Vivian Mitsogia...: Hello everyone, and welcome to the information session for RMIT Architecture.
Before we begin, I'd like to acknowledge the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin nations on whose unceded lands we conduct the work of the university and respectfully acknowledge their ancestors and elders past and present. RMIT is committed to redefining its relationship in working with and supporting Aboriginal and Torres-Strait Islander self-determination. The university's goal is to achieve lasting transformation by maturing its values, culture, policy, and structures in a way that embeds reconciliation in everything we do.
I'm Professor Vivian Mitsogianni. My title is associate dean and head of architecture at RMIT, and it's an absolute pleasure to present to you some information about RMIT Architecture today. We'll commence today's session with a half-hour presentation from me on what we do, who we are, what we stand for, and particularly the type of learning environment that you'll find yourself in and be part of if you choose to join us here at RMIT. I'll also go through the application and selection process at the end, and also where you can find more information.
After the presentation, we'll have a question and answer session where I'll be joined by some of our staff and students on screen to answer your questions, which you can also post in the chat. We'll also have a team of staff in the background who will answer questions via our chat function.
Now, as the presentation is very comprehensive, I'd like to encourage you to wait until the end before asking your questions. We're going to cover a lot in the presentation. All the images in the presentation are projects from our students and staff. This is a small pavilion that I worked on some years ago with some students and also RMIT staff. It was at the National Gallery of Victoria.
Now, before we begin, just a little information about becoming an architect in Australia. In order to become an architect, you need to have completed an accredited degree. The accredited degree is the Master of Architecture. If you finish high school, you'll start the Bachelor of Architectural Design and then go on to complete the Master of Architecture. You're then required to have two years' work experience, one of which can be while you are studying, and then you can sit the Registration Board of Victoria exam, and if you pass, you can call yourself an architect. You can, though, work as a graduate at any time in an architectural practice.
A RMIT Architecture degree is actually two degrees, the three-year bachelor and the two-year master. RMIT as one diverse culture, so all of our staff teach across the bachelors, the masters, our PhD programs, and also do research. We [inaudible 00:03:51] also on vertical integration throughout all our degrees. So rather than separating the bachelors over here, that some people do the masters, we try and be one diverse culture.
We sit in [inaudible 00:04:09] School of Architecture & Urban Design. So architecture also has the Master of Urban Design that sits in our unit, and we also share space with landscape architecture, interior design, our design practice PhDs, and research clusters.
In terms of our difference, RMIT Architecture is primarily focused on design and has an international reputation for design excellence. We say we value ideas-led venturous design exploration. So to be venturous or adventurous is to be brave and take risks, and we have decades of experience in assisting students to experiment as well as the processes for rewarding this experimentation through which we try to develop new ideas for the future of architecture and our cities.
The future of the profession of architecture will be very different now in 10 years' time, in 20 years' time, and even in five years' time. What's important for students to understand is how to be critical thinkers, how to be entrepreneurial, how to be independent, to be willing to engage in new technologies and work with other disciplines. It's these skills that will ensure that our graduates are ready for the workplaces of the future.
At RMIT, we also have very strong links to industry through our teaching staff, many of whom are award-winning practicing architects from Australia and internationally who come to work with us, ensuring that our students have access to deep ties into the profession. Another key difference is that our staff at RMIT are actually practitioners and practicing architects. We use the term practitioner academics, so they are very actively working the profession and then teach students in design, studios, and other courses.
Here's a couple we've produced earlier. This is Associate Professor Paul Minifie, who's our head of research, and Dr. Jan van Schaik, both looking very in this slide. This is some of the work from their practice called MVS. Paul's interested in digital tools, in mathematics, in new geometries, and in the past he's set up studios and worked with students to look at how mathematical concepts discussions about geometry can be used for architectural design. This is a couple of their buildings, the VCA College of Ideas in Melbourne, as well as the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary.
This is Amy Muir, another one of our staff members. Amy is a past president of the Australian Institute of Architects. She has a practice called Muir. Amy also teaches into our technology stream and coordinates the graduating students' semester in the masters. Amy's able to bring her [inaudible 00:07:52] profession and contemporary practice to shape our curriculum and also work with our students.
A couple of our adjunct professors here. This is Howard Raggat and Ian McDougall, they have a practice called ARM. An ARM design studio runs every semester, more or less, at RMIT, and has been doing so for a long time. ARM have completed a number of significant projects in Melbourne and Australia. Some of you might be familiar with the Melbourne Theater Company project on the screen there, as well as the Shrine of Remembrance redevelopment.
Something we are very, very proud of and is a little bit of evidence of the way that the profession has recognized our staff is that the Australian Institute of Architects Silver Medal, which is the highest honor from the Victorian Chapter of the Institute has been awarded to adjunct professors, alumni, and our staff for the last seven years. So that's something that we're terrifically proud of.
The 2018 example is the New Academic Street project at RMIT, and the 2013 one is the RMIT Design Hub, which is our home on campus. Also, we're proud that Peter Elliott Architects, who's one of our alumni, received the award in 2019, and Kerstin Thompson in 2020, and there's some of their projects on the screen.
We're also absolutely stoked that the Emerging Architect Prize has gone to staff and alumni again many times. There is Amy, who I showed you before. She received the award in 2016. Ben Milbourne, who's our Master's Design Studio Coordinator, in 2017.
So that's wonderful recognition from the profession of our innovative staff and graduates, many of which teach our students in design studios and other courses.
I hope this starts to paint a picture of our mission here at RMIT. We want to design the future, we want to experiment, but we also want to make sure that those ideas are currently relevant in practice and that they're really leading and are directly embedded in the profession and the work of the profession, which also then speaks to the employability of our graduates and the relevance of the work that we do at RMIT.
This idea of researching by doing and by designing is something that we've done quite a lot of work on over many, many years, over 30 years or so, in understanding. This is some of the work of one of our professors, Leon van Schaik, who's done a lot of work in understanding innovation in design and has written a lot about procuring innovative architecture and understanding what designers actually do when we design.
Research through design also applies to our staff. We do conventional research, of course, which is about writing, but a lot of what we do is by making and designing. This is one example. This is Roland Snooks, one of our associate professors, and some photos from his PhD. Roland is very interested in digital technology, new digital tools, and how we might use them to inform architectural design and space. This is some experimentation from Roland across a number of decades, and then this is some of Roland's built work with NMBW there from 2018. Roland also teaches design studios in the bachelors and the masters where students are taught the basics and then start to experiment and explore with these techniques.
So we all learn from each other and the type of culture of learning that we are immersed in. Much of what we do what we learn at university is not necessarily written down in the curriculum. It's about having access to a culture of ideas to people that you can be part of an environment where you look over your shoulder, you see what's happening, what the other students are doing, what the staff are doing, so we learn a lot from our environment. We do quite a lot of work at R MIT trying to build this immersive cultural environment for our students.
In terms of where we are located, this is a rather old photo, but this is the Building 100, the RMIT Design Hub that houses the School of Architecture & Urban Design. We also have lectures in this building, called the Swanston Academic Building, which was designed by Lyons, the practice of one of our professors, Carey Lyon.
Of course, students have access to all of RMIT university, which is a very, very large section of the city that our campus sits in, as well as going up to Lygon Street. We also have campuses in Brunswick and Bundoora, although architecture's primarily located on the city campus. What you're seeing on the screen there is the New Academic Street project that houses the library, cafes, and is the student precinct that our students also have access to.
We also have a site in Barcelona, which we use, as well as a site in Vietnam. What you're seeing on the screen there is an image from our students working on a project in Barcelona with Professor Eva Prats, who is one of our professors there.
So in terms of the courses and the programs, what will you be studying if you come to RMIT Architecture? If you are coming straight from high school, you'll enroll in the Bachelor of Architectural Design. What you see on the screen here is the course map. So running horizontally down the bottom is what the subjects you'll be completing in semester one, and then semester two, and then vertically in year one, year two, and year three. You'll complete three subjects or courses every semester.
One of the key characteristics of our program is our focus on design. The design studio is the largest course, and it's a course you'll complete every semester. I'll tell you a little bit more about the design studio in a minute. You'll also complete courses in architectural history, architectural technology, so that is understanding how buildings are put together, how to do construction drawings. You'll complete courses in communications, so that is learning how to do 3D modeling, 3D rendering, how to communicate your designs and draw your architectural ideas. You'll complete a portfolio subject in the third year where you try and start to think about who you might be as a designer. We have also general electives that you can choose from from architecture or anywhere in the university.
When you come into the first semester, you will complete design and communication, so that is a course where you will be together with the entire first year taking a series of three different mini design studios. After that, you'll start to ballot for studios with all the other bachelor's students. If you receive an adequate GPA, you will be offered a place in the Master of Architecture. You'll also complete your last studio with the masters' students. So our idea is to offer you, if you choose to go through that route, a seamless transition into the Master of Architecture.
On the screen, you see the Master of Architecture program. In the Master of Architecture, again, you'll complete the design studio, as well as practice courses. So that is understanding the profession, starting to work towards your registration. You'll also undertake a series of electives, as well as your dedicated major project where you'll work one-on-one with a supervisor within a group context to develop your own project that will launch you into the profession.
The design studio is a big part of what we do. What is a design studio? Before the semester starts, every studio leader will present their studio in lecture theater or online, if we're in lockdown, to the students. Design studio leaders will present the studio content to the tutors. There's usually 20 different studios or so in the bachelor's program every semester and 20 different studios in the masters.
Students then choose four of those studios that they might want to complete and they're placed in one of those four preferences. Then they'll work with studio leaders and fellow classmates for the semester on the project that the studio is looking at. We work in very small groups, so between 14 and 17 students in the studio, generally with one or two tutors. They present their work on an ongoing basis, and at the end of semester, we have an exhibition.
RMIT is quite rare in offering so much choice to students in the bachelors. Many schools have a year structure. We don't. We encourage independence from the very early years. The thinking there is if you are doing something you are passionate about, you are interested in, you are going to do well in that and the knowledge will be transferable somewhere down the line. So we are very committed to choice.
We all do posters and make presentations about the type of studio we are going to do that semester and students select from those. So on campus, you see some examples of those studio posters. We have the Vertical Campus Studio from Lyons, so that studio is looking at what a university campus might look like, what a high rise university campus might look like. We also have studios that look at urban design issues and a whole range of very interesting topics.
In the foundation semester, when you first come in from high school, you'll ease into the studio process by completing three different mini studios on rotation through the very diverse research positions that we hold at RMIT and that we structure many of the studios around. Those positions are looking at cities, and here's some examples on the screen. Technologies and techniques, so that is looking at new technologies and how they might affect the architectural design process. Culture and society, so that is indigenous cultural engagement, meaning, identity.
On the screen there, you see Christine Phillips' studio for the bachelor's.
It's important to remember that we teach you everything you need to know to become an architect in the course, so we don't expect you to have any preexisting skills in drawing by hand or digitally, or to have in-depth knowledge of architecture. Enthusiasm and doing well to what you commit yourself to is important.
Here's a few examples. This is the foundation semester of the bachelors, and it's two months into the first semester. They've produced a mini project for a site in the city. There's a student presenting for one of the [inaudible 00:23:45] reviews. They have completed drawings and models and they're learning in that first semester how to draw plans, elevations in another subject, they are undertaking a technology subject and a history subject, and really starting to integrate all of those in the design studio. So that's two months into the first year.
This is another design studio from the foundation semester from the culture stream where students are looking at art, culture, wider ideas, and starting to incorporate those into their projects.
This is the Terminal Drive Design Studio in its second week, this time in the Master of Architecture. These students have been given a task to do. They're looking at office buildings in this design studio. They've had an induction, they've completed reading, looking at other office buildings, and they're asked to come up with a study model, which they're reviewing here.
What they're doing is there's a map of the area of the site on the ground and they're starting to locate their office buildings. They'll have a discussion in the studio, students will receive critique from staff and other students, and then they'll go away to start to progressively develop their projects across the semester.
Or if we are in lockdown and online, the studio might look a little bit more like this. This is Andre Bonnice and Jean-Marie Spencer's design studio from our online exhibition last year. Or we might meet in a virtual world. This is an image from Patrick Macasaet's design studio, where students presented and discussed their work live in an online multiplayer world. Patrick is the duck just in the back there, and the other avatars are students. Yes, sometimes Patrick has presentations in these environments while actually being in the space that the students have created.
In terms of exams, so an exam at a RMIT studio might look a little bit like this. So this is an end of semester presentation which is open to the public. We advertise these on social media, as well as to our students. For this particular studio, the students are working in pairs. They've produced prototypes, there's drawings on the wall, and they're also going through an animation. They'll receive critique and feedback from their tutors and also experts in the profession.
Of course, diversity is very important at RMIT. As I said, we run a number of different design positions and we really encourage students to be independent and follow their own interests. So this is an example of some graduating projects in the masters that are very different depending on each student's interests and where they see themselves going in the profession.
Katerina has a very poetic project. She's interested in writing, interested in art, and making various evocative spaces. Chris completed a project that was around augmented VR and he's presenting on three screens with a VR headset. That's a very immersive project. Simon took on a project that asks what happens when we remove Melbourne's railway crossings and what do we do with the leftover space? He's showing a series of propositions there.
Of course, we do a lot of work in the profession. This is some students on a research place at NH Architecture that we've been running for a number of semesters, actually working in the office of NH. Some students completing a Bachelor of Architecture studio at March Studio, which is a practice in Melbourne run by one of our alumni, Rodney Eggleston.
At RMIT, we're a community and a local and global design network. There's many global opportunities for students at RMIT and we have partnerships with over 200 universities and a very rich exchange program. We also have many global studios every semester and, prior to COVID and border closures, numerous traveling studios every year. Now, of course, we're all super-hopeful that by the time this year's year 10s come to university that travel will be possible again, so fingers crossed.
This is some examples of one of our traveling studios. This is a studio that Ben Milbourne and I took to the Netherlands, working with the practice called MVRDV and students from TU Delft. This is the wrap-up party for that studio. Students are having a beer, they can because they are over 18, celebrating some of the amazing work they did in the studio and then traveling around the Netherlands.
Of course, every semester we run a public exhibition. This is the 2019 exhibition in the Design Hub gallery. Of course, when we in lockdown, we have the virtual exhibition. So you can see the semester one exhibition at rmitarchitecture-exhibition.net.
We also have many specialist design electives. This year is the robots in architecture one from some time ago now where we had some visitors from Europe who were specialists in robotics. We have our own robot in the basement, so that's Cam from a few years ago in a design elective working on a structure with the robot. This is some happy students having completed that structure in the elective.
We also have extensive workshops in our basement. What you see here is students working with Ben Milbourne in an augmented reality elective using AR to help them produce some molds for form work for concrete.
So just to wrap up, if you want more information about selection, you can go to rmitarchitecture.edu.au, which is the main RMIT site. If you want to see some of the projects from our staff and students, you can go to this website, architecture.rmit.edu.au. Of course, on social media, you'll be able to see lots of our projects.
Now, finally, some information on our application and selection process. Now, don't be concerned if you don't get all this information now. This presentation will be available at some point online, and also on the RMIT website this information is also available.
So application into the Bachelor of Architectural Design, which is the degree you'll do after completing secondary education or high school, is a three-step process. Step one, for all local applicants you apply through VTAC. The prerequisites are completion of the standard English requirements. We have no other prerequisites.
Step two is you'll have to complete and submit a selection task. I'll tell you a little bit more about that in a second. It's important to remember that the submission date is earlier than you would normally expect. So for next year's intake, the submission date is the 1st of October, 2021. There are some exceptions. If you've completed a year full-time in a tertiary design degree, advanced diploma, and another architecture degree. You'll see that on the screen. So step one, apply through VTAC. Step two, complete the selection task.
The selection task is not a test. There's no right answer. It's not a drawing exercise. You'll be asked to complete a design for something and to illustrate that design in some way or communicate that design in some way. What we are looking for is a demonstration of innovative thinking, creative thinking, adventurous thinking, and the ability to communicate that idea visually and in written form.
As you can imagine, we get quite a few applications to the architecture program so it's important that you spend quite a bit of time on the pre-selection kit and try and use whatever skills you have to complete the exercise or the task. We then shortlist applicants, and if you are successful in being shortlisted, you'll be invited to attend an interview in early December.
For the Master of Architecture, so for the bachelors, we don't require a folio, for the masters, we do require a folio, and this is some information on the screen on deadlines. Again, short list of applicants will be required to attend an interview in December.
International applicants can apply directly through RMIT International, unless you are studying a year 12 program or international baccalaureate in Australia or New Zealand.
So places in both the Bachelor and the Master of Architecture are offered in terms of a ranking, and they are ranked as follows based on the selection task and interview in the bachelors and folio interview and academic results in the masters.
That's the end of the presentation. I hope it's given you a lot of the information that you might need. It's the start of the Q and A. So we have two students, Rudy and Eva, who will join me to answer some of your questions, as well as our staff, Dr. Christine Phillips and Vicky Lam, who are the Bachelors' Studio Coordinators, and Dr. John Doyle, who's the Masters' Coordinator. They'll answer questions on screen with me, as well as we've got quite a few staff in the background who can answer your questions via the chat.
You can post anonymously, of course, by clicking the button.
Let's have a look. Let me try and find the first question. All right. Just wondering how similar architecture and urban planning are and if they are able to be done as a double. I might hand over to you, John Doyle, to answer that question.
John Doyle: Thanks, Vivian. I can't find that question in front of me. There's quite a few that have come in. I think that I saw it earlier and I think it's urban design, did that relate?
Vivian Mitsogia...: Urban planning, John.
John Doyle: Urban planning, sorry. Well-
Vivian Mitsogia...: So just wondering how similar architecture and urban planning are and if they're able to be done as a double.
John Doyle: No, they're not able to be done as a double. I can answer that straightaway. Urban planning is done in a different school, so that's within the School of Global and Urban Studies. I'm obviously not particularly familiar with that degrees. Suffice it to say that it's quite different. Yeah, I guess that's simple there.
If you are interested in programs that look at cities and that are connected and relevant to architecture, you might look at the urban design degree. While you can't take that as a double degree, if you complete the Master of Architecture, you are able to take the Master of Urban Design afterwards with a shortened period of study.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Excellent. Thank you, John. Let's have a look. Maybe a question for one of our students. Eva, there was a question around learning online. Obviously, in Victoria we've been in and out of lockdowns, how have you found the online learning? I might start with you, Eva, and then flip over to Christine, who can provide some more information.
Eva: Online learning. I think in my cohort we were fortunate enough to create bonds with people in the Design Hub, but even regardless of that, when you begin a new class and you don't know anyone, it just takes a little bit more work, I guess, to communicate on social media, which we're all quite used to at this stage. Just having the confidence to share your camera, really just try your best to make connections with people, and I'm generally surprised by how positive the experience is. You get quite comfortable sharing your screen with people, talking for hours on the phone with someone you might not even know. You adapt quite quickly I found.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Eva. Christine, do you want to talk about some of the strategies that we've used in the bachelors for creating a bit of a culture online?
Christine Lam: Yeah, sure, Vivian, and just I thought it was also important to note that we teach for the same amount of hours online as we would if we were face to face so there's no reduction in the teaching hours.
Our studio leaders have been working really hard to come up with ways to make sure that students are connected in various ways. Last year we held all sorts events, such as online karaoke events. We had this Friday night yarn series by the fire where students got together on a Friday night with our studio leaders and we had some informal conversations around a virtual fire.
I think one of the things we were all missing is the conversations that we have that we would normally have within the building at the Design Hub where we have a really strong student culture and so we've just been coming up with some other alternate ways to keep everyone connected outside of class times. We're going to be doing that again soon with some Friday night yarn series. It's going to be a student-led initiative from our amazing rascal team, along with some other online events to just make sure everyone's connected and having conversations throughout the semester because it can get very lonely and isolated in this online world. So that's about it.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Christine. I've got a few questions here that are probably similar. This is for you, Vicky. How would the interview process work if we are still in lockdown, what ATAR is required, and where would I be able to visit the display of past folios?
Vicky: Okay, hi. So the interview process, so we will interview every applicant who gets shortlisted. We have over the past couple of years conducted online interviews when we were not able to do face to face, so interviews will continue. Regarding ATAR, we don't have an ATAR requirement.
Then what was the last question?
Vivian Mitsogia...: Oh, if people want to see examples of folios?
Vicky: We don't release sample folios or pre-selection kits. The reason why is that we encourage original responses from our applicants. We encourage you to use your own ideas and not follow a script so, no, we don't show sample folios.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Vicky. There's been some discussion around, I suppose, what it's like to actually be on study in the degree. Rudy, have you got any observations about taking design studios or any insights that you can give for our high school students particularly?
Rudy: Yeah, for sure. I think one piece of advice from an experience that I had was don't go into the course thinking that you have a direct path that you want to go to. I think, especially with university, really take the chance to be as lost or feel as lost as you possibly can because you find things along the way that are pretty unexpected and a new path that you can take. So be open and be excited. Treat every class as a way to just learn something or five or 10 things new.
Also, you don't need to know anything really about how to design or use specific softwares before you start the course. You learn all of that doing the course. So it's just a positive and open to learning new things is my biggest learning step when I started.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Rudy. So can you tell us a little bit about some of the studios you've done? I'll ask you as well, Eva. Just to give some of the people a sense of the type of studios, either your last two or you your two favorites.
Rudy: Yeah. So after the foundation, I did one that was called Specificity and it was primarily about looking specifically into the little things that make a project. So things like park benches and seating pavilions or little cafes that are included in there. Which was quite fun for a first step.
Then my studio that I'm doing now is one called Hereditary with Mark Gibson, and it's very digital based, creating textural. Not so much into the architectural at the moment, now it's just building our skills and learning all these different softwares that I would've never expected to learn. Parametric softwares, coding, all that sort of stuff. The tutors make it very fun, so broad horizons.
Eva: I've similarly done some, with Rudy, actually, done the digital parametric design and also incorporated things like photogrammetry, which is digitally scanning spaces to then work with them and manipulate them in a digital space. There's so many opportunities for learning these kinds of emerging technologies.
I've also done one with Christine called On Country Framlingham, where we had a client, Uncle Lenny Clarke, who lives in [inaudible 00:47:11] country in Western Victoria. So that was kind of centered around designing, I guess, in a holistic manner with the environment and creating spaces that worked with the seasonality on location. There have been a few mentions of sustainable practice, so I think that that was a really good example.
My most recent one was called Conspiracy, which is very now, but it was about identifying issues in the building industry or in architecture and generating a hypothesis or a thesis around how it could be addressed or maybe not addressed, but yeah, it's kind of a choose your own adventure. So many different types.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks Eva and thanks Rudy. I've got a couple for you. Well, one for you, Vicky.
Well, first of all, how many students are typically accepted into the bachelor program? We probably would have around a 100, 120 local students, and we would have about 40 international students we try keep the foundation semester.
So that is into the foundation semester, but again, we have multiple pathways into the program. We accept a number of students who've completed the Building Design and Drafting degree, so we also have intake into the bachelor's program at the higher years as well. We also take students from a number of different points, so there's multiple entries into the program.
But Vicky, is there a double degree in Architecture and Interior Design?
Vicky: No, there isn't.
Vivian Mitsogia...: But if you've completed an interior degree or if you complete an architecture degree, what are your options then?
Vicky: Yes, that's right. So if you've done at least one year of design degree, such as interior design, landscape, architecture, you can apply for the Bachelor of Architectural Design degree with possible credits. To apply that way, you'll be submitting a portfolio of your work. In our website, you can see in the admissions tab, there is this line that says, if you've done one or more years of a design degree, then there is a separate submission task, which is a portfolio. So your previous study, you can get credit for, but that is determined after you have successfully been made an offer, you've enrolled, and then we can determine your credits over an interview.
We can't really tell you which credits you can get recognized for, but just so you know that you can do one degree and you can apply with credit.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Excellent. Thanks, Vicky.
We've had a few questions around the core structure. So look, I did show the core structure diagrams in the presentation, so if you want to have a look to catch up on that when this presentation is available, please do.
We've had a few questions as well around the preselection task. Vicky, do you want to just maybe explain the preselection task in your own words for the bachelors as well?
Vicky: Yes. So the preselection task, which it's due on October the first, what we ask is that you respond to a site or an issue and in a four-page PDF, you use all the skills you have, whether it's drawing, photography, and there's a written component and a visual component. What we're looking for is provocative, ambitious, interesting responses to the built environment.
Now sometimes we get questions about, especially given that we're in lockdown, you're wondering, "Oh, I can't do site visits," but it's really not a site analysis exercise, but rather we are interested to see how you think and what your opinions are. So what we are interested in is in your ideas and how you think about a site or a built environment. So don't, given some of you may be feeling a little bit restricted given the lockdown situation, but we've had applicants who've submitted design responses for sites that are not even possible to visit.
We are really just interested in your ideas. So if you look at the website, there's a very detailed set of instructions of how to format it, but more importantly, we're just really interested in your ideas. It's not a drawing. As Vivian said, it's not a drawing competition. It's really about clarity and your original perspective.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Vicky.
I have another question. "I'm currently in year 12, hoping to take a gap year in 2022. If I apply and I'm accepted, am I able to defer this course?" Yes, you are. In fact, it's always good to apply and get into the course you want to do then defer rather than, I suppose, waiting for your application.
When do you get the notification of being accepted into RMIT after an interview? Vicky, would you like to take this one? Vicky's also our selection officer, hence all the selection questions.
Vicky: Yes. So our interviews, we have interviews for VTAC applicants from the 7th to the 9th of December, and we aim to notify our applicants as soon as possible after that. We usually can turn it around within a week. For our bachelor folio applicants and masters, it's a little bit earlier in the first week of December. So we try to, after the interview, notify you.
For unsuccessful applicants, we should be able to notify you by late November.
So I hope that's clear regarding notifications.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Vicky.
Eva and Rudy, I'm just interested because we didn't talk about this before, but what was your path into architecture? Did you come straight from high school or did you do something beforehand? Eva, maybe start with you?
Eva: I studied a Bachelor of Arts at Melbourne Uni, so that's a three year course, and I had no intention of ever doing a design subject or a design course. Then one day I just realized I wanted to be able to respond to the world spatially and formally, so I applied when I was, I guess, 24, at that stage. So a bit older than, than my peers, but it wasn't an issue at all.
I found even having undertaken previous studies, you are kind of brought from the ground up in this school and everyone's really supportive and it really is quite a community. You just make friends really quickly, because it's so tightly, I guess, it's a really tight community. You have to do a lot of group work and you bond very quickly with your peers.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Eva. Rudy, how about you? What was your path to RMIT Architecture?
Rudy: I was one of the high school students that had to apply in the chaos of year 12. That was interesting. I remember when I had to apply, I had two sacks that weekend where I applied. It was pretty chaotic around then. Everyone has their own subjects that they do in high school, but luckily I had some experience with using some Google SketchUp through my BizCom class so I used that to make my preselection kit.
To be honest, out of all my assignments in year 12, the preselection kit was by far the funnest thing I did academically throughout my high school in year 12. So I spent a lot of time in that and I was really proud with what I did at the end. When I submitted it and then getting that email saying, "Oh, you're shortlisted for an interview," was awesome. So that was my pathway into that.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Rudy. [crosstalk 00:57:05].
Eva: Also, just a quick note. If people are worried about the preselection task, you don't need to use anything digital. I used colored pencils for mine and just photocopied the pages and wrote over them. So yeah, it really reiterate what everyone's saying about it just more being about the ideas than anything else. Yeah.
Vivian Mitsogia...: Thanks, Eva. Yes, look, I also want to reinforce that. I think the important thing with the preselection task is to really, I think, one, spend a lot of time on it, but two, to use your skills and your interests. I know for a lot of people who are studying, a lot of prospective students who are studying visual communication design, obviously use those skills. If you've studied art, use those skills. But if you have interests outside of school, if you are a visual person, if you play games, I'll try not to say what we've had in the past, but we've had many responses. We've had collages, people making models and photographing them, anything to communicate your ideas.
Also, I think this idea that we are not expecting you to be able to be architects before you start the course is important. We don't expect you necessarily to be able to use SketchUp to design a building. We are looking for creative responses and design is one of these things where there are many, many amazing and correct and wonderful responses and answers to the same question. So just encouraging you to be brave and use whatever tools you have at your disposal to do the task.
Now, one thing that might help you a bit is to have a look at our online exhibition, there've been some questions around that, at rmitarchitecture-exhibition.net, and also through our social media, to see some of the work that our students do, which might actually inspire you for your preselection kit as well. Obviously, not copying anything, because we're onto that, but to just give you a sense of the environment and the scope and the many different responses that you can have and different types of responses.
Now, everyone, I think that's time, so I'd just like to thank Rudy and Eva, our students, for their comments, and John, Christine and Vicky. Thank you all for your time today. We really look forward to hopefully seeing some of your preselection tasks and always an open invitation to our end of semester exhibitions that are advertised through our socials.
Thanks, everyone.
