Board Thread:Memories of ID at QIT & QUT/@comment-28860944-20160704133523

 In 1976 first year BAS was a combined first year for students seeking degrees in Urban and Regional Planning, Landscape Architecture, Building,   Quantity Surveying, Architecture and Industrial Design. Every student took a common first year of 4 study streams: Man and Environment; Problem Solving; Communication and Technology, each consisting of another four subjects each. In second year students stranded off into one of three strands: Urban and Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture; Building and Quantity Surveying; Architecture and Industrial Design. Third year was another stranded fulltime year. Professional qualifications in all of the six disciplines were only possible after completing the 3 year part time Post Graduate in each individual profession. It was intended that Grad Dip students obtained jobs in the field whilst studying part time.

 We had a BAS BBQ in F Block courtyard during ‘O’ week for all intending students – with the BBQ run by the workshop staff I think ...Barry Elms and David Burgess – with lecturers and some BESG crew about as well. BESG was the Built Environment Student Group. They produced and supplied a brilliant little stapled booklet called “The Official ‘Know how to cope’ book” – setting the tone for the year ahead, and offering some useful tips for the uninitiated.

 First week was a very memorable life moment. Most of our large cohort were straight from school, with only a few mature-age students. Our studio and home lecture room were on the first floor of the previous D Block, at the front of the building. The large studio was all stools and high studio work benches in row upon row, facing the wide chalk boards and Plan drawers at the front. The Lecture room had row upon row of Sebel lecture chairs facing the chalk boards.

 Our year Coordinator was Peter Cheney. Day one had us all in the lecture room with new notepads and pens, all listening intently to Peter at the lectern outlining how the course would be run and outlining the rules and rigor required to succeed in the years ahead. At some point this person came from the back of the room, voice booming, down through the middle of us saying: “That’s bullshit, Cheney, bullshit!”      It was Dennis Hardy. We all sat there, moths open, not know what was going on, as two lecturers had a full-on barney right in front of us all. This ‘good cop/ bad cop’ routine set up the tone for the year, with all of us not knowing what the teacher wanted, or who to listen to.

 Dennis Hardy was our day to day mentor, supported by specialists such as Frank Lambert for drawing and visual communications, with lecturers from Built Environment or other faculties taking us for the specialist subjects.

 Tuesdays were scheduled for Problem Solving. We would all assemble in the studio at 9am and get the Brief for the day. The rest of the day we could work in groups/ pairs/ work alone, go to the library (built that year) to research, visit the Resource Centre on the ground floor, lurk in the studio or visit the George after 10 for inspiration (It was further than the Cecil but was roomier). Design submissions had to in by 5pm. One Problem Solving teaser from Peter Chaney was “How high should a tennis court fence be?

 Keep in mind that these were different times. There were no computers, no Google to help with research (kilometres of microfilm, and a zillion microfiche) and all submissions were hand done. Tracing paper and carbon paper. This was T-square and Set squares. Pencil and India Ink Rotring /Staedtler pens with lettering stencils. Final presentations were lettered with Letraset and tints done with Letratone. Drawings were printed on dyeline machines, and hand coloured.

 The first ID Project Brief I recall getting was to devise a way to enable a one armed person to boil an egg. We had no idea what teacher wanted, why this person only had one hand, and what was wrong with a saucepan on the stove. This stimulated a lot of discussion and even had us thinking that the problem was more the eating of the boiled egg, rather than the cooking. This was a time before the rise of the kitchen gadget. There were no specialist egg cookers in existence. Solutions and submissions varied widely, coming from builders and quantity surveyors to landscape greenies and intending architects as well as pending product designers, male and female. The different talents proved useful at times with different projects, broadening our own views of problems and establishing teamwork skills for life.

 A later ID project was to find our own problems to solve at 7 OAKS – a residential care facility for young people with Cerebral Palsy. With this project we were seeking out problems to solve for real people. With this one I ended up designing for someone with the use of only one hand. Life imitating art. With this project we also had to design the solution for manufacture, and then make it in the workshop. The workshop was in the old “Wool Classing” building, with the metal shop, spray booth, timber shop, assembly room, stretch-blow machine room and store. We spent a lot of time in the workshop, getting the feel of materials and processes, practical and impractical designs, details and documentation.

 First year was full of new and different experiences, from working in the darkroom to life drawing and group problem solving. Of course there was also first year camp on Moreton Island, but that’s a story in itself.



 How was your first year?



Rob Geddes  76010546  </ac_metadata>