MARK BURRY

Designed and constructed here at RMIT, the FabPod project took up the challenge of designing and prototyping a meeting room enclosure to sit within the DRI open work environment on level 9 in the new Design Hub at RMIT.

FabPod combines research into the sound diffusing properties of hyperbolic surfaces, with the problem of small semi enclosed meeting areas in open plan settings, utilising a combination of digital modelling and mass customised CNC prototyping and architectural traditions of craft production and material effects.

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The vaults are well on their way: a mixture of prefab and in situ

The areas screened by shade cloth are reusable formwork. The external skin is being prefabricated off-site in Galera. Reinforcement is sandwiched between the two layers.

Site visit with architects, engineers, builders

Sr Jordi Bonet

85 metres up… 89 metres from the eventual top

The Nordic countries
The next supermodel
Politicians from both right and left could learn from the Nordic countries

SMALLISH countries are often in the vanguard when it comes to reforming government. In the 1980s Britain was out in the lead, thanks to Thatcherism and privatisation. Tiny Singapore has long been a role model for many reformers. Now the Nordic countries are likely to assume a similar role.

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Entrepreneurs
If in doubt, innovate
The Nordic region is becoming a hothouse of entrepreneurship

IN 2010 A GROUP of students at Aalto University, just outside Helsinki, embarked on the most constructive piece of student activism in the history of the genre. They had been converted to the power of entrepreneurialism during a visit to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. When they got home they organised a “summer of start-ups” to spread the word that Finland’s future lay with new companies, not old giants. The summer of start-ups turned into a season of innovation.

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