SPACING TOKYO

a design investigation
RMIT LOweR POOL DesIgn sTuDIO
LanDscaPe aRcITecTuRe
seMesTeR 2 2011
Studio Leader:
RHYS WILLIAMS
Rhys joins RMIT this trimester as a higher degree
research student. His research concerns the
creation of a designerly history of Tokyos early-
modern public spaces: 1876 to 1932. Prior to
arriving in Melbourne he taught in the landscape
architecture program at the Victoria University of
Wellington, NZ.
* VIew FILM TRaILeRs aT THe cOuRses BLOg
www.SPACINGtokyo.tumblr.Com
THIS STUDIO PROVIDES A BASIC INTRODUCTION TO THE CONDITION OF
EXTERNAL SPACE PARTICULAR TO Tokyo AND ITS ANTECEDENT Edo.
With the aim of articulating the conditions varied manifestations
and distinct tendencies from a spatial perspective, enquiries will be
undertaken through the medium of design. Specifcally, strategies will
be used that privilege the concerns of landscape architecture, rendering
this largely unreported condition: spatially, temporally and relationally
defned.
Distanced, physically and culturally, from its subject, this studios
activites will be sited in representations of Tokyo/Edo found in the
flms of auteurs such as Akira Kurosawa and Yasujir Ozu.*
Studio activities will be structured across 2 linked projects:
Project 1: partipants will be challenged, through structured
experimentation with a variety of representational strategies, to
establish a Spatial Reading of a selected example of external space
represented cinematically.
Project 2: a Spatial Exposition will be proposed that articulates,
through the medium of landscape architecture, the spatiality of
the subject studied in project 1. Tis event space will constitute
the immersive content for a hypothetical exhibition, located in
Melbourne, profling Tokyos condition of external space.
Image:
Te North bank of the
Tamagawa River in Southern Tokyo
(R Williams).
sTuDIO TIMes
TuesDaY 13:30 to 16:30
FRIDaY 13:30 to 16:30