Designing for More-than-Humans

Designing for More-than-Humans – Robotic 3D Clay Printing requires a multi-disciplinary approach that is developed at the Melbourne School of Design since 2022, exposing students to the design challenges of working for more-than-human clients.

In the context of the R_Lab elective in the Master of Architecture and Landscape Architecture programs we are introducing students to ways of challenging their anthropocentric world views, to shift instead towards a more-than-human perspective that would inform their design development. The 14-week course is driven by design research and involves ecologists, bio-scientists, philosophers, rangers, and roboticists and this interdisciplinary mix of expertise enables us to explore theoretical, ethical and philosophical questions as well as learn about food webs, eco systems and habitats. We analyse design precedents and theoretical research, which we used to engage in the empirical data we collected, including soil samples from the floodplain at McGeorge House in Ivanhoe.

We use robots to 3D printing to develop and fabricate their prototypes, derived following a series of iterations and by learning from failures, in order to fabricate more-than-human refugia.

Some of questions that we explore include: How can we identify a non-human that we might be able to support? What is the relationship between native and invasive species and how does this impact on our design? When we make design decisions from the standpoint of the human, how can we do this in a way that attentively responds to the needs of non-human species and ecosystems? How can we, as humans, assess whether our interreference is of benefit to non-humans? From the midst of the current climate emergency, how can we design in response to changing and collapsing ecological systems?

R_Lab is part of Digital Design & Fabrication (DDF) Electives, taught and fabricated in the Maker Spaces at MSD

Studio Leader and Subject Coordinator

• A/Prof Rochus Hinkel

Expert Contributors include

• Dr Rachele Wilson, School of Bioscience
• Dr Amy Hahs, School of Ecosystems and Forest Science
• From the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, incorporating the Melbourne School of Design:
• Dr Hélène Frichot, Professor for Architecture and Philosophy
• Dr Alex Felson, Professor for Landscape Architecture and Ecology
• Stanislav Roudavski, Deep Design Lab and ADD+F Research Hub
• William Ward, Deep Design Lab

Fabrication Lead

• Ryan Pennings, Coordinator Robotics Lab MSD Maker Spaces