The Archive

In late January the remaining members of theexperimental 1960’s collective Archigram sold their collective work to a visual culture museum in Hong Kong for €2.08 Million. The British Arts Council tried, unsuccessfully, to halt the sale for reasons to retain a domestic cultural heritage on the British Isles. (!!) However no British buyer was found in the last 8 moths before the sale to the Asian museum. Archigram member Dennis Crompton said that parts of the collection of over 10.000 drawings, models, writings, etc had been ‘in boxes and under beds’ for the past 40 years.

The M+ museum in Hong Kong is design by Swiss architecture rm Herzon + de Meuron.

Also in late January, on behalf of Herzog + de Meuron’s practice the Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, a private foundation of the architects, who’s aim is ‘to have the holdings permanently domiciled in Basel in their entirety’ donated a portion of their archive to MoMA in New York. The new inclusion to the museum’s permanent collection contains of 23 works including drawings, models, etc.

In April 2016 the same museum suggested a permanent closure of its own architecture and design galleries may be innevitable in a newly proposed expansion. The rumours following were redacted less than a month later and MoMA is currently ‘...fully committed to presenting our rich collection in a way that will do justice to the specific needs of each medium, including architecture and design...’

Brief

The studio seeks design proposals for an architectural archive in Melbourne. The archive will catalogue, store, restore, study and exhibit a collective architectural discourse for Australia.

What is considered part of a discourse? What is preserved, documented or exhibited? How does one catalogue, study such a discourse?

Site

The site is on the eastern corner Collins Street and Manchester Lane inside Melbourne’s Hoddle grid.

The studio will search for ways of analysing a site by drawing, diagramming, model making, reading and re-drawing.

Methodology

There has been a strong relationship between cinema and architecture since the beginning of the previous century. More recently both forms of expression have commercialised to a standardised digestable outcome.

The studio will use a cinematic approach to conceive and investigate your architecture. Your design projects will use filmic techniques such as montage, frame, cut, pan, edit, fade-out, etc.