Hands up who wants to wants to design and build whilst studying.
Those with your hands up. Are you out of your *** minds!?
Still got them up? How do we make it happen?
Money makes buildings go up so we need a charity, a housing association, a developer or a private individual with some of it and a whole lot of vision. Or government . Plenty of them right on our doorstep and they have some of ‘our’ money they’re always looking to give away.
For example; Housing Innovation Fund - http://www.beehive.govt.nz/
We’d also need a registered architect to sign it off and a registered builder to supervise construction.
The School obviously has to be on board to offer it as a course/s. They might be pretty keen after dipping their toes in the Solar Decathlon water. They’d need to be getting their fees to cover their costs, lecturer, tutors etc. Design it in trimester one. Document it, submit consent and project manage in trimester two. Build it over the summer.
400 level courses starting in 2012 which gives us 18 months to sort it out.
Even longer for funding if that is secured nearer construction time.
Still got that hand up?
for possible inspiration see
Housing Innovation Fund
Wellington Housing Trust
Rural Studio
Basic Initiative
Architecture School
Share Architecture
Yes Im in. Me and Amanda have been dreaming of smiliar ventures. So yes hands. So do we have a group of us who are keen to make a commitment on signing up to a course which we will have to create to get money from studylink in a loan form to purchase a piece of property. This will allow us to begin to actually test the architecture we design.
ReplyDeleteCould we get some land from the goverment to set up testing sites? Ideally we would like this to carry on throughout years after us.
ReplyDeleteWe've kind of played with the idea of follies - but by definition, these buildings are without real purpose.. and as such inherently wasteful. Still a fun idea, but if we were to get funding, I like the idea of a housing initiative. That way our efforts are greater than a simple experiment, they can also be a genuine attempt to understand and tackle low-cost, energy efficient, high quality housing.
ReplyDeleteAwesome idea. I'm pretty sure Vic had a 'learning by making' studio up until a few years ago - maybe like a watered down Rural Studio project. I understand it was stopped because of OSH regulations / funding issues. I will definitely try and find out more information about that though...which lecturers were involved etc.
ReplyDeleteOver summer there was a TV series on the living channel called 'architecture school' which followed students who designed and built a few homes in post-Katrina New Orleans neighbourhoods. Might be worth checking out.
I think Spencer's right, the funding is definitely there if we had the right agenda.
At my work we are doing a wellington housing trust project right now, I think it has just reached documentation. Is there any interest in having a look at what has happened so far and following it as it progresses? Get a feel for what is involved.
ReplyDeleteHi there, I just thought I’d share my experience regarding this sort of thing.
ReplyDeleteI graduated a few years ago, but when I was in 4th year I took a paper run by the excellent Andrew Charleson, which was a construction based elective, where we designed and built a small classroom (the 'R-Pod') for a local Wellington school. It was based mainly around new timber construction methods and materials, and was very small, less than 10sqm so that it did not need a building consent.
It was a very fun experience, but even with a class of 20 working on such a small project, it was a LOT of work. So my advice would be make sure you know what you're getting yourselves into... especially if it is to run a whole year. Also, as I'm sure you know, designing in a group can be a challenging experience, and even more so when the results of that work are real.
But apart from those cautionary words I think it is an excellent idea. I was always dismayed that after 5 years of schooling in architecture I knew all sorts of random stuff about the built environment, but had never actually built anything and have the valuable experience of seeing something in your head come to life in reality. Though also having said that, there is a lot of time to build real things once you're out of school, ones head brimming with cool ideas, but why not start as soon as possible.
Ross T Smith very nearly got a programme of the ground a few years ago when he was teaching, which was to be based on Rural Studio, but undertaken in rural Northland - parts of which are somewhat impoverished. The university was pretty keen, but for whatever reason it didn't quite manifest itself in the end.
Also, I'd say think carefully about what sort of project you would undertake. Would it be just another detached housing NZ house out in Porirua, albeit a well designed one? The world abounds with student designed detaches homes. Maybe it could be something more urban, a rooftop inhabitation, warehouse conversion or the like. John Gray has a lot of experience in doing well designed low cost urban housing, so he could be an excellent resource.
My experience has been that if you can find an enthusiastic private client or benefactor who has some land or space to donate, it will probably make the process easier than going through the rigmarole of local politics. This is because all the relevant governmental agencies have to be super accountable, and are cautious and conservative by nature, even if the people within the organizations have wilder ideas themselves.
I would still try out the public route though. Ceilia Wade-Brown on the council was very supportive of us when we were doing The Plant Room project, and I’m sure she would be equally so for whatever project you guys might propose (especially if she becomes mayor…).
Good luck y’all!
For people not familiar with the plant room, take a look at the project here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shac.org.nz/group/ThePlantRoom
and here
http://theplantroom.co.nz/blog/
Oh yea I am keen.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jessie, great background stuff and advice.
ReplyDeleteGetting anything going regardless of the size is going to take alot of time and energy. I'll try an organise a meeting within a few weeks to discuss, so anyone interested remind me I wrote this, badger me and make sure I do, before the work starts piling up.
Great to see this gathering some momentum..
ReplyDeleteGood point, that running the Decathlon is hopefully giving the school some feeling for what these real life projects can do. Diane Brand is certainly very enthusiastic about the Decathlon, and I suspect she'd be very open for exploring a sort of long term project we're discussing here.
Jesse mentioned John Gray as someone who could be supportive of this. He'd also be great to have involved in initial investigation, as I've heard that he is the only academic left still teaching from the group who founded our school way back when.. So would have surely seen all of the successes and failings of any past attempts at projects like this. Could provide insight.
And excellent Andrew Charleson of course.
A meeting would be a fantastic start!
Keep us posted?
Nick Leckie
I could be wrong, but I think I walked through a retirement party in the atrium for John Gray towards the end of last semester. So, that's a shame.
ReplyDeleteBut agreed, I think the success or failure of this kind of project could really hinge on the involvement of people with insight and experience. Lecturers, post-grads, graduates, maybe an architect with a passion for education, would all be invaluable resources for getting this up and running.
A meeting would be good, to set out what we wish to achieve, who we should contact etc..
Guy might be able to provide some advice - but he is already involved with the Solar Decathalon, so might not be able to commit to much more than that. I think John Gray is around for the rest of the year in a research capacity - so I am sure he would also be happy to discuss your ideas.
ReplyDeleteI reckon it would be great to do something like this under someone like Gerald Melling - perhaps it would be a good idea to sound him out, and also, you might want to begin talking now to whoever is coordinating 4th year design studio to see whether integration is possible...
Just some ideas - unfortunately I can't offer much more...
These are John's comments from Citizen Architect post
ReplyDelete"I think there is an argument for little outside assistance, those who have experience have preconceived ideas on how things work. I'm not sure how it would work but a student led and managed paper where something is built with the littleist outside interference maybe more beneficial to us than a larger one at this point. im not sure it would be possible to do a full house project in one or two papers anyway. I am looking forward to the movie to see how they do it "
and
"maybe that is how this paper should work those who enrol sit down and work out what we want to achieve and how we are going to do it, the process of funding is the first part. "
I agree with John. It would be beneficial to have a good idea what it is that WE, as the people paying to do the paper want to put in to it and therefore get out of it. Full commitment from the students in the first instance, will probably ensure that whatever is constructed is a success. Then when we pitch it to the architects/school/investors they hopefully join our commitment.
I'm not saying we hand over our fates and the direction of the project to someone else, I agree that the project should be self-motivated, that we as the students set out what we want to achieve and essentially what the finished product should be.
ReplyDeleteI just believe that we yet have so much to learn and as such could hugely benefit from a collaborative effort, from people with experience and with the same drive. One of my major beefs with architecture school is this starting from scratch business, learning things the hard way simply as what seems like a perverse learning exercise. Isn't it easier, more efficient, and more natural to build upon the scores of good ideas that have been presented in the past rather than sitting down to a blank piece of paper? Obviously that is what we try to achieve through research, but some things simply come through experience, which as students is precisely what we lack.
I would prefer if this course was ran more like an apprenticeship myself.
ReplyDeleteHey guys,
ReplyDeleteHere's something in a similar vein, which has been in my head for a little while.
http://www.tyintegnestue.no/
From what I can tell, it's a design/build studio from a Norwegian University, with a humanitarian bent. I think this is a really nice way of creating architecture that has a social conscience, as well as being a platform for learning the ins and outs of physical construction.
Here is a link to one of their projects - a library for a rural village in Thailand. It actually won the ArchDaily building of the year for the Museums & Libraries category.
http://www.archdaily.com/30764/safe-haven-library-tyin-tegnestue/
As far as I can tell, this is an actual studio, carried out by students, with the academic staff taking charge of things. A project like this offers quite a bit - both as a learning tool, and as a functioning part of a developing community. As Jesse suggested, we shouldn't limit programs to dwellings or detached houses.
I think it's important to consider the problem we are trying to solve, rather than just building a house for the sake of construction knowledge. New Zealand is surrounded by developing states in Polynesia, Micronesia, Melanesia, and South East Asia, not to mention the more impoverished parts of our own country and Australia. There are dozens of humanitarian problems that good design and architecture can fix. So why not pick one, and start there? It seems a little more holistic in terms of intent, and would probably generate a more interesting design.
Henry
Henry , thats what im talking about.
ReplyDeleteMaybe a trip over to the desired country to visit and develop a deeper understand etc.
Lets do it
"Tsunami Box" by Gerald Melling
ReplyDelete"Architecture for the Poor" by Hassan Fathy