So flat, so cute! Robots, superflatness and asian architectural futures

Many depictions of urban futures have a distinctly Asian flavour. There have been numerous visions of highly technological futures whose environments extrapolate present societies into futures technically, culturally and politically dominated by China or Japan, Such futures are portrayed as both exciting and threatening, to the point that the Japanese academic and cultural critic Toshiya Ueno used the term ‘Techno-Orientalism’ to describe the phenomenon. Nevertheless, whether Western interest is Orientalist or not, Asian architects are also increasingly looking to their own contemporary and future cultures for inspiration. This paper will discuss two manifestations of this. The first is Thai architect Sumet Jumsai’s Bank of Asia. Unlike contemporaneous English hightech buildings, with their coldly mechanistic representation of ducts and struts, Jumsai’s Bank of Asia, takes on the anthropomorphic character of Japanese scifi robots. It is endearing, friendly, even cute. The second example is what might be termed superflat architecture, from the term coined by the artist Takashi Murakami to describe an aesthetic of intrinsic flatness, eliminating depth in favour of skin and surface. The emergence of Techno-Cute and Superflat architecture suggest contemporary Asian architectural sensibilities that neither derive their aesthetic qualities solely from tradition nor from Western Modernism or Postmodernism.

Situating situatedness through Æffect and the architectural body of Arakawa and Gins

This paper explores the situated body by briefly surveying the historical studies of effect and of affect which converge in current work on attention. This common approach to the situated body through attention prompted the coining of a more inclusive term, Æffect, to indicate the situated body’s mode of observation. Examples from the work of artist-turned-architects, Arakawa and Gins, will be discussed to show how architectural environments can act as heuristic tools that allow the situated body to research its own conditions. Rather than isolating effect from affect, observer from subject, organism from environment, Arakawa and Gins’ work optimises the use of situated complexity in the study of the site of person. By constructing surrounding in which to observe and learn about the shape of awareness, their procedural architecture suggests ways in which the interaction of top-down conceptual knowledge and bottom-up perceptual learning may construct possibilities in emergent rather than programmatic ways.

Indigenous climate change adaption in the Port Philip Bay region : a longitudinal investigation into the physical and cultural transformation of the bay from an indigenous and landscape architectural perspective

Currently there is a dearth of research into Australian Indigenous knowledge and their understanding of climate change especially in regard to how it fits into their world view. Recent discussions by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research facility (NCCARF) have highlighted this deficiency but also the need to source relevant research projects that may address this knowledge and perspective, and enable the incorporation of Traditional ecological Knowledge into the planning climate change adaptions strategies in the Port Phillip Bay region thereby increasing their engagement in this discussion. Within this context, this paper examines the use and understanding of landscape, both urban and regional, surrounding Port Phillip Bay and the risks and opportunities climate change adaptation brings to the local Indigenous communities. It synthesises focused interviews with the (Wurundjeri (Yarra Valley), Wathaurong Geelong-Bellarine Peninsular) & Boon Wurrung (Mornington Peninsula)) to elicit a contemporary and local response to issues raised by NCCARF but importantly to articulate a possible Indigenous position about the formation, change and direction that Port Phillip Bay and its environs should take from their perspectives. Research draws upon how these communities have adapted to climate change physically, mentally and spiritually over their long habitation of a shared geological asset and their perceptions of climate change in respect to forecasting and adapting to climate change for this century. The project looks to uncover a longitudinal perspective of change and adaptation focused upon Indigenous views of ‘country’ and traditional custodial obligations to ‘country’ including accumulated cultural and environmental histories.

Indigenous landscape change and climate change : the historical transformation of the Port Phillip bay from an indigenous and landscape architectural perspective

Currently there is a dearth of research into Australian Indigenous knowledge and their understanding of climate change especially in regard to how it fits into an Indigenous world view. Recent discussions by the National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility (NCCARF) have highlighted this deficiency and also the need to source projects that address this perspective, and enable the incorporation of traditional ecological knowledge into the planning of climate change adaption strategies. Within this context, this paper examines the use and understanding of landscape, both urban and regional, surrounding Port Phillip Bay and the risks and opportunities climate change adaptation brings to the local Indigenous communities. This paper comprises a literature review and proposes further research with the Wurundjeri (Yarra Valley), Wathaurong (Geelong-Bellarine Peninsula) & Boon Wurrung (Mornington Peninsula - Westerport - southern Melbourne) which aim to elicit a contemporary and local response to issues raised by NCCARF but importantly to articulate a possible Indigenous position about the formation, change and direction that Port Phillip Bay and its environs should take from their perspectives. The research looks to draw on how these communities have adapted to climate change physically, mentally and spiritually over their long habitation of the region and their perceptions of climate change this century. The project looks to uncover a longitudinal perspective of adaptation focused upon Indigenous views of 'country' and custodial obligations to 'country' including accumulated cultural and environmental histories, and how this can inform the contemporary practice of landscape architecture and the design of resilient and sustainable human environments.

The Great East Window of York Minster

This inquiry into the meaning behind the images of this vast stained glass window has uncovered a complex theology of the Mass; replies to Lollard 'heretics'; and has identified threats to the power of the Church at this critical time in English history at the beginning of the fifteenth century.

The design of architectural dialect and local identity as Islam strategy in promoting its thought in Indonesia

The design of mosques in Indonesia uses basic principal form of Hindu temple with its roof taking the form of layered pyramid (3, 5, 7). This architectural dialect design approach was effective in promoting Islam in most regions of the Indonesian Archipelago. The detailed explanation about architectural dialect will be elaborated in my full paper. This paper discuss about a friendly approach by using Hindu Building as mosque. It has given a greatly impact to the surrounding society to Accept new religion. Such temple-styled mosques have a history dating back to 1200 AD and form the basic inspiration for mosque designs in all parts of the country. The layered pyramid mosque’s architectural dialect design proves that architecture has played significant role in promoting Islamic doctrines in Indonesia. 85% of the total Indonesian population is Muslim. Based on these statistics, it is widely evident that the use of dialect design as a political strategy by Muslim scholars was effective in introducing and promoting Islamic ideologies in Indonesia. The strategy facilitated psychological acceptance of Islam by the local populations who were initially Hindu believers and were accustomed to the temple. Additionally, the design ensured the peaceful introduction and spread of Islam in the region. Moreover, the fact that the dialect design was based on local identity, combined with local architecture that had highly recognizable building elements (roof and ornament) promoted the spread of Islam in Indonesia.

Migrancy, modernity and cultural sustainability

Australian Home Beautiful’s October 1960 Edition was devoted to the modernisation of the Victorian and Edwardian-era houses of Australian cities’ inner suburbs. One of the articles inside was entitled ‘Terrace Houses are Common Problem’, in which the magazine’s architectural consultant Leonard A. Bullen suggested; “With houses of this type, the multiplicity of embellishments that appear in almost every possible place is irritating to eyes that have become accustomed to the cleaner and less ornamented lines of modern houses” and “The first necessity is to get rid of the superfluous decoration and emphasise horizontal features.” (Bullen 1960, 31). The post-World War Two period was a time when Australia’s traditional imagining of itself was confronted by both popular modernity and a diversity of new migrant cultures and ways of thinking. In a contemporary environment that theoretically celebrates diversity and creates audiences for increasingly multiplying expressions of culture and history, perhaps it is time that 1950s and ‘60s alterations to old houses were re-imagined as intrinsic elements in Australia’s cultural landscape. This supposition will be discussed in relation to the United Nations’ 2002 Kanazawa Resolutions’ definition of the relationship between culture and sustainability as ‘dialogical coexistence’ (Nadarajah and Yamamoto 2007).

Architectural information

Through a study of architectural information as a complex system, a theoretical model relating critical information elements and project knowledge is proposed. The Project Specific Information model articulates distinct information integrities (intellectual, contextual, structural and spatial) that support the knowledge-based decision-making processes controlling information quality in architectural projects.

Architecture - culture : connections, representations, interpretations and implications

The thesis proposes a theory of the "relevance" and "significance" of cultures to human beings and the world, and a methodology to measure these. It applies architecture (as a culture) as the generator of thought and as an experimental case. A case study applies the theory and methodology in practice and contains as its main material a history of ideas in contemporary architecture.