Architecture and Design

TEXT ON SCREEN:            RMIT University presents

                                            RMIT University

                                            Architecture @RMIT your essential guide

Thanks for attending! This presentation will begin at 2:00PM (SIG) Monday 10 April 2017

VISUAL:             Architectural Design

JANE:                Good afternoon everyone. I just would like to quickly introduce myself. My name is Jane and I work at RMIT International so if you eventually decide to come to RMIT you might be meeting me here on campus. I just wanted to talk to you first quickly about RMIT.

VISUAL:             RMIT University old design shown on screen.

JANE:                RMIT, is one of Australia’s original education institution founded way back in 1887. Today we have over 83,000 students who attend our university which includes almost 30,000 international students from more than 170 countries around the world. This makes us the largest tertiary institution in Australia. We have three campuses located in Melbourne. We have one in the city, one in Brunswick, and one in Bundoora. And we also have a number of campuses in Vietnam and in Barcelona as well as many partners around the world. Before I go on, I’m gonna play a little video.

VISUAL:             Video show of the different RMIT University campuses in Melbourne regarded as the world’s most livable city, the world’s friendliest city (Conde Nast Traveler 2014). Also shown are happy people interacting with each other, beautiful architectural designs and structures, park, coffee shop, dining shops and restaurants, public transportation, beach, and other places in Melbourne.

TEXT:                  Study in the heart of Melbourne at RMIT.

JANE:                  Perhaps they gave you a little brief insight into what Melbourne life is like so Melbourne City campus is located in the heart of the city and Melbourne has in the last six years been voted one of the most livable cities in the world. So, this means that you have access to fantastic public transport, great restaurants, great places to feel a lot of wonderful things; cafes, theaters, art galleries, and parks as well. So, your experience at RMIT is being right in the heart of the city so unlike other university campuses, our campuses, it’s not closed off, it’s all surrounded by water, it really is in a [month 00:03:15] the city landscape. So, you can easily access campus by trams, trains or buses and in about six years’ time we’ll have a new train rail stop ride outside, right outside the door.

VISUAL:             RMIT’s global recognitions, awards and ranking.

JANE:                So RMIT is also a globally recognized institution. It has 5- star rating for excellence in education and we see them among the world’s leading universities in terms of employability, teaching facilities, infrastructure, internationalization, engineering technology and engagement. We are currently 17^th in the world for Arts and Design, and we are the highest rank in Australia. We are also 28^th in the world for Architecture and the built-in environment and the 4^th highest rank institution in Australia.

VISUAL:             Latest RMIT development, the New Academic Street.

JANE:                So, this is our brand-new development for RMIT called New Academic Street and were hoping that by the end of the year it would be finished in its construction.  This is a $17,000,000 investment of the university to provide you with additional spaces for you to use for study and to access a brand-new library, great outdoor eating and recreation facilities all integrated student’s access. We have also the job shop, which is there to support your access to careers as well as support for your employability and we have a number of proper basis for you to be able to showcase your work.

VISUAL:           Architectural design.

TEXT:              RMIT University Architecture & Design - Global Leader in Design.

JANE:              So now, we are going to hear from Christine Philips. She is part of the School of Architecture and Design and she’s gonna talk to you a little bit more about the architecture program. The sorts of teaching and learning that you might experience if you are to come to RMIT and she’ll also talk to you about some of the opportunities that you will have if you were to come and study with us.

CHRISTINE:      Hi, everyone. So yes, I’m Christine. I’m an architect and I’m lecturing here, I’ve been teaching here in RMIT for 10 years. And I noticed, I’ve already got some questions coming through regarding HR and we’ll get to that a little bit later on. So, I’m just gonna tell you a little bit about the Architecture school here and what you might expect to learn if you come and study here. It’s a very dynamic place to learn.

VISUAL:             Faces of a female and male students seen through the small openings of an architectural design.

CHRISTINE:      We have one of the most world class robotic map, we have all sorts of technical and communication facilities feed access. Well, I guess most importantly were very well known for our design, so that’s something sits at the top for many other Architecture school in Australia, if we are world class in our education introducing the best designers. So, you come out with the right education in design.

VISUAL:             Robotic arts design.

CHRISTINE:      This is some of the types of works here so you can see we really love to experiment in many different ways so this again is having into some of our more advanced robotic arts approaching to architecture and that is one of the way this is about architecture. We like to explore many different approaches to how you might design and these are the things that you’ll expect to learn if you come and study here at RMIT.

TEXT:                  RMIT University Architecture & Design —

International Collaborations Industry, Community and Institutions

>teaching and learning > research > consultancy > undergraduate > postgraduate >

CHRISTINE:      One of the things I guess we like to focus on is connecting with industry and setting up international collaborations and also partnering with community and institutions. So were not an isolated education facility, we liked to be directly engaged with various community groups, with councils. We have… most of our staff are practicing architects. So, from Day One of studying Architecture here, you’ll be indirectly very connected with the industry and we really kind of push on that.  All of our academics here are practicing Architects and we get many of the best architects from around Australia that come and teach here.

VISUAL:             A slide from one of the public lecture of visiting professor, CJ Lim.

CHRISTINE:      We get all sorts of interesting visiting professors from around the world. CJ Lim is a really well known architect who’s practicing in London. He’s actually originally from Malaysia who is an international student and when he studied in London and we recruited CJ Lim over to get tips and he’s also run in a workshop here over the years.

TEXT:                  RMIT University Architecture & Design —

                             Design Studios Laboratory for Experimentation

CHRISTINE:      Now in terms of studying here, the things that to know for you guys is that the main subject for design we study here is called the Design Studios so that takes up most of your study throughout the week. So, whether your designing a small project, focus on robotics or a large city design, you’ll see all sorts of different experimentations in design that you’re now to proceed and study from semester to semester. We encourage all of our students to try and select a variety of design studios throughout their school at RMIT so that when they graduate they have this amazing body of experience and everybody got behind them.

VISUAL:             Design Studio class.

CHRISTINE:      So, this is just a picture here of what it’s like to be in the design studios. So, I teach Design Studio in the Bachelors program. It happens twice a week, that’s three hours per session and it’s a really exciting class. We have a lot of discussion that’s not just about the teachers teaching you, it’s very engaged and lively debate that goes on. You’ll produce all sorts of drawings and models and it’s a very engaging way of learning and students participate in teaching each other. We protect them and then at the end of the semester we have a form of presentation of all of the work as a result of that design studio.

VISUAL:             Focus on a lady student in a workshop, and another lady student also attending to another project.

CHRISTINE:      Here’s some students in one of our workshops and as I mentioned earlier, we’ve got some really great facilities here. So, you’ll be making things out of all kinds of materials you think, world class facilities and different things. We’ve got here laser cutting machines, we’ve got 3D printers, everything in our workshop that could be on handy use.

Studio presentation, this happens twice a semester and again this is a really dynamic way to teach you, get feedbacks from practitioners that come and review your work. But also, other students are encouraged to come and sit in on these formal, sort of semi-formal, it’s like a semi-formal, it’s a bit like version of an exam, it’s like an oral presentation of your work and it’s a very engaging way of presenting your work.

VISUAL:         A lady student presenting her work.

CHRISTINE: And this is one of our students in action here presenting her work.

VISUAL:         An exhibition of student work.

CHRISTINE:      We love to get our work out at public rooms with exhibitions, so we have student exhibitions and this is a great way for us to connect with industry. These are the studio posters that you’ll see at the beginning of semester when you get to develop studio you want to participate in.

TEXT:                  RMIT University Architecture & Design —

                             Industry Connections Live Projects and Experience

CHRISTINE:      We also have industry connections through live projects and live events so at the end of every semester we put on a huge exhibition and this attracts attention from industries, so it gets many architects visiting these exhibitions. It’s a great way for students to get jobs and they often do get jobs during these exhibitions. And there are great events that we have on every semester and these are held at the design hub that Jane was telling you about earlier and that’s where actually I’m right now you see, were in this sub hub, which was designed here from one of our class members.

VISUAL:             A design for competition awards.

CHRISTINE:      We have many of our students participating in competitions and doing extremely well.

VISUAL:             Paul Morgan award-winning design, for Practitioner Academics.

CHRISTINE:      And as I mentioned earlier most of our staff are practicing, very well-known architect who are award winning. This is Paul Morgan, who is a very well-known Melbourne architect and an award-winning project here and he’s regularly on the teaching our students here along with Paul Minifie and Jan van Schaik.

VISUAL:             Paul Morgan architectural design.

CHRISTINE:      This is a great building they designed here and this is also here. So, you know, you’re really being taught by the best design architects in Melbourne at RMIT, so this is a great place and a great opportunity.

TEXT:                  RMIT University Architecture & Design —

                             International Connections Student Experience

CHRISTINE:      International connections with students, we have a lot those as well. So were connected with many different schools across the world.

TEXT:                  RMIT University Architecture & Design —

                                    Exchange Programs

                             Sci-Arc Los Angeles (USA) | Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Denmark) | KTH – Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) | TU Berlin (Germany) | University of Westminster, London (UK) | TU Delft (Netherlands) | Aalto University (Finland) | Vienna University of Technology (Austria) | Ecole Speciale of Architecture (France) | ENSA Toulouse (France) | Sint Lucas Architecture School (Belgium) | Parsons School of Design New York (USA) | Milan Polytechnic (Italy) | ETSAB Barcelona (Spain) | Ontario Collage of the Arts (Canada) | Chinese University of Hong Kong + many more universities

CHRISTINE:      And we have Exchange Programs where massive students, which are enormously popular, we get many students coming from abroad and many of our students love to make the most of these opportunities.

VISUAL:             A lady RMIT student on an Exchange Program in Austria.

CHRISTINE:      This is one of our students that was studying in Austria.

VISUAL:             Architectural design for International workshops.

CHRISTINE:      We also run international workshops in varies cities. I think one of our Design student now is currently doing the workshop in Hong Kong, but they happen all over the place Japan, China, all over the world.

VISUAL:             Internship at Kengo Kuma, Japan.

CHRISTINE:      This was an internship of one of our students here, at Kengo Kuma, a very well-known architect in Japan and some of the work produced from that.

VISUAL:             A design product from Kengo Kuma internship.

TEXT:                  RMIT University Architecture & Design —

                             Bachelors + Masters

                             (Professional Degrees, 3+2 years)

                        >Architecture

CHRISTINE:      So just to get down to the nuts and bolts, if you wanna become an architect you need to do a Bachelors and a Master’s degree so it’s a three-year Bachelors program and a two-year Master’s Program that are both accredited for the course

VISUAL:             Course Diagram.

CHRISTINE:      This is just a little diagram that goes over how the course is structured in this work, I don’t know if you guys can see, a little hand. Now so as you can see the first three years, they split up into two semesters each. The little D on that diagram stands for Design and as you can see in Design Engineering, that’s a core subject but you’ll also be taught Technology, so how a building is constructed with all those T subjects. The C stands for Communication so you’ll be taught how to draw, how to make models, how to 3D render, how to 3D model, all sorts or forms of communication that you need to your design skills.

You get of course history and theory and then in the Master’s program you see there’s PP1 and PP2, so that’s Professional Practice subject, which are all the skills you need the practical skills of running a practice and communicating with clients and all those sorts of nuts and bolts that you’ll need from day to day life as an architect.

VISUAL:         Architectural design produced by a student, painted mostly in red.

CHRISTINE:      So, we get a great variety of work that’s produced and this is one of the example of our students’ work for in their final year, semester’s design project that we call major project.

VISUAL:             Another Architectural design project produced by a student in the final year.

CHRISTINE:      Along with this as you can see it’s very experimental and very ambitious way of thinking about the city.

VISUAL:             A unique Architectural design project focused on a community issue in Tasmania produced by a student.

CHRISTINE:      But then we also get fair, there are ones that are considered with community issues and engaging with environmental issues. This was one that is situated in Tasmania, which is another state of Australia and engaged with waterfront issue and thinking about sustainability within Architecture.

VISUAL:             Architectural design in bricks.

JANE:                         So again, so I’m glad that some of you have been asking about entry requirements and also about the criteria that we used to determine eligibility and I’m just gonna quickly cover some of those things now.

TEXT:                  How to Apply - Semester 1

JANE:                 So, how to apply so we have two intakes a year for our Bachelor of Architecture Design Program that is in February for first semester, and in July for second semester. Now depending on your background and your circumstance, you may only be eligible for Semester One Intake, if you have done some previous study or have done studies here at RMIT, you might be eligible for major or July intake.

So just running through Semester One, if you successfully completed the RMIT Foundation Program or an Advanced Diploma in Building Design here at RMIT, or have done one year of tertiary study in Design then, you will not be required to complete our Pre-selection Kit, if you’re coming straight out of Grade 12 or 12 years of secondary schooling then you’ll be required to complete the Architecture pre-selection kit and this is available for you to download from our website.

So, the architecture Pre-selection Kit talks about your background, talks about your design experience and also provides you with an opportunity to discuss why you want to study Architecture at RMIT. If you have requirement to complete a Pre-selection Kit, then you’ll be also required to submit a folio of work to which we will go to in little bit more details soon. Your Curriculum Vitae, which talks about your design experience, your transcript of your previous studies as well as a letter explaining the reasons as to why you would like to study with us.

If necessary we may ask you to attend an Interview. Now this interview may just be a recording where you have an opportunity to ask some questions or to answer some questions that we post, also it may be an opportunity for us to enter a dialogue with you but we will let you know weather an interview is required at the time of selection.

 VISUAL:        Sample Pre-Selection Kit Form.

JANE:                 So, this is a quick example of what the Pre- selection Kit form looks like. You simply complete the form but spend a bit of time looking at the questions and providing detailed but sustained responses to those questions.

CHRISTINE:      For your Pre-Selection kit, I just want to make a point. There’s no right or wrong, what we’re looking for in the Pre-selection Kit is the way you think, and be creative so I encourage you to all be brave and experimental. The Pre-selection Kit, we don’t really expect to have many drawing skills so it’s really about being brave and thinking about some imaginative responses that we look forward to. So, don’t worry if you can’t draw or you haven’t got the basic skills, just think about think big picture, an ambitious, interesting, engaging and creative ideas, okay?

JANE:                         Yeah, so but there are questions that will come to you in getting you to think about on some of the things as to why you would pursue Architecture or Design as a career.

VISUAL:             How to Apply – Semester 2 Intake

JANE:                 So, as I mention Semester 2 intake is only available for students that have previous study and it’s usually through our Advanced Diploma of Building Design or if you have actually completed tertiary study in Design or you can come in with some transfer credit.

If you do have previous study or you have studied with us in the Advanced Diploma and this is certainly a part in which I would talk to you about and you won’t be required to submit a Pre- selection Kit or portfolio. But we may ask you for some additional information to complete the application.

VISUAL:             Pathways and Selection Tasks. Shown is a costume or fashion design show.

JANE:                         So, as I mention there are several pathways to study Design or Architecture at RMIT so if you are completing the equivalent of Australian Year 12 then as we’ve mention you’ll be required to complete a Pre-selection Kit. Now there are deadlines as to when we need to have this by so you need to have a look at the website or talk to your agent about that. If you have completed the equivalent of the Australian Year 12 but are not so academically have excelled, there are options you too come either via a Certificate Form in Design or our Associate Degree in Architectural study. So, you can actually use this as a great pathway to upskill, to learn all of the things that you need to know and to field on your design ability so then be best prepared to go into Architectural Design. So, if you’re not confident in your ability or if you would like to spend a little bit more time growing your experience and your skills and exploring your interest and coming via our pathway options is a great way of doing that, and we’ll certainly be able to support you in your education that way.

VISUAL:             A design of small tables in different colors.

JANE:                 So, in terms of our selection task I mention the Pre-selection Kit, which contains the form that you need, there’s also a folio of work that you’ll be putting together. Now as Christine mentioned, it’s not about looking at how well you can draw or what your abilities are.

CHRISTINE: [Inaudible 00:23:33]

JANE:             Oh yeah.

CHRISTINE:      To clarify, the Pre-selection Kit is for first year entry only and the folio, we actually do need to see your design and communication skills demonstrated. So, when I said were not expecting you have any particular skill that was for the Pre-selection Kit, only for first year applicants because we’re not expecting you to come with skills, we give you the skills. However, for Advanced Level entry and Master’s Level entry, you will be required to demonstrate your fabulous designs skills, your communication skills. Everything that you have learned in your previous study that you represent in your folio.

VISUAL:             Pre-selection Kit. Side view of a man’s face of with a banded eye and a floral design painting.

JANE:                         Excellent. Yes, okay, great. Just quickly, in terms of the Pre-selection kit, we do look at your previous experience, any projects that you may have completed in school, or outside of school. You really need to demonstrate your creativity. So, it's not about the finished, polished end product, it's about the journey, your creativity, the process that you took from concept, that design concept, that initial idea right the way through to perhaps producing a piece of work. So, it's more about looking at how you can think creatively, how you are influenced, and the process that you took from that initial idea, whether or not you needed to mold or develop or change or modify that right the way through until perhaps some end products.

So, you need to demonstrate this process. So, by describing a particular project in each of the stages is a great way of demonstrating your creativity. So, by submitting a few examples of work, as long as the statement you describe, a little bit more in detail about what this project means to you, and why you are involved.

VISUAL:         Your Folio. Painting in a floral design.

JANE:                         So, a folio needs to be your own work, you can't be using somebody else's work, and it's to describe a few pieces of work that you have developed. And as I mentioned, it really demonstrates your creative thinking and your design process. It doesn't have to be this wonderful, polished product, but it needs to show your creativity.

Now, you can use a number of different modes to describe your work, it can be drawings or sketches or photos, pre-hand or computer generated drawings, photos, etc. If that's a sculpture that you use, you take a photo, and provide that as part of your portfolio. You can also include works that's in the development, and also any finished work that you might have completed.

VISUAL:         Architectural building design.

JANE:                         You may be asked to present your portfolio, but we will provide you with these details as part of the application process. We are looking at the administration of our intakes, so it may change.

VISUAL:             Two men in white T-shirt, one is wearing a white mask, and the other covers his mouth with a white towel.

JANE:                 We may ask you for interview, to describe your work, but we will let you know if that's the case. So, I'm just gonna pass you on to Christine.

VISUAL:             Example of a good folio. Sketch of a man.

CHRISTINE:      Okay so as I mentioned, portfolios are required part of the application for advanced level entry into the Bachelor's course, or if you're applying for the Master's, you must have the folio. I'm the International Selection Officer. We also have other staff that assess the applications, but I got a pretty good idea of what I'm looking for, so I'm giving you my knowledge of what I would like to see in a good folio. Really, I'm interested in your ideas. What I do not want to see is your professional experience, because it is very, almost impossible for me to know how much input you put in to that obviously when you're working in a practice, a lot of people work on it. So just pick through the design work that you have produced in the course of your studying.

Okay? Now a good folio, I just got an example of one here.

VISUAL:         Sketch of a man standing on the foot of his three shadows.

CHRISTINE:      What I’m interested in, [zoom-in], just let me know if can’t read this. So, this is one portfolio, what we're looking for is seeing your ID's and how you developed them. We are interested in seeing a range of projects that test out different design ideas and different skills, and how you've actually gone from the initial idea and develop those to a final design.

So, this is just one folio I thought pretty good, this was very Master's application, and the reason I thought it was pretty good because it had a range of work and it was very clear to see what their ideas were.

VISUAL:         Sample of a folio content page.

CHRISTINE:      So here now, here we go. So, you’ve got a nice, clear content page, got to see the scopes, and as you can see just from the content page, there's a variety of works that’s been included in this folio. It's nice and clear graphically as well.

VISUAL:             More pages of the sample folio contents. Graphical pictures, illustrations, and designs. Showing the different steps in the process of creating a design.

CHRISTINE:      This was a project which to me shows has done a lot of research here. I'm seeing the initial ideas, and how they've developed this. And it's a really small project in a landscape, but I could see from those initial tests and experiments at the start how they are actually able to develop it into a final design. And this is some drawings that explains how it's used and it's quite a lovely thing, so it's graphically represented well, their thought about the technical aspects of it, I got a sense of materiality, and it's very well communicated.

VISUAL:             Another sample project included in the folio focus on an occupational problem in construction.

CHRISTINE:      This is another project that they included in the folio, which was dealing with a really interesting industrial site, and how we might adapt this, which is a very contemporary occupational problem.

VISUAL:             Folio content showing in depth research and showing a diagram on how to reuse a building.

CHRISTINE:      So completely different scale, they've done an enormous amount of research into the building and how we might actually reuse it, and it clearly diagrams that out in their folio. And then they've shown me what their thinking process is, and how that's been developed into a very interesting project.

VISUAL:             Folio content showing the thinking process, to the development of a beautiful design project.

CHRISTINE:      And this, you know, clearly some beautiful drawings here, beautiful design, that's been well thought out, and very easy for me to understand from a quick glance at their folio, and this is their project that's been developed. So, good communication skills, good representation skills, well researched and well-articulated. And as you can see, it's developed even further here. So, I could see their initial idea and how it was developed into a final outcome.

VISUAL:             Eco-building project to improve water system. Shown is a man pouring liquid to a waterway system, followed by graphical illustrations, drawing and other research and project presentations.

CHRISTINE:      Another project was an eco-project, looking at the improvement of the water system. So very different skill, different type of project, lots of research here, good drawings, clearly deals with the surrounding conditions.  

VISUAL:             High-rise building graphical illustration.

CHRISTINE:      And on the other end of the skill they included a high-rise building. So, they've gone from very small-scale project to a big scale here. So that's an example of a good folio. And of course, they all are very different, I see hundreds of them. And just remember to think about clearly showing us what your idea is and how you've developed it. That's what we're after. The diverse range of projects, we want to see good communication skills, good technical skills, and most importantly, good design skills, ‘cos as I said, we are a design school. We want our best applicants that can show us they can design and they have a bit of design skills. I'm gonna hand you over to Michael. Jane, do you want to introduce Michael?

TEXT:                  Michael Pham

                             Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design

                             RMIT Student Ambassador

VISUAL:             Students in a Design studio.

JANE:                         Michael is an RMIT student-ambassador. Any of our current students can actually apply to become a student-ambassador. And they will do a number of roles, very important roles for RMIT to support our students and to mentor them not only when they first arrived, but right away to lots of wonderful activities. Also, Michael is a current Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design student, and he is going to spend the next five minutes or so talking to you about his experience, why he chose RMIT, what it's like to study Landscape Design here, and a little bit about his experience.

MICHAEL:          Hi guys, [inaudible 00:36:33]. I decided to choose RMIT as the university because I did a research and as far as I know, they specialized in Design Technology. As Jane told you guys before, I studied Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design, and I'm in my final year. I started at RMIT, what I've learned is that you get yourself involved in I guess, volunteering. In RMIT, as a student ambassador, getting involved with the RMIT Union, helps you to sort of developed your talent, get into personal skills and to allow you to network with other like-minded students and staff.

Why I chose to study is because of the love for nature and design when I was a kid. In Landscape Architecture, your sort of able to design in the means of incorporating both the environment and the urban framework together, and regards to that.

Some of my lectures are in the morning. For example, 8:30 or 9:00, so I'll be catching a train at 7:00 to arrive at lectures and right after lectures, we usually have tutorial classes, which runs for one to two hours. Through that, we're sometimes assigned to groups to do collaboration work, and to work on specific topics that’s given on that day. RMIT has a great library, they have great facilities. The library pretty much has all the necessary books that is needed for you guys to research and get more information on that.

VISUAL:         Architecture Course Diagram.

JANE:                         Once again, thank you so much for your time in joining with us and learning about Architect and Design at RMIT. I wish you all the best in your future endeavours and hope to see you at RMIT perhaps sometime in the near future. Thank you very much!

Bye.

VISUAL:         RMIT University in black background. Closed to end.

[End 00:36:33]

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