Studio 17


Outpost: Distill

Ariani Anwar and Thomas Proctor

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90142 Studio C, ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.

Studio Description

Outpost 06 – Distill explores the concept of distillation: the process of converting an ordinary raw ingredient into something extraordinary. Throughout the semester we will reflect on this idea in its many forms: as a chemical process, an agricultural process, a material process, and as a metaphor for the design process.

The architectural brief for this studio will be a distillery, education/experience space and farm located on the Mornington Peninsula. Students will research and choose the type of raw ingredient to be distilled. There will be a focus on developing a considered architectural design response that meaningfully engages with research, site, spatial composition, and material. Students will be encouraged to consider the sensory experience of distillation and will use a range of mediums to convey the visitor experience through touch, taste, sight, smell. Design iteration and innovative presentation methods will be encouraged. This studio also takes the creation of materials for building as a process of distillation. Students will identify and research a material technology and production process that promotes circular economic principles, sustainable operations and that is suited to local manufacture which will be incorporated in their design response.

The idea for this studio arose from an interest in local agricultural industry and the educational opportunity to expose the process of making. The hybrid nature of this brief combines the themes around local production and farm to table, with a highly sensory experience to showcase this process.

Studio Outcomes

Before proposing a new model for local agribusiness, this studio begins by posing new questions. This approach promotes a habit of mind where questioning is celebrated as a central act of the design and research process. The studio’s emphasis on sustained questioning will be enacted through a series of focused design tasks, site visits, readings and group discussions that will provide the conceptual tools to develop a Return Brief that challenges the received functional one.

A Return Brief is a core requirement of the studio and will be referred to as a constant guide for the development of each project. Evidence of questioning and critique, a Return Brief suggests that a received set of ideas required reconsideration, renovation, or even rejection. This studio frames the process of questioning a brief as fundamental to being an architect, and optimistically believes that the brief shouldn’t be passively received - but actively shaped.

Core Themes:

  • Material + craft
  • Production + process
  • Research + development

Studio Leader/s

ARIANI ANWAR is an Associate at John Wardle Architects. In her role at the practice, she works in the design and conceptual development of cultural and community buildings. She is passionate about creating meaningful spaces that have a profound impact on the people that use them. Ariani has a strong interest in the interface between research and design practice, and an enthusiasm for innovation in design that is driven by deep and rigorous thinking. She graduated with her Master of Architecture from the Melbourne School of Design and the University of Technology, Delft. She was a founding editor of Inflection, the internationally published, student-run, journal of the MSD.

TOM PROCTOR works for John Wardle Architects as a designer on projects ranging from residential, educational and commercial development to large scale master planning proposals. During previous employment he has worked on infrastructure and civic projects such as the Melbourne Metro, Perth Stadium, and the WA Museum. Tom has a strong background in mathematics and parametric modelling which has led to collaborations with a number of industry leaders including augmented reality software firm Fologram and engineer James-Murray Parkes of Brookfield Scientific Solutions Group (BSSG).

Readings & References

  • Jeremy Till, Nishat Awan, and Tatjana Schneider. “Spatial Agency: Other Ways of Doing Architecture”.
  • Latour, Bruno. “Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime”.
  • Floris Alkemade, Michiel van Iersel, Mark Minkjan and Jarrik Ouburg. “Rewriting Architecture – 10+1 Actions”.
  • The Avery Review: Graham, James. “Climates: Architecture and the Planetary Imaginary”.
  • Hyde, Rory. “Architects After Architecture”.
  • Frichot, Helene. “Dirty Theory: Troubling Architecture”
  • Ricardo Flores and Eva Prats. “Thoughts by Hand: The Architecture of Flores & Prats”.

Additional readings will be provided throughout the semester.

Schedule Mondays 17:15-20:15 and Thursdays 15:15-18:15
Off-campus Activities Monday sessions at John Wardle Architects

Contact Handbook

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