Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) Centre For Ideas

RESEARCH BACKGROUND New digital design methodologies have the ability to describe forms that exceed the current construction abilities of the building industry. Geometric and relational systems, such as Voronoi tessellations, are used in computer science and other fields and have the potential to be reinterpreted as novel techniques with which architectural design can be achieved. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION This physically realised project by Paul Minifie (MNA) uses a technique derived from a significant body of research into Voronoi tessellations. The design for the VCA Centre For Ideas employs a technique where the intersections of adjacent cones, the facade and certain interior features, are organised through a means of Voronoi spatial partitioning. An innovative construction technique to creating curved, laser-cut, stainless steel panels was developed for the project. Through this research, the project provides a contemporary architectural expression, derived from digital methodologies applied in both design and construction phases. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE The Centre For Ideas toured as part of Convergence: Hotspot Melbourne in the 1st Architecture Biennale Beijing. It won the RAIA VIC Institutional Award, 2003 and has received extensive publication, including: a chapter by Karen Burns in Surface: Architecture's Expanded Field in Architectural Design: Surface Consciousness, Issue 73; a chapter on Minifie Nixon in Design City Melbourne and in The Individual in Mastery: The Natural History of the Creative Practitioner, both by Leon van Schaik; two chapters of Architectural Design Research: Project-based research and discourse on design, Vol 1, Issue 1, 2005 and also features in 10 x 10_2 100 Architects 10 Critics by Phaidon Press. Journal coverage includes: Melbourne Magazine, Monument and Zoo.