Diploma of Design & Architecture students at UTS Insearch recently hosted a three-night exhibition showcasing major works for their final semester subject, Design Project. The first two nights of the exhibition saw two distinct sets of work from Design students, while Architecture students exhibited exclusively on the third and final night. The exhibition was attended by the Head of the UTS School of Architecture Professor Francesca Hughes.
Design students worked tirelessly in the lead up to the exhibition, developing conceptual models for spatial experience that eventually became curatorial floorplans informing how each of their works would be installed. The presentation of these spaces ranged in style and aesthetics from the escapist and otherworldly to the stripped-down immediacy of a warehouse gallery.
Dr Alex Su, Program Manager, Design & Architecture, commented on the student’s impressive staging of the exhibition, noting that “they were really able to pull together a cohesive image for each individual exhibition space in consideration of design principles such as clustering, lighting, focal points- the results of which provided a very whimsical yet introspective view into each student’s work.”
Architecture students were required in their major work to design a villa for the hypothetical wishes of a legendary or historical character. One of the students, Yorgo, designed a villa for Galileo Galilei and incorporated elements of the Ancient Greek myth of Perseus and Medusa.
“My design incorporates the open courtyard of a Greco-Roman villa and it includes planets to represent celestial bodies that Galileo would see,” Yorgo said.
Another student, Pranisha, said that her work was ‘semiotic’ because the architecture of her villa, with its two levels, reflected the class structure of the ancient Egyptian world. Her client was the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII who would stay on the top level whilst her guests or servants would stay on the ground floor.
UTS Insearch Diploma of Design & Architecture students gain 36 credit points towards any UTS Design course. Students also complete their own work-ready portfolio which can be shown to potential employers, have their final works judged by design experts, and enhance their knowledge of the industry by attending design and architecture exhibits as part of their studies.
