Assignment 03 Cover Sheet · 2013. 11. 11. · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA Assignment 03 Cover...

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Assignment 03 Cover Sheet

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Name: MOLLY WINDSOR MERSH

Student ID 1 1 0 0 6 6 7 3 8

Email: [email protected]

Course code and title: ARCH 2021 Contemporary Design Theory

School: Art, Architecture and Design Program Code: 2021

Course Coordinator: Dr. Chris Brisbin Tutor: LIVIA

Day, Time, Location of Tutorial/Practical: 11.00AM

Assignment number: 3 Due date: 11 NOVEMBER 5.00PM

Assignment topic as stated in Course Outline: Essay

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ARCH2021 — CONTEMPORARY DESIGN THEORY : : ASSIGNMENT 3 : : ESSAY

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How can Minifie Nixon's Australian Wildlife Health

Centre be understood in relation to 'representation'?

Essay Word Count: 2,924 words

The Australian Wildlife Health Centre (AWHC) by Minifie Nixon (2005) offers a remarkable and compelling experience for sanctuary visitors, with the walls simultaneously speaking of organic and scienfitic forms. The interior spaces resemble ventricles of the heart, pumping all of the information from the veterinary hospital exhibits to the visiting guests. By using representation in a range of ways throughout the interior and exterior of the AWHC, people of all ages and backgrounds are able to interpret and engage with the building on multiple levels and hopefully gain a futher understanding everytime they visit the sanctuary. Representation can be seen in the skin that wraps the building derived from an algorithm which resembles the emergence of an animal's markings. The use of this wall pattern conveys to the guests that they are entering a scientific environment. The courtyard roof is in the shape of a Costa Surface, acting as a solar chimney and skylight while also representing a mathematical equation. Representation is used in the AWHC to communicate, both literally and figuratively with its visitors. Communication through representation is an integral aspect of Postmodernism, with buildings such as the AT&T building by Johnson and Burgee and Graves's Portland Building sharing these same qualities. Both buildings radiate meaning. The AWHC demonstrates that representation serves many purposes and can evolve in a number of ways, including by copying the exact physical form of an object, through scientific equations and formulas and also through metaphorical representation. The centre itself serves both a practical purpose as well as an educative one.


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Diagram 1

Public and private zones of the AWHC

(Green: Public, Red: Private)

Public Zones: - Reception - Impact Experience - Demonstration - Gallery - Operating Theatre Gallery - Public Laboratory - Public Examination - Necropsy Viewing - Store - Internal Flight

Private Zones: - Operating Theatre - Preparation/Scrub - Laboratory - Radiography - Dispensary - Private Examination - Carers Reception - Necropsy - Library - Staff Workroom - Kitchen - Server/Computer - Store/Plant - Access Way/Loading Bay - Holding Service Zone - Waterbird Flight - External Flight - Rehabilitation Area


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Diagram 2

Costa Surface represented in two-dimensional equation form:

Costa Surface represented in three-dimensional form:

Meeks Hoffman Costa Surface Meeks Hoffman Costa Surface

Section through the AWHC

Costa Surface embedded into the AWHC:


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In this essay I will discuss how the Australian Wildlife Health Centre (AWHC)

designed by Minifie Nixon Architects can be understood in relation to representation. I

will also consider the building as an example as Postmodernism in architecture. As a

relatively young building, opened in 2005, I will also draw some comparisons with older

buildings where representation and Postmodernism feature.

The AWHC located in Healesville Sanctuary, Victoria, is a veterinary hospital and

education centre specialising in the care of native Australian animals. It was built for

Zoos Victoria. The health centre forms part of a larger sanctuary complex covering 30

hectares, located next to Badgers Creek1. The centre has been designed in a way which

turns the veterinary hospital "inside out" to expose the procedures and operations that

are conventionally done behind closed doors. As such it is perhaps the only one of its

kind in the world. The main building has been designed so that the public spaces are in

the centre with all private spaces, such as computer rooms, staff workrooms and the

kitchen, placed around the outer. This is shown in Diagram 1.

Traditionally, it is usually only clients who visit a veterinary centre but the AWHC

has been specifically designed to attract visitors as well as clients. In recognition of its

unique design and functionality it has received a number of awards, for example the

2006 RAIA William Wardell Institutional Award and the 2008 Premier's Design Award

for Cultural Architecture2.

1 Healesville Sanctuary, Zoos Victoria

2 MVS Architects


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By enabling clients and visitors to view medical procedures and operations it is

hoped that they will gain a sense of connectedness of all animal and human life,

extending to an increased sense of responsibility for wildlife3. The centre offers a

remarkable and compelling experience for visitors, with the walls simultaneously

speaking of organic and scientific forms. The interior spaces resemble ventricles of the

heart, pumping all of the information from the veterinary hospital exhibits to the visiting

guests. Through such forms of representation, a range of experiences for visitors of all

ages have been created.

Representation can be interpreted as the action of speaking or acting on behalf of

someone. It is also to look like or resemble another object or sensory experience.

Representation can be a literal copy or it can be a copy of the experience or

characteristics of an object. By using representation in multiple ways within the AWHC

people of all ages and backgrounds are able to interpret and engage with the building at

multiple levels and hopefully gain a further understanding every time they visit the

sanctuary.

The centre uses representation in both the interior and exterior of the veterinary

hospital, using mimicry to represent the organic and the scientific, aided by digital

technologies. The approach to a building is very important and in this case, the hospital

is located at the back of the site. This enabled the architects to create a journey on the

approach, communicating to visitors an understanding of what the structure is about

before entering. This interaction with visitors is an integral part of Postmodernism.

3 Architecture Australia 2006


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The act of communicating is what sets Postmodernism apart from other design

periods and theories. The principal proponents of Postmodern architecture are Robert

Venturi, Charles Moore, Michael Graves, and, more recently Frank Gehry4. While

acknowledging the problems of defining this diverse and pluralistic movement,5

Postmodernism's main endeavour is to engage and communicate with people, whether

they be inside the building or passing by6. Buildings can encourage you to engage by

having ornamentation, unusual forms or places that make you stop and re-evaluate why

something is a certain way and where to move to next. Visitors to the AWHC come into

close contact with vets and the animals to gain an understanding of how sick and injured

animals are cared for. The centre is organised around a central gallery space so that

visitors interact with the activities of the hospital being guided through each activity.

This is represented in Diagram 1.

A series of glass walled rooms let the visitors look into an operating theatre,

laboratory, examination room and recovery areas. Interactive displays teach visitors

what to do with an injured animal, explain and demonstrate surgical techniques, explore

the role of the laboratory and pathology in animal diagnosis and treatment, interpret

necropsy and investigative biology and provide lessons in care, recovery, release and

monitoring7. This communication is both figurative, as well as literal - the design enables

the vet to speak directly to the people watching the operation.

4 Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism 1999

5 Postmodernism to Deconstructivism 1989

6 What is post-modernism? 1989

7 CMDesign


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These Postmodernist features evident in the AWHC also feature in earlier

architectural works, such as the AT&T building in New York, designed by Johnson and

Burgee (1978-84) and Graves's Portland Building (1982). These buildings were held to

convey meaning simply by virtue of their appropriation of recognisable historical

symbols, with both featuring historical motifs. As Ghirardo notes, Postmodernism vests

the architect with responsibility for designing buildings that radiate meaning8.

The Portland Building figures as a prototype for the assimilation of Postmodernism

by the American architectural mainstream. Graves won the competition for a new city

administration building. Onto a simple cubic block, raised high on a podium and

punctuated by small square windows, Graves added swags, an inverted pyramid pattern,

enlarged architectural elements such as keystones, and the moulded plaster figure of

Portlandia sweeping over the entrance9. Earlier, Graves had won a Rome Prize that

enabled him to study Italian architecture firsthand. Following this he abandoned the

Whites (that group of architects during the 1970s who sustained a commitment to

Modernism) to join the Greys. The Greys, including architects such as Venturi, Moore

and Stern rejected the White look in favour of historical style and elements10.

The AT&T building is 647 feet high, but only has 37 floors which is a small number for

a building of that height, due to the seven storey tall lobby which was designed to house

a large statue, The Spirit of Communications, By Evelyn, L. Batchelder11. The lobby

features monumental entrances, with the arched portal (110 feet high) and three 60 foot

8 Architecture after Modernism 1996



11 Skyscraper 2013


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rectangular entrances. The base of the building alludes to historical precedents, such as

Alberti's Sant'Andrea12.

In Jameson's Postmodernism, he likens the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles

to other characteristic Postmodern buildings, such as the Beaubourg in Paris and the

Eaton Centre in Toronto, in the way it aspires to being a total space, a complete world, a

kind of miniature city13. Similarly, the Healesville Sanctuary also brings to mind a

miniature city.

After the rise of Postmodernism came a renewed focus on the "diagram" as an

essential part of architectural discourse. In place of a nostalgic return to historical

precedents, often couched in "renaissance humanist" rhetoric, these new "blobs",

"topographies," and "late modernisms" find their polemical stance in a resolutely

forward-looking approach and their modes of design and representation in digital

technologies. Radically different in their forms and aims, they nevertheless find common

cause in their espousal of the one representational technique that they share with their

modernist avant-garde antecedents: their affection for what they and their critics call

the "diagram"14. The extensive use of diagrams in the interpretive displays designed by

Cunningham Martyn15 for the AWHC represents an appreciation for how diagrams can

be incorporated into the building, as well as being critical to the design process itself.

12

Bluffton 13

Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism 1999 14

Diagrams of Diagrams 2000 15

Architecture Australia 2006


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The facade of the AWHC is covered in an algorithmic skin which is designed to

resemble animal markings. The exterior wall also has something of the geological about

it, bringing the building into a sympathetic relationship with the particular environment

of the sanctuary16. Skin has a thickness to it and contains meaning and substance and

therefore is more than something that simply wraps internal components of a building.

The facade is a mimicry of fundamental organic processes that produce life, not direct or

literal mimicry of an object17. The building is wrapped in cellular automation algorithms

that respond to expressive requirements and building programme by adapting over

openings and bulges in the facade. Cellular automation algorithms are simple programs

that repetitively apply a rule or set of rules to a grid of cells and is usually displayed in

two dimensional form. Each cell has a state and this state is interpreted by the rules and

is altered by the rules18. The facade also has bulging apses hinting to the forms that lie

within the building.

The use of skin as architecture by Minifie Nixon is reminiscent of the use of curtains

as architecture in the Casa Da Musica in Portugal, designed by Rem Koolhaas. In Casa Da

Musica, Petra Blaisse designed curtains to be integral parts of the architecture. A

number of curtain types were needed to serve the various purposes and appropriate

materials had to be sourced. With Rem Koolhaus wanting to filter the views to the

surrounding environment, the concept of a giant piece of lace was evoked, similar to the

lace voiles worn by women in church. A skeleton of fishing nets was erected and the

16

The Australian Institute of Architects 2013 17

Architecture Australia 2006 18

Fractal Design 2004-2013


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voile then knotted in to each segment19. The use of curtain as skin and architecture flows

through all of Petra Blaisse's interior and exterior works.

[Ay]A Studio, founded by Jorge Ayala in 2011 in Paris, is a design laboratory leading

the way for cutting edge research, material experimentation and design across all scales.

Many disciples are combined, such as art, chemistry, landscape urbanism, engineering,

marketing, editorial and product design to create this unique style20. By combining these

disciplines and embedding them into their designs, whether they are at a large or small

scale, meaning can be found within, whether it be the topography of which the building

sits on or a shape that is associated with that object.

As mentioned previously, the traditional veterinary hospital has been turned inside

out in the AWHC. Upon entry into the centre, visitors are placed immediately into the

main gallery space where all of the action happens. From here, they can observe the

diagnosis, pathology, surgery and process of recovery for the animals. The main gallery

consists of a doughnut shaped space with the procedures and operations exposed on the

boundary. The form represents the ventricles of the heart, with the information being

pumped to the guests21.

The interior gallery embraces fluid organic forms, with the ceiling descending to the

earth creating a central courtyard. The internal form not only meets the needs of the

visitors and veterinary doctors, it also addresses ecological concerns and provides

aesthetic and movement benefits to the interior. The courtyard and roof also act as a

19

Petra Blaisse: Inside Outside Reveiling 2004 20

Aya Architecture 2013 21

Architecture Australia 2006


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solar chimney which passively exhausts air from the interior, reducing the need for air

conditioning. It also provides a skylight to the internal spaces reducing the need for

artificial lighting.

The translation of geometry into architecture has given a more direct intimate

relationship between digital representation and industrial production22. In the AWHC,

the architects have drawn on the latest technologies to incorporate elements not

previously possible. Being a building filled with scientific activities, the architects have

incorporated the Costa Surface into the glass enclosed courtyard. In the main gallery

above eye level, the ceiling is a startling surface of continuous compound curves, gold

fabric swooping upward into a serious of funnel-like orifices. This element is a

mathematical concept known as a Costa Surface23.

The Costa Surface is a complete minimal embeddable surface of infinite topology that

without the recent technology breakthroughs, was only previously seen as an equation,

rather than in its three dimensional form. This can be seen in Diagram 2. The Costa

Surface is a way of combining mathematics and architecture, an integral part of

Postmodernism. Such techniques were not available to earlier architects and have

resulted in minimal surfaces, reducing the materials required while also providing a

stunning visual effect 24. Bringing maths and architecture together in this way speaks to

the building's role in the scientific work of animal care and protection.

22

Diagrams of Diagrams 2000 23

Architecture Australia 2006 24 Minimal Surfaces for Architectural Constructions 2008


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The main reason for the application of minimal surfaces in architecture is to design

structures with minimal surfaces for light roof constructions, tents, nets and air halls. By

having the minimal boundary surface, the surface is also of the least area, reducing the

weight and material required to the minimum25. Otto Frei was a pioneer for designing

minimal roofs by using Costa Surfaces. The German Pavillion for Expo 1968 in Montreal,

the Munich Olympic Stadium and Kongreshall in Berlin are exemplars of how minimal

surfaces can be incorporated into architecture26.

While the Australian Wildlife Health Centre makes use of a unique range of

architectural design forms, arguably its strengths are that it provides employees with a

"perfect place to work" as well as providing visitors with a fascinating and educational

experience. The use of the skin resembling animal markings as well as the allusions to

ventricles of the heart mean that the design is an example of representation in

architecture, as visitors are in no doubt as to the purpose of the building. While Stead

finds the gold elements of the Costa Surface "bewildering in its incongruity" its

functionality as a solar chimney and skylight, combined with its aesthetic form, no doubt

provides both staff and visitors with an additional experience that helps to communicate

with the centre. The close involvement of staff in the design of the building ensures that

it serves its purpose as a veterinary hospital, as well as enabling the public to experience

what otherwise would be conducted behind closed doors.

Like earlier forms of Postmodern architecture the AWHC radiates meaning. The

architects have created a building which provides staff, visitors and the animals alike

25

Minimal Surfaces for Architectural Constructions 2008 26

Minimal Surfaces for Architectural Constructions 2008


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with an environment which symbolises its purpose through the layout of the floor plan

and the way the building is located at the rear of the property. The use of representation

in both the interior and exterior of the building means that whether you are inside or

outside the building it is always communicating to you through its visual form. This

provides a compelling experience for visitors and a more productive work environment

for the vets. It also means the prospects for the recovery of the animals are maximised. It

would be interesting to watch, as the building ages, whether these elements are

maintained over time and whether they are copied in other similar buildings.


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BIBLIOGRAPHY Blaisse, Petra. "Curtain as Architecture: Casa Da Musica, Porto." In Petra Blaisse: Inside Outside Reveiling, Nai Publishers, 2004: 364-405. Ghirardo, Diane. "Introduction." In Architecture after Modernism, 28-40. New York: Thames & Hudson, 1996. Jameson, Fredric. "Exerpts." In Postmodernism or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism 1999, 38-45: Duke University Press, 1991. Jencks, Charles. What is Post-Modernism?. Third Edition, 1989. McLeod, Mary. "Architecture and Politics in the Reagan Era: From Postmodernism to Deconstructivism." Assemblage 8, no. February 1989: 23-59. Vidler, Anthony. "Diagrams of Diagrams: Architectural Abstraction and Modern Representation." Representations 72, no. Fall (2000): 1-20. Architecture AU "Australian Wildlife Health Centre," accessed August 21, 2013. http://architectureau.com/articles/australian-wildlife-health-centre/ Australian Institute of Architects "Australian Wildlife Heath Centre," accessed August 21, 2013. http://dynamic.architecture.com.au/awards_search?option=showaward&entryno=20063001 Aya Architecture, accessed October 27, 2013. http://www.ayarchitecture.com/ Bluffton "AT&T Building," accessed November 1, 2013. http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/johnsonburgee/att.html Cunningham Martyn Design (CMD) "Australian Wildlife Health Centre, Healesville Sanctuary," accessed August 21, 2013. http://www.cmdesign.com.au/australian-wildlife-health-centre-healesville-sanctuary-healesville/ Facta Universitatis. "Minimal Surfaces for Architectural Constructions." In Architecture and Civil Engineering, 2008: 89-96. Skyscraper "Sony Tower (AT&T)," accessed October 13, 2013. http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=2642

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