CYBER-REAL TECTONICS
Pre-Major Project | Semester 1 2005



SIAL Team:
    Mark Burry


Pre-Major Co-ordinator: Prof. Mark Burry

Preamble
This pre-major provides students with the opportunities to prepare for their major assignment in two ways. Firstly, students will prepare an argument and a brief for their major project such that at the commencement of their major project in the following semester, they will know what they are proposing, where it is located, and why they are proposing a particular piece of architecture. Secondly, this pre-major will engage students in a debate about setting architectural priorities for major project through working on a small project from concept to ‘concrete’ proposal focussing on issues of representation and scale. Within this focus, collectively the class will address dilemma of simultaneous similarity and difference when considering architecture in both real and virtual representational terms.

“On the edge”
Working individually, students will develop a concept into a detailed proposal in a project of their choice from the list below, or one of their own devising. The projects proposed are all facilities that accommodate activities on the fringe of the everyday. There are four components that will be explored sequentially during the semester which negotiate between digital/virtual and real world propositions, each running for between three and four weeks.
The first component is the exploration of ideas for the project that are represented both physically and virtually. Students will commence by first choosing a project from the list below or defining a project of particular interest to them, and sourcing material from which to inform their concept. This will be established during the first studio session and will be presented both as models, drawings and/or digital productions during the coming sessions.

The projects can be chosen from the following list, or proposed along similar lines. These projects are not necessarily intended to be the basis of the Major Project, but stand alone projects as a means of engagement with the major project within this pre-major assignment.

• Transport terminal
• Clinic for elective plastic surgery
• Museum of Time
• School of Ballet
• Reception centre for returned astronauts
• School of Morality and Ethics
• Centre for Innovation
• Digital laboratory
• Private club for members of the advertising industry
• Digital gallery