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- Strategic direction for School of Architecture
- 2012 Housing Tomorrow international design competition
- Light Boxes at Cobblestone Park
- Top Architecture Student Redesigns Denniston
Strategic direction for School of Architecture
1 May 2012
Just three months into the job, the head of Victoria‘s School of Architecture has set ambitious goals to build the School‘s reputation nationally and internationally.
Jules Moloney is a fifth generation New Zealander who arrived at Victoria last year from the University of Melbourne. He was recently appointed as Professor and Head of the School of Architecture, building on the legacy of Professor Diane Brand who is now Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Design.
Professor Moloney and his colleagues have developed a new strategic vision for the School. The goals include establishing Victoria as one of the top three Australasian graduate school programmes in built environment disciplines, encouraging short turnaround, high impact and regionally focused research projects, and new initiatives to attract and excite undergraduate students.
He says design in the 21st century must be viewed at a range of scales and holistically, balancing performance against aesthetics.
"The Victoria University School of Architecture with its unique mix of disciplines—landscape, interiors, building science and architecture—has the knowledge base to address this challenge," he says.
Professor Moloney has a long-standing interest and expertise in how digital technologies impact on architectural design.
In the 1990s, while teaching architecture at the University of Auckland, he developed an innovative design research platform using technology from the video games sector and later extended the research by adapting new advances in mixed reality technology (which merges real and virtual 3D objects in real time).
He went on to work with HITLab NZ, a specialist in augmented reality, to produce software and hardware prototypes that integrate mixed reality into architectural design.
Kinetic (moving) building facades are another passion of Professor Moloney‘s and he used his PhD research in the area as the basis for a book Designing Kinetics for Architectural facades: State Change.He says digital technologies have transformed the way we conceive, evaluate and realise design.
"Just as importantly, embedded technology enables the realised design to be responsive, adjusting itself to the dynamics of weather and use."
Professor Moloney, who lives in Korokoro, gets plenty of inspiration for his digital technologies research at home—his partner, Helen, is completing a doctorate in the history of video games and their implications for exhibition and curation.
2012 Housing Tomorrow international design competition
18 April 2012
Congratulations to Victoria Architectural Studies graduate Henry Stephens, who along with his friend Hannes Frykholm, won the 2012 Housing Tomorrow international design competition with their design, Woolopolis.
The annual competition promotes the exploration of contextual, cultural, and life cycle flows that offer new housing strategies for living in the future inviting architects, designers, engineers, and students to collectively explore innovative approaches to residential urbanism, architecture, interiors, and designed objects.
Woolopolis rethinks various aspects of New Zealand‘s wool economy and combines processing facilities, lofted housing units, and a market functioning as the communal centre of a networked live-work community.
Light Boxes at Cobblestone Park
13 March 2012
A joint Victoria University and Wellington City Council venture has seen the installation of three light boxes at Wellington’s Cobblestone Park, outside Victoria University’s Architecture and Design school.
The light boxes will be used for showcasing some of the brilliant artwork from staff and students at Victoria University.
The opening set of artworks is called FIRST LIGHT IN4MS, and has the overarching theme First Light, inspired by the success of Victoria’s First Light Team at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon last year.
Designed by Architecture Lecturer Tobias Danielmeier, the artwork explores what first light means in different disciplines including English, architecture and science.
“I wanted to showcase various approaches one can take when looking at a single term, in this case ‘first light’. Each poster is seen as appetiser for a researcher’s infinite thirst of knowledge. While the posters provide different clues, it is up to the individual to find out more,” he says.
Overview of FIRST LIGHT IN4MS artwork:
Poster one is an excerpt from the poem Watchers of the Sky by the English poet Alfred Noyes which reads ‘Where was the gambler that would stake so much … on a single throw’. These words are a reminder that research requires investment of time, resources and the belief that the research will lead to new knowledge, and not only researchers but also our society invests into research in hope to benefit in multiple ways at some stage.
Poster two is a technical three line drawing from the First Light House solar array which is a not only a reminder of Victoria’s success at the Solar Decathlon but also plays on the notion that information and contents sometimes get modified and superficial when passed on to others.
Poster three displays the number 380 expressive that light becomes visible to the human eye at the wavelength of 380 Nanometres. The background appears to be black but has some saturation given that black is not a true colour, hence cannot be labelled first light.
Poster four called FIRST SECOND THIRD LIGHT is an examination of natural, artificial and reflected light and how different light sources can be experienced visually.
Top Architecture Student Redesigns Denniston
24 January 2012
A passion for visionary architectural design, building on traces of the past and rejuvenating industrial sites led Mr Wilson to the historic West Coast mining settlement.
Mr Wilson chose to utilise the once thriving town as the setting for his final-year project, which was to create a proposal for a revived township. Inspired by the history and character of the deserted township, Mr Wilson is now only weeks away from completing his thesis “Transcendent site: resurrecting Denniston”.
“I have always been fascinated by industrial sites and interested in exploring how architecture can move toward the future,” he says.
Extensive research of Denniston, which is perched on the side of a 600 metre mountain next to the ocean, included Mr Wilson staying with local archivist Gary James for just over one week, exposing him to the Plateau and its harsh weather conditions.
Mr Wilson says he was impressed by the site.
“The site qualities are captivating and I was struck by the industrial remnants of the past.”
He is appreciative of the support of his supervisor, Lecturer Phillipe Campays, throughout the venture.
“He kept pushing me even when I did things differently. I started designing very early on, so while most people research first then design, my approach was very much design-led.”
Mr Wilson‘s proposal incorporates a social and commercial hub, and various types of accommodation and multi-level apartments for miners, their families and long-term dwellers. Another major element of the design is sustainability, making use of the climate in the dormant subterranean mine workings, which is ideal for producing edible vegetation.
The award judges said Mr Wilson‘s entry showed a balanced engagement of past and future.
“We'd like to go to this town, at least for a visit,” they said.
Other top Victoria University architecture students put forward for the prestigious award included Sophie Hamer who reworked Wellington‘s Post Office Square; Te Ari Prendergast who envisioned a Maori carving school in the Christchurch Red Zone; and Ashton Wright who proposed a construction system for New Zealand school buildings where classrooms could be customised by designers, teachers and children.