Studio 24

urban futures PERFORM!

Robyn Pollock

Studio Description

This studio assumes that urbanity is the future our cities. It explores the programmes, typologies and lifestyles that architecture enables. As our city intensifies and gentrifies, what is lost? What is gained? We will be exploring the role that shared community facilities play in the immediate and wider neighbourhood of high-density Melbourne.

How does architecture influence the experience of performance in a space? The specific focus is on performance and rehearsal spaces. The site is in Carlton; redeveloping the VicRoads Licensing Centre on Lygon Street.

The studio will develop;

• design skills to integrate urban design thinking with architectural expression,
• detailed knowledge of performance/rehearsal spaces and medium density architectural typologies,
• breadth of fast and efficient communication skills with a focus on freehand drawing, modelling and diagramming.

Studio Outcome

Your architectural understanding will be developed in three key areas including how people use, experience and inhabit space at a variety of scales, a seamless understanding of space and the relationship between design values and built outcomes.

Studio will be run as a collaborative workshop combining understanding of local issues and stretching the boundary of current practise. Site visits to local and state dance studios with opportunities for interviews with the users and facility managers will inform your understanding of the programme. Guest lectures and crits from the industry experts and your own international precedent research will inspire and develop your design approach.

The semester will be structured in four phases;

• comprehending the users, theory and programme through research, interview and observation,
• developing a design agenda for the values architecture represents,
• conceptual design testing and exploration,
• detailed design of the experiences created.

Final studio outputs will include a booklet of the studio process, equivalent 2 xA0 presentation boards and media of your choice to represent the experiences your architecture creates.

Studio Leader

Robyn’s experience integrates 25 years of architecture /urban design practise and teaching. She has worked as design architect in London, Glasgow, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth on urban regeneration and mixed-use architecture within the city centre. Robyn has taught architecture and urban design studios at Melbourne University since 2004, with a focus on masters and third year. She led the Urban Design team at City of Melbourne and now provides design advise to state government for public architecture. She is passionate about the contribution architecture makes to our evolving city and the lifestyles of all inhabitants.

Readings & References

• Theory on urban design including Jan Gehl ‘Use of Public Space’, Carmona et al ‘Urban Space, Public Space’ and others.
• Theory on phenomenology and sequential space including Gordon Cullen ‘Townscape’, Christian Norburg-Schulz ‘Genius Loci’ and others.
• Popular movies and tv to inform understanding of users/uses such as Fame (1980), Battle (2018), Billy Elliot (2000), novel or movie of Mao’s Last Dancer (2009) or the tv show Dance Academy (2015-2017).

Schedule Mondays 18:15-21:15 in Room 137; Fridays 10:00-13:00 in Doug McDonald Room 402
Travel Week 2

Contact Handbook Key Dates