Semester 2 2017 Thesis 4
Give a Damn
Christina Bozsan
Studio Premise:
The following global events, first Brexit and now the election of Donald Trump in the U.S.A., have triggered an unease in many. An unease centred not only upon the rise of Nationalism, homeland identity politics and the shifting of international relationships but also concerns around democratic processes and appropriate structures of representation (the legality of the Brexit Referendum, the advantages and disadvantages of the Electoral College System).
Incredibly, while there are those in dread about the future there is at the same time a rise in political apathy reflected in poor voter turnouts in Britain and the U.S.A. In Australia, we are seeing falling enrolment numbers in those eligible to vote. As the Age reported, “Nearly 20 per cent of eligible voters, about 3 million Australians, effectively opted out of the last federal election...” (O’Neill, M. (2014, August 12). Poll data reveals Australia’s waning interest in politics, decline in support for democracy. The Age, Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-11/poll-data-reveals-waning-interest-in-politics/5662568)
Some see this apathy as really a greater disenchantment with politics.
Studio Outline:
What happens next? What sort of future do we want?
This studio takes the current context as an important impetus for architectural exploration and debate. In particular looking at public spaces and institutional buildings and how they need to be reinvented, altered or transgressed to create civic engagement and or debate.
Architecture is a participant in defining these modes of interaction and power, it is usually complicit and rarely disobedient.
Learning Outcomes:
This studio asks that you give a damn and define your own project within this topic. For this you are limited to the environs of Melbourne. Potential projects could be; extension to The Age building (commentary on the role of the media within democracy), a Facebook and Social Media Newsroom (new sources of media, activism, community and post-truth), renovation to Parliament house (the expression of a representative democracy reconsidered) and or new Independent Party HQ.
Students will be assisted in defining their projects through a series of set readings and design exercises at the beginning of the semester. These tasks will then inform the final projects that will be developed over the remaining semester.
We welcome unashamed idealism, patient renewal, acts of rebellion and stubborn obliteration.
Studio Leader:
CHRISTINA BOZSAN is a Melbourne based Architect and co-founder of her own practice BOARCH.
Before BOARCH, Christina worked with Lyons as a Design Architect on numerous public and institutional buildings including the Melbourne Brain Centre, New Horizons Faculty of Engineering at Monash University, Baillieu Library Redevelopment and the Sylvia Walton building at La Trobe University.
Reading and Reference:
Sennett, Richard 1977, The Fall of Public Man, Knopf, New York.
The Avery Review, Issue 21, January 2017, < http://www.averyreview.com/issues/21/and-now>
ST1/04 Monday 9:00am - 12:00pm, MSD Room 118
ST2/04 Monday 12:00pm - 3:00pm, MSD Room 118