THE/07
Open Studio:
Culture + Context
Helen Walter
Studio Description
This is an open studio for students to pursue an individual self-initiated design thesis with a broad focus on culture and context. Students will bring a question they are passionate about exploring. The starting point may concern a specific site, program, typology, material, process or issue. With an emphasis on critical engagement with physical, social and cultural contexts, students will be encouraged to explore and grapple with existing inherited conditions – both physical and intangible – and challenged to critically frame their architectural response in the context of the ongoing evolution of the built environment.
Students will research their question through an iterative process of experimentation, design and reflection in pursuit of a “…process of personal action that leads towards making rather than hesitating.” Workshops and presentations framing relevant issues, examples, techniques and tools will complement regular studio reviews.
This studio has run for several semesters and is distinguished by the diversity and individuality of student projects, and its supportive and engaged studio culture. There is no expectation or restriction around the type or scale of architectural outcome.
Studio Outcomes
To make the most of this open studio, students must have a strong research focus from the start. The first phase of semester is critical to developing and articulating a clear project idea and students will be expected to work with focus and rigour from week one. With the benefit of a collegial studio environment, each student will be supported to refine their concept and set their own clear parameters to guide the development their thesis project.
As semester progresses, each week we will examine a different aspect of the project together – aspects which are common across all projects – such as site analysis, conceptual framing, program mapping, user research, presentation and communication.
Deliverables will be a detailed design project resolved at a scale appropriate to your project type and brief, and communicated to a quality and complexity expected for a graduating thesis project.
Studio Leaders
Helen Walter is an architect with a background in sculptural practice. She has worked in award-winning practices on diverse projects ranging from a 17-hectare arts precinct, housing for at-risk women and children, educational, cultural and residential projects. She was Associate Director at MAP (Monash Art Projects) developing and delivering public art projects with leading contemporary artists including Callum Morton, Emily Floyd, Kathy Temin and Nicholas Mangan. She co-curated the Australian exhibition at the fourth Seoul Biennale of Art and Architecture. She has taught architecture at RMIT, Monash, and the University of Melbourne.
Readings and references will be set in response to students’ projects.
Readings & References
Readings and references will be set in response to students’ projects.
Schedule:
Tuesday 9am-11am in MSD 142
Thursday 9am-1pm in MSD 142
Off-Site Activities: