Dear staff,

Fabricate is the official student newsletter at the Melbourne School of Design. You are receiving this email as a current student or staff member of the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning.

The image above is of Mir which was a space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, owned at first by the Soviet Union and then by Russia.

Mir was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. It had a greater mass than that of any previous spacecraft. It held the record for the largest artificial satellite orbiting the Earth until that record was surpassed by the International Space Station after Mir's deorbit on 21 March 2001. Mir served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft systems in order to develop technologies required for the permanent occupation of space.

The station was the first consistently inhabited long-term research station in space and was operated by a series of long-duration crews. The Mir programme held the record for the longest uninterrupted human presence in space, at 3,644 days, until 23 October 2010 (when it was surpassed by the ISS), and it currently holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, of Valeri Polyakov, at 437 days 18 hours. Mir was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, and larger crews for short-term visits.

Following the success of the Salyut programme, Mir represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986, and was followed by six further modules, all launched by Proton rockets (with the exception of the docking module). When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several photovoltaic arrays mounted directly on the modules. The station was maintained at an orbit between 296 km (184 mi) and 421 km (262 mi) altitude and traveled at an average speed of 27,700 km/h (17,200 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day..

A new initiative in 2014 sees the MSD offering week-long digital workshops available to all MSD students.  This is a fantastic opportunity to learn new software, brush up on your existing skills, prepare you for the semester ahead and make you more employable.  At present all our January and February workshops in Rhino and Revit are full, but keep your eyes on your email for opportunities to sign up for workshops in the mid-semester break and after the end of Semester One.

Workshops are not for credit, incur a cost, and are taught by experts in the software who are also great teachers teaching into the School.  For more information, and for suggestions on the type of software you would like to see offered, please contact us via the email link below.

Part time employment is being offered by a local company within the construction industry.

Office is located in Carlton North, only 5 mins from the university.
Flexible days and hours available. Weekend work is available.
Require good communication skills, computer skills and competency in reading construction drawings. On the job learning will bring you up to speed.

Send your resume through to Jonathon on the link below with your contact details.

QUESTIONS is a new online writing journal for young writers. Questions is a journal designed to encourage and support those who love to write and who would like their work to be seen by a larger audience.

Questions will publish suitable entries and also offer a prize to the best work (or works) submitted.

The first edition of Questions has just gone live and can be seen here.

Inflection is a new student-run journal from the Melbourne School of Design. In its inaugural issue, to be published in November 2014, the journal's title will double as a broadly defined theme: the concept of inflection as a lens to magnify and investigate the current state of architecture, design and the built environment.

Inflection is currently seeking contributions for our inaugural issue: works of up to 3000 words will be accepted, with a 200 word abstract due by February 28th, 2014. Visit us at inflectionjournal.com for more information, or contact the editors here.

Friday 28 February is Master of Architecture Studio Presentation Day, for all students enrolled in Master of Architecture Studio C, D, E or Design Thesis.

This well be held from 10am in Wilson Hall, with a welcome from subject coordinators Professor Donald Bates and Dr Peter Raisbeck, and then a presentation by each studio leader on the studios on offer in Semester 1.

Master of Architecture studios C, D and E will be presented from 10am – 3pm (approx) and then Design Thesis from 3pm – 5pm (tbc). 

This is an important opportunity for you to make an informed choice about your studio; you will also have a chance to speak to studio leaders directly at the conclusion of their presentation.

Details on studios will also be available via our MSD Studio website from approx 22 February and in a printed publication, available from the Environments and Design Student Centre from approx 26 February.

There are many opportunities to engage with your cohort within the Melbourne School of Design. Click the link below for information on the right student club for you!

The Architectural Association will be running a summer visiting school in Sydney between 28th Jan to 8th Feb 2014. The program is a two weeks intensive workshop catered for all level of architecture students.

Participants will explore new spatial configuration using computation software (Rhino and Grasshopper) and we will build at 1:1 scale.

The workshop will be conducted by:

Jeff Turko, AA Diploma Unit master
Ian Maxwell, Supermanoeuvre & Senior Lecturer at UTS
Paul Loh, Lecturer in Digital Architecture at University of Melbourne
Tom Lea, AA Dip 12

Click on the button below for more information

The new year is here!

If you have any feedback, suggestions or general comments for FABRICATE 2014 please feel free to email Justin Cusack on the link below.

Date: Thursday 13th February

This forum, organised by SLiMS, is aimed at supporting people advocating for public transport - specifically, dealing with the tricky questions that pop up and handling popular misconceptions.

The discussion will be led by Dr John Stone, lecturer in Transport Planning at the University of Melbourne.

Click on the lonk below to register.

We are looking for two student representatives for Graduate Committee for 2014.  Meetings will run from 11 – 12 midday on the following dates:

Feb 18
March 18
April 15
May 20
June 17
July 15
Aug 12
Sept 9
Oct 7
Nov 4
Dec 2

This is a great opportunity to be involved with the faculty and be the voice of your fellow students!

To express your interest please email Jack Langridge Gould on the link below.