SuperStudio
OVERVIEW
What is SuperStudio?
SuperStudio is a national conceptual design competition open to all SONA members.
Think of it as a creative licence to do the things students wouldn’t get to do in studio or any other assignment. Participants shouldn’t focus their time and ideas around the realistic approach but rather the ideas and thoughts that can never be made real at all.
SuperStudio will be completely virtual in 2020. Participants are encouraged to use any medium to convey their message eg hand drawings, a model of your proposal with some renders, or completely digital – just remember the delivery will be via zoom.
Participants also have the opportunity to be mentored and present their proposal to a judging panel in each state and territory. Winners in each state will then go into the national competition for a chance to win $3000.
Prizes
The winners from each state will go into the national competition for the chance to win $3000!
SuperStudio Dates & Activities
| Reading of the brief | Sunday 30 August | 10.00am AEST | Register here |
| Last chance teams to register | Monday 31 August | 7.30pm AEST | |
| Design Day + Presentations | Monday 31 August | 5.30pm AEST | Connect here |
| Mentoring | Tuesday 1 September | From 5.30pm AEST | Connect here |
| Design Day + Presentations | Wednesday 2 September | 5.30pm AEST | Connect here |
| Mentoring opportunity | Thursday 3 September | From 5.30pm AEST | Connect here |
| Design Day | Friday 4 September | ||
| Final Presentation Day | Saturday 5 September | From 10.00am local time | Link to connect will be sent with your confirmation email. |
| National jury deliberations | Week commencing 7 September |
Eligibility
Participation is free for all SONA members.
For non-SONA members, there is a fee of $29 to participate, which is the cost of SONA membership for the remainder of 2020.
Students should join SONA and register for SuperStudio once membership is confirmed.
Register
Teams
Design proposals can be developed individually or in teams of maximum 4 participants.
Participants working in teams should follow their local guidelines regarding COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. Where suitable students are encouraged to connect virtually.
The Brief
The creative directors for SuperStudio 2020 are Cameron Bruhn and Clare Humphreys.
Cameron and Clare have formulated a challenging and thought-provoking brief for SuperStudio that closely aligns to the SONA 2020 theme renew.
Design Day Presentations
Participants of SuperStudio and all design students are invited to attend SuperStudio Design Day presentations.
These presentations are an opportunity for students to dive deeper into the themes of the SuperStudio brief, spark creativity and connect with other students and design professionals. Participants of SuperStudio can attend with thier initial ideas or concepts for their proposal to discuss in an open forum.
presenters for design dAY TALK # 1
CANY ASH – ash sakula architects
Canny is a founder and partner at Ash Sakula Architects, a thought-leading architectural studio, based in central London. She is an experienced co-designer, leading design workshops with young people and many community groups. Ash Sakula are recognised for their user-focussed culture and have an excellent record for creating profitable sustainable assets, which generate both cultural capital and financial return, for their clients.
Peter Besley and jessica spresser
Jessica Spresser is an Australian architect who has worked with internationally recognised architects such as Junya Ishigami, Kengo Kuma and Anupama Kundoo. Her office, SPRESSER, is an architecture studio and art practice that engages with built and speculative architectural work, object design and fine art, of which has been exhibited in galleries in both Brisbane and Sydney.
Peter Besley is a studio of architecture and urban design based in London UK and Brisbane, Australia. Prior to establishing the studio Peter Besley, Besley Co-Founded former London architectural office ASSEMBLAGE, most renowned for its winning proposal of the Iraq Parliament in 2013. Peter has taught at the Bartlett School of Architecture and is currently teaching at the University of Queensland.
Together Peter and Jessica will be providing a joint presentation on recent explorative collaborations between the two offices that have been endeavoured over varying scales of built form, and geographical location.
presenters for design dAY TALK # 2
Dr Ayano Toki
Dr Tok is Assistant Professor with the Urban and Architectural Design Laboratory in the Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, located in Sendai.
Toki’s research primarily stems from the Sendai school with focus on recovery and research of vulnerable regions and adaptability of banal urban structures throughout Japan. In 2018, Toki was a travelling fellow at the University of Queensland where she continued ongoing research of the Bungalow with a focus on our region.
Furthermore, she has coordinated the Architect’s contribution to reconstruction efforts on the Ogatsu Peninsula, near Sendai, after the Great Tohoku Earthquake.
Dr Toki will discuss Looking beyond disaster – Recovery of a cultural region
Mauro Baracco – Baracco Wright
Mauro Baracco (PhD) is a director of Baracco + Wright Architects and an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Urban design, RMIT University. His teaching and research have manifested an interest in urban resilience, exploring states of integration between open and built spaces, and natural and urban environments, spanning from large territorial urban to small site scales.
Baracco + Wright consider the potential of even very small interventions over a large scale. They approach projects with a particular and equal attention to the parts and the whole, to individual project conditions and to the discourse of Architecture.
Creative Directors for 2020 SuperStudio
CAMERON BRUHN
Professor Cameron Bruhn is the Head of the School of Architecture at The University of Queensland. He starts his new role after being associated with the school for twenty years, beginning his bachelors in 1998. He has been the editorial director of Architecture Media for nearly a decade and has worked as an adjunct professor at UQ for the past two years.
Claire Humphreys
Claire Humphreys is a registered architect (ARBV) with more than a decade of experience in a number of award winning architectural practices. She is currently working on projects in both Melbourne and Brisbane.
In addition to Claire’s architectural practice, she has presented at talks and forums and has been an invited guest critic and tutor at a number of universities.
Submissions
How to submit:
Submissions will be made on Saturday 5 September at the live presentation in each state.
Upload a single PDF file with maximum 5 sheets to your Google Drive or Dropbox and send the sharing link to your SONA rep via Zoom private chat on the presentation morning.
File naming:
File name should be your state / territory and team names used for your registration (eg QLD_tim-sally-john).
How to submit if you can’t present live:
- Record your presentation via Zoom as if you were presenting live – this cannot exceed 7 minutes in length – if it does, we will cut the recording short
- Upload your presentation recording along with the above submission requirements to your own Google Drive or Dropbox and send the sharing link to sona@architecture.com.au by the deadline of 1pm on Friday 4 September
It is highly recommended participants present live on Saturday 5 September. If you are prerecording, you will miss out on a Q&A session with the jury and the opportunity to clarify elements of your proposal.
FAQ
Yes you can.
How to submit if you can’t present live:
- Record your presentation via Zoom as if you were presenting live – this cannot exceed 7 minutes in length – if it does, we will cut the recording short
- Upload your presentation recording along with the above submission requirements to your own Google Drive or Dropbox and send the sharing link to sona@architecture.com.au by the deadline of 1pm on Friday 2 September
It is highly recommended participants present live on Saturday 5 September. If you are prerecording, you will miss out on a Q&A session with the jury and the opportunity to clarify elements of your proposal.
To participate in Super Studio, you firstly need to register your team (4 people max) or register as in individual.
At the time of registering select your preferred mentor time slot links to access mentoring are above ensure you connect at the time you register for.
Attend the reading of the brief session on Sunday 30th August at 10am. If you are unable to participate in this session, the recording will be available on our website afterwards.
Start designing!
Connect to one of the design day presentations during the week. We have some interesting speakers who will be conducting interactive chats around topics connected to our brief to help you to expand your thinking.
Connect to your mentoring session to get some feedback about your proposal from an industry professional.
Presentations and submission due on Saturday 5 September
You can participate as an individual or as a team of 2,3 or up to 4 students.
Team members don’t need to come from your university but all team members should be SONA members.
Get in touch with Madelynn at the Institute – sona@architecture.com.au
This is important to let us know rather than not turning up as our mentors are giving up their time to help you.
There will be two virtual mentoring sessions available for all teams to help with their proposals.
Tuesday 1 September & Thursday 3 September from available times are from 5.30pm onwards.
At the time of registering you select your preferred mentoring time slot. The link to access mentoring time slots is above in the table titled SuperStudio dates and activities.
