Studio 13

Architecture-Fashion Lab| The DNA of perfection

Isun Kazerani & Adam Peacock

Studio Description

This studio looks at the breadth of architectural design through investigating the multi-scalar relationship between fashion and architecture in relation to societal themes. We will explore the changing understanding of body-related themes and its perception through a critical sociocultural lens reflecting upon identity and the consumer landscape. The outcome of this research and student’s interpretation of ‘fashion’ within its broadest context, will lead into the development of the design project at the body or larger architectural scales. The design could find different typologies across micro or macro scales from a wearable garment, mind/body studio, a commercial retail store, to online cultures. The aim of the design is to explore possibilities within architectural design through raising questions into the consumer culture and the future of fashion. Students have the options of either choosing the selected physical site or a virtual site.

Studio Outcome

The studio aims to develop students’ design thinking through critical interpretation of sociocultural matters and exploration of disciplinary boundaries in relation to current and future of fashion and architecture. The outcome will be assessed based on its ability to illustrate, critique, and propose possibilities for new forms of fashion, and architecture, within the social, cultural and economic needs of its site context. Throughout the studio, you will develop your project through exploring progressive methodologies and practices including diagramming, mapping and exploration of design strategies such as speculative design, intervention, insertion and extraction. You will develop the project forwards using a wide range of drawings as well as technical skills, inclusive of BIM and AR/VR technology depending on the specificity of your project. We will have lectures and workshops on the role of architecture technology, critical and speculative design leading to the development and realization of your final project.

Studio Leader

Dr Isun Kazerani is a guest lecturer and an associate member at MInD Integral architecture digital lab. She has been leading Master of Arch. studios (including fashion and architecture) at Melbourne University and Monash University, Interior Archi at Swinburne University and teaching architecture history and theory subjects since 2012. She received her PhD in 2017 in Architecture from Melbourne University, looking at the relationship between the design strategy and human embodied sensorial and sociocultural experience. Her current practice-based research by design in Architecture is a cross-section between academia and practice with a focus on housing and wellness as well as the role of BIM and AR/VR technology in improving the user experience. She is the author of a book chapter and multiple academic journal articles. Isun was a partner at Mpavilion 18, speaking on Architecture, health and wellbeing and is the founder of ‘Integrative Housing; Home, work, Wellness’ with Dr. Kirsten Day.

Adam Peacock is a post-disciplinary artist, designer, and consultant. He has designed for Heatherwick Studio, Amanda Levete Architects and WilkinsonEyre across mixed use, cultural and commercial projects and masterplans including the Garden Bridge project (London), the V&A Museum Exhibition Road Entrance (London, Central Embassy (Bangkok), and CIBC Square in Toronto. Design, innovation, and communication strategy projects include branding and insight for projects with Stella McCartney, Hugo Boss, Converse, Lyst, Audi and concept design consulting for FIAT on the 2020 FIAT 500. Founder of The Validation Junky, an experimental lens on how technology is changing who we aspire to become though brands and products, Adam is a Lecturer of Design Strategy and Future Related Design at London College of Fashion for MA Fashion Futures. His project, Genetics Gym, was featured in a 2018 BBC iPlayer documentary on DNA & Beauty, exhibited at the Science Gallery Melbourne in 2018 as part of ‘Perfection’, and, presented as the opening keynote speech at the 2018 Product Innovation Apparel conference in Milan, ’Genetics & AI.

Readings & References

• Clark J. and De La Haye A. with Jeffrey Horsley: Exhibiting Fashion : Before and After 1971
• Dawkins, R. (1989) The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press
• Dunne, A. (2008) Hertzian Tales. Massachusetts: MIT Press.
• Dunne, A & Raby F. (2013) Speculative everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming. MIT Press.
• Grosz, Elizabeth. Volatile Bodies: Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Allen and Unwin, Australia, 1994.
• Hansen, Mark. Wearable Space. In Configurations, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2002, vol 10, issue 2.
• B Hodge, P Mears, S Sidlauskas (2006)，Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture.
• Kader, Hafsa. 2011. “The Reflection of Identity through Architecture and Fashion : Towards a Fashion Institute for Durban.”
• Lupton, Ellen. Skin: Surface Substance and Design. Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 2002.
• Quinn, B. (2003). The fashion of architecture. New York: Berg, 2003.
• Wigley, M. White Out: Fashioning the Modern. In Architecture in Fashion, Princeton Architectural Press, United States of America, 1994.
• Quinn, Bradley. The Fashion of Architecture. New York : Berg, 2003., 2003
• Huxley, A. (2007) Brave New World. London: Vintage.
• McLuhan, M. (1967) The Medium is the Message. London: Penguin.

Schedule Tuesdays 09:00-12:00 in Room 228; Fridays 18:15-21:00 in Room 228
Travel Week 4

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