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A Studio for Architectural Spatialism

Part 2 Project 2013
Realino Tan
Curtin University Perth | Australia
For the most part, this thesis may be described as a manifesto-type project; it is partly driven by a personal fixation for complex forms and cavernous spaces, which developed over the years as a student practicioner, and partly by an interest in the ontological idiosyncrasies between sculpture and architecture. The brief and design of the project, titled A Studio for Architectural Spatialism, was developed using A Manifesto for Architectural Spatialism as basis. As such, the Studio and the Manifesto are inseparable; it is necessary to understand the design project of the Studio in terms of both plans for building and as an intellectual enquiry for architecture.

A Manifesto for Architectural Spatialism, though assertive, does not seek to become an objective universal theory-of-everything but rather a subjective provocation for the thinking and making of architecture, driven by a personal understanding of, and unique viewpoint on, architecture. As a manuscript, it is intended as a reference for one’s own future practice; both as conceptual framework (i.e. inspiration), and artistic ideal to be pursued (i.e. aspiration). The Manifesto asserts the notion of Spatialism, first conceived by Lucio Fontana in the 1946 manuscript ‘White Manifesto’, within the context of architecture; by Spatialism (or ‘Spazialismo’) Fontana calls for an art that “encompasses the four dimensions of existence. Time and space.”. A notion inescapable in architecture, it is considered in the thesis as a potent creative force. At its core, the Manifesto asserts ideas of ‘space-claiming’ through attentiveness to both these fundamental notions; building upon a ‘spatial, non-pictorial and phenomenal architecture’ (Principle 1) that ‘embrace its temporal nature’ (Principle 2) as a revolt against ‘image-making’ as the fetishisation of imagistic/graphic tendency observable in contemporary architectural practice. A Studio for Architectural Spatialism is a materialisation of these assertions; plans for a building demonstrating these artistic ideals by applying the Manifesto’s abstract principles into material practice, while being a visionary project representing the future practice of the Manifesto in one’s career ahead; as such, it may be thought of as both an outcome of, and a source of inspiration for, the thesis of Architectural Spatialism.


Tutor(s)
Mr Stephen Neille
2013
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