Nothing Special

Colby Vexler

Studio Description

Working within the contemporary domain of the contractor, we accept the inevitable rather than arguing for almost certain impossibilities. We know we can’t add another bedroom to a 50-ish-sqm flat, but through a healthy compromise with reality, we look to plausible grandeur and good character for added value. Here there is still plenty of work to do, even if it’s mostly minor.

Being attentive to dimensions and finessing elemental arrangements is hard work, so we focus on nothing more than what we value. For this, we don’t need a narrative, just an approach that gives values to the literal qualities of buildings themselves.

Well organised, logical and strategically lacking overarching concepts, the final outcomes seek to re-perceive the way we consider existing suburban flats and propose future ones.

In small groups, we will spend 12 weeks slowly proposing rigorous renovations that hope to become better hosts to their occupants and nicer neighbours to their surrounding buildings and streets. Within their means of course.

While we try to figure things out and inevitably cross paths with the zeitgeist, we do not claim to propose housing solutions but instead re-understand what is plausible and compelling within the Contemporary. In doing so, we advocate for minor works to modest buildings. Or ultimately, nothing special.

Studio Outcomes

Through minor renovations and some significant re-configurations, projects will give new expression to mostly existing building qualities, latent or obvious.

These works won’t offer proposed housing solutions, perpetuate “ideal living” fantasies or re-affirm unsubstantiated “practical” tropes about contemporary housing. Not because we are nihilists but hopeful realists suggesting there is viable architectural scope in a context now more typically associated with D.I.Y’ers, builder-designers, concept-solution-oriented-contractors, and even Ikea and Bunnings.

For us, the non-typical and unconventional is not synonymous with the unlive able or impractical. After all, these are places to live in.

The plan, elevation and render are not to be taken lightly, even if they appear naive. Stuff, things and furniture are never merely decorative or indicative of use, but of equal value to the assemblage they belong to. Here we do not populate and program but re-arrange, re-assemble and re-consider. In doing so, the work attempts to re-understand the obvious complexities that make up the suburban flat.

Referentially informed, rigorously intuitive and highly literal, the final proposals will re-perceive the way we can inhabit already existing housing through mostly minor works.

*Note: this studio will strictly operate through group work. It is expected that students in this class have the skill set to work professionally in groups through equal contribution, consistent refinement and critical conversation. We see each group acting as an office, who work together to produce a single, highly refined outcome

Studio Leader/s

Colby Velxer has taught extensively in Master of Architecture programs for almost 10 years. His teaching focuses on the subtle re-perception of literal architecture, particularly within a residential environment. In 2023, this teaching work extended into an experimental collaboration with architecture photographer Rory Gardiner where their work looks at the mostly-as-found spatial character architecture. Further, through mostly minor and occasional built works, Colby’s design practice gives deep architecrtural consideration to projects of modest means.

Readings & References

To be provided in week 1

Schedule:
Tuesday 3pm-6pm
Friday 3pm-6pm

Contact Handbook