Openwork: Conditions and Exclusions - Floor Talk

3553 is proud to present Conditions & Exclusions, an exhibition by Openwork.

Exhibition Floor Talk:
Bridget Keane & Mark Jacques (Director of Openwork)
Thursday July 3rd 6pm

Limited capacity, bookings essential


Banner Photo by Yaseera Moosa

Conditions and Exclusions presents a collection of models made by the Landscape Architecture & Urban Design studio Openwork, reflecting their methodology:

Our practice has always made small models. They’re not the proper models you see in books and monographs. They’re more direct – an adjustment, done quickly and generally done once, to fix an idea in time. Our models are made to help us remember. They are a way of holding an intention. We might describe part of that intention as a ‘condition’ and/or an ‘exclusion’.

A condition is about remaking the situation or site we’ve been asked to work in, as a figure or a shape that substitutes the scope of work in the brief with the boundary of the work we want to do instead. An exclusion is about sneaking things into a design process that have been omitted from a brief. More often than not, these imports encourage us to remember move the work beyond the default language or typical responses of commercial landscape practice.

These models are a way for us to subtly reclaim the territory of a site, remake its edges, and test and register the important moves and strategy for that site. As a tool, they capture only the essential strategies – their scale prevents reliance on form, detail, and materiality (all dead ends for urban projects). In this sense, they are mnemonic objects – physical statements that allow us to remember the essential parti of the thing, and that ward against any future dilution or normalisation of it.

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Openwork is a design studio that operates in four modes: a landscape architecture consultancy providing design and documentation of public places; an urban design studio providing input to plans and policies that enable future public realm; a research lab aligned with RMIT University School of Architecture and Urban Design; and a speculative design office, investing consulting profits into projects that need doing but don’t yet have external interest. Through these various modes of practice, they have cultivated an active studio who agitate change and public exchange.

Bridget Keane is an academic practitioner whose teaching and creative practice focuses on the role of design in the context of climate crisis and positioning the designer as one of many interacting agents within complex ecological, material, and economic systems. Her research and practice is informed by three threads: developing and implementing teaching models that explore intersections between academic, industry and creative practice; examining disciplinary lineages and reflect on these in response to the climate crisis; and design projects that envisage alternate futures in response to the effects of extractive industries and overconsumption. These are deployed through innovative methods focused on the production of narratives via multiple agents that articulate new relationships between intersecting environmental, technological, human, and non-human entities.

3553 is a public event space dedicated to the exploration of ideas that affect the built environment. Operated by OFFICE, a design and research practice committed to advancing critical dialogue, 3553 fosters collaboration across disciplines, communities, and borders. The space offers a platform for local, national, and international practitioners, students, researchers, and academics to showcase innovative work, share insights, and engage in meaningful conversations. Through a diverse program of exhibitions, lectures, workshops, and public events, 3553 invites audiences to engage with the evolving landscape of design, while creating a space for education, critical thought, and creative exchange.

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