Studio 06


Park-Ville

Dean Boothroyd and Zack Dahdoule

Studio Description

The function of the Australian University is continuing to evolve from a place exclusively for learning and research to one of industry engagement, co-habitation and commercialisation with a much more porous and integrated relationship with community and industry as well as global outlook. How might the University of Melbourne’s Parkville Campus evolve in the years to 2050 and beyond, responding to climate change and new emerging patterns of pedagogy?

The reformulation of the ground plane and building façade will become the main focus of the next epoch for the campus urban fabric. Parts of the existing urban morphology will be stripped down and recast to suit current pedagogical and user needs.

This studio will examine the dynamic and hierarchy of structure and void, interface of façade and landscape, and the role of heritage when determining change in an ‘established’ urban environment. The studio’s design principles concern grounding the varying scales and component layers of a single architectural project in the collective knowledge of the city.

Studio Themes and Principles

The studio’s principles are formed around re-using and adapting existing post-World War II building fabric on the Parkville Campus, markers of modernism’s translated continuum of the traditional quadrangle urban pattern, to meet the needs of a contemporary campus its users and overarching environmental concerns.

The issues, themes, and conversations to be explored in this studio include:

  • the importance of public realm and landscape and what its use or function may be in the context of building and wider spatial program and in curating the physical experience,
  • the value and relationship of architectural and urban legacy to the user experience, as applies to established urban areas,
  • the nature of the campus, campus heritage, identity and the relationship to the city and cultural life,
  • the façade as a mediating element between the logics of the individual project and the collective ideas of the city, and
  • structural efficiency and environmental sustainability in determining the performance of structure as a vehicle for program.

Studio Outcomes

Students will develop an integrated understanding of the nature and ‘layers’ of the contemporary campus, ways of inhabiting the campus, campus heritage and identity, and the relationship to the city's collective history. By exploring and testing methodologies and approaches to complex urban mapping, collaborative research and ‘ways of seeing’, students will implement planning and design decisions through strategic and systematic thinking.

This studio will employ an on-the-ground research methodology using the campus as a case study. Students will develop and maintain a reflective folio throughout the semester that effectively communicates their urban and architectural approach. The studio outcome will be the delivery of innovative and well-grounded architectural proposals underpinned by a deep understanding and response to the relationship between city, campus and context.

The final format of projects is anticipated in the form of short films, graphic panels and folio publications, with the opportunity to explore other visual, digital, and interpersonal modes of communication.

Studio Leaders

Dean Boothroyd

Currently working in the University’s Corporate Finance Property and Sustainability (CFPS) group since early 2021. Over 25 years of industry experience in the master planning and design of large-scale projects while at LAB Architecture Studio and principal at NH Architecture including:

  • Melbourne Arts Centre
  • Melbourne Airport
  • Commercial Bay, Auckland
  • Federation Square East

Co-founder of the collaborative research and design vehicle M@STUDIO, which was awarded the National Gallery of Victoria Architecture Commission for 2016 titled Haven’t you always wanted…?

Lectured in design at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne. Ongoing teaching at RMIT University in the Masters of Architecture program since 1994 through design research studios. The Suburban Realism: Scale Ability exhibit at the 2021 Melbourne Design Week was an extension of this series

Zack Dahdoule

Zack has worked on the feasibility-to-delivery of complex capital projects in the higher education sector for the past five years, including the first Precinct-scale development at the Parkville Campus, with a current focus on the development of strategic property initiatives at the University of Melbourne.

With a background in architectural design, Zack’s interests lie in the unique evolution of the University’s citified ecosystem, campus heritage and adaptive reuse, as well as the role of strategic and legislative frameworks in driving capital projects and the intersection between planning and user-centred agendas.

Readings & References

  • Mark Jarzombek, A Green Masterplan Is Still a Masterplan, in Urban Transformation, edited by Ilka & Andreas Ruby, 22-29. Berlin: Ruby Press, 2008.
  • Geert Bekaert, Andrew May, and Xaveer de Geyter Architecten. After-Sprawl: Research for the Contemporary City. Rotterdam, Brussels: NAi Publishers, 2002. Pp 21-32.
  • Kevin Lynch, The Image of the City. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1960. pp 46-90.
  • Iain Borden, Jane Rendell, Joe Kerr, and Alicia Pivaro. Things, Flows, Filters, Tactics. In The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space, edited by Iain Borden, Jane Rendell and Joe Kerr, 2-24. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 2002.
  • William H. Whyte, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 1980 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ2o4RclJGM
  • Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built, Viking Press, 1994.

Strategy (to be provided):

  • The University of Melbourne, Advancing Melbourne Strategy 2030, May 2020.
  • Arup Research, Campus of the Future, June 2018.
  • Hassell Studio, Not Lazing, Learning! How informal spaces power student learning in universities, September 2017.
  • Hassell Studio, Snakes and League Table Ladders - The value of campus facilities in the student experience, September 2018.
  • Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE), Blended Working in the Higher Education Sector- A review of the post-pandemic university workplace, August 2021.

UoM Campus Architectural History (to be provided):

  • Lovell Chen Architects & Heritage Consultants, The Main Campus Patterns and Themes, August 2010
  • Lovell Chen Architects & Heritage Consultants, Building Data Sheets, August 2010 (2)
  • John Patrick Pty Ltd Landscape Architects, Significant Landscape Review - Parkville Campus, May 2009
  • Philip Goad and George Tibbits. Architecture on Campus: A guide to the University of Melbourne and its Colleges, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic, 2003.
  • George Tibbits, The Planning and Development of The University of Melbourne - An Historical Outline, The Australian Centre- University of Melbourne, 1997
  • Emma Hendel and George Michell, Melbourne University, An Early Architectural History (Vol 1 and 2), 1966 (architectural thesis)

UoM Campus Masterplans (to be provided):

  • UoM Landscape Framework Plan, Taylor Cullity Lethlean Landscape Architects Urban Design, July 2012
  • UoM Parkville Master Plan 2008, Daryl Jackson Architecture, 2008
  • UoM Master Plan Report 1991, Dr. Bryce Mortlock, April 1991
  • UoM Master Plan Report 1981, Ancher, Mortlock & Woolley Pty. Ltd. Architects and Planners, November 1981
  • UoM Landscape Elements Report, Ancher Mortlock Murray & Woolley Pty Limited, April 1974
  • UoM Master Plan Report Summary 1970, (Prepared by) The University of Melbourne, April 1971

Schedule Mondays 18:15-21:15 and Thursdays 15:15-18:15

Contact Handbook

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