Studio 05
Galapagos at Shenzhen Biennale
Justyna Karakiewicz
This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90142 Studio C, ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.
Studio Description
We will be working on designing positive interventions (or perturbations) into the urban structure on the Galapagos Islands. Your design should enable something else to happen, something that perhaps we cannot predict but that will improve the environment of the islands. In order to do this, we will need to abandon our preconceptions that ‘humans are constantly under threat from nature, and we need to fight back with design’ (Colombina & Wigley, 2019). We are not the only species worth preserving.
We will also have to forget most urban and architectural theories in which deterministic progression is privileged. In place of these, we will adopt Complex Adaptive System (CAS) theory that postulates that any healthy system requires periodic perturbation (disturbance) and therefore cannot be perfect or stable.
As an additional benefit, your work may be selected to be exhibited at Shenzhen Bi-city Biennale 2022.
Studio Outcomes
The studio introduces Complex Adaptive Systems theory, and you will learn how to model consequences of design interventions in a city structure and the broader environment. You will understand how theory and data can inform design and how to model consequences of design decisions.
Extensive evidence calls increasingly for recognising that urban and natural ecosystems should be considered as continuities, not disjuncture. From the CAS perspective, urban form can be considered as part of the natural system to contribute to a better quality of life for all species. In this, we are turning our focus from ‘people-centric’ to ‘life-centric’ development for all.
You will work in groups, learning how to negotiate and collaborate in order to get the best result worthy of exhibiting at any biennale or competition.
Studio Leaders
Justyna Karakiewicz is Professor of Architecture and Urban Design in the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning at the University of Melbourne. She previously taught at Architectural Association, Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, University of Hong Kong and many other institutions. She is co-author of The Making of Hong Kong (2010), Promoting Sustainable Living: Sustainability as an Object of Desire (2015) and Urban Galapagos (2018) and has published more than 70 papers and book chapters. She has won numerous international competitions and has been awarded many prizes for her drawings. Her work has been exhibited around the world including Venice Biennale (three times).
Schedule Mondays 09:00-14:00 and Thursdays 09:00-12:00 Monday 25 July - Thursday 13 October