The main idea: How RMIT works in with City of Melbourne planning?

Here are my notes from the discussion

Place vs. space

Space – materiality, contained, defined by objects

• Opposes set of behaviours, notion about public behaviour
• Behave – manner in the which the space dictates what you do in that space – do you study, walk, talk etc. not always just manners
• Dimension – not always walls e.g. buildings surrounding a pack could add dimension
• Material
• Intent –> Program –> Inhabitation

E.g. Place makers: farmer market at primary school, festival in laneway, music festival – blues fest

 Can you have a place and no space, a space and no place?

He thinks that they are intertwined – (space and place) – how a space is activated makes it a place – Nature of program responds to place

1. The city

RMIT is “Part of a living city”

1:1000 (Scale of the city) + 1:1 (Stuff you touch) – able to plan, dictate

Spend on the money that people can touch – forget able the ceiling, computers (things you can’t touch)
I do agree, but definitely should still think about the visual aspect, not completely forget it

History of City

• Was going to be Geelong for a long time – the ships docked nicely there
• Hoddle saw where the aboriginal people were settled

The city – Unfinished project (BIG Architect) – ongoing development

• Population growth
• Seoul – 80% – 20% Rural to City – reversed in 40 years
• Australia most urbanized Cities in the world – approx. 94%
• Book – “City limits” – published by Melbourne University
• Only two books written about Australian cities in the last 20 years
• 4 of our cities – in the top 10 livable cities
• What do our cities do? –> Civic – Civitas (Romans) – how the city helps democracy

Fed square – protests for Iraq – 100,000 people – made fed square a place that was embraced – before people were just annoyed that they spent so much money on it – over 500 million for a public place

No other Australian city has a place to gather like Fed Square

RMIT – the school is open

• How do we invite the city in? Bowen Street was opened up
• Starting to look like the city – in terms of the grid – How the city organizes it self

– civic centers – organised around the CBD – parliament, church, MCG, arts centre

Grid – economic function not landscape function – so it could be divided up

How the smaller streets could be used – minor to the majors – small commerce there

Laneway culture – Meyers place 1994 – 6 degrees bar – 6 architects from Melbourne Uni couldn’t get a job – all together brought a lease

Liquor license went from $25000 –> $250, number of toilets price went down as well

2. Legibility – semiotics

Communicate these things to people

How do you get someone to behave in a civic manner?

Ability for the architect and urban planner to dictate those

How it is delivered – use of the space – research begins with careful observation not a research question – what you see and observe

Look at a way that is part of the city – how it delivers massive potential into the city – look at it not as an RMIT building but part of the city

Building 2o and Storey Hall 

Building 20 – Historic – museum but it’s a private space as well

Re-writing its own story – beginning to add to its heritage – because of the things now occurring within it

Capture point of time – restore the heritage

Peter Elliot – timber, glass, – respect, to the proportions of it

A.R.M – Storey Hall – very modern but still small moments there