UQ architecture students shine in Ipswich

First-year UQ architecture students are set to brighten up Ipswich’s Powerhouse Museum with a display of light beacons, designed and produced as part of their course requirements.

Forming part of the International Museum Day celebrations, The Beacons Exhibition will be launched on Friday, May 15 by Pro-Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Rix, and is open to the public over the weekend.

Coordinated by Cathy Smith and Michael Dickson, from UQ’s School of Architecture, the project has enabled students to see their concepts move from the design stage to exhibition.

“The exhibition is an opportunity to test their experimental beacon designs in the wonderful powerhouse exhibition space in different light conditions, particularly on the opening night,” Mr Dickson said.

“It will be great to see all the different, individual beacons displayed as part of the larger class collective in a single space.

“It’s also an opportunity for the students to celebrate their hard work with their peers, academic staff, family and friends, and most importantly, the wider community for whom they will work as professional architects in the future.”

The students were asked to design and make a light beacon in order to explore the concept of simultaneous opposites.

Each student was given a word couplet composed of two opposing words, which was to be abstracted and evoked in the design.

“The project required students to synthesise conceptual and material project parameters, which is an important skill for practicing architects,” Ms Smith said.

“The most successful projects exploited the latent material qualities – paper, card and light - and jointing techniques, particularly using tape joins, or light wiring as a deliberate part of the architectural strategy and composition.

“It is difficult to materialise an abstract idea or concept in a form, and the most endearing beacons were the ones in which there was an obvious link between the idea and material affects.”

The exhibition begins on Friday, May 15 and is open to the public on Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17.

The Powerhouse Museum is located within the Workshops Rail Museum at North Street, North Ipswich.

Media: Cathy Smith (3366 7852, c.smith12@uq.edu.au), Michael Dickson (3365 3954, m.dickson@uq.edu.au) or Penny Robinson at UQ Communications (07 3365 9723, penny.robinson@uq.edu.au)