Studio 46

Untamed

James Park

Studio Description

Studio Untamed is a theory and process driven studio which will delve into ontological questions about the very nature of architecture as both a practice and autopoietic system. Students will be asked to interrogate architectural forms and ideas in order to liberate their thinking from historical, cultural and associative aspects of architecture. In doing so the studio will explore humankind’s relation to concepts such as wilderness and wildness and attempt to uncover/rediscover an architecture of first principles which will form a basis for ongoing inquiry. The studio will borrow from literature, cinema, philosophy, and architectural practice to explore themes such as place, making, memory and architectural ethics. Studio Untamed will encourage collaboration, skill sharing and discussion (over a glass of wine).

Studio Outcome

The semester will be broken into two parts – the first will ask students to design a hut for one in the wilderness, the second will take lessons learnt from part 1 and require students to apply their learning to a more complex and culturally laden brief - a secular retreat & library on a site in rural Victoria.

Studio Leaders

Having initially studied economics and sociology at Melbourne University, James switched his attention to architecture in 2007, undertaking his Bachelors of Architecture at Sydney University. After working at COX for a couple years he moved to Vienna and attended Architecture school at Studio Hadid where he also worked as a Grasshopper tutor for the studio. James completed his Master thesis ‘Extended Thresholds’ with Bart Chompff in 2015. He currently works as a designer at John Wardle Architects.

Readings & References

• Essai sur l'Architecture - Marc-Antoine Laugier
• Walden - Henry David Thoreau
• Building, Dwelling, Thinking - Martin Heidegger
• The Rhizome - Deleuze and Guattari
• The Four Elements of Architecture - Gottfried Semper

Travel Week 3 | $150
Schedule Mondays 18:15-21:15 in Room 449; Wednesdays 18:15-21:15 in Room 138

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