This RMIT Interview between Martyn Hook and Anthony Hoete was first published on blablablarchitecture:MH: What book?Ah!: Dictionary/cookbook/atlas/novel/encyclopaedia/magazine/web blog in print?
MH: Why a book?
Ah!: Thesis/physical object/snapshot.
MH: Who wrote this book about?
Ah!: WHAT_architecture: MagdAh!
MH: When will the book be published?
Ah!: It’s not one book: but a sequence of books that result in one final tome: !? By way of example here is a pre-book: a pamphlet which is a quick flick through a project primed in it’s Arabasic version.
MH: Looks like a glossy brochure.
Ah!: Yep, let’s rip it up and start again… must do better!
Ah! … for example, if we build on these book examples we at least develop the plot:
WHAT_architecture operates a stringent Equal Opportunities policy with recruitment. This involves an interview (via person, telephone, Skype… but always involving speech) as the interview represents an audio-opportunity to equalise applicants’ qualifications and portfolios. Universities are varied in their distribution of awards, grades and results. You can get an instant Ph.D. online today. Furthermore, lesser known schools can also produce socially equilibrated, technically proficient, user-friendly graduates.
Portofolios , whether of an office or of an individual, contain the work of many authors and so the interview is the opportunity to dissect contribution in terms of input and time expenditure. Talking offers an alternate perspective from the architect’s tools which are primarily visual: drawing, modelling, rendering. However a chat can tell you a lot. The portfolio interview operates as ‘handle with career’.
And if it all those sounds start to get familiar one can return to the visual expression of the interview : the face as façade. The image below bears a similarity to one of our successful applicants., although we recognise appearances can be deceiving.
Recent design festivals such as 100% Design and Design Junction appear to be no more than home furnishing campaigns peddling endless hi-spec, low utility objects such as fruit bowls, candle stick holders, coffee tables etc etc. So another year, another designer chair.
However Dejana Kabiljo’s ‘Occupy! Chair’ uses military Yugoslavian bed springs to create a gold lacquered armchair. The piece originates from former Yugoslavian army beds being heaped on military flea markets.
»DESIGN IS THE NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS«
DMY Berlin is an international design network for contemporary product design (yes, even architecture is construed as a consumer product). DMY was held at Templehof, once a part of Albert Speer‘s gateway to Europe and a symbol of Hitler’s “world capital” Germania, and described by Norman Foster as “the mother of all airports”. WHAT_architecture presented ‘2ManyArchitects’…
»Designing Business« at DMY2012 reflected upon the relevance and current role of design in the context of contemporary economics. Rather than providing a manual for building a successful start-up business, it is concerned with the potential of design and design thinking to shape economic and social processes. Is design ›the new way of doing business‹? What trends and tendencies occur today? Is it true that anybody can be a designer today? Crikey if Kanye West and Brad Pitt can be architects, can architects become rappers or even actors? With this leg of our 2012 European Tour, architecture is presented as the new rock ‘n roll.
Under the conditions of continuous change and increasing complexity that define today’s world, the rules that operate and regulate our society and economy change with great rapidity. Against the dramatic backdrop of environmental disasters, demographic change and economic crisis it is becoming clear that the conventional means of conducting and operating »business« has become increasingly ineffective. For this reason, it is important to conceive of new ways of thinking and acting, of analysing problems and turning problems into opportunities. Design and design methods play a central role when it comes to solving complex problems and creatively addressing the challenges of the present and future.