Sublime Bodies

2012-04-09

Welcome to Sublime Bodies - Maribor 2112

Dear Students, welcome to the Summer Semester 2012,

The Maribor Vision Strategy, as part of the program of the 13^th Venice Biennale for Architecture, is an initiative to create a new sustainable blueprint for Maribor’s future evolution. 2112Ai [Architectural intelligence] 100YC (100 Year City) is a multidisciplinary research project inviting visionary ideas for the Maribor 2012 European Capital of Culture.

Trans-disciplinary and globally focused in its intent and content, 2112Ai 100YC brings together 100 visionaries including progressive international architecture schools under the directorship of many of the world’s most innovative architects. The studio is invited to propose a visionary project or master plan for the city of Maribor and work within trans-disciplinary teams that may include architects, engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, economists, artists and urbanists amongst others.

The results of this studio will be presented within the Australian and Slovenian pavilions at the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale. Within this context, the Garden of Urban Delights and Sublime Bodies will be presented as an interactive installation alongside a ‘live lab’ series of debates with invited trans-disciplinary leaders committed to the program. In Venice, this content will be captured to provide series of thought-provoking and dynamic outputs that will, in turn, inform the direction for a series of studio reviews following the Biennale and providing an ongoing legacy for the program.

The 2112Ai 100YC project aspires to create a unique research lab destination for future discourse and evolution of Architectural intelligence. The program will investigate and identify disruptive patterns of global change and envisage impacts on architecture, urbanism and life in the extreme future. The studio trip will consist of a visit to the Venice Biennale opening days, to see the exhibition, and get selected projects the chance to be reviewed by some of the leading figures in the field of contemporary architecture.

2012-02-22

SaM_welcome FW1112

Hyperspace
Virgin Galactic Spaceport, Sardinia

Commercial Spaceflight The task of this semester is to create a spaceport on the island of Sardinia, Italy.
Commercial spaceflight, now in its test phase, opens the opportunity to speculate about the architectural definition of a spaceport - an exploration in terms of form as well as program of such an edifice. Virgin Galactic is already testing commercial spaceflights, in the Mojave Desert, new Mexico, USA. This Studio is proposing a European based spaceport, located in the heartland of the island Sardinia, Italy.

Goals As this will be a two semester thesis project the design process is structured in two main tasks: The first semester focuses on the exploration of design strategies and the basic development of the architectural project. The second semester is dedicated to the further development and refinement of the project to achieve an excellent result for the thesis presentation.

Hyperbolic Surfaces The main design trajectory explored in the studio is the application of hyperbolic surfaces and their related principles as design techniques. The studio especially explores possibilities for the aggregation and tessellation of hyperbolic surfaces to form architectural bodies. The application of these techniques has the potential to create lightweight yet solid structures, reducing material consumption. Instances of scale and mass versus lightness will create a manifold of opportunities for variation in the studio projects, generating an ecology that will explore alternative methods to employ geometric conditions to create architectural shapes that are yet to unfold.

Extensive and intensive Affect and atmosphere are the results of a finely tuned sensibility for architectural design, proportions, scale, chromatic effects and spatial formations. The goal of this studio is to guide students trough a design procedure that will train those sensibilities in order to create an architectural body in tune with extensive systems while simultaneously radiating within intensive conditions.