SODA, Swinburne University

This workshop, designed through a multidisciplinary collaboration, featured the creative design of a one-to-one multisensory modular climate chamber that invited participants to engage with the design and visualisation of the microclimates surrounding them (through mixed reality techniques). The modular chamber provided an immersive architectural experience that challenged conventional perspectives on architectural elements and their impact on the thermal environment, demonstrating how design decisions can directly influence human physiological responses. Collaborators fabricated and tested a range of materials and form explorations, using porous elements, evaporative cooling and mist, fabric and creative hybrid skins to modify airflow, humidity and temperature. https://vimeo.com/162747037

Building on a multiscalar method developed and established through multicriteria optimisation and live data visualisation, the workshop featured lectures complemented by hands-on design activities, wind tunnel environmental simulations and fabrication exercises. This comprehensive program enabled participants to iteratively engage with the intricacies of environmental phenomena, make well-informed design decisions across multiple scales, perform thorough analyses and draw meaningful conclusions from their findings. Moreover, it fostered an understanding of how to mindfully address microclimatic conditions-from the macro scale of urban planning to the micro scale of building components.

Private Microclimates examined strategies for designing context-specific mitigation thresholds to create comfortable dwelling spaces