needs an elastic general program capable of taking into account changes over time.” Our proposal established a framework that operated at two interrelated levels which could, using Lefebvrian terminology, be described as: (1) the technico-practical level, which represents the development of all physical components, technical infrastructure, traffic principles etc., and (2) the cultural level, which deals with cultural and environmental aspects, urban order and wider social and historic contextualisations that include iconographic articulation and composition.

The emphasis was largely on those sensitive aspects of urban phenomena that generate cultural integration, invoke

rootedness and orient towards the future. The overall urban design proposal was based on contextualisation of the idea of the university for the 21st century into the culturally challenging situation of the Ching capital of China. The idea was to use urban design as a framework for numerous sub-projects of different scale and complexity4—a general program that would enable their complex interactions, as well as relative independence and freedom.

The concrete situation of Shenyang offered interesting challenges, in particular those related to the critical relationship between the local Eastern and globally dominant Western ways of city design, education and living. Foundations were based on our ongoing research interests in Chinese and other East Asian cultures, and contemporary trends in urban design and architecture (ranging from history, theory, ecological and cultural sustainability to Chinese garden design and low-cost housing).

Ideas of ecological and cultural sustainability were the critical foundation of this project. Our starting positions were that neither the path of ecological nor that of cultural sustainability can be undertaken separately; that environmental responsibility means cultural sensitivity; that cultural sustainability must include ecological awareness; and that there is no viable future without their harmonious synthesis. A number of environmentally and culturally responsive and responsible planning and design measures were investigated, contextualised and applied to the campus.

Third prize and the official recognition of our work came as a nice addition to an already accomplished agenda. The June 2001 exhibition in the Faculty ‘s atrium5 was another opportunity for the team to meet and show their results to the larger public.

The Ningbo Beilun City CentreDesign as research is not the usual way architectural practices operate. Strict deadlines and other pressures of everyday reality often impose less explorative and thus, supposedly, less time-consuming approaches. Savings are often of dubious nature, while sacrifices in quality are always apparent.

Of course, there are notable exceptions to that rule. Some of the best practices do not spare effort to achieve innovative solutions, to break through the ceilings

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In 2000, the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning was invited to take part in an international competition of ideas for the new Campus of the Architectural and Civil Engineering University of Shenyang, China. This was an unusual situation because, unlike faculties of architecture in Europe or Asia, those in Australia traditionally do not have associated design institutes undertaking design projects. Sensing a unique opportunity we formed a Design Research Group associated with our Masters of Urban Design program and invited a number of our current students, recent graduates, staff and colleagues from practice to join a team.1

The purpose of undertaking this project was to advance the design–research agenda within the Faculty and to contribute to its recognition in the wider Australian academic community. Beyond that, we had a number of other pedagogical and research agendas.

The main pedagogical aim was to contribute to a creative design studio atmosphere, which has been the essence of our Master of Urban Design (MUD) program since its establishment in 1996. The invitation was an excellent opportunity to have students, practitioners and staff members jointly involved in a project that had both an air of idealism and all the constraints of a real-life job. By the end of the project, almost 60 people took part.

Dearest memories remain of evenings, weekends, and sometimes sleepless nights in the MUD Studio and computer labs, where everyone was doing his or her best. Core and design teams were setting a fast pace, closely followed by exhausting work on computer graphics and model making.2 The Faculty’s multicultural mix added another interesting (we believe critical) dimension. Members of our team came

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of the ordinary. BAU (Brearley Architects & Urban Designers Pty Ltd), a Melbourne and Shanghai based company has established considerable reputation for its uncompromising approach and high quality design. It was founded by James Brearley (who graduated from our Masters of Urban Design program in 1997) and joined by Ms Qun Shirely Fang (a PhD student at the Faculty). They entered the Chinese market through their success in design competitions. In late 2001 I was invited to join James, Shirley and their Melbourne team in an international design competition for the city centre of Ningbo Beilun in China.

The city government of Ningbo Beilun invited six teams to participate in the competition: two from China, two from the United States and one each from Japan and Australia. The port and a free-trade zone just north of the historic city of Ningbo have spontaneously grown to considerable size without adequate central facilities. Local government initiated the establishment of a centre that would capture the energies of vibrant trade and an already populous residential area and transform them into a real city, one with its own identity and future.

The design team6 approached the project with significant enthusiasm, as an opportunity not only to meet complex programmatic expectations of the client but also to address issues of urban development and growth that often escape competition briefs. The idea was not merely to respond to requests, but to make a statement about the appropriate development for Ningbo. The designed proposal for the city centre was seen as a snapshot in a much larger development strategy, an achievable first step towards a culturally and environmentally responsible future, one which would define direction, but not claim to have solutions for the unpredictable.

Inclusion of the idea of urban process and development of an urban design strategy appeared to make this proposal stand out from other schemes whose approach was more object-oriented and'architectural' in a pejorative, restricted (and unfortunately too common) sense.

BAU shared first prize with the American, Chicago and Beijing based MKB.

For this occasion it is important to emphasise only one aspect of the Ningbo project—a fascinating ease with which the youthful energy of BAU blended with,

3: UniverCity Exhibition – opening night

1: Cehovin, Whitford, Radovic, Lee, Duggan - late-night discussion

2: Bonacci, Windeyer, Whitford, Kubo – model making

and contributed to, the experience. Open-minded, explorative research, research-for-design, design, design-research were happening simultaneously, interwoven, abolishing often imposed boundaries between disciplines, methods—even generations. Many skills were cleverly managed towards the design proposal which, now, might contribute to the future of Ningbo Beilun.

Towards a design–research cultureIn educational and research institutions, design research must be cultivated in various ways. Often unrecognised, even within small collectives, it needs to produce results which prove that in design professions important contributions to knowledge can be achieved through, and in some cases only through, design.

The UniverCity project was a marvellous experience. It encouraged us to continue with projects that bring together practitioners, students and staff in the process that enriches all the participants. The Ningbo Beilun project added another dimension to that experience and confirmed the importance of links with alumni.

Through these two projects, our Masters of Urban Design program and staff have started a new practice which will, we are convinced, contribute to both teaching and research excellence.

The Urban Design program profiles its work in multipli-cities. See page 21 for details.

Dr Darko Radovic is the Head of the Urban Design program and Senior Lecturer in Architecture. Darko's research interests include ecological sustainability for urban and architectural design, concepts of place and urbanism, regulation of urban processes and Lefebvrian analysis of space.

1 Core team: Qinghua Guo, Darko Radovic, Steve Whitford. Design Team: Marjan Cehovin, Grant Dixon, Catherine Duggan, Richard Foster, Maggie Hui, Kayoko Kubo, Charles Lee Hwai Hong, Greg Missingham, David O’Brien, Darko Radovic, Alex Selenitsch, Keith Streames, Steve Whitford.

2 Graphical presentation and model-making occurred parallel to design and often critically contributed to the development and improvement of the project. Graduates from Studio MOST were key contributors. Graphics: Grant Dixon, Catherine Diggan, Daniel Flood, Kevin Hui. Model-making: Maggie Hui, Charles Windeyer, Kayoko Kubo. Exceptional contribution was given by two MUD students, Mauricio Vargas-Gomes and Jens Eberhardt.

3 First prize: Shenzen Studio, Chongqing Jianzhu University China. Second prize: Von Gerkan, Marg & Partners, Germany. The competition jury was headed by Professor Chen Baochao, Dean of the Architectural and Civil Engineering University of Shenyang. Professor Chen travelled to Melbourne, to

personally deliver the plaque and give a seminar on the competition.

4 'Projects within the project' were: urban design (Radovic, Whitford); main teaching building (Cehovin); library (Dixon); faculty of architecture and arts (Duggan); faculty of environmental sciences (Foster); main administration building (Hui); central laboratory building (Kubo); mechanical engineering (Lee); Grand View Garden (Missingham); student housing (O’Brien); faculty of tourism and economics (Selenitsch); sports centre (Streames); faculty of electronics (Whitford).

5 The exhibition was a project on its own, fully designed (exhibition concept, panels, drawings, poster, catalogue) by another MOST graduate, Mun Thai, and made possible by Michele Burder.

6 BAU team: James Brearley, Nikolauz Cheong, Alice Davies, Jens Eberhardt, Qun Shirley Fang, Joyce Lam, Matthew Rawlins and Andre Ullal, helped by the University of Melbourne’s Darko Radovic and Steve Whitford.

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4: Ningbo Beilun, bird's-eye view, BAU Architecture and Urban Design with Darko Radovic and Steve Whitford.

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Peter Martin always liked building cubby houses as a kid, so it wasn’t out of character when he enrolled in the Building (now Property and Construction) course at the University of Melbourne in 1964. After the first year, he realised that he had enjoyed the architecture component as much as the building and that he had an aptitude for it, so he signed up for the double degree of Bachelor of Building/Bachelor of Architecture.

The Head of Building at that time was Leo Simon, for Peter an inspiring teacher and mentor. He is also grateful to Stan Barker for the opportunity to present his (Stan’s) designs for houses to the Aboriginal people at Watty Creek shortly after they had walked off Wave Hill Station. This kindled an interest which Peter was later to pursue. Walter Mohr, who taught CPM Programming in the building course, offered Peter a position in his company, Neotec, in his second last year and so he began work as a project manager while completing the architecture component of the program. This was the beginning of a long association with the company of which he later became a director.

The company was run by three people, all of whom held double degrees in building and architecture, and everyone who worked there was in their twenties. It was therefore a heady environment to work in, with a dynamic, energetic group, prepared to take on any challenge in design and construction and project management, through three interlinked companies, Neotec, Epac and Multicon. Peter was able to develop his skills in both building and project management. He also put into practice some of the theory of his honours building thesis on project cost control. He had investigated early computerised and manual costing systems and now found himself working on CPM programming with main frame computers, new technology in the early 1970s.

Finishing the architecture component of his course, Peter spent time in Sydney as a consultant programmer for the Merrylands Shopping Centre and the T&G Building in Hyde Park, both fast-track design-construct

projects. In 1972, he accepted a position in a Singaporean architectural company, and became the project architect on the Pertamina head office building in Jakarta.

He returned to Melbourne in 1973, married, and rejoined Neotec, where, among other projects, he worked on the High Court of Australia (programming the interface between design and construction, another fast-track design-construct project). He also renovated his own house in Richmond, becoming skilled in a number of the hands-on trades—an invaluable experience!

1973 saw Neotec taking advantage of a residential boom. They had over 500 units on their drawing boards, many of which were being built by the construction arm of the practice. Managing a rapidly expanding practice at this time was immensely challenging, and inevitably it came unstuck. The overheated environment saw inflation rising to 12% and interest rates to 17 to 18%. The construction company, Multicon, caught with fixed price contracts, was unable to fulfil its commitments and fell over. The residential boom ended and within a few months the company went from a staff of 20 to four. Peter learned an invaluable lesson in the realities of the construction industry from the experience. The architectural practice was able to continue and was fortunate to win a major commission to design a staff housing complex for the Austin Hospital, which Peter completed.

Taking leave of absence from Neotec Peter was able to take up a position with the Aboriginal Housing Panel and fulfil a desire, kindled earlier, to work with Aboriginal people and to pursue low cost housing solutions. He and his family relocated to Canberra, where he worked with a Board which included leading Aboriginal identities, anthropologists and members from the Institute of Architects and the Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Nugget Combs was also a member. Its mission was to research ways of solving the Aboriginal housing crisis with appropriately designed housing in remote communities and outstations. For Peter, as one of three on-the-ground graduates, this involved a hands-on, consultative approach. The first step was to understand the relevant social and environmental housing issues for each particular group of people. The next step was to design for the specific circumstances, using simple

GRADUATES REFLECT

Peter MartinB.Bldg.(Hons) B.Arch 1971Builder and architect

ForewardAlumni will no doubt be aware that in 1997 the Faculty re-titled its Building course as the Property and Construction program. Students are now able to take majors in Property as well as Construction Management and Construction Cost Management so as to set themselves up specifically for careers in either the construction or property professions. The Faculty also offers combined degrees in Property and Construction with Architecture, Law, Commerce and Engineering (Geomatics); such programs are proving extremely popular.

The Property and Construction (Building) program was first established in 1958 and by now it is a matter of record that graduates are widely employed in positions of leadership throughout the construction industry. As part of a process designed to assess the impact that our graduates have had on the industry—and there is no doubt that this has indeed been profound—I intend to gather profiles of all Property and Construction graduates. Peter Martin who graduated Bachelor of Building and Bachelor of Architecture in 1971 is the first to be asked to do so, and his story is presented here. It makes for fascinating reading and will be followed by other profiles in future issues of Atrium.

Peter WilliamsHead of Property and Construction

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Managing a rapidly expanding practice at this time was immensely challenging

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and appropriate building and construction to involve the people themselves and provide employment. Peter designed and built housing for communities from Mount Margaret in Western Australia, to Arukun in Far North Queensland and Peppimenarti, in the Northern Territory. This challenging and exciting period from 1975 ended in 1979 when the Fraser Government axed the panel in a cost-cutting exercise.

Back in Melbourne in 1980, Peter again took up his position as a director of Neotec where some intensive research and development had been pursued by Walter Mohr (and Peter from a distance) on construction management (CM) a new method of building delivery being pioneered in America. In Peter's absence the Austin Housing project had been successfully constructed by Neotec using an early version of a CM contract adapted for local conditions.

Peter’s experience gave him the confidence to further develop the concept of CM, which he now saw as the way to integrate design and construction as a combined professional service. He saw the logic and challenge of developing an alternative to the traditional relationship between architect and building contractor, which often results in an unproductive and adversarial situation. He wished to develop a professional design and construction practice with an architectural orientation that could deliver high quality architectural design along with a well-managed building process. A number of commissions were undertaken using the new system and the CM contract and procedures were progressively refined.

In 1981 Walter Mohr left the company and Michael Fooks and Peter, being the sole remaining partners, renamed the company Fooks Martin. It was now a small architectural practice with an expanding CM capability. There was enough construction work on the books for them to engage their first full time construction manager.

During the 1980s boom, the company continued to grow, the lessons from the 1970s not forgotten. However, by this time the Master Builders Association had developed and written its own C/M contract (CM1) and construction management had begun to move into the mainstream. This contract became the standard and, together with the RAIA client agreement for architectural services, has provided the contractual basis for the firm's ongoing commissions.

From 1980 CM involved small- to medium-size projects, including educational, municipal and medium density housing. Among the clients were the City of Preston and the Burnley College of Agriculture and Horticulture, both of which commissioned the firm to undertake multiple projects.

The practice continued to progress as CM techniques were refined. The introduction of computers with a clear, concise system for transparent reporting of the financial status of CM projects assisted in the development of a rigorously professional service.

During this period, Peter continued to work on architectural projects. He again found himself in an intensive consultative process (something he enjoys enormously) with the users of Ross House, with the personnel of the Springvale Community Aid and Advice Centre and with many other small to medium buildings. He was instrumental in Fooks Martin being appointed by David Marriner to do the architectural work for Merchant Builders. This was a major architectural commission and they appointed a new partner, Peter Sandow, to head up the Merchant Builders division and the practice became Fooks Martin Sandow (FMS).

The demise of Merchant Builders at the end of the 1980s boom led to the establishment of a project-housing joint venture with Kincaid Builders, which marketed from three display homes designed by FMS and made available by the Merchant Builders' receivers . This helped them survive the 1990 to 1992 building recession.

In 1992 the practice expanded again, with the appointment of another partner, Greg Anson and became known as FMSA. The firm invested in CAD systems and, as a result of the increased output through the progressive computerisation of processes, appointed more staff and consolidated into a busy and efficient practice. The company redefined its committment to 'Total Project Delivery', high quality architectural services linked closely to the CM process. A major project where this was successfully integrated was the redevelopment of Mt Hotham. It was later to be used with the Federation Arch, an example of fast-track project management. FMSA won the design competition and followed through with construction management, with the arch itself in place within four months.

During the 1990s, the practice undertook a diverse range of architectural work including urban design, resort development, high density housing, commercial and municipal projects, educational and sporting buildings. Clients of the practice include the University of Melbourne, McKinsey & Co., NEC, the City of Monash, Australia Post, MLC, Wesley College, the Office of Major Projects, Folkstone Pty Ltd, Weston Bioproducts and many others. Some of these were traditional architectural commissions and many combined both design and C/M delivery. FMSA now employs about 30 people across a range of disciplines from architects to construction site supervisors. The practice secured significant commissions through successful competition entries and has recently received a number of design awards.

Peter’s career has been diverse. He has worked in a number of different environments and undertaken a large number of different projects, often from different standpoints, sometimes as pure architect, sometimes as a builder. However, on closer examination, it is not the diversity which stands out, rather the consistency of approach. The analytical and project management skills gained originally from the building degree have underpinned many aspects of his professional career and provided one of the foundations for the development of a successful and individual practice.

Alumni are invited to contribute to Graduates Reflect. Contact the Editor, Dean Mundey: email dmundey@unimelb.edu.au or tel: +61 3 8344 3740.

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Peter’s experience gave him the confidence to further develop the concept of Construction Management

He saw the logic and challenge of developing an alternative to the traditional relationship between architect and building contractor

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AN UPDATE FROM OUR ACKMAN SCHOLARAndrew Simpson, who graduated from the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning in 1998, was awarded the Henry and Rachael Ackman Travelling Scholarship in 2001. This scholarship is awarded from one of the Faculty’s trust funds every second year and is intended to assist recipients to study architecture at an overseas institution.

Andrew enrolled in a Master in Architecture degree at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design for 2001–2002. This semester he has been appointed teaching assistant for a studio involving the National Archives of Argentina and will be visiting

the site in Buenos Aires for a week. The studio is run by Jorge Silvetti, the outgoing head of department, and Gerardo Caballero, an Argentinian architect.

On the basis of his results last semester, Andrew has also been awarded a scholarship from Harvard to complete his studies.

He is finding life in Boston "enjoyable but hectic" and taking full advantage of the many opportunities afforded by overseas study. He recently informed Professor Philip Goad that there are "constant lectures, film nights and seminars and I try to squeeze these in between work. I was lucky enough to listen to Elizabeth Grosz speak at MIT, which has been the highlight so far these past weeks."

The Faculty wishes Andrew well for the remainder of his studies.

ZOO ELEPHANTS TO ENJOY LIFE THAI-STYLEAdvice from University of Melbourne Architecture staff and postgraduate students helped to ensure elephants Mek Kapah and Bong Su did not suffer culture shock when they moved into their new home at Melbourne Zoo last year.

The Zoo’s new elephant exhibit, designed by offshore landscape architects, recreates a north-eastern Thai village, complete with community hall and jungle trail and an observation laboratory. Melbourne has played a key design role in the project.

The exhibit has interactive displays that highlight the relationships between human and elephant communities and provide a harmonious environment for the elephants as well as a state-of-the-art viewing trail for the visiting public.

Involvement in the project came when lecturer in Architectural Design, Mr David O’Brien, was approached through Asialink by Melbourne Zoo, which sought a review of the original concept design to ensure appropriate use of Southeast Asian cultural details.

Mr O’Brien, a former Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop Asialink Fellow, has spent many months in north-eastern Thailand researching the changes occurring in rural housing as a result of deforestation and modernisation.

“Overall, the Thai village concept was good, but needed tidying up for consistency,” David says. “Though mainly Thai, it contained a lot of elements from other Southeast Asian cultures, and we felt it should more consistently represent Thai culture.”

Zoo environments, by definition, are a careful balance of artifice and authenticity. “Our task was to make suggestions to increase the level of authenticity,” he says.

His team, which included postgraduate students from Thailand, Ms Golf Polikit and Mr Sidh Sintusingha, made suggestions to improve technical details, from how timber columns enter the ground through to appropriate decorative elements.

Elephant house: Reviewing concept designs for the new Thai-inspired elephant exhibit at Melbourne Zoo are Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning postgraduate students Mr Sidh Sintusingha (right) and Ms Golf Polakit (centre), with lecturer Mr David O’Brien and Melbourne Zoo’s Ms Amanda Embury. PHOTO: Michele Burder

“Our suggestions addressed concerns about diagonal panelling on doors, or square-shaped buildings, neither of which are used in Thailand, as well as more fundamental cross-cultural issues like using spirit-houses for collecting spare change donations which would have been problematic.

“This was a terrific teaching and learning experience, and the fact that the Zoo asked for our help shows they understand the public’s increased awareness of Asian culture,” he says.

David O’Brien graduated from the Architecture program at the University of Melbourne in 1991. He is currently completing a Master of Architecture (by Thesis) on Thai housing. Sidh Sintusingha is undertaking a PhD in Landscape Architecture and Golf Polakit is completing a PhD in Urban Design and Architecture.

Our task was to make suggestions to increase the level of authenticity

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INDUSTRY SUPPORTS AWARDS AND PRIZESEvery year Professor Ross King, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, hosts an evening to award and celebrate the Faculty’s high achieving students.

Apart from the Dean’s Honours, awarded to high achieving undergraduate students, an increasing number of sponsored awards and prizes are presented each year.

The Faculty would like to thank the following companies for their support:

Landscape Architecturew Tract Consultants; for the Tract

Consultant Prize for Landscape Design, valued at $1000 per annum.

Urban Planning and Developmentw DesignInc Melbourne Pty Ltd; for the

DesignInc Prize for Environmentally Sustainable Urban Design, valued at $1,000 per annum.

w Department of Infrastructure – Strategic Planning Division, State Government of Victoria; for two Department of Infrastructure – Strategic Planning Division prizes, valued at $600 each per annum.

w Department of Infrastructure – Planning, Heritage and Building Division, State Government of Victoria; for two Department of Infrastructure – Planning, Heritage and Building Division prizes, valued at $600 each per annum.

w Peet & Company Limited, Property Developments; for the Peet & Company Limited Prize, valued at $500 (offered alternate years).

w Contour Consultants Australia Pty Ltd, Town Planners; for the Contour Consultants Prize, valued at $1000 per annum.

w urbis, Consulting Property Advisers; for the urbis Prize, valued at $1000 per annum (to be awarded for the first time in 2003).

The Dean’s Honours and Awards Night for 2001 was held on 19 April 2002. If you would like information on award recipients or on supporting the Faculty through an award or prize please contact Dean Mundey on tel: +61 3 8344 3740 or email dmundey@unimelb.edu.au.

TRAVELLING SCHOLARSHIPS FOR ALUMNI

The closing date for applications for the next award of the Henry and Rachael Ackman Travelling Scholarship is 1 October 2002. High-achieving candidates intending to enrol in overseas courses of up to three years in length are invited to apply for the scholarship. Preference will be given to those students engaging in the study of Housing of Aged Persons or Family Architecture but applicants from all fields of architecture will be considered. The successful applicant is required to deliver a lecture at the University on the completion of their studies.

Alumni may also be interested in applying for the Fritz Janeba Travelling Scholarship. This one-year scholarship is intended to enable Bachelor of Architecture graduates from the University of Melbourne to undertake further study in architecture overseas. The closing date for applications for this scholarship is 1 February 2003.

Further information on both the Henry and Rachael Ackman and Fritz Janeba Travelling Scholarships is available from the Faculty’s Research and Graduate Studies Manager, Fiona Downietel: +61 3 8344 6413email: f.downie@unimelb.edu.au

RESEARCH IN PROGRESS DAYThe Faculty’s inaugural Research-in-Progress Day was held on Tuesday 18 June. The day was a great success, with over 70 staff and research postgraduates presenting short papers on their current research and displaying work in the Atrium.

The session themes highlighted the diverse research interests of the Faculty: Sustainability, Housing, Cultural Heritage, Asian Cities, Design and Practice, Identity, Decision-making and Community, Property and People, Colonial and Post-colonial Studies, Suburbia, and Diversity.

The day also provided an opportunity for staff and students to discuss their work socially over lunch and dinner.

The event proved to be both stimulating and enjoyable, and we look forward to repeating our success next year.

This year sees one additional award for Bachelor of Landscape Architecture students and eight new awards for students of the Bachelor of Urban Planning and Development.

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ALEX SELENITSCHsome of his life, some of his times, some of his work...

This is what I wrote when asked for half an A4 page to accompany a reunion of my year in architecture at the University of Melbourne (final year 1968):

“A half A4 page? (that much?)... well, I’m still married, 2 adult kids, house, 2 cars, cat; I’ve worked as architect for large firms (Comm. Dept. of Works, MKDC in UK, MoH Vic, Vic Public Works) in which I built nothing, sole practitioner in between and also now in which I have built something (large to very large bits of occupiable ‘furniture’); travelled in 74/75 (to see if I was European and discovered I was completely Australian); my teaching career began in the 70s at Deakin, then RMIT, now Melb Uni (teaching in design/theory/history, currently design in 2nd and 5th year); a literary career which began as poet in 5th year now also a prose writer (freelance critic and essayist in the visual arts and lit); also a sculptor/installation artist, exhibitions in Oz, NZ, USA and UK, sometime curator of exhibitions in the late 80s, sometime member of RAIA sub-committees in the 80s, currently a board member of Craft Victoria. Not all of it was/is fun, but I still do it because you can never tell in advance which bits of it are going to be. An apparently stable private life and completely nomadic and scattered public one.”

It’s still a good description except that I’m no longer a board member of Craft Victoria, but a member of the Public Arts Committee of the Melbourne City Council; I’ve also taught third year design and am now preparing to take first year design.

I’ve always claimed to be a poet and architect: most of the work that I do oscillates between those two disciplines.

Alex SelenitschThe Hanuman Shelf, 1997

(made by Hamish Hill & Alex Selenitsch)Bunya Bunya Pine, stained and oiled

24cm x 79cm x 14 cmPHOTO: Terence Bogue

Jiri Tibor Novak & Alex SelenitschCaravansdouble book, 21cm x 11cm, stitched, offset with one air-brush drawing,SWAMP, Airey’s Inlet, Victoria, 1999.PHOTO: Michele Burder

Four examples are set out below:The Hanuman Shelf, The Garden of the Cool Change, Caravans, and Horizons.

The Hanuman ShelfLots of people collect things, but few have complete sets of things. The incomplete is normally considered to be an irritating temporary state rather than a joyful normal condition. The Hanuman Shelf is a small object made to emphasize this “joyful normal condition”.

The shelf displays books from the New York/Madras imprint of Hanuman Books. There are 35 in this collection, ranging from numbers 1 to 48 i.e., some are missing (and it is not known whether there are more in the series). The shelf displays the existing books and the position of the missing volumes and through a sliding piece allows for the incorporation of future volumes.

The shelf is made of Queensland Bunya Bunya Pine, a timber suited to fine precise working, but used because the tree is known locally as the Monkey Puzzle Tree. (Hanuman, the inprint name and symbol for the little books in this collection is the King of the Monkeys in The Ramayana)

The shelf was made by Hamish Hill and myself at the workshop in the Faculty. It was exhibited as one of the Window Shelf Series at Craft Victoria, Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, in 1997.

The Garden of the Cool ChangeThis is the first product in an ongoing design research collaboration with fellow staff member Greg Missingham (who, incidentally, is also my PhD supervisor). The collaboration exploits our mutual interest in things and thoughts Chinese, in particular how classical Chinese culture fuses architecture and literature through gardens.

The Garden of the Cool Change is a fictional design for a real site in a Melbourne suburb. (The design would also make an intriguing but very livable suburban house.) It is the result of applying classical Chinese principles of garden design to our own time and place. The design has been exhibited as drawings and models in 1999 and a Tour Guide was published as a pamphlet in 2001.

The project was given a Multimedia Pilot Project Grant in 2000 by this Faculty. A second garden design, sited at Point Nepean, is under way.

CaravansCaravans is the third in an ongoing series of books with artist Jiri Tibor Novak. The books are sized to a one-third fold of an A4 page, printed offset or by photocopy, with some handmarks and individual touches. Caravans has a short essay by me on the contrasting spatial forms of the caravan, followed by 14 short poems, each giving a different image of the caravan. The poems are placed under Novak’s drawings, but the 14 poems and 14 drawings are split-bound so that they work as two separate books. The first edition of 250 copies is now out of print.

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Two further books in the series, Bridges and Puppets are planned. Along with Caravans and Boats, (our first book), the series plays with the experience of migration, especially Central European dislocation in a provincial British (dis)location such as Oz.

Horizons in SCRIPTSCRIPT is a travelling exhibition curated by Melbourne artist Angela Cavilieri. It combines works by nine Melbourne artists who explore text as image.

The inaugural installation was at Mass Gallery in Fitzroy during October and November 2001. My works were meditations on the word 'horizon'. Of course, seeing that the word horizon has seven letters, there were seven works, including one which used the seven colours of the Newtonian spectrum. The pieces ranged from balsa models to a larger floor/wall piece rather like a fragment of stud wall, to collages, to laser-prints, to a set (of seven, of course) of alphabet-and-number horizons. In all of the pieces, I found ways of connecting the left to right sweep of reading to the act of viewing. I also wrote the catalogue essay which outlines the issues generated by the overlap of writing and drawing. (Of course), the essay is in six parts, the first beginning with the sentence: “S is for SCRIPT”.

The SCRIPT exhibition is programmed to tour to the following regional galleries: Horsham Regional Art Gallery 21st May–14 July 2002; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery 3 September–13 October 2002; Gippsland Art Gallery Sale 9 November–8 December 2002.

Alex Selenitsch is a graduate (1968) of the architecture program at the University of Melbourne. He teaches design, history and theory for the Faculty and is currently undertaking a PhD in the Faculty.

Alex SelenitschHorizon #1 and Horizon #7fromHorizons #1 to #7, 2001transfer letters on card, 23.5cm x 16cmPHOTO: Albin Mullner

Alex Selenitsch & Greg MissinghamFour cross sections fromThe Garden of the Cool Change, 1998-ink on tracing paperDrawings/photographs: Alex Selenitsch

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STRUGGLE IN THE STUDIO: GARRY STEVENS Interview by Kim Dovey

KD: Your Dean’s Lecture is called 'Struggle in the Studio: What Architecture Schools Really Teach'. What do they say they teach and what do they really teach?

GS: They say they teach the skills to become an architect but what they really teach is a form of society. They teach you how to be an architect which is a different thing from a person who has the skills to design buildings. To be an architect isn’t just to have a certain set of skills, it is to be a certain sort of social being and to be able to work in society in certain ways. Architects have certain functions in society, only one of which is the design of buildings. The major function, I think, of architects, is to design certain structures for the ruling elite. We call them buildings but they are in fact extremely potent symbols and our society needs its symbols, the ruling elite needs these things to run the place.

KD: You say society needs these symbols, then the ruling elite need these symbols. Is it both, or is it only the ruling elite that need the symbolic dimensions of architecture?

GS: No, it certainly is both. But really, society is run by the ruling elite for the ruling elite in the same way that the economic system is run by people on top of the economic system not by the people at the bottom.

KD: Architecture schools started in the technical colleges, the engineering colleges and the art schools and now they are in the best of the universities. Is there a case for, or a case against, the architecture school being in the university?

GS: I think you can make a case either way. You have to remember that when it started in the American universities the profession didn’t ask for it to go in. Universities were trying to capture new markets and architecture happened to be one of them, and there has been a lot of tension in the triad between the architecture schools, the universities they are embedded in and the occupation. They’re always at

odds with each other. The universities are always asking the schools to do research and research has never been a natural function of architecture schools, it has always been an accident.

KD: But research is not an accident in architecture now. It might cause some difficulties, but certainly universities demand research; indeed the very kind of research that your book is one example of doesn’t exist much outside the universities.

GS: No, not at all. This is the second case. With case number one you could say “Forget the universities and just go back to apprenticeships”. If all you want to do is reproduce the occupation I think that is all that’s needed. Case number two: if architecture is to stay at universities, then I think it does have to have a significant research component, otherwise there is no point in architecture being in the university.

KD: If you bring the type of critique that’s in your book to architectural education and to architecture within the university, what follows?

GS: What follows is that you have to come to terms with certain academic norms which architecture and other professions have often been reluctant to. And that is firstly, research. Secondly, you’ve got the creation of a second set of intellectuals in architecture who are embedded in the university where traditionally architectural intellectuals haven’t been. They’ve been outside, they’ve been in the occupation or in places like the journals. In a sense you’ve got a second and opposing ‘priesthood’ being created in the university, and this has only been going on for forty years in architecture. Until after the Second World War it wasn’t thought that you had to do research, it was thought that the object of architecture schools was just to reproduce the profession. So that is a tension that has to be accommodated in the school.

The Autumn Dean’s Lecture Series 2002 was attended by over 1200 people. Speakers included Prof. Andrew Benjamin (University of Warwick); Prof. Joan Nassauer (University of Michigan); William Lim; Assoc. Prof.Kevin O’Connor; Geert Lovink; Six Degrees; Rob Adams and Harry Seidler.

Look out for the program for Semester 2, which will include lectures by Michael Sorkin (Professor of Urban Design at the City College, New York) and Hamish Lyon (Lyons Architects).

If you would like to receive more information on the Dean's Lecture Series, please contact Dean Mundey on dmundey@unimelb.edu.au ortel: + 61 3 8344 3740

KD: You set up an opposition in your book between ‘priests’ and ‘prophets’ and you see this kind of priesthood within the universities. Have you seen prophets there as well?

GS: Well in one sense my definition is that prophets are outside the priesthood. Prophets are the guys that come in and berate the priests.

KD: So if academics want to be prophets do they have to leave the university?

GS: Yeah I’d be tempted to say so. Because prophets are meant to rave and rant and have complete freedom to criticise and academics don’t. Even tenured academics still have to exist in certain power situations. When you are non-tenured and you’ve just got short term contracts then your job is permanently under threat. And going back to the private sector from academia can be a bit of a shock.

Dr Garry Stevens is the author of The Favoured Circle (MIT Press 1998), a highly contentious critique of the architecture profession, reviewed as “a perceptive analysis of what really goes on in architecture schools” (Architects’ Journal) and as “healthy food for thought, but cooked to stick in the throat” (Architecture Australia). He is an independent scholar who lives in Sydney. Dr Stevens presented a lecture 'Struggle in the Studio: What Architecture Schools Really Teach' as part of the Dean’s Lecture Series.

Professor Kim Dovey holds the Chair in Architecture and Urban Design.

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JOAN NASSAUER Miegunyah Fellow 2002Joan Nassauer, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan, was working with the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning from February to April 2002. Professor Nassauer’s visit was made possible through the Miegunyah Distinguished Fellowship Program. This program is open to academics residing outside Australia, of international distinction in a field of interest to the University of Melbourne.

Professor Nassauer is highly regarded by both science and design professionals for her ongoing work which focuses on the intersection between landscape perception and landscape ecology.

Professor Nassauer’s unique approach to ecological design strives to overcome the common perception that biodiverse landscapes in settled areas are ‘messy, weedy, and unkempt' through gaining a sytematic understanding of what people consider attractive, and using this as a design tool. Thus, Professor Nassauer is able to give 'messy ecosystems' culturally informed “'orderly frames', so they are recognised as attractive, accepted, and are emulated.

One important example of Professor Nassauer’s pioneering work in this area is the 'ecological retrofit' of a 1950s neighbourhood in Maplewood, Minnesota, where her research and later design led to the removal of traditional kerbs and gutters and the installation of highly popular rainwater gardens—an approach now spreading to other neighbourhoods.

Professor Nassauer’s published work includes editing the recent book, Placing Nature: Culture in Landscape Ecology (1997), and a number of journal articles in both Landscape Journal and Landscape Ecology. In addition to research, writing and teaching, Professor Nassauer remains directly involved in project design and implementation.

Professor Nassauer delivered a free public Miegunyah lecture 'Landscape Ecology and Metropolitan Design: the Cultural Necessity of Ecological Function' as part of the Faculty’s Autumn Dean’s Lecture Series.

In this lecture, Professor Nassauer described how her empirical research has led her to conclude that urban design and planning must be culturally sustainable in order to be ecologically sustainable. The landscape characteristics that she has found to be culturally sustainable were summarised. She also presented a number of urban design projects in which she and others have applied the principles of cultural sustainability to create ecologically beneficial urban designs. These projects included brownfield industrial redevelopments, retrofitting urban commercial and residential districts, and greenfield neighbourhood design.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE'S 150TH ANNIVERSARYThe University of Melbourne will be celebrating its 150th Anniversary in 2003.

The celebrations will take many forms under the themes ‘Giving to Students and the Community’ and ‘A Sense of History’. They seek to showcase many of the University’s treasures, and involve the wider community in different ways.

Around 30 projects including exhibitions, publications, reunions and on-line databases have been confirmed to date.

One of these projects is an architectural history of the University of Melbourne written by Professor Philip Goad. This will be in a similar format to Professor Goad’s acclaimed Melbourne Architecture (1999). It will be published by Melbourne University Press in 2003.

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leANNUAL PROPERTY CONFERENCE

Alumni, current and former staff, students, families of staff and students, and friends of the University in the community are all invited to participate in the celebrations.

Further information can be obtained by email: 150th-anniversary@unimelb.edu.au or visit www.unimelb.edu.au/150.

The latest research and its application to practice in property

This one-day conference is an opportunity for participants to benefit from recent developments in the property industry. A variety of presenters will focus on current issues in real estate covering topics including changing urban environment, valuation challenges and hot topics in property law.

The conference format will appeal to all professionals directly or indirectly involved in the real estate industry.

Friday 8 November8.45am–4.30pmPrince Philip TheatreArchitecture and Planning BuildingThe University of MelbourneParkville Victoria

$129 (incl. GST)$99 (incl. GST) if paid by 25 October

Lunch and morning tea included.

To reserve your place in this course please contact the Australian Property Institute on tel: 03 9646 1977. For further details on the conference contact Richard Reed in the Faculty on tel: 03 8344 8966 oremail: r.reed@unimelb.edu.au

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MUSEUM OF PAPER FOR NEW TREASURY BUILDINGUniversity of Melbourne architecture student Seamus McCartney won the Gold Treasury Museum’s architecture competition with a design for a Museum of Paper in November last year.

The competition was organised to celebrate the works of John James Clark who designed the Old Treasury Building in Spring Street in 1857, when he was 19 years old. His design was the winning entry in a competition for a building to house senior State officials and to provide secure storage for gold from Victorian goldfields.

Architecture students at the University of Melbourne, RMIT University and Deakin University were asked to provide a design for a building that would house government officials and an unspecified commodity of high value in the 21st century. The site chosen was the Docklands Precinct.

I love mountains! Some people say that’s extremely funny since I live in Australia and we’re known for our beaches rather than our mountains. Nevertheless mountains have always been a part of my life. Ever since I can remember my family and I would go on camping holidays in the Sierra Nevada’s of California. I can remember seeing deer and coming across a bear every now and then, but never any puma like those reportedly ‘seen’ in the Australian Alps. In university I started bushwalking and went into places where seemingly no one had been before. To walk in and experience the diverse landscapes created by mountains and to see how people adapt to living in these environments is remarkable. To now begin a career and conduct research into such features of the landscape is remarkable.

My research interests include assessment of public perceptions of urban and mountain environments, the impact of tourism on mountain landscapes and sustainable urban design in post-war communities. These interests have allowed me to examine community expectations and needs and how these affect the sustainability of urban and mountain environments.

MOUNTAINS OF GARBAGE by Beau BezaCurrently, I am working on my PhD and my research is concerned with the assessment of environmental degradation and associated impacts on landscape visual quality along the Mt. Everest trek (i.e. Jiri to Mt Everest Base Camp). The project explores how garbage, generated by tourists and the Sherpa, impacts on people’s visual experience of mountain landscapes.

This research may ultimately lead to an understanding of how people perceive degradation and the visual thresholds they have toward the various forms of garbage in mountain landscapes, providing a framework for the implementation of management strategies.

To test the research methods I am using in Nepal I have conducted preliminary studies in the Victorian Alps. Even though the Victorian Alps are faced with different forms of degradation, the basic principles of continued use, development and impact on the mountain landscape make these preliminary studies a crucial first step for research of mountain landscapes in the Himalaya and then other parts of the world.

Beau Beza, BSLA (UC Davis), MUP (Melb), ASLA.Lecturer in Landscape Architecture.Email: beaubb@unimelb.edu.au

The judging panel comprised architects Peter Davidson of LAB ArchitectureStudio, Roger Wood of Wood Marsh, Eli Giannini of McGauran Soon and Diane Soumilas, curator of the Gold Treasury Museum. The Victorian Chapter of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects endorsed the competition.

Eli Giannini said that the winning entry provided some clear choices for a new institution for the 21st century. She described the winning entry as

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“representing a Museum of Paper in a competent design solution which proposes ‘intimacy’ as the generator of spaces in the urban realm.”

Roger Wood said McCartney’s design set up a "dialogue between bureaucracy and architectural form".

“The medium of paper has been manipulated by folding to generate a fragile three dimensional form which appears to have been washed downstream and discarded on the river bank,” he said.

Mr McCartney was awarded with a return airline ticket to England and Italy with $2000 spending money. He will visit prominent practising architects in both countries.

Seamus McCartney is in his final year of the Bachelor of Architecture/ Bachelor of Property and Construction program.

Types of garbage found along the Mount Everest trek: toilet paper, plastic bottles and packaging, tampons/sanitary napkins, condoms, film canisters, batteries, old tyres, used syringes, soiled bandages, unmarked medication, glass bottles, tin cans, chewing tobacco packets, clothes and shoes, kerosene barrels, human and yak excrement, bamboo baskets, and crashed aircraft and their parts.

Mountains have always been a part of my life

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PELS: INTEREST-FREE LOANS FOR COURSEWORK POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS

PAGODA IS MODEL EFFORT FOR ARCHITECTURE STUDENTSA group of public-spirited architecture students have made a gift to Melbourne’s Institute of Asian Languages and Societies of a scale model of a seventh century Japanese pagoda. The four students completed the project for a second year course on Asian Architecture, but worked days and nights well beyond what is expected for assessment of the subject to turn their new-found passion into reality.

Krisanto Tandyasraya says working to construct the model of the five-storey Horyuji Pagoda was a “precious experience” that brought the unexpected benefit of learning about teamwork and time-management.

“It is not that easy to work with other people. You have to adjust your opinions and lay down your ego, but I will have to work in a group later in my career, whether I like it or not, so I’m really glad we could work well with each other.”

According to Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning’s Workshop Coordinator, Mr Hamish Hill, the talent on display in the finished model represented “more than the sum of its parts”.

“The students faced a real challenge in turning a flat drawing into a 3D object. There were no blueprints, only notes and diagrams. They had to draw a pattern for every piece, and then cut the pieces out in wood by hand in the workshop.”

Horyuji Pagoda is World Heritage listed and the oldest existing timber structure in the world. Use of a sophisticated system of timber joinery and an earthquake-resilient design make it one of East Asia’s most significant examples of monumental architecture.

Professor Bill Coaldrake, Head of Japanese Studies at the University of Melbourne, has researched the form and function of the pagoda and supplied the group of students with diagrams made during restoration works carried out in the late 1950s and 1960s.

“This is a brilliant model, revealing different aspects of the construction technique on each floor, and especially interesting because this culturally diverse group of students had to work their way philosophically and mentally into the mindset of the creators of the original pagoda in order to make it,” he says. “In the execution of the model, they have got it just right.”

Professor Coaldrake says the 1:10 scale of the model is an interesting scale with which to work. “This is a model, not a miniature, and as such the students have been able to accurately display many, if not all of the unique detailing of the originally 40m-high pagoda.”

Monumental effort: From left, Architecture, Building and Planning Workshop Coordinator Mr Hamish Hill, pagoda building architecture students, Kelami Ata, Allan Xu, Henry Nguo, and Kristanto Tandyasraya, and Architecture lecturer Dr Qinghua Guo.

PHOTO: Kristanto TandyasrayaPHOTO: James Boddington

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STOP PRESSProfessor Ruth Fincher has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning from 1 January 2003 to 31 December 2005. She will succeed Professor Ross King, who is retiring at the end of this year. Professor Fincher has been Professor of Urban Planning since 1997. Previously she had been the Director of the Australian Centre at the University of Melbourne.

The University’s offers of two Chairs in the Faculty have recently been accepted. Professor Philip Goad has accepted a Chair of Architecture, and Associate Professor Kim Dovey has accepted a Chair of Architecture and Urban Design. These appointments took effect on 1 July 2002.

This culturally diverse group of students had to work their way philosophically and mentally into the mindset of the creators of the original pagoda

The Postgraduate Education Loans Scheme (PELS) is an interest-free loans facility for eligible students who are enrolled in fee-paying, postgraduate non-research courses. It is similar to the deferred payment arrangements available under the Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS).

PELS enables eligible students to obtain a loan from the Commonwealth government to pay all or part of their tuition fees incurred from 2002 onwards. It is available for both commencing and continuing students. The Commonwealth pays the amount of the loan directly to the student’s institution. Students repay their loan through the taxation system once their income reaches the minimum threshold for compulsory repayment.

The availability of PELS will assist in removing barriers to investment in education, training and skills development.

For more information visitwww. hecs.gov.au/pels.htm or ring thetoll free hotline on 1800 020 108.

NEW BOOKS BY FACULTY STAFF

Dr Qinghua Guo's A Visual Dictionary of Chinese Architecture provides a uniquely valuable resource to architects, artisans, builders and others interested in Chinese architecture. Dr Guo is a leading authority on Chinese timber architecture and internationally known for her work in the history of building technology. She has extensive expertise in East Asian architecture.

Her new book is a major reference work that brings knowledge of Chinese architecture and construction over the past 1000 years to 21st century architects, conservators, scholars and students.

She began the project seven years ago, inspired by her uncle, Chen Mingda who, she says, was a leading architectural historian and the greatest living authority on the carpentry of the Song Dynasty. Mr Chen died in 1998, but not before he had provided expert assistance in selecting the terms to be used in the dictionary.The dictionary is distinguished by three factors: its concern with the exhaustive search for sources of every kind relating to architecture; a research approach to original documents dealing with architectural science and building techniques; and visual descriptions.

Dr Guo’s approach considers Chinese architecture as a continuous process of evolution from remote antiquity until contemporary practices. She provides definitions of technical terms; elucidates design, structure and construction;

interprets techniques, standards and regulations; documents building materials and tools; and explains typical features of Chinese architecture.

For each of the more than 1000 terms listed, Dr Guo gives two translated names. The first is a literal translation which tells the reader how the term is expressed in Chinese. The second is a functional translation relating the term to a similar but commonly known object.

Special aspects of Chinese architecture covered include: carpentry units, systems, modules and assemblies; design, form and scale; carpentry, joinery, masonry and adobe; building structures and constructions; interiors and decoration; working procedures and manufacturing techniques; and building materials and tools.

A Visual Dictionary of Chinese Architecture, published by the IMAGES Publishing Group, can be ordered by visiting www.images.com.au or by contacting the publisher on tel: +61 3 9561 5544 orfax: +61 3 9561 4860.

Dr Julie Willis launched her book, Women Architects in Australia 1900–1950 (co-written with Bronwyn Hanna) on International Women’s Day at the Royal Australian Institute of Architects.

Women Architects in Australia 1900–1950 discusses over 140 women who were significantly involved in architecture in Australia before 1950, profiling aspects of architectural education, professional qualification and the changing nature of practice through the lives and work of these women. Opportunities and triumphs are contrasted with difficulties and discrimination, demonstrating the complex history of women architects. This is the first book to be published on this topic in Australia, and it is one of the first accounts of a nation’s early women architects to be published anywhere in the world.

The contribution of women architects to the Australian built environment has been significant and lasting. Far from being purely specialists in domestic architecture, women architects worked in all aspects of architectural practice, from large industrial and institutional projects to the smallest renovations. They also managed to combine the demands of the household and family responsibilities with architectural careers.

Women’s absence from architectural history can be seen to be most fundamentally a problem of recognition. While women have been graduating and working as architects in substantial careers in ever increasing numbers throughout the 20th century, architectural history has largely failed to notice their existence or acknowledge their achievements.

Women Architects in Australia 1900–1950 does not seek to replace other histories of Australian architecture, but to challenge and prompt a broader understanding of architectural history

Women Architects in Australia 1900–1950, published by the RAIA’s National Office in Canberra can be ordered by visiting www.architecture.com or contacting the RAIA National Office on tel: +61 2 6273 1548 orfax: + 61 2 6273 1953.

STOP PRESSDr Julie Willis won the 2002 Bates Smart Award for Architecture in the Media for Women Architects in Australia 1900–1950.

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Dr Paul Mees won the 2001 Royal Australian Planning Institute (RAPI), Victorian Chapter award for Planning Scholarship for his book A Very Public Solution: Transport in the Dispersed City, Melbourne University Press, 2000.

The award’s jurors offered the following comments about Paul’s book:

“This book provides a valuable alternative perspective on the relationship between land use and transport planning. Paul Mees’ argument that transport, not land use policies, have adversely affected public transport patronage challenges the planning orthodoxy followed in Australia for 50 years. It is especially relevant at the time when the Victorian government is developing a new metropolitan strategy.

The book places the public transport debate in the context of broader public policy and land use strategy on compact cities and urban form. It provides international comparisons and a wealth of information on Melbourne. It has international relevance, as Prof Sir Peter Hall has observed, and is rigorous, well argued and humorous. Paul Mees has produced a welcome addition to debate in Melbourne on land use and transport planning.”

Professor Sir Peter Hall’s glowing review of A Very Public Solution appeared in Town & Country Planning, May 2001, pp130 – 131.

A Very Public Solution: Transport in the Dispersed City may be ordered through the Melbourne University Press website: http://www.mup.unimelb.edu.au/

multipli-cities by Steve Whitford

researchtheorydesignmultipli-cities is the publication of the work of those in the Faculty engaged in urban research, theory and design.

The first issue of multipli-cities was published in 2001. Its 40 pages consist mainly of selected projects produced in the Master of Urban Design program from 1996 to 2000. Its publication was intended to introduce and inform the public of the work being done within the program, and to offer an invitation to the numerous parties involved in the production of cities to engage with the Faculty.

In future issues the contents of multipli-cities will expand to include research, theory, and design projects from PhD students and Faculty members. These staff projects are often collaborations between staff members from other faculties, and our own masters and PhD students or recent graduates.

connected becomingThe focus of the publication is, as its name suggests, multiplicities: the complex co-existence of a manifold variety of economic, political and cultural endeavours. We are also interested in their manifestation and relations within the urban environment. This leads to the exploration of the degree of connectivity, or otherwise, within the multiplicity—connectivity not just to the physical context, but connectivity to a bigger brighter world-view, a view that actually engages with a more inclusive (multiplicitous) definition of what society may be in the process of becoming. All

of us concerned about the quality and quantity of the urban environment should be challenged by the many opportunities. Opportunities to engage with an economic position beyond budget and profit; a political position beyond the self or the party; and a cultural position beyond the personal or the influential. Opportunities to engage with philosophical concepts, scientific theories, and an art of transformative percepts and affects1. Opportunities that expand the potential between form and content; that explore space beyond space as form; that have a much more sophisticated understanding of what order is; and that goes beyond just good taste. Opportunities to appreciate that pragmatics are not exhausted by function, that iconography is not exhausted by decoration, that the rich world of analogy can be a source of inspiration for cities as well as art; and to appreciate that a state of becoming (rather than a state of being) may be able to more actively accommodate a multiplicity of meanings.

(an) exploring and experimental ethicsThe Urban Design program at the University of Melbourne attempts to do so by exploring and experimenting with cities and by testing the ever-changing role of the public realm within an increasingly privatised social space. The need to invent new programs for the future city presents other challenging opportunities: to bring into public focus what, according to Singer, are the two crucial ethical dilemmas for the 21st century—the ever increasing levels of poverty and environmental degradation2.

These are the objectives of our program and multipli-cities, an ongoing work, will give an account of our progress.

Future issues will cover our rapidly growing and diversifying postgraduate urban design related activities including the third prize-winning international competition for a new university campus in Shenyang, China (see Towards a Design–Research Culture on page 8 for more on this competition)

multipli-cities is available from the Faculty’s General Office and details of the Master of Urban Design program are available at: www.arbld.unimelb.edu.au

A new web-site, currently under development, will be an active, ever changing version of multipli-cities.

Steve Whitford is a co-editor of multipli-cities1 G. Deleuze, F. Guattari, What is Philosophy?, Verso,

London, 1994, pp. 163–199.2 P. Singer, How are we to live? Ethics in an age of Self-

Interest, Mandarin, Sydney, 1997, pp. 260–280.

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EYES 2001

~iseThis year sees the inaugural publication of an edited collection of graduate and undergraduate student writings devoted to critical reflection upon contemporary architecture and urbanism.

Named ~ise in recognition of the ways in which, in the face of new works and experiences, we theorise, categorise, memorise, criticise, summarise, pillorise, improvise and scrutinise, the publication also is intended to complement EYES, the Faculty’s annual publication of student design work.

That ~ise and EYES are indistinguishable when spoken, yet utterly different when written, underscores the complex relation between theory and practice that these two publications celebrate.

The twelve contributions have been selected for their currency, original insights and ability to generate further debate and inspire action. Reflecting the broad discipline base and global outlook of the Faculty, essay topics range from mobile market stalls in Malaysia to French architecture’s romance with nature, from neo-modernism in Japan to Melbourne and its response to the imperatives of global tourism.

~ise has been edited and produced by third year architecture student, Matthew Rawlins and staff member, Dr Sandra Kaji-O’Grady.

Copies are available at the Faculty’s General Office for $10.

UMEUME is a beautiful architectural magazine edited and published by Professor Haig Beck of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, and Jackie Cooper–authors of the latest monograph on Glenn Murcutt, A Singular Practice (Images, 2002) and the recent monograph on University of Melbourne graduates, Denton Corker Marshall (Birkhauser 2000).

UME is full of the drawings architects make to describe their buildings.

Architects in UME include Rem Koolhaas, Will Alsop, Ian Moore, Zaha Hadid, Glenn Murcutt, Donovan Hill, Enric Miralles, Jean Nouvel, Richard Rogers, Bernard Tschumi, Wiel Arets, Nigel Coates, Clare Design, Steven Holl, Morphosis, Renzo Piano, Will Bruder, Greg Lynn, Mario Botta, Henri Ciriani, Frank Gehry, Ben van Berkel, MGT, Shigeru Ban, John Wardle, Sauerbruch Hutton, Taira Nishizawa, et.al.

UME is "perhaps the only magazine in the world that perceives architecture as an art 'in practice' - interleaving essays on theory with drawings of construction details - and demanding a correspondence between the two. Uniquely intelligent, and intelligent in a unique way." Tom Heneghan, 10 x 10: 10 Critics 100 Architects (Phaidon, London, 2000, p. 423)

You can order a subscription to UME (3 issues) for $99.

Back issues (UME 8–13) are $44 each. UME 14 is now available.

UME, PO Box 190, Point Lookout, QLD, 4183

Tel/fax: + 61 7 3409 8944.Web: ume@umemagazine.com

The seventh edition of EYES was launched in April this year. EYES publishes the best design work from the annual EYES (Everyone’s Year End Show) exhibition. As its name suggests, this exhibition showcases work from all the architecture, landscape architecture and urban design students of the Faculty.

EYES reveals the breadth of design projects undertaken in the Faculty. It also provides an insight into the increasing complexity and professional relevance of these projects as students progress through the course.

Readers of EYES will be inspired and given an insight into current pedagogical methods as well as an opportunity to identify emerging talent.

EYES 2001 can be purchased from the Faculty's General Office for $18. Earlier editions are available for $5.

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NEWS BRIEFSDr Stephen Cairns has left the Faculty to take up a position at the University of Edinburgh.

Welcome to Richard Reed, new lecturer in the Property and Construction program. Richard started with us on 1 February 2002 after relocating from Queensland.

Also welcome to Dr Kevin O’Connor, Associate Professor in Urban Planning. Kevin joins us from Monash University.

BAU and staff and alumni of the urban design program have been awarded first prize in the international design competition for a new high technology sector for the city of Xin Yu, in Jang Xi Provence, People's Republic of China.

Valerie Francis and Helen Lingard have been awarded the prize for best paper of the recent 26th Annual Australian Universities Building Education Association (AUBEA) conference in Adelaide. The conference was attended by about 65 Building and Architecture academics from universities in Australia, NZ, the UK and USA. The paper, entitled ''Work–Life' Employment Practices: meeting the Needs of Construction Professionals in the 21st Century’, will be published in the Australian Journal of Construction Economics and Building.

Alex Selenitsch received the Gordon Darling Australasian Print Fund Fellowship for 2001. This is a three-month appointment which entails research at the National Gallery of Australia in the Department of Prints and Drawings, Australian Art. Alex’s brief is to examine the NGA’s collection of Australasian artist’s books, write/produce something about this genre and the Gallery’s collection for the NGA’s web-site, and give a public presentation before the end of June this year.

Dr Derham Groves organised an exhibition of selected work across all year levels from the 2001 EYES exhibition in Hanoi from December 2001 to January 2002. The work was on exhibition with a selection of work from students at the Hanoi Architectural University.

Professor Graham Brawn was a joint winner of this year's RAIA Victorian Chapter President's Award. Graham was awarded for his contribution to the International Architects lecture series conducted in the 1980s. This was an extraordinary event and formed a critical part of Melbourne's architecture culture for six years.

Architecture graduate, Dik Jarman, now working at Bates Smart and tutoring for the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, had his short film 'Dad’s Clock' screened on SBS Television on Saturday 26 January 2002. The film has been shortlisted for awards in the following festivals: Sydney International Film Festival; St Kilda Film Festival; Annency (France) International Animation Film Festival; Krakow (Poland); Zagreb (Croatia); Toronto (Canada); and Australian Effects & Animation Festival.

PhD student Kate Shaw received the Stegley Foundation award for social justice in post-graduate research for her RMIT Masters thesis, submitted in 1999 and approved in 2000, titled: Whose Image? Global Restructuring and Community Politics in the Inner-city. The award gave Kate $3,000 to contribute to the dissemination of her findings and further research.

Amy Chan, a 1999 graduate of the architecture program, was one of two Victorian, and seven Australia-wide, recipients of the National Peter McCallum Practice Prize.

Archiprix originated as a national competition for the best student work in the Netherlands but has recently gone international. This year one of our graduate students, Evelyn Sze Yee Chin received a commendation for her work undertaken in the Design 5 studio overseen by Paolo Tombesi in her final year (2000).

One of our PhD students, Erik Champion, was invited to participate in a workshop/forum in Korea in December 2001. The Virtual Reality Research Center (VRRC) in Korea (http://vrrc.kaist.ac.kr/) invited advanced graduate students around the world to participate in a forum to discuss the future of virtual reality. Of the 40 applicants from around the world, only 10 were selected.

The book Australian Urban Planning, New Challenges, New Agendas by Dr Brendan Gleeson and Associate Professor Nick Low (which won the 2000 RAPI Victorian State award for excellence in planning scholarship) recently won the Australian national award of the RAPI for excellence in planning scholarship 2001. Nick was also elevated to Fellow of the RAPI (from being mere ‘member’) in November.

Our students did exceedingly well in the first Interbuild Student Design Competition with first place being awarded to Chantal Kiernan and Julian Tuckett. Honourable mentions were also given to Paul Quang and Catherine Duggan as well as Milinda Pathiraja and Rajith Senanayake. Byron George received a special commendation.

Julia Gatley, a current PhD student, won the inaugural Dean’s Prize for Published Postgraduate Research. The Dean’s Prize was established to acknowledge the contribution made by postgraduate research students to the research culture and performance of the Faculty. Julia’s conference paper ‘A Scandalous Affair? Women at the First Australian Town Planning and Housing Conference and Exhibition’ was one of nine postgraduate publications considered by a committee representing the various programs of the Faculty. Julia was awarded $500 and her achievement was formally acknowledged at the Dean’s Honours and Awards night on April 19.

Alexandra Teague, one of the Faculty’s PhD students, has won the 2002 Dean’s Prize for Published Postgraduate Research. Alexandra’s article ‘Conservation and Social Value: Rose Seidler House’, published in the prestigious Journal of Architectural Conservation, was one of the postgraduate publications considered by a committee representing the various programs of the Faculty. Alexandra was awarded $500 and her achievement was formally acknowledged at the Dean’s Honours and Awards night on April 19.

Congratulations to Dr Paul Walker, Mr Andrew Hutson and Associate Professor Ian Bishop on their success in this year’s round of the Melbourne Research Development Grant Scheme.

+ Paul is a partner investigator with Dr Chris Healy (English and Cultural Studies) on their project ‘Four south pacific museums: new museums and public culture’. They have received a grant of $17,500.

+ Andrew is a partner investigator with Professor Frank Sear (Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology) on their project: ‘The structural development of the early Roman theatre’. They have received $7000.

+ Ian has been awarded $27,500 for his project ‘Modelling human behaviour and environmental impact’.

Resetting the Compass, by David Yencken and Debra Wilkinson won the 'Geography teaching source material' category at the Australian Geography Teacher’s Association 2002 Awards.

Graham Brawn has been engaged by ABN Amro and Multiplex as a Strategic Adviser to assist in building a team for the upcoming new prisons in Victoria, to be built as part of Partnership Victoria, and to represent the Consortium in negotiations and presentations. He will also be a planner and designer on the team. The planning and design team is being built around Graham and Lyons Architects, represented by Cameron Lyon. Specialist advisers will include a principal of COX Group, Perth, and experts in public-private partnerships from UK.

One of our research students, Carolynne Baker, has been selected as an Australian Youth Ambassador for Development. Carolynne completed her architecture degree here and is currently enrolled in a Master of Architecture by Research. Carolynne will be spending one year living in Hanoi, Vietnam, based at the Research Institute on Architecture where she will be the Architect on Field Monument Heritage Conservation.

Professor Graham Brawn was recently awarded the Facilities Management Knowledge Excellence Award 2002 at the National Conference of the Facilities Management Association of Australia.

Shannon Bufton, BPD (Arch), was the guiding force behind the HOMESHOW, a collaborative installation project held as part of the Next Wave Festival. Visit www.109A.com for more information.

Few would have noticed the name Shivaram listed in the Death Notices in The Age on November 11 2001. Even fewer would have known why an Indian dancer, passing away in South India would make it into these notices. Shivaram made visits to Australia sponsored by Louise Lightfoot. Louise was an architecture graduate of the University of Melbourne, sponsored by Marion and Walter Griffin. She graduated in 1923 and moved to Sydney, living and working at Castlecrag. With Marion Griffin’s encouragement she became involved with dance. In the 1930s, Louise and her Russian partner opened the first Australian Ballet Company, pioneering new works with Australian compositions. Soon after Walter Griffin died in Lucknow in 1937, Louise Lightfoot set off to travel to Europe, but stayed on instead at the Theosophist ashram in Madras. She returned to Melbourne in the 1950s to run the National Ballet Company and Ballet School. She then returned to live in India, visiting Australia again in the company of Shivaram. Together they gave recitals on Indian dance. Thanks to Jeff Turnbull for this story. If you know of any interesting tales related to our alumni please contact the editor on dmundey@unimelb.edu.au ortel: +61 3 8344 3740.

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Faculty ContactsInternational prefix for Melbourne, Australia: +61 3

Postgraduate Coursework DegreesApplication enquiries: Local StudentsManager Student Services: Patricia Murray 8344 6453

Application enquiries: International StudentsManager International and External Relations;Monique MacRitchie 8344 4250

Course enquiriesArchitecture Dr Paul Walker Architectural History and Conservation Prof Miles Lewis Architectural Practice and Management Mr Tony Mussen Landscape Architecture Mr Andrew Saniga Planning and Design Prof Catherin Bull Property and Construction Mr Peter Williams Urban Design Dr Darko Radovic Urban Planning A/Prof Nick Low

Postgraduate Research DegreesAll initial and application enquiriesResearch and Graduate Studies Officer: Lorenne Wilks 8344 6416Course informationDoctor of Philosophy: Lorenne Wilks Master of Architecture (by Thesis) Lorenne Wilks Master of Architecture (by Design) Prof Philip Goad Master of Building (By Thesis) Prof Jon Robinson Master of Landscape Architecture (by Thesis) Prof Catherin Bull

AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITIES INTERNATIONALALUMNI CONVENTIONMelbourne Australia 5–7 September 2002

In the new knowledge economy, it’s not only what you know, but who you know that counts. Count yourself in on the most important alumni networking event of 2002.

You are invited to join hundreds of graduates of Australian universities who will descend on Melbourne from around the world this September to share their knowledge and experience.

This unique convention provides an unrivalled opportunity to build and extend your international relationships with peers from around the globe.

Endorsed by the Australian Government, the two-day programme features pre-eminent global speakers such as Peter Doherty, Julie Eizenberg, Jan Gehl, Lindy Hyam, Bob Isherwood, William Mitchell, Dr Narongchai, and Tikki Pang.

This is a unique opportunity to make or refresh important personal and professional connections and to participate in business matching activities.

Register online now at www.auiac2002.com orcall +61 3 9417 0888

There are about 130,000 men and women located in over 100 countries around the world who are part of the University of Melbourne alumni community. The alumni network offers you the opportunity to continue networking with former students and staff of the University and provides an excellent link to employers and other services

If you keep us updated on your current address, we’ll keep you informed of University news and events via our free annual alumni magazine, Melbourne University Magazine. Other services available to alumni include:

+ The Alumni @ Melbourne website (updated weekly, and including the Melbourne Forum, an online mentoring program, events calendar and e-postcards)

+ Free email bulletin – GradNet @ Melbourne+ Annual Virtual Alumni Summit—an on-line conference (see below for details)+ Access to alumni networks interstate and overseas+ Alumni career programs

You can find out more about our University of Melbourne alumni community by visiting the website: http://unimelb.edu.au/alumni

GradNet @ MelbourneAs well as logging onto Alumni @ Melbourne, you can stay in touch via a free email bulletin called GradNet @ Melbourne, which is sent every three weeks. GradNet @ Melbourne contains news of the University, information on upcoming lectures, conferences and career opportunities, details of cultural events, information on local, interstate and overseas alumni events and graduate profiles. To subscribe visit http://www.unimelb.edu.au/alumni/gradnet.html

For further information about the Alumni Relations Program contact:Tel: +61 3 8344 0882Fax: +61 3 8344 6895Email: alumni-info@unimelb.edu.auWeb: http://www.unimelb.edu.au/alumni

Master of Planning and Design (by Thesis):Architectural History and Conservation Prof Miles Lewis Facility Management and Planning Prof Graham Brawn Planning and Design Prof Catherin Bull Urban Planning Prof Ruth Fincher

Undergraduate DegreesAll enquiriesStudent Services Office 8344 6430/50

Schools LiaisonExternal Relations Officer; Dean Mundey 8344 3740

Contributions to AtriumDean Mundey, Editor 8344 3740

MediaMonique MacRitchie 8344 4250

General Enquiries tel 8344 6430/50 fax 8344 5532 email abp-info@unimelb.edu.au web www.arbld.unimelb.edu.au

The University of Melbourne CRICOS Provider Code: 00116K

ALUMNI RELATIONS PROGRAM

AtriumPublished by the International and External Relations Unit of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, the University of Melbourne.Manager: Monqiue MacRitchie. Editor: Dean Mundey. Design & Production: Michele Burder. Authorised by Elizabeth Capp, General Manager.Copyright: Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. July 2002. ISSN 1447-1728