Studio 28

2019 Travelling Studio Los Angeles

Loren Adams, Donald Bates, Anthony Carfello, with Alan Pert

Studio Description

In this summer intensive travelling studio, you will plan a heist in the City of Los Angeles, California — a site of contention, contradiction, and possibility. Through a rigorous examination of material, cultural, and economic flows through the urban fabric, you will be asked to consider how a transgressive event — like those in classic L.A. heist films — might become a formal generator of architecture. Think Bernard Tschumi meets Heat; Die Hard with a formal agenda; Archi Grand Tour meets Grand Theft Auto.

Drawing on the rich cinematic and techno-progressive histories of Los Angeles, we will use multi-axis industrial robots and custom-fabricated robotic filming instruments to investigate the possibilities of cinema as a medium for speculative storytelling. We will instrumentalise the coordinated movement of artefacts, property, ideas, and power from one space to another. Clearly defined possessions and spatial understandings will be radically revisioned: walls will cease to be barriers; topography will become a tool. It is an opportunity to examine the ways in which architecture and urban design are complicit in the commodification of public space and the infrastructure of our cities.

This studio is a challenging summer intensive, and successful applicants are expected to commit full-time hours during January and February, 2019. Assessment tasks will require significant engagement with advanced digital modelling, robotic filming, and fabrication technologies — both in Melbourne and abroad. Students will be strongly encouraged to make use of the equipment and expertise within the MSD Robotics Lab, Workshop, and FabLab.

During a 12-day visit to Los Angeles at the end of January, we will work closely with the MAK Center for Art & Architecture to undertake a series of structured city tours by foot, bicycle, train, and automobile. There will be opportunities to work with overseas institutions (SCI-Arc, UCLA), design practices, community organisations, and colourful characters. Students with accessibility concerns are advised to contact the Studio Leader to discuss suitability.

Please note: this studio is taught as ABPL90296 Travelling Studio Los Angeles.  
!!! APPLICATIONS FOR THIS STUDIO ARE NOW CLOSED !!!
For further details see: https://edsc.unimelb.edu.au/graduate/subject-options/travelling-studios/2019-ts-subjects/los-angeles

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