Idea Building

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: Lyons Architects was invited by the University of Melbourne's Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning (ABP) to present an exhibition based on the nature of their architectural practice and thinking. The outcome was 'Idea Building': an installation which created an imperfect 'not quite right' copy of the Lyons' office: the place where the practice's ideas are built and made to work within the gallery space, located somewhere between the real and the digital, between the artificial and the real. The exhibition featured large-scale, real-time video projections of the studio broadcast into the mock-up office. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Using the exhibition context, Lyons speculated the construction of ideas in architecture, through the collaborative work of many people, and the enterprise that persuades the practice that an ongoing exchange between ideas and the making of architecture would neither be wasted nor exhausted. This was an experimental architecture exhibition, and Professor Philip Goad referred to it as '[an] engrossing piece of theatre [that] highlights the very serious reality of how a contemporary architectural practice committed to meaning in the built environment might operate.' (exhibition catalogue) RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The exhibition was part of ABP's Alumni Retrospective Series: an annual series that highlights the extraordinary contribution to the urban environment by Alumni of University of Melbourne Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. The invitation to exhibit is a recognition of the contribution Lyons Architects make to Australia's design culture and built environment. The exhibition was curated by Professor Philip Goad, an internationally renowned architectural researcher and an authority on modern Australian architecture. The exhibition catalogue, produced by the University of Melbourne (ISBN 9780734047823), includes an essay by Professor Goad.