Atmosphere + Attrition. Barnaby Bennett, Mark Burry,

Malte Wagenfeld

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This trans-disciplinary studio considers the affects of attri-tion on designed buildings, objects and landscape architec-ture. It also considers the effect of atmosphere on the way they perform and the way that they are perceived.

From the moment that physical objects are made, they wear. At some point they wear out. All objects perform differently in different atmospheres. The designer has responsibility to consider these issues as much from a practical point of view as philosophical. It is never enough to consider buildings and their surroundings only in terms of how they will look when photographed on completion: the inevitable effects of attrition cannot be ignored. But is it enough that these attributes are merely accommodated and not celebrated? Designed products can be imbued with a lustrous aging patina on the one hand if such use is anticipated and celebrated, or they will look scuffed and unloved if not. Landscape design not only has to consider the effects of attrition and atmosphere, but also the effects of growth.

This course situates itself within the lineage of inquiry that focuses on time-based approaches to design. This dis-course asks the designer to be aware of how initial design moves are affected through time by both human and natu-ral changes. Put simply, this studio asks ‘How do materi-als and the groupings of materials, (form and buildings) change as they are exposed to varied environments, and how can an awareness of these changes feed into a broader design discourse that enriches our ability to respond to the dynamic world around us.”

This approach subtly suggests that there is an alternative narrative to the culturally focused critical regionalism that often occupies discussions around ‘traditional’ architec-tures, and suggest that the attention to form and style pres-ent in that debate is perhaps less critical than a thorough understanding of materiality and programme.

Library Part One

Studio DescriptionThe effects of attrition and atmosphere are common to architecture, landscape architecture and product design, but they affect each discipline in subtly different ways. The aim of the course it to undertake a trans-disciplin-ary inquiry into the physical and metaphysical pro-cesses of attrition and atmosphere, and examine how an understanding of these may feedback into the respective design disciplines in ways that enrich both knowledge and practice.

Project One

The students were asked to use the medium of photog-raphy to record 20 high quality 3000x3000 images of atmosphere and attrition from the environments around them.

Project Two:

The students picked from 4 sites around urban Mel-bourne; the botanical gardens, the fig tree grove at rmit, the courtyard of ACME, and Enterprize Park on the Yarra. They were asked to design a single room for the purpose of reading. The students work in small transdis-ciplinary groups.

Project Three:

After doing independent research and writing into ‘the future of libraries’ , the students changed groups and were asked to propose a site and sketch design for a Suburban Public Library of the Future. Project Four:

In the final phase of the studio the students change proj-ects and are required to undertake the detailed design of another groups project, and develop the scheme to a high level of resolution including 1:1 physical details.

Projects

“By recognizing the inherent uncertainty and inevitability of weathering and by viewing the concept of weathering as a con-tinuation of the building process rather than a forces antagonistic to it, [it] offers alternative readings of historical constructions and potential for new architectural projects.”

Mohsen Mostafavi, David Leatherborrow.

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Participants

Industrial Design

Yik Ngo PoonMurray CookSimone SteelAustin HallSadira CampbellFrank Paul

Landscape Architecture

Chloe EdwardsWie Mun LeeLuke MartindaleAndrew PlantNiki SchwabeTravis SteventonChris ThomasDavid Yang

Architecture

Matthew McDonnellJames GoscinskiTat Chee TungMuhammad Imraan AnnuarLuca ZhangBronwyn LiteraMariana De DelasIkmal Ikram AriffinAmanda HedmanLaurenz VogelWei Liat TanMichael JansenBrahman Perera

Thank you to the following for their impor-tant contributions to the studio:

Ashley Hall, Royal College of Arts.

Mark Taylor,Queensland University.

Juliette Peers, RMIT.

Jan Smitheram, Victoria University of Wellington.

Simon Twose, Victoria University of Wellington.

”The perfect is the enemy of the good.” Voltaire (1772)

Industrial DesignLandscape ArchitectureArchitecture

“Attrition for me means the attraction of destruction. Maybe it is the chance for something new; the revealing of the dif-ferent underlying layers or is it just the basic dark feeling of aggression and the need to break something. Maybe it is that the materials feel more human with imperfection and aging surfaces.”

“Through the process of time, attrition of the object itself is an ever changing, ever growing process. A constant process, the attrition of objects creates vibrant and startling patterns that colour our world, and fur-ther reinforce the idea of time.”

Attrition

“A millennium is not long at all, let alone a century. Monuments will eventually succumb to ruin and so will life, for all matter are just candles in the wind in the eyes of time. While we still exist in this moment, while we are still breathing and alive, we are considered to be fortunate to even appreciate the patina on bronze statues, the moss covering tombstones and occasionally looking up at the clouds.”

“It is only when a surface is encountered, that fog cries with droplet tears to create morning dew or to penetrate into human made facades. It is when mist lies unperturbable in the course of air that it shows a complete tranquilizing beauty that does not alter the environment it fills. Mist then becomes natures flaneur who wanders around usually when it gets dark and vanishes with every alien contact, reminding us that we are dust and dust we will become.”

Atmosphere

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Reading Room Group 2

The reading room aims to encourage people to interact with the architecture; the bookshelves form the seating, shelving and structure of the rooms; sunlight enters the rooms as books are removed from the shelf- as the sun moves the attrition of time becomes evident in the fading light.

Reading Room Group 1

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Project Title: Reading RoomDescription: The reading room aims to encourage people to inter act with the architecture; the bookshelves form the seating, shelving and structure of the rooms; sunlight enters the rooms as books are removed from the shelf - as the sun moves the attrition of time becomes evident in the fading light.

Photos.

Room for Lost Readers. This design is a reading room for people reading whilst walking, detached from their surroundings. Read-ers are guided to a protected space and by looking over the water, they become aware of the changes in light and their afternoon naturally comes to an end.

7Photos a

Reading to many of us is a private journey. The reading room is in a form of an egg which symbolizes protection and privacy from the surrondings. As the morning fog rises, the egg can be seen as if its floating on top of clouds. The trunk of the tree will eventually grow out of the structure that holds the egg, creat-ing a symbiotic relationship where they support each other. The reader on the other hand, is in his own world, in a cocoon of thoughts and imagination.

Reading Room Group 4

Reading Room Group 3

The structure provides a number of different reading positions (standing, leaning, sitting and lying) and seeks to produce an airy light space configured with internal and external functions. Rather than cocoon the reader the intention is to subtly mediate the experience between internal and external.

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Reading RoomGroup 5

The idea of thie project is to break up the flowing programs inherint within the botanical gardens. As users move through the meandering path system they stumble across the three large concrete structures protruding out of the hillside. Seamingly reaching out for the lake below the two main structures offer an unpredictable break in user flow. While one of the main two structues offers a single person reading room with atmospheric views and sensory programs.

Reading RoomGroup 6

Balancing on the path between a contemporary art museum and the Malthouse Theatre, the ACCA reading room is a malleable environment. A quiet place to read a script before a performance or spend an afternoon lost in a contempory art book.

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Growth on Green Wall

Growth on Decking.

Reading RoomGroup 7

Reading RoomGroup 8

We decided on an organic shape with curved walls which are comfortable to lean against while reading. We also liked the idea of pods, and private reading as well as outdoor reading. We looked at attrition on a green wall as well as on the deck-ing in the pond, and light attrition through a gap in the roof.

A small circular skylight at the peak of the roof allows a circle of light to travel across the room throughout the day as the sun moves across the sky. This gives the readers a sense of the attri-tion of time. Light would also refect off the lake outside and in through the windows creating a water pattern on the far wall.

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Library Part One

Ventilation Shaft.

Sound Shaft.

Flexible Floorboards. Flexible Floorboards.

Hammer.

Sound Block.

Ventilation Shaft.

softerquiet

hardloud

hardloud

surface:Sound:

softmedium

against directionsoftmedium

attriton after a time

following direction

cavity in the room direction of floor

construction

wa

ll

wa

ll

Emits differentdepth of sounds.

Deeper Higher

person in a direction. Our idea was that when one walks in the ‘soft’ direc-tion they are following the numeric numbers for the books in the direction

walking in the direction of the numeric numbers decending.person, this provides the people within the library a sense of where people are and who they might be.

Soft Direction

Hard Direction

attriton after a timellaw

llaw

Emits differentdepth of sounds.

FloorsSound Touch

Deeper Higher

person in a direction. Our idea was that when one walks in the ‘soft’ direc-tion they are following the numeric numbers for the books in the direction

walking in the direction of the numeric numbers decending.person, this provides the people within the library a sense of where people are and who they might be.

Soft Direction

Hard Direction

attriton after a timellaw

llaw

Emits differentdepth of sounds.

FloorsSound Touch

Future Sight Impaired Library Pt2Group 1

Future Sight Impaired Libary Pt 1Group 4

This sensory project considers sight, hearing, smell and touch culminating in a highly detailed design proposal and a scale model that stayed true to the original teams concept.

This project explores the potientiality of using other aspects of senses such as sound, smell rather than the visual in generat-ing architecture.The outcome is a library dedicated to the blind or partial visually impaired.

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This scenario happens in 2 distant futures, the next hundred years and the next thousand years . This Vending Machine Library is our scenario predicted for the next hundred years. Easily cus-tomized, these modular slots of functional programs make up the entire library. It will be affected by atmosphere and attrition as it is not meant to protect books. Books would be relatively cheap and sorted by machines. Combining machines with computer technology, users browse through their books using ATMs, picks the book that they have chosen and the machine does the rest.

Follow the White Rabbit Pt2Group 2

Follow the White Rabbit Pt 1Group 3

Descending spirals twist into this underground repository for a post-apocalyptic future. Hermetic shelves accessible via an entombed robot, computer interface, swipe card and pin. An amphitheatre landscape encourage potential as vaults com-pose a rendition of the Alexandrian museion and the library of congress. Angled landscapes bed materials of neglect; filled in, covered, sealed, a kin to the nag hamadi, a subterranean literary treasure of the human endeavors.

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Library Part One The original idea was to build a landscape roof for the community to grow their own produce, and for the books on shelves to show light and shadow attrition throughout the building. We have chosen the bookshelf as a highlight of our detail. The shelves are made of glass to allow more light to come into the library and the scissor bracings that holds the glass and books allow flexibility to install it in different widths. These bracings are fixed to adjestable collars that is attached to load bearing columns.

The Carnegie Library Pt2 Group 3

The project attempted to manipulate the library to en-courage community awareness, and multi access points on site. Furthermore, alternative programs was proposed where they were run by the library to encourage com-munity involvement and unification.

1. Link

Roof gardens

Bookshelves

The Carnegie Library Pt 1Group 5

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WIDTH ANGLE/VIEWHEIGHT/DEPTH

- to wide- scary- walk closer- focus on eachother

- wide- no interaction- walk with distance- focus on self

- comfortable zone- room for interaction- no pressure- focus on each other and underground

- to narrow- uncomfortable- look away

- contact with context- focus on surface

- comfortable- passed the limit- focus on eachother and underground

- no contact with surface- scary- walk closer

- totall contact with surrounding- open- focus on surface

- wall- secure- private with possibility to contact surface

- uncomfortable- scary- walk closer- no contact with surface

- drowning- scary- breaking point- focus on surface

- focus on each other- focus on outside world

- overview- focus on surrounding- stagefright

- scary- focus on surrounding- private

- too narrow- scary- bunch together- look at the surroundings

- stable- spacious- power

- totall contact with surrounding- open- focus on surface- stabile

- wall- secure

- uncomfortable- scary

BSPEAKERS CORNER- Most valuable information- White chalk- Need ladder to reach- Most resistant to weathering

SPEAKERS PATH- Less valuable information- Colored chalk- For everyone to write on- Not resistant to weathering

SPEAKERS PATH- Lowest valuable information- Colored chalk- For everyone to write on- Not resistant to weathering

HIGHEST VALUABLE INFORMATION

LESS VALUABLE INFORMATION

LOWEST VALUABLE INFORMATION

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CC

B

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C

C

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BA

A

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BA

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Speakers Path Pt2Group 1

Speakers Path Pt1 Group 2

We argue that the sharing of information is more important than the act of knowledge accumulation. Our new library will strongly link with the existing library and the Internet, and by promoting communication between individuals the new library allows people to share the information from their personal point of view, which adds a higher value to this information.

The original idea was to create a speakers path for people to be engage in future. We further explored this idea by designing a set of interactive systems such as movable acoustic walls, raising speaking platforms in order to enhance the atmosphere and the act of public speech.

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The hybrid between library and train station allows for the constant use of otherwise valuable and inconsistently utilised land space. Ideally our library concept would be integrated on all busy or ‘premium’ train stations along any line towards Melbourne and include quick book drop off points at the remaining stations. The population growth of our city would see to it that the library/train stations were used progressively more each year.

Are You Book Curious? Pt1Group 6

Are You Book Curious? Pt2Group 5

pWe argue that the suburbs are destined to change. The writing is on the wall – or perhaps it’s printed in a book – or scrawled in a train station toilet.

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Sandy Toes Pt1Group 7

Sandy Toes Pt2Group 6

The library is built above the West St Kilda beach allowing bookshelves to be rolled out over the sand. It is constructed using bricks with a sand rose relief that are rendered over with sandy concrete, allowing the ele-ments to slowly reveal the underlying 3d pattern.

With such a specific site as a beach, the buildings form and materials became a tightly focused investigation and decision. Atmosphere and Attrition would impact considerably and we elected to commit to best possible sustainability and renewable energy concepts

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An iconic building of knowledge for St. Kilda. To express that the library of the future is not too different from the typology of a library now. The hybridizing of the conven-tional and use of technology.

St Kilda Library Pt1Group 1

St. Kilda Library Pt2Group 7

Our vision of a future suburban library sees a hybridisation of the

traditional and the new. We suggest that it is unlikely that the library

will change drastically over the next 60 years rather that it will continue

to adapt fl uidly to the fi ckle technologies and shifting social context in

which it exists.