Crownie

'Peter Corrigan: cities of hope' exhibition at RMIT Gallery honoured the work of the internationally renowned Melbourne architecture practice of Edmond & Corrigan, Corrigan's set and costume design for theatre, his personal library and art collection and objects from his office. MvS Architects (Paul Minifie and Jan van Schaik) was one of 22 individuals or firms who were invited by the architecture community to respond to Corrigan's work. Four digital prints - 'Crownie', 2013 - are the result. All were included in 'The Cities of Hope' exhibition. This exhibition followed the publication of a new monograph of Edmond & Corrigan's work by Thames and Hudson. 2. Research Contribution: The researchers used Minecraft, a computer game that allows the user to construct a world out of textured blocks, as a visualisation tool. Their work, 'Crownie', re-imagined Bruno Taut's Die Stadtkrone (The City Crown) and Corrigan's iconic Building 8 on Swanston Street. This response to Corrigan's work ultimately aspires to a contemporary interpretation of it. Minifie and van Schaik's work was innovative because it involved a creative appropriate of computer-gaming software. The researchers used Minecraft - a program made for interactive entertainment - as a design tool. 3. Research Significance: RMIT Gallery is a highly-regarded Melbourne gallery. It has a long-standing commitment to innovative exhibitions that represent divergent artistic practices. 'Cities of hope' is the first major public exhibition on the work of Edmond & Corrigan, and the first major exhibition on a single architect's contribution to Melbourne architectural culture in over ten years. The value of this project is further evidenced by the 10,105 people who attended [exhibition report], the review in 'The Age' (Ray Edgar, Dreaming up a city of hope', April 2013) and the review in the leading Australian professional journal 'Architecture Australia' (Ricky Ricardo, Peter Corrigan: cities of hope', a review, May 2013).