Healing the City

Devkrishna Mistry

Studio Description

The studio will be concerned with the relationship between present-day Melbourne and its historic past. It engages therefore with two intertwining discourses of a different nature: the first relates to the architectural culture of Melbourne’s architecture and its transformation, second to the relevance of six points of Critical Regionalism as a theoretical framework for architectural design and placemaking.

We have access to diverse methodologies, materials and approaches to architectural design. The six points envisages an idea in which you can create regional design schools that are influenced by global architecture and ideas but are made specific to contexts through relationship to its climate, place, construction techniques, cultural and indigenous heritage and place where it is built. The studio proposal will address the current issues of climate, Indigenous values and heritage both colonial and immigrant, and the recognition of these within an urban housing crisis.

The assignment is to design and create a mixed-use community precinct in the heart of the city. The chosen site is the multistorey carpark in Melbourne’s Chinatown, with primary frontages to Lonsdale Street and Little Bourke Street and a secondary connection to Celestial Avenue to the east.

Studio Outcomes

The development of observation skills, learning from context, understanding the scale of things and their qualities, informs the myriad of decisions and judgements that need to be made in designing buildings.

Through a site and Melbourne CBD walk around students will research the site depicting history, topography, climate, built fabric, uses and other constraints and present their observations of sensibilities and emotional qualities of urban buildings and their impact on the urban realm. Students will construct a surrounding context physical model of the site; there will be theoretical reading assignment and presentation for discussion from a select list of essays. The students will study the works of Critical Regionalism protagonist to understand how these architects respond to their place, culture, history, materiality and climate.

Develop an urban concept for multi-use dwelling programme of scale and density appropriate for the site. The proposal is required to be reasonable, realistic and achievable with existing planning and urban conditions. The proposal should not produce adverse impact on the surrounding context. Produce massing studies, physical models – generate plans and sections - emphasis on siting and climatic response.

Emphasis will be placed on the need to consider historical context including Indigenous (connection to country), the character and atmosphere of the building, how specific design responds to its context and its relationship to the wider city, how the building is entered from the street, how believable and comfortable set of interior spaces is created, how volumes are expressed and how the materiality of the facades is composed and is used in combination with the interior spaces to create a creditable low energy building. This approach to designing buildings will combine, appearance with pragmatism, architectural and tectonic qualities and technical performance.

Studio Leader/s

Dev is an architect with 30 years’ experience in the profession and has worked on projects in the UK, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia. He has worked in large to medium size practices as a designer/ master planner, working on a wide range of building typologies including master plans for new cities/ suburbs to multi-residential developments, education buildings, hotels, aged care, commercial, retail and childcare centres. Since 2021 he has taught design studios at RMIT and Monash University as well as tutoring on Pedagogy & Space in the Faculty of Education at University of Melbourne. He has presented at conferences and AIA Indigenous Cultural Awareness training sharing his knowledge and passion for environmental and Indigenous design

Readings & References

Protagonist & Theoretical Readings:

Protagonist

• Alison Brooks Architects (UK)
• Alvar Aalto, (Finland)
• Alvaro Siza, (Portugal)
• Angelo Candalepas (Australia)
• BV Doshi (India)
• Caruso St. John, (UK)
• David Chipperfield, (UK)
• Francis Kere, (Burkina Faso/ Germany)
• Geoffrey Bawa, (Sri Lanka)
• Grafton Architects Yvonne Farrell + Shelley McNamara, (Ireland)
• Kengo Kuma (Japan)
• Kennedy Nolan (Australia)
• Kerstin Thompson Architects (Australia)
• Marina Tabassum. (Bangladesh)
• Rafael Moneo, (Spain)
• Tony Fretton, (UK/ Germany)
• Wang Shu (China)

Theoretical Readings

• Kenneth Frampton, ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points for an Architecture of Resistance, https://oasejournal.nl/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/OASE-103-11-Naar-een-kritisch-regionalisme.pdf
• Tom Avermaete, Veronique Patteeuw, Hans Teerds, Lea-Catherine Szacka, Critical Regionalism Revisited- OASE 103, June 2019
• Adam Caruso, ‘The Feeling of Things: Writings on Architecture’, Ediciones Poligrafa, 2009
• Tony Fretton, ‘Buildings and their Territories’, Birkhauser 2013
• Alvaro Siza, ‘In/discipline’ eight points (almost) at Random’, Walther König, 2020
• David Chipperfield, ‘Theoretical Practice’, ellipsis London Ltd, 1994
• Juhani Pallasmaa, ‘The Eyes of the Skin’ Architecture and the Senses, Wiley, 2012
• Alison Page and Paul Memmott , ‘Building on Country’ (first Knowledges series), Thames & Hudson, 2021
• City of Melbourne ‘Central Melbourne design guide’ https://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/amendmentc308/melbourne-design-guide

Schedule:
Monday 12pm-3pm
Thursday 6pm-9pm 

Off-site Activities:
Melbourne CBD

Contact Handbook