Rio Architects’ Post

What’s the point of an evaluation of school buildings just after they’ve been built? The 2025 Mayfield Project brings together some of Australasia’s brightest education, design and architecture talent to explore a different major theme every two years. NoTosh has designed and facilitated it for the past 14 years for Learning Environments Australasia. In 2025, it’s the turn of participants to take a second look at “Post-Occupancy Evaluations”. Should they not really be called “Post-Design Evaluations”? And what’s the point if there’s a limit to how much a new space can be further tweaked or overhauled? Do we learn enough from one community’s space use to inform how the next school will benefit? And is that the best value way of engaging communities in designing better spaces? So many questions and about four months to answer them (and come up with more questions on top!). Great facilitation from Jeremy Weinstein, PhD and Athole McLauchlan (he/him). #architecture #design #schooldesign

Are you in the architecture business and curious about learning more about the importance of #inclusive and #accessible #design? If so, you're in luck! Level Playing Field's very own Thea Kurdi has developed a highly acclaimed online course called Introduction to Successful Accessible Design, offered through the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada. "Introduction to Successful Accessible Design for Architects introduces the concepts and applications of inclusive design as it applies to Canadian architecture and its #BuiltEnvironment. "Students will analyze the impacts and conflicts of #accessibility in society, built form, and the development industry. In addition to learning the basic terminology and concepts, and having access to the latest resources, they gain practical experience including being able to spot the #barriers that surround us as well as apply new skills in real-life applications of accessibility... "This course further illustrates a successful way of #AccessibleDesign integration in their designs and helps the student to re-create their vision of the #AccessibleCanadaAct". Learn more here: https://lnkd.in/eX4ZVdh8 #AccessibilityMatters #AccessibilityForAll #AccessibleCanada #BreakingBarriers #UniversalDesign #LevelPlayingField #LPF

We are excited to launch LS3P's most recent research series, Future Forward K-12 Facilities: A Design Toolkit. This six-book series is a guide to assist LS3P's K-12 clients on their path to building better school facilities that respond to the needs of 21st century learners.   Today we're sharing book one: Design for Project Success. This book covers understanding the fundamental building blocks of design and construction for K-12 facilities projects.   Read the full book here: https://lnkd.in/eGPa5huH   Follow along over the next six weeks as we share each of the books in the series that will focus on the different aspects of K-12 design.   #ls3p #architecture #k12architecture #schooldesign

The urban and educational landscape is changing

Join SONA members and architecture students from across Australasia at Ground Matters, the 2024 Australasian Student Architecture Congress, on from 25-29 June in nipaluna / Hobart. Tickets are $150 for students and $300 for professionals (with the option to redeem 5 Formal CPD points). Learn more here: https://aus.archi/eh0i There is an amazing range of speakers, including Timothy Hill, Taylor and Hinds Architects, Andrew Steen, Sarah Lynn Rees, baracco+wright, kerstin thompson, Eleena Jamil and COLLABORATORIO. The theme of the congress is ‘Ground Matters’. The title has a dual meaning: it orients participants to matters of the ground, and to matters of fact; and it sets an agenda that the ground is important, even critical. It is thus literal and philosophical. ‘Ground Matters’ presents inextricable links between nature and built form, Country and architecture. It is fundamental to all architectural works, but also to basic life on earth. The material of the ground is something we all use and interact with every day, whether uncultivated, landscaped, or covered in manufactured substances. In this way, the ground is a linking element for all. #groundmatters2024 #asac #architecture #studentarchitecture #design #australiandesign #studentofarchitecture #australianarchitecture #ArchitectureDesign #ContemporaryArchitecture

MPBA Member Industry News 📢 TG Escapes Eco-Buildings are pleased to introduce their DfE-Compliant Inclusive Learning Hub concept, designed to address the critical shortage of #SEND places across the UK TG Escapes Eco-Buildings are supporting #SEND providers across the UK suffering from a #shortage of places by designing flexible, attractive 16 and 32-place Inclusive Learning Hubs In partnership with SEND specialist architects Haverstock, The Blue Iris Partnership, and Terra Firma Landscape Architecture they have crafted schemes that can meet the unique needs of many different settings To read the full article head over to our website : https://lnkd.in/e58vCW5U #mmc #schools #education #school #modernmethofsofconstruction #modular #modularconstruction #manufacturing #offsite #offsiteconstruction #buildbetter #mpba #news

Sharing my perspective on affordable housing this morning with fourth year Architecture students at the NED university. I discussed the benefits of incremental building as an approach to the issue of housing, with reference to one of our built projects. I took them through the entire process of design development, starting from a conventional approach to the adoption of the incremental approach and it's final outcome. I also talked about the larger sociological impact of this way of thinking and building. #architecture #housing #incremental #affordable #socialhousing

Juliette poses such an interesting question below. That is: "Why aren't we - as a society - talking more about the importance of good design?" ... and I've been thinking about this very deeply lately. I think the reason why we - as a society - aren’t talking more about it is that most people don’t have the language or knowledge to be able to: a) appreciate that design can make a difference, b) understand that it doesn’t have to cost more (although it might do) to design something well, and c) demand better places and spaces. Our brains are wired to use the least amount of energy for thinking and processing, and will choose the easiest and fastest option as the default. Design-thinking takes mental processing time and bandwidth, and architects and landscape architects have years of practice of using these deep critical thinking processes, which means they don’t shy away from the mental effort involved (in fact they thrive on it!). The downside is that most have never learned how to communicate the complexity of those thought processes to people who don’t have the same training, hence the gulf. I’ve been thinking deeply about this today - I’m listening to Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman - and the light bulb moments are coming thick and fast at the moment. Do you have ideas to share about why people - the general public, as it were - don't demand more of their places and spaces in a design sense? #architecture #architects #designthinking #thinkingfastandslow

As part of the Upper Yarra Local Development Strategy, a working group led by community members have been looking at derelict buildings in the Upper Yarra, and considering ways to make them of use to community again. As part of their architecture coursework, RMIT University's School of Architecture and a group of undergraduate students have been assisting the working group by providing possible ideas on how these sites could be transformed. While the ideas are purely conceptual and are not formally part of the project, they are helping inspire the members of the working group to visualise what may be possible. Folios and cardboard models have been created by the students to showcase some of these conceptual ideas, which can be viewed at the Arts Centre Warburton until 19 December. This is just one facet of the Upper Yarra Local Development Strategy, for more info on it as a whole, visit https://lnkd.in/g9qnrdNx

Buildings matter! Architecture matters! Landscape matters!   I’ve been going round university open days with my son, and there’s a lot to think about.   Yes, the course matters and the teaching matters.   But something else matters too: the buildings and the spaces around them.   Because it’s the buildings and spaces which make a place. And some places make you feel good, while others don’t. I work with architects so there's nothing surprising to me about any of this, but why aren’t we – as a society, as humans – talking more about this stuff?   ************** PS In my day, parents didn’t go on university visits – you went on your own – but times have changed. Now open days seem to be as much for the parents as for the students. Why is that? Is it because going to university costs so much more? #architecture #buildings #landscape #universities