Studio 32
QUARRY
Dayne Trower & Simona Falvo
Studio Description
When a body moves, the spatial conditions that surround it are repositioned around its centre. The Earth is the same, it is constantly displacing and realigning itself through geologic events to points of equilibrium, resulting in the formation of the ground plane. The record of these transformations is found in the strata of rock, stretching underneath the ground plane. However, humans have now become their own geologic force, meaning human processes move the same, if not more, geologic material than non-human processes. As the demand for natural resources grows, extraction and exploration of the Earth to find new plots of resources multiply, as do the traces these explorations leave on the ground. Human processes, including land clearing, have irreversibly changed the composition of the Earth. They leave traces of our society and become the legacy humans leave embedded into the strata that archives our history.
Quarry investigates this.
Studio Outcomes
Students will initially be required to undertake a variety of research and design based projects through site visits, model making, mapping and prototyping to establish an understanding of their own design processes and how these can be shaped in response to the context of the Quarry. Students will then be given a brief, which they can expand upon and challenge, for a mid to large scale project relating to what has been discovered throughout the preliminary weeks of the semester. (p) Students must be able to:
- Conceptualise and engage in rigorous research through design to open the potential for experimentation and innovation.
- Communicate ideas and designs verbally, visually and textually through a range of investigative media.
- Research with enhanced appreciation of theoretical, environmental, social, historical, cultural and technical contexts in relation to the activity of architecture.
- Use technology as an intrinsic part of the design process.
The future requires rehabilitation
Make a clearing
Ask questions
Take care
Studio Leaders
Dayne Trower is an architect and principal of Dayne Trower Architects. Prior to starting his own practice, Dayne worked on a number of significant local and international projects, predominantly with Sean Godsell Architects, including the 2014 M Pavilion. Dayne is also trained in design and has worked alongside renowned Australian designer, Brian Sadgrove. Dayne is especially interested in design that is site and culturally specific, developed through a rigorous process of examination and research and his work, which has been widely published and exhibited, inherently explores these concepts.
Simona Falvo is a registered architect at Andrew Simpson Architects. She completed her Masters of Architecture at the Melbourne School of Design and has studied abroad at the University of Stuttgart and University of Gothenburg. Simona has worked on a variety of projects at different stages ranging from furniture design, retail and single family residential projects to larger scale townhouse and apartment projects. She has had extensive experience in all stages of the design process from initial concept design, planning, documentation and project delivery and is currently the project leader for multiple residential and commercial projects.
Reading & Reference
- Selected articles in ’Textures of the Anthropocene: Grain Vapor Ray’, Klingan, K., Sepahvand, A., Rosol, C. and Scherer, B. (eds.)
- ’A Provisional Theory of Non-Sites’ and selected articles in ‘Robert Smithson: The Collected Writings’, Flam, J. (ed.)
- ‘Splitting and Doubling: Gordon Matta-Clark and the Body of Sculpture’, Wagner, M.
- ‘The Aesthetics of Disappearance’, Virilio, P. (p) ‘Critique of Judgement’, Kant, I.
- ‘The Sublime and the Beautiful’, Burke, E.
- ‘Subtraction’ in ‘Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture’, Cairns, S. and Jacobs, J.
- ‘The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention’, Corner, J.
- ‘The Biggest Estate on Earth’, Gammage, B.
- ‘Powers of Ten and the Relative Size of Things in the Universe’ (film), Eames, C. and Eames, R.
Additional readings and reference material will be provided throughout the semester.
Travel: Week 1
ST1/32 Mondays 18:15-21:15 in MSD Room 228
ST2/32 Thursdays 18:15-21:15 in MSD Room 228