Studio 34

Home

Mitchell Eaton

Studio Description

Home studio examines the possibilities of the bespoke house within Australia. It is about responding to a detailed and very personal client brief, while considering the wider environmental and cultural context.

Although each student will design a home, the studio can be tailored to your specific interests. A ballot will be held for clients (with each one adding a different secondary component to the core house brief) as well as sites and typology. Through our clients we will engage with emerging modes of living, such as multi-generational, higher density infill, and live/work.

It is expected the smaller program will allow students to take a rigorous approach to their designs at a range of scales, including thorough explorations of materiality, climactic response

Studio Outcomes

Depending on the brief chosen, students will design one or more homes for their final outcome. The structure of the studio will begin with common investigations into site and residential typologies, before students begin to interact with their clients, pursue their own interests, and form individualised projects.

Content will be delivered through readings, case studies and discussions. Students will be tasked with small research projects, then progress into client ‘meetings’, and presentations. Participants in the studio will be exposed to the pragmatics of delivering residential architecture, while the brief encourages challenges to the norm, experimental and innovative outcomes.

Students are expected to develop their skills across a range of media, including sketching, model making, and presentation drawings. It is expected students in this studio will improve their ability to communicate with clients in both briefing and expressing their design intent, a crucial skill in the delivery of bespoke architecture.

Studio Leaders

Mitch Eaton studied architecture at the University of Melbourne with a focus in Technology and Sustainability. He is a registered architect having worked with award winning practices McBride Charles Ryan and Buro. Mitch’s professional experience includes projects across a diverse range of programs and scales. He is particularly interested in residential typologies and the importance of the relationship between architect and client in delivering thoughtful, sustainable and genuinely personal homes.

Reading & Reference

Compact Living/Inner Suburban Houses:

• Excerpts from The Terrace House, ed. Cameron Bruhn and Katelin Butler, Thames and Hudson Australia, 2015
• Excerpts from New Suburban : Reinventing the Family Home in Australia and New Zealand, Stuart Harrison,Thames and Hudson Australia, 2013
• Excerpts from Forty-six Square Metres of Land Doesn’t Normally Become a House : Maximising Living Space -
  Australia and New Zealand, Stuart Harrison, Thames and Hudson Australia, 2011

Live Work Buildings:

• Excerpts from Beyond Live/Work: The Architecture of Home-based Work, Frances Holliss, Routledge, 2015

Australian Houses in the Landscape:

• Vimeo Interview, Glenn Murcutt discusses the Simpson Lee House, 6:44, https://vimeo.com/11068142
• Vimeo Interview, Interview with Peter Stutchbury, 5:30, https://vimeo.com/10973540

Architecture and the Senses:

• In Praise of Shadows, Junichiro Tanizaki, Vintage Publishing, 2001
• The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses, Juhani Pallasmaa, Wiley, 1996

Site Analysis:

• Site Analysis: Diagramming Information for Architectural Design, Edward T White, Architectural Media, 1983

Travel: Students will be required to visit their sites several times throughout the study period. All sites chosen will be within 1.5 hours of the CBD and accessible by public transport.

Schedule 2-8PM Monday and Thursday in MSD Room 244

Contact Handbook Key Dates