Dermoid Workshops (2010-2011)

A teaching and research collaboration by CITA and the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, RMIT

In spring 2009 Prof. Mark Burry won the prestigious Velux Visiting Professorship Award to work with CITA, Centre for IT and Architecture at KA, over a two year period. The aim for the Visiting Professorship was to explore how computation can lead to new material practices in architecture.

The project was developed across four research led workshops with students and researchers across KA. the workshops included: The Reading Room with Department 11( 4th year) in March 2010, A Research Workshop with Researchers and PhD students from SIAL and CITA in June 2010, Material Behaviour, Department 2, EK2, (4th year) in November 2010 and Paths to Production, Department 2 ( 3rd year) in January 2011. We would like to thank the students for their engagement, enthusiasm and contribution to the project.

Working through a workshop model the research project creates an environment of exchange between researchers and students. The workshops were focused development periods in which students were asked engage with the given research topics guiding the overall project. The workshops create flat environments where researcher and student seek to question the technologies, materials and techniques together.

In the making of Dermoid these workshops have proven fundamental for the project development. The material testing in The Reading Room with Department 11 allowed and understanding of the predictability of laminated and tempered ply and therefore its inappropriateness for digital simulation. The 3 week Research Workshop with researchers and PhD students from SIAL and CITA proved essential to the digital probing of different programming strategies for material simulation. The Material Behaviour workshop with Department 2, EK2, solved key tectonic and digital fabrication questions. And finally the Paths to Production workshop with Department 2, was instrumental in solving the final design development and detailing.

The 4 workshops that led to Dermoid
Workshop 1: The Reading Room, Department 11, 4th year (March 2010)
Workshop 2, Research Workshop, CITA and SIAL, Researchers and PhD students
Workshop 3, Material Behaviour, Department 2, EK2, 4th year (November 2010)
Workshop 4, Paths to Production, Department 2, 3rd year, (January 2011).

Thanks
The Velux Foundation, SIAL , Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory, RMIT, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture.