Studio 12
STEAM
Michael Roper and Nick James
Studio Description
STEAM: Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics. Educators the world over believe that these are the fields that will define the 21st century. More and more, schools are looking to fuse the right and left brain hemispheres, preparing students to address future challenges with wholistic thinking. After all, art and science are just two ways of looking at the same universe. Both reframe understanding, showing us the world we know in ways we’ve never known it.
STEAM is a University of Melbourne design studio run by Michael Roper and Nick James, directors of Architecture Architecture. It offers students the opportunity to design a STEAM centre for a Melbourne secondary school. Students will engage directly with the school as well as with expert consultants, exploring real-world constraints and opportunities, while interrogating the nexus where art and science intersect. Studios will run Friday afternoons from 12-6pm.
“We think we receive all that we perceive, but in fact, we actually give the sky its colour” – James Turrell
“Delvoye’s works are as much about the biological process of digestion and defecation as they are about the commercial process of marketing”
Studio Outcomes
Schools are rich social environments, bringing together students, teachers, parents, administrative staff, as well as the broader community. Operating across the full range of scales, from human to urban, students will be required to engage with the social concerns of designing in the school environment.
In addition to the school’s brief and the site conditions, design proposals will evolve out of rigorous research into those artists who engage with science, and scientists who engage with the arts, developing models for pedagogical spaces that support the fusion of left and right-brain thinking.
The studio will be very structured, leading students through a rigorous process of research, client engagement, brief development, site analysis, urban design and architectural design.
Studio Leaders
Michael Roper is a director of Architecture Architecture. He has taught extensively both in Melbourne and abroad and was the founding Program Manager of the ANCB Metropolitan Laboratory in Berlin. Michael has served on the University of Melbourne’s Architecture Advisory Board, Chamber Made Opera’s Committee of Management and was a founding member of Nightingale Housing. Michael was awarded the AIA Emerging Architect Prize in 2016. He recently published a collection of poetry entitled Among Buildings.
Nick James is a director of Architecture Architecture, where socially inclusive design is a strong driver in his work. Prior to forming Architecture Architecture, Nick spent several years working with multi-award winning, design-focused practices in both Melbourne and Vancouver.
Reading & Reference
http://dylansheridan.com/works.html
https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/jess-johnson/
https://vimeo.com/77654682
https://cameronrobbins.com/
http://www.ryojiikeda.com/
http://www.cardiffmiller.com/
http://www.olafureliasson.net/
https://www.mca.com.au/pipilotti-rist/
http://jamesturrell.com/
https://www.ted.com/talks/arthur_ganson_makes_moving_sculpture
https://wimdelvoye.be/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_HWDQxcngE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredible_Machine_(series)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dieter_Rams
TRAVEL Week 1 | $10
ST1/12 Friday 12:15-3:15PM, MSD Room 236
ST2/12 Friday 4:15-7:15PM, MSD Room 124