30 under 30 Exhibition Series

30/30 exhibition series showcases the work of past Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation alumni in the Te Aro window gallery

30 under 30 is an international platform within the architecture and design sectors that focuses on celebrating the work of rising talent. As a concept, 30 under 30 engages with recent graduates who are excelling in their industries while under the age of thirty.

This Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation exhibition series explores the fresh and provocative ideas of the recent graduates and aims to share them with other young creatives and the wider Te Whanganui-a-Tara community. The artworks and research interact with new technologies and design processes within the architecture and design fields and are on continuous display in the Te Aro Window Gallery.

black print speckled with orange — Experience by Liam Sheehan

30/30 presents: Collegial Computation

black and white print with trees seen in the background

Jordan Anderson, Wellington School of Architecture Alumni, is showcasing his work Collegial Computation as 2022's first exhibitor in the 30 under 30 exhibition series.

Collegial Computation, at its core, is a conversation, a Korero. However, this is not a conversation with another human designer, but with a computer as a partner in the conceptual design process. The collegial aspect of this project looks at giving the computer shared agency in its interpretation of the 'unknown' and bringing it into the 'known'.

Coding can be a creative practice within architecture, and this project argues that coding is not a mere tool for designing or graphic representation, but a particular design medium with its own affordances and resistances. Using code as a design medium provides a specific form of feedback which influences the design process and its outcomes as a whole. Code is technological and conceptual support for design thinking and generation. In other words, code and coding can have agency in architectural design and its processes.

Collegial Computation is showing from 10–31 March 2022 in the Wellington Faculty of Architecture and Design Innovation Window Gallery.

30/30 presents: Experience

How sensory engagement can produce atmospheric qualities

2022's second 30/30 exhibitor is former Architecture graduate Liam Sheehan. The Wellington School of Architecture Alumni’s work uses the tools of Virtual Reality to create symbiotic environments that engage the human thermosensory (ability to feel temperature changes), and visual and auditory systems to understand the relationship between our bodies and the spaces we inhabit.

Experience’ began for Liam with a love for the weightless sensory experience of swimming. His research took that affinity and started to question how multi-sensory experiences affect the human perception of space and how we can experience the medium of space parallel to the way we experience the medium of movement, propulsion and immersion in water.

Experience breaks down the human sensory system to better understand our bodies' connection with space itself. Through the application of coding, architectural design methods and the constantly expanded wealth of knowledge about the sensory system, Liam began to develop the final design which aimed to create a unique meditative sensory experience; in which the qualities of the virtual space itself began to reveal themselves.

Liam's work will be in the Te Aro window gallery from 1–20 April 2022.

30/30 presents: Inhabiting Omni-Architecture

April 20th - May 27th

T Bright coloured digital print he third installment of WFADI's 30/30 exhibition series see Architecture Masters Alum, Jessie Rodgers, bring the Te Aro Window Gallery to life with her vibrant and layered take on virtual realities.

Inhabiting Omni-Architecture explores the ideas and mechanics of reimagining inhabitation within a speculative and architectural immersive environment via research through design studies. This demonstrates the generation of architectural spatial design elements in direct relation to the user. Details within the body of work experiment with the laws and bounds of the virtual space through design and research within a real-time virtual engine. Here reimagining the way one inhabits space, compared to current norms of real-world inhabitation, is possible with creativity and applied knowledge.

Jessies work provides a look into these virtual spaces, with the use of printed media. These 2D depictions are almost transformative in the way the viewer can fall into the work. Jessies colourful, eye catching and immersive work will be on display in the Te Aro Window Gallery from 25 April–13 May.

Recomputing the Waka Huia

This project explores the dialogue between tradition and contemporary design within the design of a waka huia. This was a deeply personal project which allowed me to analyze my whakapapa through parametric design.

Through the mediation of traditional knowledge which I have grown up with at my marae with computational design methods that I imbued by higher education learning – I developed the beginnings of my negotiations between tradition and contemporary Māori design.

Contact

Violette Squire, Faculty Activities Coordinator, violette.squire@vuw.ac.nz