TOPOTYPES: ground as design material

RMIT Landscape Architecture_ Lecture series_2008

Public Lecture

TOPOTYPES: ground as design material

Thierry kandjee & Sebastien Penfornis, Taktyk(LA+Urbanism)(www.taktyk.net )

Tuesday August 12th @ 7.30 pm

 

 

RMIT University Melbourne

360 Swanston Street, Building 8, Level 11,

Lecture theatre 8.11.68

Drinks before the lecture @ 6.30pm

ALL WELCOME!

 

How can landscape architects engage with the contemporary city and react upon the challenging task of climate change?

‘Topotypes: ground as design material’ is a current design research which focuses on landscape as urban strategy through manipulation of the earth and the redefinition of its resources. Ground and water works engage into speculative design processes and scenarios of territorial transformations. It acknowledges landscape as primarily being both infrastructural and transitional.

The lecture will present design entries that explore our fascination for water territories from large scale European competition entry to ongoing strategic plans between Scandinavia and north Africa.

TAKTYK [landscape + urbanism](www.taktyk.net ),is a young European design network (Rotterdam, Bruxelles, Barcelona) based in Paris. Taktyk combines projects under construction, researches, teaching, in the field of landscape as urbanism Our field of operation is the metropolitan condition, from diff use to compact urbanity.Tactical approaches from small to large scale operation introduce minimal set of actions, that produce reactive processes and forms of transformations. Taktyk is currently running an intensive studio at RMIT, speculating on the future of Bellarine Peninsula.

Postscript;

RMIT Landscape Architecture Alumni

PROPOSED CHANGES TO LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM

INTRODUCTION

In recent years there has been a global shift in the delivery of Landscape Architecture education within universities. This change has been reflected in a move nationally for Landscape Architecture programs within Australia to shift to a five year program of study, which supersedes the four year Bachelor Degree (The Bologna Agreement).

In 2009, the RMIT Landscape Architecture Program will be moving into this structure as an accredited Landscape Architecture Degree *. The Degree will consist of a 3 year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Design and a 2 year Master of Landscape Architecture (Coursework). Those students who successfully complete the 3 year Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Design will have the opportunity to apply for the professionally accredited* Master of Landscape Architecture (Coursework).

The intention of the proposed 3+2 is to equip students with the ability to deal with the complexities of the world that landscape architecture professionals are now facing in everyday practice, for example climate change, rapid urbanisation etc. The RMIT model distinguishes itself nationally as a five year specialist degree.

We see this as a very exciting progression for the RMIT Landscape Architecture Program and for student education within this field and see it as an opportunity to position the program within the international arena.

 

MASTER OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE (COURSEWORK)

Articulation and Pathways

Articulation

As a Bachelor Landscape Architecture Design graduate you can exit after successful completion of three years to expanding design related fields or you can apply for entry into the Master of Landscape Architecture (Coursework). If you have a grade point average of 2.5 in the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Design you will have guaranteed entry into the Master Landscape Architecture (Coursework).

If you are enrolled in the former Bachelor of Design (Landscape Architecture) you will gain automatic acceptance into the Master of Landscape Architecture (Coursework) upon successful completion of either third or fourth year of study, this is valid until 2011. Your grade point average will not be taken into consideration.

If you graduate from the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Design with a grade point average less than 2.5 you have the opportunity to undertake additional selection requirements (such as a portfolio or interview).

Pathways

If you graduate with a grade point average of 2.5 in the Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Design and decide to exceed the specified requirements of deferment of leave of absence you will be required to apply for entry into the Masters of Landscape Architecture (Coursework).

Completion of the Master of Landscape Architecture (Coursework) will provide a strong pathway into further academic study such as a PhD candidature.

 

* Pending University and AILA Approval

INVITATION

 

 

The Landscape Architecture program would like to invite you to an Information Session to introduce and give information on the proposed new structure for the Landscape Architecture program at RMIT, which is currently being developed and being considered for implementation in Semester 1 2009.

This information session will discuss the program re-structure and the introduction of new courses and Master of Landscape Architecture (Coursework). It will also be an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have regarding these changes.

INFORMATION SESSION DETAILS

 

 

Date: Friday 23rd May

Venue: Lecture Theatre 68, Building 8, Level 11, 360 Swanston Street, Melbourne. (8.11.68)

Start time: 5:30pm

Finish time: 6:30pm

The Information Session will be followed by drinks.

Best Regards,

Rosalea Monacella

 

 

Landscape Architecture_ Lecture series_Brett Milligan

Landscape Architecture_ Lecture series_2008

public lecture

Corporate Ecologies

Brett Milligan- Visiting Scholar

Tuesday April 29 @ 6.30 pm

 360 Swanston Street, Building 8, Level 11, Lecture theatre 8.11.68

Drinks before the lecture @ 6.00pm

ALL WELCOME!

 What are corporate landscapes? “Corporate landscape” has been loosely defined in contemporary landscape architectural practice in a manner that largely neglects or ignores the massive transformative impacts of corporate production. Rather than being limited to the cosmetic propaganda of corporate headquarters, corporate landscapes consist of geographically dispersed systems that occupy and transform land in specific and modular ways. Each corporate structure has a unique footprint upon the global landscape and a particular set of landscape effects.

Three design projects will be presented that map, modify and affect corporate systems. Navigating Bigness: Redefining Corporate Landscape proposes a spatial typology for corporate landscapes by appropriating the conventions of corporate annual reports to map the landscape footprint of an open-pit mining corporation. The Condit Dam Decommissioning Project is a federally mandated removal of the corporate owned Condit Dam, the largest hydroelectric dam to be removed thus far in the United States, in order to regenerate the damaged White Salmon River ecosystem. Urban Ecotones: Transitional Spaces for Commerce and Culture is the winning entry for The Integrating Habitats International design competition. This project proposes a long term design strategy for integrating corporate “big box” development into sustainable planning infrastructure for the city of Portland Oregon, emphasizing the effects post peak oil conditions will have on the city and corporate production.

Brett Milligan is a visiting scholar in the department of Landscape Architecture at RMIT. He is visiting Australia from the United States where he works as a designer for GreenWorks Landscape Architecture and Environmental design in Portland, Oregon. Brett has received national and international awards for his design work, including the excellence in landscape communication and excellence in design awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

 

 

 

Fluctuating Borders Book Launch

edited by SueAnne Ware + Rosalea Monacella

Thursday 10th April 6:30pm at Loop 23 Meyers Place, Melbourne City.

Architecture_ Lecture series_2008

public lecture

High-Performance Landscapes

Chris Reed- Stoss Landscape urbanism

Tuesday April 8 @ 6.30 pm

RMIT University Melbourne

360 Swanston Street, Building 8, Level 11, Lecture theatre 8.11.68

Drinks before the lecture @ 6.00pm

ALL WELCOME!

Chris Reed is the principal and founder of Stoss Landscape Urbanism, a Boston-based strategic design and planning practice. Stoss has distinguished itself internationally for a hybridized approach to public works projects rooted in infrastructure, functionality, and ecology. Stoss has been named finalist and winner in a number of international open space design and planning competitions, including the Erie Street Plaza in Milwaukee, the Lower Don Lands in Toronto, and the Safe Zone garden installation at Grand-Metis, Quebec, Canada. Most recently, Stoss was named an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York, and its proposal for the Lower Don Lands in Toronto received a planning award from EDRA / Places / Metropolis. The firm’s work has just been published in a volume published by C3 Publishers of Korea. Current and recent work includes public waterfronts, brownfield reclamation projects, interim landscapes, and large-scale infrastructures and open spaces in the United States, Canada, Asia, and the Middle East. Reed teaches regularly at the University of Pennsylvania and has also taught at the Harvard Design School, the University of Virginia, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the University of Toronto. He is a registered landscape architect.

Retrospective Catalogue

Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue – 25 Years of Landscape Architecture at RMIT

Copies can be purchased by emailing laalumni@rmit.edu.au

RMIT Retrospective Exhibition

Thursday October 25^th

(Exhibition October 25^th – 9^th December)  

In collaboration with undergraduate students, the second Postscript event for 2007 was a retrospective exhibition of 25 years of RMIT’s landscape architecture undergraduate final projects.  The event was officially opened by Leon Van Schaik, Professor of Innovation with former Head of School, Harriet Edquist and Perry Leathlean from Taylor, Cullity Leathlean.  The event also launched the combined publication of the Retrospective Exhibition catalogue and 2006 Finito, an annual publication of final year student projects. This publication also included a series of opinions, critiques and perspectives by current and former Program Directors that discuss how the profession of landscape architecture and the RMIT undergraduate course has changed in the last 25 years.

Hobart waterfront International Design Competition Exhibtion

Review of Exhibition of Victorian entries and overall winners of the Hobart Waterfront International Design Competition RMIT, City CampusThursday March 8^th (Exhibition ran 8 – 17^th March)

In response to the overwhelming interest in the recent Hobart Waterfront International Design Competition, RMIT’s Landscape Architecture Alumni presented an exhibition of the Victorian entries and the overall competition winners. The event generated much discussion about competitions and practice providing an exciting opportunity to extend the design discourse within Landscape Architecture.  The event, supported by the Competition’s organizers Sullivans Cove Waterfront Authority, was intended to generate informal discussion about the position of landscape architectural design in Victoria, design processes and competition constraints. Many of exhibitors attended from all over Victoria including staff from and were able to view each other’s panels and discuss their response to the competition brief. Darren Atkinson, President of AILA’s Victorian Chapter opened the exhibition and introduced the new RMIT landscape architecture Program Director, Rosalea  Monacella who announced all the new student awards – acknowledging that many of the company sponsors were attending.

 

For more information please email la.alumni@rmit.edu.au