AIR
SIAL + Industrial Design (RMIT) + Architecture VUW



SIAL Team:
    Jane Burry
    Dominik Holzer


Upper Pool Design Studio | Studio Coordinators:
Malte Wagenfeld, Dominik Holzer, Jane Burry,

Link to AIR WIKI page
http://zwiki.sial.rmit.edu.au/theHive/AiR

Links: Course Details | Process | Schedules


air is a collaborative studio between SIAL and industrial design giving equal emphasis to both disciplines.



The studio is structure in three consecutive phases. In the first two phases the students will be working individually, in the third phase the students will be formed into teams and work on a joint project which will be presented as the major project at the end of the semester.

Lectures and studio sessions will take place every week in Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory (SIAL) Sound Studio (N Space) located on level 1 in Building 9; on Wednesdays between 6:00 pm and 10:00 pm. Participants will have access to work in the SIAL student laboratory in Building 8, level 8 room 44 and can book time in the SIAL modelling workshop in building 9.

The course is open to upper pool architecture and 3rd and 4th year industrial design students.


Introduction

Air, the name given to a mixture of gases which form the earths atmosphere , has powerful relationships with science, philosophy, environmental issues, the arts, politics and design.
The concept of air and its particular qualities is deeply rooted in our culture. Air is one of the 4 elements of classical western thought (fire, air, water and earth) and of Hinduism which describes 5 elements; earth, water, fire, air and space.

Air, seemingly invisible, tasteless and having no smell is sensed by the skin through movement and changes in pressure and becomes apparent to the other senses as a carrier of smell, sound and visible objects (smog, mist, dust). The eye can also detect air movement via the disturbance of objects, from the gentle flutter of leaves to the uprooting of a whole tree in a violent storm. Air becomes an interface between us and our environment. The intriguing theory from iterative mathematics (chaos theory) which postulates that the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil may set off a Tornado in Texas highlights the interconnectedness of complex environmental systems of which air is a fundamental life supporting medium and interface.

Raging international debates concerning global warming, air quality and pollution and changing weather patterns on the one hand and the fascination with the lightweight and lighter then air materials and streamlining make air a highly topical issue in the early 21st century.

The notion of air, as a metaphor or prompt for design can be approached from a number of directions, from environmental issues of air quality and the conditioning of air environments to inflatable of pressurized structures, lighter then air vehicles and the aesthetics of air and air movement.



This project provides students with the opportunity to:

• propose through project-based design an intellectual position and inquiry towards air, this may be political, provocative and or sensual.
• explore their sensibility to air both in terms of its physical nature as well as its intangible and sometimes elusive qualities as a ‘medium’. And interface
• Record and represent some aspect of air through physical and digital modelling
• Develop a design project that demonstrates one of either: abuse, purity and contamination, or sensuality and aesthetics of air in relation to the body.

This project also offers a powerful opportunity for industrial design and Architecture students to interchange ideas and learn from each other. Although Industrial design and architecture often share a similar design language and architects may at times also work as industrial designers and vice-versa, the two disciplines often engage in a different design methodology. This methodology relates to differences in scale, production quantities and processes, engagement and uptake of new technology, project timescales, end-users, etc. This project proposes to exchange and interchange these methodologies at various stages as a design methodology in-itself.