RMIT go Beijing

peter_j

MEDIA RELEASE

RMIT architects make mark on Beijing

RMIT University is playing a key role in the premier Asian architecture event, the second Architecture Biennial in Beijing, which opened this week.

The Australian section of the exhibition, which is curated by RMIT University Adjunct Professor Tom Kovac, has some of the best architectural talent in Australia and includes Lyons Architects and Minifie Nixon, along with a list of younger emerging firms such as Kokkugia, Mesne and, from SIAL, Greg More and Andrew Maher and recent RMIT graduate Jerome Frumar.

The number of Australian architects invited to participate is the highest in history.

Organisers expect more than 1,000 professionals from around the world to participate and are hoping for one million visitors by the time the event closes on Friday, 6 October.

The Australian showpiece is the Di Stasio Virtual Pavilion, with an exhibition titled “Design City Melbourne” after the book of the same name. It is guest-curated by its writer, Leon van Schaik AO, Innovation Professor of Architecture at RMIT.

Design City Melbourne is exhibiting 42 Melbourne architects, with 64 buildings exquisitely documented by renowned photographer John Gollings. In total there is Victorian architecture to the gross value of $2.7 billion on display.

On top of this, RMIT is the only Australian university invited to the Architecture Schools Exhibition, which profiles the leading schools of architecture in the world, including Harvard University; Yale University; The Architectural Association, London; ETH Zurich; and Sci-Arch, Los Angeles.

The young emerging architecture student talent from RMIT includes Jonathan Podborsek, Paul Nicholas, Steven Swain, Mike White, Alvin Low, Luke Waldrin, Bertrand Lai, Farzin Lotfi-Jam and exchange student Eric Warner.

The exhibition comprises RMIT student studio work from 2006, with projects ranging from architectural objects to urban proposals using the latest software and digital techniques and experimentation.

“The work exhibited has the rare ability to express the most complex ideas and has the unique capacity to engage intelligence in the revolutionary challenge that emerging technologies design presents to 21st century society,” said RMIT lecturer Paul Minifie, who is curating the students’ work.

"Melbourne has yet again delivered an incredible Architecture for Australia and the success of this exhibition is the ultimate statement of this city’s creativity," said Professor van Schaik.

"The innovative work on show exemplifies that Melbourne architecture absolutely belongs at number one," he added.

“The ‘Emerging Talent, Emerging Technologies’ exhibition in Beijing tops the previous record set for the number of Melbourne architects participating in a major international Biennial,” said Adjunct Professor Tom Kovac.

As with the first Architecture Biennial in Beijing, and in Venice in 2002 where Wood Marsh, Lab, ARM, DCM and Tom Kovac exhibited , Melbourne is once again the only Australian city represented in Beijing this year.


The Di Stasio Pavilion at the second Architecture Biennial Beijing, designed by RMIT Adjunct Professor Tom Kovac with Flood Slicer Gollings and containing an exhibition titled “Design City Melbourne” curated by Leon van Schaik AO, Innovation Professor of Architecture at RMIT.
URL: http://www.abbeijing.com/2006/qnxs.asp

FBE Rocks

So should i save the money and goto RMIT instead of harvard or berlage for MA arch?