This is the transcript for the video: Architecture
Deborah Ascher Barnstone:
Good morning, everybody. I’m delighted to see you all here this morning, online with us at UTS and at our open day 2021. First of all, I’d like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the ancestral lands upon which UTS sits, the Gadigal people of the Eora nation. I would also like to pay my respects to the elders past, present and emerging. For those of you who don’t know who I am, I’m Deborah Ascher Barnstone professor of architecture and head of school at UTS architecture. So welcome to UTS open day 2021. We’re delighted that you’ve decided to come today, especially in this online format and we’ll do our best to keep the day informative and interesting and fun. We’re also so pleased that you’re interested in our programs that UTS. UTS school of architecture is such a unique place. We’re both the oldest architecture school in Australia, and one of the youngest university programs at one and the same time.
This is because we are direct descendants of Sydney Technical College, which was founded in 1878 and moved to Ultimo in 1891. And was the first architecture program in Australia. In January of 1990, Sydney technical college was absorbed into and combined with several other colleges to form the present University of Technology, making us a young university. About 30 years old, our programs were traditionally very practice oriented, even in the early days as a university, students worked during the day and took university classes in the evenings. Although we have long abandoned this model, we retain our close ties to local and national practice. As a student here, you will have tutors from a range of well-known practices. Even the principals will teach lecture and critique. Examples include Angelo Candalepas, Lee Hillam, Jared Ryan Musk, Richard Francis Jones, Mark Tyrol and Sasha Coles to name just a few from architecture and landscape architecture.
But today UTS also has a strong international commitment. We bring internationally known figures to teach, to lecture, to critique, and to collaborate with our students and our academics. And we run a host of study abroad programs at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. That includes study tours to places like Japan and the United States and design studios with travel components to Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. Because UTS believes that international educational experiences are critical to preparing you for work in a globalized world. There’s also financial support for many of our programs, and hopefully we will get out of lockdown and out of COVID-19 and be able to resume these programs. I see our guests student Corey Arkins and smiling and nodding about this. UTS School of Architecture has built a world-class reputation for our focus on visionary architectural landscape and interior design, strategic thinking and engagement with contemporary issues in all three professions.
While a student here, you will engage with many of the salient challenges facing us today, including climate change with its knock on effects like rising sea levels, bushfires, droughts, and excessive heat, emerging and transformative technologies like robotic construction, and design using drones and threats to the historic fabric of Australian cities, landscapes, and communities. Innovative, creative, and committed to advancing the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and interior architecture, we offer an exciting and dynamic experience-based educational model that provides a rich combination of local national and international perspectives in design and contemporary practice. And of course, director Brooke Jackson is going to tell you a lot more about this in just a couple of minutes. In keeping with our combined national and international focus, you will learn with teachers from across New South Wales, Australia and the world. We currently have permanent academic staff from Australia and New Zealand, Germany, Spain, India, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, and recent guests teachers and speakers have come from as far a field as France, Spain, the Netherlands Denmark, Sweden, Canada, South Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, and more. In short, I think you will find our programs exciting, challenging, rewarding, and even fun.
Should you decide to come to study with us. I’ll now hand over to the course director, Brooke Jackson, who will describe our programs in much more detail for you. Thanks again for coming.
Brooke Jackson:
Thank you so much, Deb. Good morning everybody. My name is Brooke Jackson. I’m the course director of the undergraduate program here at UTS. I would also like to acknowledge current country. I am actually on [foreign language 00:05:57] country today, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. So if you’re here with us this morning, you’re intrigued about how Bachelor of Design in Architecture, which is coming to you from within the School of Architecture. In our dynamic DAB faculty stands for Design Architecture and the Built Environment. Just to echo some of the points that Deb was making. At the moment in humanity we’re at a point where our social, ethical and environmental responsibility is far more prevalent than any been before. And we’re really interested in generating future thinkers that can go out there and really make a difference.
So we want to set you up to shape the future about built environment through building and design and technology. My interested in doing these through not only generating amazing spaces and getting you think about spaces, new unique ways, but we’re also going to take you through a journey of architectural history and theory to understand how it comes to bay. We’re going to help you strategize through the lens of urban and suburban strategy. And most certainly deliver this through the lens of sustainable spatial practice at every scale.
So our Bachelor of Design in Architecture is a three year full-time or equivalent program. And I’ll take you through what you’ll be undertaking if you join us at UTS. So over three years, you will have two semesters, the autumn, and then the spring. We commence by taking you through the subject structure. So your dominant subject, which is 12 credit points is the studio space. You have six studios that you undertake each semester and each will progress from the prior. Adding to this is a really dominant history and theory stream, which starts off with the Renaissance, takes us through to the Enlightenment. You’ll learn about Modernism and Modernity. Then we’ll think about Urbanism and The City, we’ll also undertake Critique of the Rhetoric of the Discipline. And then finally evaluate Current Circumstances of the Contemporary through current events and debates. Complimenting this of course has all of the technological understanding and rationale of built environment.
So you’ll be introduced to measures of construction through structural synthesis and construction methods in first year. We’ll take you into the detailing components in second year. And then our third year studio actually really dominates the construction lens for your studio five in the autumn. And then of course, in addition to basis, Methodologies Around Sustainable Practice. So you’ll be introduced to your tech subjects, Thermal Design and Environmental Control in each two, and then finally in year three, you’ll be advancing this Environmental and Understanding, and also engaging with Principles of Lighting and Acoustics, and then of course your final Capstone studio will synthesize this knowledge. In addition, we’ve got comms in first year, which really unpacks visual communications, really fun exploring of all of those graphic communication styles and teaches you how to draw a document as a future architect. And then of course in your final year, you get to inject your studies with your choice of electives.
We hold some really dynamic and interesting electives through the school of architecture and these are introduced to plenary between interior and landscape. So you’ll be working with those students as well, but it also, we encourage you to undertake interdisciplinary electives across UTS, and you are able to choose from the wide scope it’s available across the entire university. But let’s take you into the studio spaces and what you actually can expect. So year one really sets you up for the foundation of how you maneuver through the logic of design, thinking through process methods. And then we give you a one design brace in studio two, which takes you through program and Precedent Study. [inaudible 00:09:57] very short exercises that undertake a logic of thinking through process. So you’ll be introduced to concepts of coding, both digital, but also analog. And you’ll be making things you’ll be drawing and you’ll be learning the art of iteration.
And of course, we’ll be thinking only in terms of the scale of the body, but we’re going to be taking to the scale of the territory. This subject is actually combined with your Landscape Architecture students. So you get really nice cross-pollination of ideas there also. And then we’ll be bringing that back to the scale of one-to-one, where you’ll be undertaking some experiments and documenting names both architecturally and curatorially. I’m actually going to ask our student, we’ve got a second year student, as Deb announced earlier. Corey Arkins is very kindly giving us his time this morning. I’m just going to ask him what was probably one of the main lessons that you learned in your studio one encounter, Corey?
Corey Arkins:
Probably the main lesson is probably the iterative process and the power of that. You started off with the collages, Brooke was showing before, and you start off with the design that you think is all right, but after a series, I think I did about 36 iterations you really surprise yourself. And that’s pretty much what architecture is, an iterative experimental process. So yeah, that process was quite surprising.
Brooke Jackson:
Fantastic. Thanks for sharing that, Corey. And then we move into studio two, where this is the first disciplinary subject that you’ll engage with in design. And we give you the fundamental type, which is that of the house. So you’ll be designing really conceptual ideas around domesticity and rethinking what it actually means to live and dwell today and will take you through the disciplinary knowledge that exists through precedent case studies. You’ll be dissecting building logic, of course. And then we’ll be bringing you back to the scale of 1:101:50 to really design out the architectural elements of your spaces.
And then we’ll zoom in for a moment at 1:20 to really understand the intimacies of domestic dwelling at that very micro scale. And most importantly, we won’t only be interested in the idea of the building as an object, but we understand that the idea of dwelling and living in a city has certainly got a lot of conceptual impetus for us to reframe how we can actually live together as a society. So we’re getting you to think about how it can change the way that we think about the dwelling at the scale of the lot. I think this is your project too Corey? Great. And then we’ll get you to think conceptually about how your individual lot and responds to the block, the community of the suburb and then the city as a whole. So Corey, what was one of your favorite things about this particular project?
Corey Arkins:
My favorite part of this project was I had a tutor Sam, generally that focused on model making. So I designed this as you can say, it’s like a series of kind of models that move on train tracks depending upon what the occupant wants. I designed these three models. So I think I made over about 20 models and instead of designing through CAD, which can be quite restricting if you don’t use it in the right part of the process, building models really gives you a three-dimensional understanding. And was quite enlightening to kind of experience that process through designing through models.
Brooke Jackson:
Fantastic. And they were fabulous models, I will vouch for Corey. Okay. And also you undertake a one-to-one building the construction subject, which is a really exciting component. You will be getting on the tools, designing and thinking through the scale of a pavilion. And then we actually get you to fabricate this. This is the one from 2019. And actually I’d like to say if I can share a small video with you of the making in last year 2020. So this is the 2019 [inaudible 00:14:07].
What was really fantastic about these pavilions is not only that the students get the chance to be involved in all the processes from design documentation and then the view, but then the space actually becomes a moment of activation that sits in the level four courtyard of the DEA building and actually insights events that interact with the public. Submitting one to year two and you really develop on that foundational knowledge. Studio three is a wild experiment in material technologies, particularly looking at sustainable practices. Students engage and embark and a range of selected material sources and then unpack the true tests, experiments and other such dishes. And then of course delivering and resolving those material details at the scale of 1:100. We now move back into the public brown, where we design a small public building. And of course we then detail and document things at a scale of 1:50. And this compliments what’s happening in the construction detailing subject, where we’re looking at detailing at 1:5. What was the favorite thing about working with the materials Cory?
Corey Arkins:
Like I Say, if you look at my background behind, my material was sandstone. Through the experimentation of sandstone, I kind of came across using sandstone as a staining pigment. So the story, if you look at the brief above me, as it’s a stage we’re designing for the Mount and Botanical Gardens stage, the roof became a stage to display the process of nature. So you had the sandstone pigment in the roof and as it rained, it will kind of stay in the roof. And that’s what I used actual like architectural trace paper to use that, which is quite funny as well.
Brooke Jackson:
That’s fantastic. It’s good to see you exploring in different ways. And so then if we move into studio four. This introduces us to the first of the complex type series, the three that you engage with in the final conclusion of your degree. So these complex type is in fact, a student housing project. And for the first time you get to decide which tutorial you want to go with and which duty you want to work with because they’re all delivering a particular conceptual lens. And in this circumstance, it’s all got to do with the student and ID the dwelling. Of course, once again, we’ll be looking at the scale of 1:100 and then we’ll be zooming in at the individual unit scale of 1:50 and you’ll be working in teams. So for the first time you’ll be pairing up and really exploring the notion of what it’s like to engage in the design process through teamwork. Cory, what’s one of the most interesting things you’re finding so far. This is the studio you’re undertaking at the moment.
Corey Arkins:
So we probably started the project about two weeks ago about. My favorite part of it is firstly, like you got to choose your tutor. She gets to choose your conceptual focus. And my tutor Andriana got a real focus on the actual concept, forming the form rather than designing the form of like what visually looks good. And yeah, that’s pretty much it. Yeah, the conceptual focus.
Brooke Jackson:
Fantastic. And then of course, moving into third year, which you can look forward to Cory next year, hopefully back on campus, is the synthesis year where all the ideas and learning is still being pushed and explore that when now looking at measures of synthesis across the subject. So studio five is complex type two, where we go rather large scale. We go out to the peripheral of Sydney and we’re really dealing with the complex types of inputs. Once again, you get to choose your infrastructure land, which could be anything from a storage archive to a waste management, a water processing systems, and we’ll be dealing because we’re at that much larger scale, we’re looking more so at the 1:500, but then we zoom in again at the 1:1. And this is the most interesting part of semester where students actually physically fabricate a detailed component of their buildings at the scale of 1:1.
And we put a really clean spark as on tectonics and construction methodology injected into this particular studio, cantilever engineers who come in for injection sessions to also contribute to the collaboration of education and learning. And then finally this culminates in your capstone design studio six, which is complex type three, we go really conceptual here through the concept of the post-work and this iteration was the university. We look at integrated systems. So we’re taking all that knowledge about building technologies and sustainability. And you’re really working this up to a really nice level of detail. And we bring you back to the city for this project, but we also acknowledge that irrespective of where we are on Australia, we are always cited on country and pepstone studio is run as in competition, which is extremely exciting grad students. We’ve got industry partnerships, we feel at least instincts [inaudible 00:21:19] who actually contribute to the competition and there are awards and it’s a really exciting combination of the entire program for our students.
So yes, I see some questions. The chat absolutely industry connected both on a local and global scale. I’ve just listed some of the global partnerships that we currently have. We’ve got ARUP, Billard Leece, Bangalore, BVN, Candalepas, COX, HAYBALL, of course the Registration Board, AIA, Government Architect’s Office, and many, many more really encourage our students. And a lot of our tutors come specifically from these practices and institutions beyond our institution. So we really do encourage cross connection. And we do find a lot of our students then get plucked for placement employment because of the industry connections. And what are your career opportunities? Of course you can become an architect. That’s the main progression, and hopefully that’s what you’re aspiring to do, but you can also branch out the field of architecture is extremely diverse and inclusive. You can go into academia, you can look on the development side of things and be a design manager of construction.
You can obviously be an educator. You can go into policy-making, if you’re really interesting, it’s shifting the systems by which architecture has to abide by. Of course, you can go into research and that can be both technological or conceptual and historical. You can be an urban designer and you can also write the journalism for publications, architectural publications, etcetera. Now the pathway to architecture registration is a big question that we usually get during our open day sessions. So of course the simplest way to embark on that is through your Bachelor of Design and Architecture. And then follow with us saying that UTS or you’re really dynamic Masters of Architecture project program, which is another full time two year equivalent. And then you would need to produce a log book, which is generally a minimum of two years work experience post the master’s program. And then you’re eligible for the New South Wales IRB registration exams.
What are the resources he or DAB Faculty? We’ve got an amazing soft model workshop for students to use around the clock. We also got a fabrication workshop you’ll get inducted to in week one and yet use far more complex devices to really get in there and really generate some incredible technological models and including that is laser cutting and 3D printing. Then we’ve got the advanced fabrication lab, which is really pushing and promoting and doing a lot of research about digital fabrication and technologies. And here you see a robotic car with professor Schawk. We also got photography studios available to you to take photographs of those amazing models you’re going to make. And of course, we’ve got a computer lab with all up-to-date technology and all the software that you will require to take your degree.
And this is your space. We’re missing this at the moment. Aren’t we Corey, but these are yours to take over. This is your undergraduate studio. This is where the magic happens. You undertake your classes here, but also we encourage you to use these spaces and really take on a shift and enjoy making and thinking and talking in these spaces as you move through your degree. And of course, we’ve got your library, which is your theoretical resource, this fantastic new building by FJMT building two newly finished two years ago. And so at the beginning of last year, and it’s just a really glorious space, not only to access resources, but just to sit and study, taking the views. We also have scholarships to assist. We’ve got the Droga Indigenous Architecture Scholarship, we’ve got Barnett Scholarship, Group GSA Indigenous Architecture Scholarship, they’re more early entry. And then of course, we’ve got the COX Architecture Scholarship as you progress.
We want you to get involved in the school of architecture. It’s not just about getting in here and doing your degree. This is an all immersive environment, and it’s a really exciting and dynamic profession to be a part of, please join us at on Instagram. This is where all our news events lectures, and of course student work is publicized. You can join us for some of our public lecture series. We really do encourage you to be part of industry. We’ve also got this wonderful exhibition space that we take over and produce different exhibitions for. We really encourage you to do curricular activities. And of course, we got our end of year show, which you can volunteer to be a part of when it’s back on site. It’s just a really odd dynamic thing to be a part of. And it’s a really wonderful thing to celebrate all your hardware from the year and bring your family and friends who we know as dramatic supporters throughout your education.
So on average, you’re looking at about 600 across the entire undergraduate program, about 200 a year. And what percentage of architects will continue to complete the masters and become qualified architects. So we save quite a high percentage of our students maneuver into the master’s program. I actually forget the actual percentage off the top of my head, but I would estimate it’s about 60% of our graduating students elect to go straight into the master’s. So I think that answers that question for you. What type of caddies you use, I guess, so we really do encourage SketchUp, this is really foundational for the students’ documentation. Of course, you can explore other CAD programs, but your SketchUp is the predominant one for us. And our way also the Adobe Creative Suite.
What’s the approximate graduate employment rate? Actually I don’t know that currently at the moment. Yes, we have that data that’s come in. I might actually put together a pack of data and we’ll include these in the DIB fact sheet. You might be out of the view that there has COVID effected all the practical things you’ve shown? Ah, okay. Yes, it has. And thank you for asking that question. We are currently online. So first and foremost, the health, safety and wellbeing as all our students, it was paramount and I’ll stop, obviously, collectively. The student cohort has been extremely agile and I’m so thankful for the way in which they’ve maneuvered themselves into online. So we conduct all of our classes currently online. We did manage to get onto campus for all of the semester last year, which was fantastic.
It’s good to see our faces and to use the spaces. We’ve really been working hard to try and facilitate the students as best that we can with giving them access to programs at home that usually that they would be able to get on campus for those who haven’t directly bought versions for themselves, they are moving goalposts. But of course, obviously we’re really always following the New South Wales health and advice and hoping to get you back on campus ASAP. Is it possible to transfer from landscape architecture? Yes. So a lot of students like to get into one of our programs, Landscape Architectural Interiors, and then have a change of heart and think actually, no, I think I’m probably more interested in landscape or interior or architecture. Yes, you can certainly apply to transfer. You still will apply through UAC and go through that process again. But then what you would do is apply for an internal request for prior learning so that we can give you credit points for subjects where they correlate across the programs.
Well, that’d be a double degree of architecture engineering available? That is a really interesting question. Currently we do not actually advertise that. So we have been looking into opportunities around that, but there’s not one currently. So how many subjects that each semester has? So if you’re doing a full time load, you will be undertaking three subjects per semester. Your studio is 12 credit points and has two three hour sessions per week in addition to lectures. And then you’ve got two six credit points subjects in addition. So it’s a total of 24 hours face-to-face and addition to the work that is prescribed and assigned to in your downtime. What electives do you need to take? I don’t think there’s actually any prerequisites in terms of electives. I think you’re talking about high school.
I guess we do encourage you to take all the… There’s no really any prerequisite, but if there’s anything that you’re personally interested in an elective in school, such as DMT or art that might prove useful to you or if you’re already getting a headstart in some of the programs and software that we use, but there’s no assertion prerequisite. Ah, this is a nice one. [inaudible 00:30:34]
What’s the ratio between learning traditional skills, such as hand drawn plan or drawing all on CAD? Ah, this is a very interesting question and might just sign us off actually. Before and if you’ve got further questions, if I haven’t got to them, please migrate to the one-on-one advisory chat. So it’s really important that you do continue with questions over there. We’ve got academics in the school and students sprouts to help answer your questions. What was the question there? I just lost that last question.
Jess:
What’s the ratio between learning [crosstalk].
Brooke Jackson:
Sorry. Thank you so much. Thank you Jess for reminding me. We really do encourage you to do hand drawing. You’re not taught technical drawing any longer, that art form unfortunately is by the wayside. You do undertake some measure of hand drawing, but we do encourage hand sketching, but we jumped you into CADs documentation in the first semester also. So none of your design studios beyond studio one has a lot of technical drawing through hand sketchiness and technical stuff we’ve done on the computer. Thank you so much for your time, everybody today. Hope you’re interested in coming to join us here at UTS. Thank you, Corey. It’s lovely to see you. I will be picking this up again in the one-on-one chats and you’ll be also met by some about academic staff. So thank you everyone. Enjoy your weekend.