Super Tight

Background: The research underlying this creative work is contextualised within studies around the social and culture of tightness that has emerged in Asian cities over the past 30 years, and the role that designers play in the organisation of material and social behaviours the characterise tightness of cities. Investigating architectural and economic models of density, this research demonstrates an alternative understanding of how density might be observed and understood through a qualitative assessment of how the built environment adapts to cultural, social and other pressures when intensely inhabited. This extends on foundational work in Australia by Nigel Bertram (NMBW) and the Urban Architecture Laboratory (RMIT). Contribution: Super Tight was a curated public architecture, art and urbanism exhibition of architectural, photographic and cinematic works. John Doyle, Graham Crist and Yoshiharu Tsukamoto developed the conceptual and curatorial framework for the exhibition, selected the 18 contributors from Australia and Asia, and produced a site specific and original installation that drew in the contributed works, original designed installations and live events, with the intention of generating new perspectives on urban density. The project engaged with a broad body of research into the impact of density and densification in cities. The concept ‘super tight’ was developed both to describe and explore the small, intense, robust and hyper-condensed architectural spaces that emerge as a by-product of extreme levels of urban densification. Significance: The exhibition was presented at the RMIT Design Hub Gallery. It was the launch event for the 2019 ‘Open House Melbourne’ public program, an annual event across multiple sites, and initiated by the Committee for Melbourne Future Focus Group. The exhibition attracted reviews in the journal Architecture Australia (17.9.2019), The Age (1.8.2019), Architecture and Design (13.08.2019) and Indesign magazine (#79 November 2019).