Paper and fire : the images and ashes of Rudolf Steiner's architecture

On New Years Eve, 1922, the massive double-domed timber structure of Rudolf Steiner’s First Goetheanum was engulfed in flames and reduced to ashes. In an effort to make his spiritual teachings accessible to all people through the medium of architecture, Steiner had dedicated ten years to the project. Growing hostility towards his occult philosophy however, pointed to arson as the probable cause of the blaze. Not to be defeated, Steiner embarked upon a new design for a second Goetheanum that endeavoured to fulfil the same aim as its predecessor but on an even grander scale. Yet despite being borne out of the same ideational basis, the architectural expression of the second building was vastly different from the first. This paper examines these differences and investigates how the methods Steiner used to create his architecture influenced the final architectural products. Steiner recognised drawing as a creative instrument that could enrich the conceptual potential of his theoretical work, however, with no formal training as an architect and limited drawing ability, this exchange was somewhat limited. The ambiguity of Steiner’s drawings is countered to some extent though by the maquettes and models he produced, which help negotiate the gap between the immaterial idea and the material object. The shared three-dimensional nature of model making and architecture allowed Steiner a more direct means of articulating and mediating his esoteric ideas in built form than the two-dimensional nature of drawing, particularly given the undulating organic forms he enthusiastically employed. Nevertheless, models are still a form of architectural abstraction capable of leaving their own trace on the built work and the distinctive character of Steiner’s non-conventional models serve to illustrate this point. A comparison between Steiner’s models and the buildings themselves reveal the intimate relationship between process and product that exists in his work. While the loss of the first Goetheanum came as a crushing blow to Steiner, its destruction and reconstruction offered him a unique opportunity to reconsider aspects of the design that may have been flawed in the first instance – a situation he embraced unequivocally. What images recurred in his work and why? How did his architecture evolve? This essay will demonstrate how paper and plasticine were utilised in a highly individualised manner by Steiner as a bridge between idea and artefact, to allow new architectural forms to rise from the ashes and produce one of the twentieth century’s most extraordinary buildings.

Reduction of metal leaching in brown coal fly ash using geopolymers

Current regulations classify fly ash as a prescribed waste and prohibit its disposal in regular landfill. Treatment of the fly ash can reduce the leach rate of metals, and allow it to be disposed in less prescribed landfill. A geopolymer matrix was investigated as a potential stabilisation method for brown coal fly ash. Precipitator fly ash was obtained from electrostatic precipitators and leached fly ash was collected from ash disposal ponds, and leaching tests were conducted on both types of geopolymer stabilised fly ashes. The ratio of fly ash to geopolymer was varied to determine the effects of different compositions on leaching rates.

The roses of success

Sometimes success can be detrimental to learning while failure can be good. What appears as a disaster can often lay the foundations for future success.

Usually, educators and students focus on building confidence through successful completion of learning tasks, summarised by Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. A positive feedback loop is established if learners are successful in mastering new ideas and skills. The problem is if teachers, trainers and instructors never challenge students to the fullest extent of their abilities, as this might also ensure overconfidence, slow progress and boredom.

We should not avoid the risk of failure; science is all about the possible risk of failure. Testable hypotheses have the potential to fail an experimental or computational test; ideas that are not testable are considered to be outside the realm of science. The occasional failure shows the limits and scope of an idea’s validity and enables us to advance scientific ideas.

There is a need to find the balance between challenge that extends students, and over-extension. The former results in greater and true confidence and ability, while the latter leads to catastrophic failure and crises of confidence. Education, like life and like all scientific endeavour is about taking responsible risks safely. When we cultivate the roses of success that grow from the ashes of disaster, we must not forget that roses have thorns, or that the occasional setback or failure is just as important for learning as a succession of successes.

Learning from sustainable landscapes of death in Bali : landscape planning and Tri Hita Karana

Landscape planning in many countries is predicated upon on fulfilling the functions for human living objectives. Many land use practices have been plotted for living, busines~, trading, industrial, farming as well as providing places for dead people primarily through cemeteries. Research in Palm Beach County, FL, has demonstrated the need to plan for 30 years of demand of land use functions to service death (Coutts, Basmaj ian et al. 20 I I). Coutts et al assert that planners are required and responsible for the planning of funeral necessities. Therefore, the protection of landscapes of death is an important consideration in the planning of landscapes. Bali is popular with its beautiful landscape, hospitality, and traditional architecture as demonstrating the integrity between human, environment and God, as expressed in the Balinese Tri Hita Karana concept. Balinese commemorate life from birth to death through their traditional ceremonies which informs their traditional cultural landscape. One of the most important landscapes, which cannot be separated fi·om Balinese life are graveyards which are used for deceased ceremonies. This landscape is an integral part of traditional village patterns across Bali. Culturally, Balinese people have their own traditional cremation ceremony which is call the Ngaben Ceremony. The Ceremony takes place in graveyards and thereupon ashes are placed in the sea waters surrounding Bali. An interesting point of planning in Bali is how to enable eco-friendly interment extensions to villages. This is occurring because of the increasing number of corpses that require cremation thus necessitating no accretions in land provision of graveyards. This research investigates the landscape of death in Bali expressed in its traditional values in the area of planning which implicate sustainable environments and land conservation topics. Other functions of graveyards, as noted by Strangstad ( 1988), include ceremonial and their role as educational tools for history lessons, art, sociology, geology, English lessons, as well as for scavenger hunts.

An investigation of major factor of influence of strength gain or loss of geopolymer when exposed to 800° C

When fly ash based geopolymer mortars were exposed to an elevated temperature of 800oC, it was found that the strength after the exposure sometimes decreased, but at other times increased compared to the original strength. The aim of this investigation is to find the reason for this contrasting behaviour. Fol-lowing exposure to high temperature, residual strengths of specimens prepared with two different fly ashes, with initial strengths ranging from 5MPa to 60MPa, were investigated. The parameter that was found to have a major influence on the contrasting behaviour was the ductility of the mortars. The results indicate that the higher the ductility the lower the strength loss. This correlation is attributed to the fact that mortars with high ductility could provide higher capacity to accommodate thermal incompatibility than mortars with low ductil-ity. Beyond the particular threshold of ductility, some mortars even increased strength after the exposure, pos-sibly due to sintering.

The professionalisation of Australian women's cricket: new times and new opportunities

When the Australian Women’s Cricket Team defeated the West Indies in 2013, to win their 5th World Cup from eight attempts, they reaffirmed their status as one of Australia’s most successful international teams. Victory in the 2015 Ashes series, in England, further reinforced their pre-eminent world status. During this time, significant changes also occurred off the field. Cricket Australia introduced pay increases of up to 150% for international and state level players. The sustained success of the national team is attributed to the rapid growth of participation in women’s cricket (up 18% 2013 - 2014), a trend that has resulted in females making up almost 25% of all cricket participants across Australia. On face value, the burgeoning profile of women’s cricket across Australia is cause for celebration. It is against this backdrop that Cricket Australia faces a range of enduring and emerging issues in the provision and promotion of the women’s game. With so many changes and adaptations occurring across the game, we chose to limit the focus of this research to the elite level. Among the enduring issues that are understood at this level are persistently high attrition rates amongst elite and aspiring players and large age differences across teams and squads. A further point of difference in the men’s and women’s games is that female teams are largely supervised by male coaches and support staff.