RMIT University Sports Centre

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RESEARCH BACKGROUND: In 1997, Lyons Architects developed a proposal for the RMIT University Sports Centre, which did not proceed then. In 2013, felix._Giles_Anderson+Goad, the creative team behind Australia's exhibition at the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, issued a call out for unbuilt contemporary Australian buildings. Lyons' proposal was included in the 11 projects chosen from a large field. In Venice, the projects were realised through three-dimensional augmented models, images, voice-overs and animations. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: Lyons' proposal was for a sports facilities mixed with interdisciplinary research spaces, hence encompassing the idea of 'body and mind'. It investigated strategies to create an object-texture that ameliorates the 'crisis/predicament' defined by Colin Rowe in his seminal essay in Collage City. This project is part of Lyons' ongoing research into architecture that demands thinking about issues that are "larger" than architecture, and shows the practice's commitment to identity-driven spaces that express collective and individual identity, hierarchy and complexity, and which questions the institution and social order. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: The significance of this project is demonstrated by its selection for inclusion in the 2014 Venice Archiecture Beinnale's Augmented Australia exhibition.The Venice Biennale is the world's premier architecture exhibition and the 'Augmented' show is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, Architecture Media and major industry partners. The project was first reviewed by Andrew Wilson in the professional journal Architecture Australia in 1998. In 2013-2014, it was further published as part of the Venice Architecture Biennale coverage in Architecture Australia, Green magazine, Australian Design Review, Architecture and Design magazine, ArchDaily