Studio E/06
Sydney Road Opera House
Mark Ng
Studio Description
Public performance spaces play an integral role in the civic life of cities by providing accessible ‘third places’ that provide joy and meaning, support local arts communities, represent diversity, and build solidarity. At the same time, in their desire to control the interior environment to create high quality immersive experiences, these buildings can become materially excessive and highly insular. This can result in neglect of Country and whole life carbon implications, as well as social exclusion or inaccessibility through disconnection from context.
This studio invites students to design a public performance space that rethinks the existing conventions of theatres, auditoriums and other similar buildings by placing the rigorous consideration of material and operational systems at the forefront of the design process, and proposing experimental spatial organisations with sensitivity to social/cultural aesthetic symbols.
The site for this enquiry will be a 900 square metre vacant lot on Sydney Road in Brunswick, providing a rapidly densifying and culturally rich urban context with challenging planning constraints.
Studio Outcomes
The studio aims to develop a nuanced and personal approach to designing with site and place in the natural environment with consideration of culture, history and ecology. At the same time it will build skills in dealing with practical constraints such as constructability, access and servicing, which are inextricably tied to the social/cultural position of the project.
Being based on a speculative brief, the studio also aims to build initiative to propose self-determined projects that may be provocative, but which are well-informed, sensitive and respectful.
Through its methods of designing and representation it aims to build skills in drawing, (both digital and hand), photography, model-making and graphic design, with a strong emphasis on elegant, highly curated presentation.
Studio Leaders
Mark Ng is a multi-disciplinary creative working in architecture, design teaching, graphic design, music and art. He is currently a studio leader in Studio Epsilon in the Bachelor of Design program and has led past Masters studios such as Nightingale Night School, the Future Homes Competition, The New Third Place, and An Ephemeral Frame.
In practice, Mark has worked with practices including Breathe and Freadman White on a wide range of sustainable, socially-conscious projects with a culturally sensitive approach. Some of these include the winning proposal for a Market Pavilion at Queen Victoria Market, the Nightingale Village precinct, and Paramount House Hotel.
Readings & References
Energy-efficient performance spaces prioritizing artists’ comfort and sustainability — Energy5
Participatory Culture and the Social Value of an Architectural Icon: Sydney Opera House — Cristina Garduno Freeman
Creating Inspiration: How Visual and Performing Arts Shape Environmental Behaviour — Nick Reed, Ian Reeve, David Curtis
Introduction: making Indigenous place in the Australian city, Postcolonial Studies , Volume 15, 2012 - Issue 2: Making Indigenous place in the Australian city — Aunty Margeret Gardiner & Janet McGaw
James Turrell: The Art of Light and Space, Craig E. Adcock, James Turrell
Schedule:
Monday 3:15pm-6:15pm in MSD 140
Friday 3:15pm-6:15pm in MSD 240
Off-Site Activities: