Palaces of Creation

Laura Martires

Studio Description

‘Cities are the mines of the Future’

Jane Jacobs

Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation have allowed unprecedented progress, enlightenment, convenience, and economic growth. But at what cost? Soil and biodiversity destruction, disease, pollution, climate change are the biggest challenges of our time.

Cities are the physical embodiment of our economies of consumption as they spread endlessly to extract, produce, provide and allow the consumption of commodities that we all take for granted. The 19^th and 20^th centuries saw our manufacturing industries shift from a localised, urban medium-scale typology to a peri-urban and regional gargantuan entity distorting our perception of the sheer scale of industrial and manufacturing types required to keep us functional. In this process, industrial architectural typologies lost their relevance as contributors of a particular type of tectonics for the city to make space for the never-ending shed landscapes along our freeways.

This studio questions what would happen if all we produced was right here in front of our eyes, at the level of the neighbourhood? How would architects engage with the design of industrial buildings if part of the brief was to make them significant contributors to local urban culture? How could a local manufacturing industry impact the reduction of our carbon emissions and create new cultural landscapes, interfaces and public interiors?

Students will speculate on the potential role of the high intensity factory typology as an essential emergent type for the future of urban Melbourne. This will be done at a small urban scale, investigating potential sites in inner Melbourne and surrounding suburbs to propose micro factories focusing on future modes of production that contribute to the civic and public life of the city. By examining past and current manufacturing typologies and production processes or systems students will speculate on how these can be intensified and urbanised in a series of proposals within a range of programmatic themes such as biomaterials, energy generation, waste processing, food growth or advanced manufacturing.

Rather than designing envelopes for production systems, you will investigate the potential for manufacturing buildings to play a role in the public and cultural life of the city as the studio will examine the relationship between the architectural object and the urban field and explore the role architectural design plays in mediating the tension between infrastructure and the public realm.

Studio Outcomes

Students will initially work in teams to establish a body of research and shared resources on a range of sites in inner Melbourne. The research will initially focus on a series of topics with a strong focus on future manufacturing techniques through the careful drawing, modelling and design of systems. Additionally, students will analyse relevant precedents to develop a return brief for their projects.

A second stage will require students to further their individual research and design a series of typologies for manufacturing types expanding on their understanding of the systems required and a subsequent speculation on its scaling up, intensification, civic and public programmatic expansion and engagement with the city.

Projects will focus on speculative world building scenarios imagining how future micro-industrial typologies can reshape the way we live and use the city. Students will develop their projects focusing on the consolidation of their ideas as well as the rigorous development of immersive digital models that render these speculations visible. Rigorous and bold experiments will be rewarded.

The ambition of the studio is to design a series of provocative projects exploring the clash between industry and culture to create new architectures, hybrid typologies and future world narratives in which architecture is part of the solution and not part of the problem.

Studio Leader

Laura Mártires is an Education Fellow in Architectural Design at the University of Melbourne and a Partner in Melbourne based architecture practice Common Architecture Design & Research.

Laura is interested in cities and how urban infrastructure, form or fabric can inform particular design processes. Her current investigations focus on emerging design, modelling and visualization techniques utilising gaming engine software to explore how we might change the way we represent architectural ideas in a digital and/or virtual environment.

These ideas have been pursued at different scales through practice where each project is seen as a unique opportunity to create spatial complexity from seemingly abstract notions of urbanity, cohabitation or socio-economical factors. The goal as a practitioner is always to create unique, complex and beautiful spaces that work as a connective platform between the context they're inserted in and they're occupants.

Readings & References

Corner, J., ‘The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention’;

Dunne, A. and Raby, F., ‘Beyond Radical Design’ in Speculative Everything;

Koolhaas, R., ‘Junkspace’;

Metacity Datatown, MVRDV

Farmax, Excursions on Density, MVRDV

Smartcities + eco-warriors, CJ Lim, Ed Liu

Vertical Urban Factory, Nina Rappaport

Further resources will be provided throughout the course of the semester.

Schedule:
TBA

Off-site Activities:

Contact Handbook