Rituals of Belonging:
Public Space Interventions

Magdalena Sliwinska

Studio Outline:

The studio is a proposal to reinvigorate current public spaces in the CBD of Melbourne through public installations and immersive techniques.  The role of this public intervention is to question the nature of the place, the embodied self and others traversing the space.  The inspiration for the studio is Lotus International 157 publication ‘City as Nature’ as well as ‘Public Art Now’ by Sandu Publishing.

Studio Leaders

MAGDALENA SLIWINSKA is a graduate architect/landscape architect from the University of Melbourne. She has taught at Swinburne University, Monash (MADA) and University of Melbourne (MSD) across disciplines of interior architecture, architecture and landscape architecture. She is currently pursuing creative projects for her PhD by practice and is interested in the social, emotional and phenomenological approaches in architecture through the pursuit of creative methodologies.

Learning Outcomes:

The research focus for this studio is to explore new ways of reading and understanding space and using this knowledge to design an engaging spatial form. The second focus is to use creative techniques and methods of photography, movement practice, art and model making as well as writing, as means to arrive at design propositions. The final question is to develop an understanding of what spaces create a sense of belonging and wellbeing in the context of the city by understanding the psychology of the human experience in the built environment. Students will develop their own public space intervention in their chosen site and will be required to make self-directed visits as well as participate in structured, guest led exercises.

Reading and Reference:

• Bachelard Gaston. 1994. The Poetics of Space: The Classic Look of How We Experience Intimate Places.
• Blank Space. 2016. Fairy Tales: When Architecture Tells a Story.
• Bouroullec Ronan & Erwan. Urban Reveries.
• Brannigan Erin, Baxter Virginia. 2014. Bodies of Thought: 12 Australian Choreographers.
• Carroll Henry. 2017. Read This If You Want to Take Great Photographs of Places.
• Daidalos 68, Constructing Atmospheres 112-115.
• Feuerstein Marcia, Read Gray. 2013. Architecture as a Performing Art.
• Gehl Jan. 2010. Cities for People.
• Goldhagen Sarah Williams. 2017. Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes our Lives.
• Gomez-Perez Alberto. 2016. Attunement: Architectural Meaning after the Crisis of Modern Science.
• Havik Klaske. 2014. Urban Literacy: Reading and Writing Architecture.
• Ross Tom, Roper Michael. 2017. Among Buildings.
• Roth Gabrielle. 1998. Maps to Ecstasy.
• Sandu Publishing 2016. Public Art Now.
• Zardini Marko, Lotus International 157, 2015. Towards a Sensorial Urbanism: City as Nature.
• Zumthor Peter. 2006. Atmospheres.

Field Trip

DATE: Weeks 1, 2 and 3

ST1/17 Monday 6:15pm - 9:15pm, MSD Room 236
ST2/17 (Wk 1 - 3) Thursday 3:15pm - 6:15pm, MSD Room 228
ST2/17 (Wk 4 - 12) Thursday 6:15pm - 9:15pm, MSD Room 236

Contact Handbook Key Dates