Studio D/02
WHITECHAPEL
Oskar Kazmanli-Liffen & Rennie Liffen
Studio Description
Pubs, Mosques, bus stops
Walking home with my familiar rhythm
Rain off the roof. Streetlight on the window
Framing friends in my minds’ eye
So I can redux my rollerdex
Colours regraded for a fond farewell
Lick my wounds and back on my feet
This Heart is still in it
Clutch tight in my jacket pocket
East End boys and west end girls
Have grown tall in my absence
I almost didn’t recognise you
Look up as I hold your giant’s hand
This view is still widescreen
Fingers surrounded by skylines
Pints and prayers all rattle
through WHITECHAPEL
Studio D02 will develop intimate and idiosyncratic projects that explore the spatial and human dimensions of architectural composition. We will engage with the experiential and phenomenological implications of an architecture of both ‘individual’ and ‘community’. The studio project will be sited in the vibrant urban location of Whitechapel, East London and students will imbue an imaginary immediate context with spatial and experiential profile. The studio thematically focuses on ‘archive and collection’ as a foundation for programmatic intervention and seeks to understand the compositional implication of programmes that may initially appear banal but, upon further investigation hold more meaningful possibilities. Each student will form the functional and experiential brief for the architecture of a public building within the context of an imagined urban location. Students will be directed to a series of contemporary architectural references and be encouraged to embrace a reductive and legible architectural language.
Studio Outcomes
Students will use an iterative design process in conjunction with studio leaders and studio collaborators, where orthographic drawing, descriptive writing and physical model-making are central activities. A disciplined and methodical approach which uses these abstract techniques will value and exhibit every ‘trace’ of the process as the ‘archaeology of the mind’. Through these modes of working the studio will explore a singular architectural composition that includes spatial experience, environment, landscape, tectonic and material. Final outcomes will be restricted to specific and consistent communication tools with a focus on the representation of ‘atmosphere’ and ‘construction’. Students will be expected to produce significant and sophisticated drawings and models throughout the semester, communicating their intentions with clarity and passion.
Studio Leaders
OSKAR KAZMANLI-LIFFEN is an Architect with Edition Office and a Creative Practitioner at The University of Melbourne who is originally from London. With experience in award winning practices, Oskar has also co-led studios across the masters and undergraduate degrees at RMIT and MSD. Through teaching and practice his interests lie in a close understanding of site, diagrammatic and compositional clarity and the experiential qualities of object and space.
RENNIE LIFFEN is a British Architect from London who has practiced in Europe and Australia. Rennie was involved in design studio teaching for many years in the UK and has been living, working and teaching in Melbourne since 2005. Rennie established Masters’ Design Studio 2 over a decade ago and this will be his twenty-second version of the studio and the eleventh in collaboration with Oskar Kazmanli-Liffen. Rennie’s teaching was recognized in 2022 with an ABP Teaching Excellence Award.
Readings & References
- JULIEN TEMPLE – Film – London: The Modern Babylon
- BEN JUDAH – Writing – This is London
- PATRICK KEILER – Film – London
- 6A ARCHITECTS – Architecture + Theory
- SERGISON BATES – Architecture + Theory
- CARMODY GROAKE – Architecture + Theory
- PETER ZUMTHOR – Architecture + Theory
- JUHANI PALLASMAA – Writing + Theory
- TADAO ANDO – Design Process
- ATELIER BOW-BOW – Architecture + Graphics
- LAB-LAB FOR ARCHITECTURE – Theory + Graphics
Schedule:
Monday 3:15pm-6:15pm & Thursday 3:15pm-6:15pm in MSD 240
Off-Site Activities: