Closer Look at Canberra

This was one blog entry which I was meant to put up some time ago and have only realised now that I had saved it and not entered it. At the beginning of the semester I gave some time in to understanding what Canberra its self stands for and what it consists of. Below is a map which I got from one website / blog which I found very helpful.

http://www.kheper.net/ecognosis/essays/Canberra_its_Geomantic_realities.html

This blog has some great inside into the city and all around the region. The war memorials, the Nan Tien temple, the views and also some inside into the history of Canberra, and why Canberra site was chosen, and of course the Griffin design for Canberra, which is shown below.

Our Existing Capital City, Change it?

We originally thought about moving the capital city to either Sydney or Melbourne. They are both large beautiful cities with the infrastructure to back up the Australian Government. Although this was an agreed issue, what would we actually be fixing if we were to move the title of Australia's capital city to either of these cities. How would this better our government? It would still mean that all government officials would have to migrate to these cities for any parliamentary issues to be heard and debated, the solution is still coming out of the on building...

This is where we are being limited, why should all government officials from each state being expected to meet at the one location when every necessary? Regardless of how central the location was, it would still mean 1000 of kilometres of travel for some to get to parliament house. We want to be able to create the ability for those around the country side to have the ease of those that live with in our capital city. We want to give those who were not heard before, the ability to be heard, and be able to speak their voice with out having to spend the lifetime doing so.

Voice of the People

Is it really possible to have the voice of 22 million Australians heard by our government? Specially when our current government seems to be arguing between each other, let alone with the opinions of the entire nation.

To be able to cope it will be essential to have many sub levels in which each problem from each person is relayed through, and the issues can be dealt with at a lower level of government. As each case become are larger issue that is seen in a number of locations, then the higher up the problems go, until the main portal, which would be the same as those of parliament now. This does begin to resemble our current political way though... Could be a lot of political power used to get certain issues addressed by those with more power.

We will need to look at what we will be providing that isn't already being provided in a non virtual way.

Design of a Virtual Government

What would this Virtual Government look like?

This was what we imagined the parliament would look like from the inside. Each of these would be located major cities / towns within a certain distance from smaller communities and town etc. The goal will be to provide each Australian the ability to have their voice heard and have their say, regardless of who they are and what minimal amount of political power they are entitled to.

This picture however would look a fair bit different, but with the same initial concept. We are worried about loosing the emotional appeal and personal relationship that each person has with a real piece of architecture and people face to face.

Another What if Senario

As we further discussed the WHAT IF scenario of World War 3, we quickly realised that designing anything in a war, regardless of whether it be in a virtual world, the entire design will continually be shifted back to designing for the safety of those in side. Continually researching at how to keep a tank missile from going through you front door.

We still loved the idea of spreading the capital City over Australia. So...

What if parliament was to include a system to hear the voice of the people virtually?... How would such a system work effectively for Australia?

We began to think...

Although creating a virtual space, in which a computer generated tool will be used, there needs to be bounds in which this tool is to be used. There still needs to be the architecture in which this tool is to be bound. This tool of direct democracy will need to be housed, these new pieces of infrastructure will be adding to the existing parliament house. The government identity of parliament house will be portrayed in each and every city / town in which the new infrastructure is added.

Parliament House as it stands projects beauty, power, elegance, modest wealth, and huge amounts of leadership. Do we want to replicate what is projected in the current parliament house in each piece of Infrastructure provided for this virtual direct democracy? Should it be toned down to a lesser degree? What would the people in each of the towns want? Are we trying to replicate the infrastructure, or should be designing from new, as the new style of government begins, should a new style of architecture for parliament begin with it.

We want all voices heard from the entire of Australia. A direct democracy will enable each and every person to have the political power in which Julia Gillard (as our current Prime Minister) currently has. By providing the infrastructure to house virtual Parliamentary Houses, over the country, this will become possible.

Virtual Group

With in our new group, we began trying to nail down what the major problems were in the Australia, not only a problem like global warming, or the continual arrival of boats, or who is the better government party to vote for. But problems with in Government! We had a huge brain storm, and we began to think that a huge problem we could tackle would be to look at whether there is another way in which we can illuminate the need for every politician to head to Canberra. Is there a way in which we can bring Parliament house to the politicians all around Australia. We further then discussed how is it that we are going to do this, how is it possible to create a parliament all around Australia.

To help with some more out of the box thinking, we went with our groups theme, and gave our selves a 'WHAT IF' scenario!

These were our scribbles! Enjoy :)

We gave our self a situation of war, What is there was a WW3, and everyone was in lock down. The future weapons of the world are out and no one is safe to leave their homes. The country must still be run, everyone still has a job to do. How are people to communicate with the government?

We began to discus;

- The parameters of the war

- The current infrastructure of Parliament, and how it would now be changing

- The necessary connections that must be taken into consideration if we are to keep everyone safe and the country running, and keep the ability for politicians to continue there work.

- What would this then mean for Architecture? What new parameters of design must be taken into consideration?

Virtual World - What is Virtual

Living in a virtual era;

• What does 'virtual' really consist of?
• How does a built element become virtual?
• What is the meaning of virtual?

To me, virtual consist of another world, not necessarily out of this world, but it is in coexistence with our everyday lives. As time goes on, technology becomes are much larger part of our life, there is less and less face to face interaction between people, and a much heavier reliance on technology to do our daily tasks.

In terms of architecture and the built environment, we are relying more and more on computers to not just help design and build, but also documentation / correspondance / presentations / and every day tasks that need to be done. We design and construct virtual 3d models and renderings before a project gets past the sketch design phase.

Some extraordinary examples of virtual models are some Zaha Hadid's work.

These types of rendering are now seen everywhere within the entire design industry, and elsewhere. However creating virtual models of designs is not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to virtual / virtual reality / virtual function within a building.

Could this assignment be about blurring the line between virtual and real life even more then it already is?

I believe that this task has more to do with defining an architectural solution to replace or enhance one or more specific functions within parliament, or at least a hypothetical situation of parliament. A goal for me is to present a strategy that will be supportive of all four solutions, as they all tie in so closely, there is considerations that must be taken to ensure that they are all responsive and enabled within the design.

Any adaptation must be for reason of function, not simply fun. Change and adaptation of a building for the reason of a new or improved function not for the sake of it, or simply because we are given the opportunity...

Centre Pompidou: Paris

By Renzo Piano & Richard Rogers 1977

"The Centre Pompidou is something of a victim of its own success. It was much criticized for requiring temporary closure for a major renovation after only twenty years' service, but this is at least mitigated by the volume of people it has been required to host: over 25,000 per day, compared with the 5,000 anticipated. And if its massive, brightly colored, maverick form looks less radical today, that's because of how much its revolutionary hi-tech construction has been copied and extended."

ref: http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/pompidou/index.htm

Want more? Follow the above link.

After briefly looking at the Pompidou Centre, we can see loads and loads of flexibility, with fantastic function and order. There has been no obvious loss of function due to its enhance flexibility feature.

Combining Strategies

Here is the first evidence of Strategies interweaving...

The Flexible / Relocatable House:

By Michael Jantzen

Jamie in Architecte wrote;

M-House is a flexible, relocatable house by Michael Jantzen consisting of a series of manipulable components that can be assembled and disassembled in a variety of ways to make a completely unique structure.

This house is made from the M-vironment system, which is a series of rectangular panels that are attached with hinges to a frame grid of seven interlocking cubes. The panels can be hinged at any location, so that they can fold in or out of the cube. Also, some of the panels can be insulated.

I love the idea of being able to have a dynamically-moving house, like a Transformer! If you want a patio, you can create a space that opens up and closes for the seasons, or you can add a guest room, whatever your heart desires. The structure doesn’t always require a foundation so it can be placed just on just about any solid terrain.

Read more at Design Milk: http://design-milk.com/the-flexiblerelocatable-house-by-michael-jantzen/#ixzz1VR9q68IR

Virtual vs Flexible / Distributed / Mobile

Although our Group is Virtual 1: I really think that the 4 strategies in which the tutorial groups of based off are all very very closely related. Each strategy circles back around to the other. For this reason I am going to continue posting pieces of information gathered from all areas, however with a slight bias towards Virtual.

Findings / Realisations

During tutorials over the last couple of weeks we had very in depth discussion about the four major focus points of this semester;

• Flexible
• Mobile
• Distributed
• Virtual

What is the meaning of each strategy? What does it mean to be flexible? What does it mean to be mobile? Distributed?... & Virtual?

As a small group we originally began to look at what it is that makes Architecture inflexible, immobile... what makes a piece of architecture unable to be distributed? and what is virtual and how are we going to tie in a virtual element into a building.

We were looking at what it is about these elements that we need? What is it that these strategies will add to our existing concept of Parliament.

To see what it is that we will be able to add to a design and a concept, we have to know exactly what it is that we want to bring to the sketch pad.

I believe that this is how having a hypothetical situation will help with a concept through to design! A 'WHAT IF?' situation. It allows us to create a set brief, a brief in which we can set goals and bring about some realistic need, rather then a situation in which we can create a new world of politics and political process simply because that sounds creative and as though we are thinking outside the box.

I believe that we should be thinking outside the box, and I also believe in creating a new political process and redesigning out parliamentary structure, but I only believe in this way of thinking if we simply note that this is not real, and we can not do it with one design, or let alone a year of design. There is so much more then I will ever know about the parliament and those within the parliament that its not something that can be restructured simply with 'A' or '1' design.

With a 'WHAT IF' situation we focus on one element of parliament, one which we can decide ourselves, by looking at current issues in which WE want to change. Maybe it just me, but I think that a hypothetical situation is exactly what is needed to further develop this design... well MYdesign...

To begin with we were very interested in flexible, we liked the idea of being able to create a building that can flex and change, one that can move and be distorted! One that can change to function. I loved the idea of researching into how people are currently doing so.

Past Few Weeks

Over the duration of the first 3 weeks of leading into this subject, there has been so much, if not too much thinking outside the box type of thought. I do not disagree that this type of researching and thinking in this manner does give way to another level of ways to look at the real world and our current situations, it does seem as though we (myself and a few mates) have struggled to really see how thinking so far out of a real world situation and noting down such irrelevant and useless information is really going to help us with such an issue as Parlament House, and our current political structure.

That was until, we are given such a topic as hypothetical space... A 'what if' situation. I believe that by giving ourselves a set situation, slightly unrealistic yet not impossibly, will be a way in which we can tie down such loose end thinking. A thought of what a hypothetical space could be... Firstly what is the absolute meaning of hypothetical;

hypothetical

adjective

the scenario I suggested was strictly hypothetical:

theoretical, speculative, conjectured, conjectural, notional, suppositional, supposed, putative, assumed; academic. ANTONYMS actual.

What I understand as being hypothetical is giving our thoughts the ability to think beyond what is happening, and to place ourselves amongst a set of circumstances in which we can then become a problem solver, or even 'the' PROBLEM.

Below are a few sheets of our scribbles which we made up as a group to try and direct our own brief and thoughts.