Denatured Visions

Samuel Hunter

Studio Description

Over the course of the semester, you will be exploring spaces for creative industry in Melbourne’s inner city. You will acknowledge the dual and oppositional sides at play within all arts sectors; one materialising from the unbridled expression of the artist, and the other a commercial market that can seem at odds with community values and creative process. You recognize that both intrinsically value the other. You appreciate this has led to a cyclical development in cities and a lasting impact on our neighbourhoods, that goes something like this…city prospers, city falls, artist moves in, city gentrifies, artist moves out…and so on. In tandem with this, you will also be examining the ongoing relationship our city has with the Yarra River (Birrarung). The reliance, the love, the misuse, the neglect, the reconstruction, and the regeneration. Like most relationships between natural systems and the industrialised west, it becomes quite complex, quite quickly! Very rarely can both thrive under the same conditions and eventually the situation becomes so dire that the consequences are irreversible… As one 19th century trend of over industrialising the river’s edge moves out, a new 21st century trend of mass ‘boutique’ apartment moves in…

Studio Outcomes

Students will develop skills in research, critical positioning and return brief execution. Design is considered a method for developing these skills and short design esquisses will be used as a mode for research and discovery. Students can expect to be challenged with a complex array of both urban and socio-political contextual analysis, city-scale thinking and in juxtaposition, will learn how to scale these ideas into working architectural drawings.

Working in groups will be a component of the semester, demanding dialogue, understanding and negotiating different points of view to ultimately present a project that enables pluralism. Our studio seeks projects that are speculative, and we will help students develop a level of realism to produce final projects that sit somewhere between the real and imagined terrain.

Presentations and workshops with outside guests will compliment your regular design studio reviews. The studio takes a special interest in critical representation, and post-digital drawing techniques, there will be an extended drawing workshop that all students will attend to hone these skills.

Studio Leaders

Samuel Hunter joined Architecture Associates as co-director in 2022 after leaving a pivotal role as Principal at celebrated Australian practice Lyons. Sam has a keen interest in the cultural value embedded in architecture. He brings to all projects a deep understanding of education and community spaces, having recently delivered the award-winning University of Melbourne’s New Student Precinct and the Springvale Library while at Lyons. Sam’s unique ability to translate a client’s aspirational brief into new and exciting forms of architecture with an innate functional understanding is paramount to his success as a design leader. Sam is technically dexterous, his design process encompassing digital and physical processes. Sam’s interest in contemporary art and culture is critical to his approach to design, an approach that is open, curious and generous.

Readings & References:

Schedule:
Tuesday 9:00am-12:00pm in MSD 139
Friday 3:15pm-6:15pm in MSD 139

Off-Site Activities:
Melbourne Metropolitan Area
Associated costs: $15 KHT River Walk

Contact Handbook