Seeing by numbers: House on Smiths Lake, 2008

The Venice Architecture Biennale is held every two years in Venice, Italy and is the most important event on the international contemporary architecture calendar. Thousands of the worlds most influential architects, designers, urban planners, developers and critics visit the Biennale, with considerable discussion and commentary in the architectural press and general media as a direct result. (visitor numbers for 2008: a record number of 129,323 visitors, with 57,231 visitors through the Australian pavilion.) Australia's participation was an initiative of the Australian Institute of Architects. The AIA invited more than 180 Australian practices to create interpretative models based on an existing project and responding to the directors, Aaron Betsky, theme: `Out there: architecture beyond building. This resulted in the exhibition `Abundant, showcasing 300 `architectural artefacts and a kaleidoscope of immersive projections of `extraordinary, eccentric and eclectic buildings showcasing Australia's abundant architectural diversity. My project, `Seeing by Numbers: House on Smiths Lake draws on the El Lissitzkys concept of `faktura. It investigates the material and immaterial aspects of architecture. It considers light, colour, reflectivity, transparency and gravity as the main elements of a buildings atmosphere, which is determined by shifting fields of visibility and different modes of seeing in the form of gazing, observing, glancing, watching and being watched. The axes of movement and sight lines make the experience of entering the house part of a multidimensional co-ordination system that sets up shifting relationships between the inhabitant, the architecture and the external environment. As such, this project represents experimentation which is directly linked to my PhD research