Re-Up

Martin Musiatowicz & Brendon McNiven

Studio Description

This studio will support thesis projects focused on adaptive re-use principles and retrofit to existing city buildings and the surrounding urban landscape. The studio will look at sustainability through the lens of building re-use and adaptation, self-sufficiency and economic viability. Beginning with an intensive mapping and audit of the Melbourne and the inner-city, students will identify buildings and areas which have the potential to serve as sites for our design work. Students will be supported - in a collaborative environment - to define, explore and resolve their own design research project, with an experimental focus.

The studio will also connect with a series of ‘New Normal’ studios running concurrently across other Melbourne universities to develop case study projects for a carbon free future, with input from Finding Infinity and other specialist expertise will consider structural, strategic and systems thinking to arrive at holistic and integrated design proposals. Overlapping with this, a series of workshops, talks from studio staff and invited experts and tours will introduce and frame up relevant issues, examples, techniques and tools. You will work iteratively and will be pushed to resolve your ideas and speculative proposals to a high level.

Studio Outcomes

It is not necessary to have a project in mind to take this studio, but you are encouraged to reflect on your interests and arrive with possible questions or issues which you feel need further exploration within the studio focus area of sustainability, retrofitting and adaptive reuse. We will initially begin to define your area of expertise as a graduate and from there you will be guided through a process of defining your specific research problem, a project brief, and developing a design response to these.

Through the course of the semester, the studio will zoom into common aspects or points within the design process– such as reflective practice, site mapping, concept generation, structure and systems, energy modelling, user research and presentation and communication techniques. Working from the idea of a student-centred approach, you will also be encouraged to participate in critique and feedback for other students work and as a group we will collaboratively contribute to the learning outcomes of all members of the studio.

Deliverables will be a detailed design project resolved at a scale appropriate to your research question, project type and brief, and communicated to a quality and complexity expected for a graduating thesis project.

Studio Leader

Martin Musiatowicz is an architect and director of Kart Projects, whose work spans a range of education, residential and landscape projects. Prior to establishing Kart, he worked on high profile public buildings with 3XN in Denmark; Room 4.1.3 Landscape Architecture and Graeme Gunn, aswell as other local practices.

Martin has taught at a number of architecture schools, including MSD, UWA and RMIT University. His recent research interests focus on the design of learning spaces, housing and public space. He has contributed to and edited publications such as A+T magazine, Kerb, Houses and Art & Australia.

Professor Brendon McNiven leads the Melbourne School of Design (MSD), Architectural Engineering Masters Course. He has more than three decades of experience in the construction industry and joined University of Melbourne to pursue research in the field of architectural engineering.

His industry experience provides him with an in depth working knowledge of how projects are designed & delivered. Much of his career was spent working for global design consultant Arup and has included lead roles on projects such as the Millennium Wheel (London), Marina Bay Sands and The Singapore Flyer (Singapore), and a host of projects in his home town, Melbourne.

Specialist design skills include architectural buildings, lightweight structures, specialist & moving structures, tall building design, façades, heritage buildings, buildability, and digital design processes (BIM & similar).

Readings & References

Readings will be set along the way in response to students’ research interests and projects.

Schedule:
Tuesday 10am-12am
Thursdays 10am-2pm

Off-site Activities:

Contact Handbook