Studio 06

Passive Aggressive

Katie Skillington and Jim Stewart | Living + Technology Focus

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90142 Studio C, ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.

Studio Description

What is home?

Amid global concerns relating to the environmental impacts of our built environment, our attention is drawn to the most fundamental of architectural typologies: the home.

In Passive Aggressive, students will be asked to challenge the notion of ‘home’, and to reformulate contemporary living with a consciousness of spatial, material and thermal efficiency, through a passionate, resolved, individual expression of what it means to dwell in a place. The PassivHaus standard will be introduced to help quantify the implications of design decisions around form, orientation, glazing, and envelope design. Students will be expected to apply the standard to 2 core design tasks - a small-footprint home on a greenfield site, and an urban infill mixed-use project. In both projects, students will need to justify their use of space and materials, whilst expressing externally and internally their arguments of what ‘home’ could mean in the 21st century and beyond.

Studio Outcome

The aim of this studio is to critically reevaluate the concept of ‘home’ in the context of the global drive towards more environmentally-sensitive built environments.

The learning outcomes for this studio are:

• To critique the concept of home in a time of increasing importance of ESD in the built environment;
• To develop an understanding of passive solar design strategies;
• To introduce the PassivHaus standard as a means of analyzing and quantifying energy performance;
• To understand basic architectural detailing from design and functionality perspectives, at multiple scales.

The studios will consist of lectorials (for technical content), guest speakers, site visits, 1-on-1 design work, and presentations to industry professionals both within and outside of MSD. At the conclusion of the studio, students will have completed 2 resolved designs, had experience using the PassivHaus standard, and acquired technical skill in architectural design for thermal efficiency and aesthetics.

Studio Leaders

Katie Skillington and Jim Stewart are both registered practising architects with extensive experience in residential architecture. Currently, Katie is a PhD candidate at UniMelb, researching the influence of materiality on the environmental performance of multi-residential buildings. Jim is a Project Architect at Fender Katsalidis, leading multi-use projects across Melbourne and overseas. On the side, Katie and Jim also work in an ESD-focused architecture collaboration, formed in 2016 whilst living in Japan. Katie and Jim are former board members of the Australian Passive House Association, spend too much money on Lego, and once-upon-a-time did the M.Arch at UniMelb.

Readings & References

• As a reference and tool, students may be required to purchase a student licence of the Passive House software - PHPP. Other references will be provided to students throughout the semester.

Travel House in Gardenvale, Student Housing Project at Monash Peninsula Campus | Week 3 and Week 8  | $40

Schedule Mondays and Thursdays 18:15-21:15 in MSD Room 448

Contact Handbook Key Dates