RMIT ARCHITECTURE END OF SEMESTER EXHIBITION | SEMESTER 1 2022
"architecture is a complex system of meaningful signs composed in accordance with a set of rules’ and, ‘since architecture is a sign system it must communicate"
The Studio
The Anti-Institution
Institutions; prisons, boarding-schools, asylums. While these buildings were once considered essential facilities for society, they have also left a legacy of segregation and physical division within communities. The architectural typology of institutions is based on control, surveillance and segregation of individuals, which often produced detrimental environments for those housed within. This resulted in the closure of many institutional buildings, such as asylums, in the latter half of the 20th century. Today, the status of these institutions has changed, however the building and their meanings are still with us.
​The Anti-Institution [V3] was a Bachelor of Architectural Design Studio at RMIT, Melbourne.
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Based on the grounds of the former Kew Asylum, this studio looked to subvert the typology of the institution, reappropriating the old asylum and its expansive grounds as a generous public facility for the community.
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The studio's architectural exploration began with an understanding of semiotics and architecture - as a tool to analyse the meaning of architecture and as a way to reflect on the meaning of the architecture we design. Students analysed the appearance, materiality and function of architectural precedents - while also exploring the meaning of architecture through immaterial influences such as power structures, politics and building standards. The analysis focused on deconstructing the elements of architecture and their symbolic and functional meanings.
Through this semiotic lens, students looked to understand the signs and symbols which constitute the typology of the asylum. Students researched, analysed, documented and catalogued the institutional architectural elements of the Kew Lunatic Asylum. Through a series of tasks these elements were deconstructed, scrutinised and reappropriated to create new types of architecture. This catalogue acted as a leverage for new design propositions.​
