Studio H

MUP Studio H: Healthy Cities

Professor Sun Sheng Han

STUDIO OUTLINE

This studio provides a platform for students to develop visionary plans for building healthy cities. In a series of self-driven studio activities, students sharpen their analytical, imaginary, and hands-on capabilities for healthy city research and planning. The studio tasks are interlocking and pragmatic. Students begin by conducting desktop research on the ideas and practices of a healthy city, paralleled by the interrogation of ABS and other secondary data of a suburb (to be selected within a 1 hour radius from Melbourne Central by Melbourne Metro) in metropolitan Melbourne. This is followed by site visits of the case study suburb and subsequent analysis of the field observation data. Analyses of desktop information and fieldwork data lead to the development of a foundation report about healthy city research, practice, and challenges in relation to the chosen suburb. On the basis of the foundation reports, students propose visionary plans. These are narratives about transforming a ‘standard’ suburb in Melbourne for the purpose of demonstrating what and how healthy city features may be incorporated into visions, strategies, policies and projects. To identify the existing challenges, students are expected to draw relevant information from the foundation reports, as well as insights obtained from the critique sessions. They use their imaginary capacity to propose a grand vision for the suburb as part of a healthy future Melbourne, and develop the strategies, policies and project plans necessary to realise their grand vision.

Both the foundation report and the final report include text and graphic materials. The presentation is expected to be carefully structured, detailed and analysed, with the key ideas explicitly stated, articulated, and supported by data and rigorous analysis. In addition to the generic skills listed in the MUP Studio subject overview, students are expected to use some or all of the following skills – qualitative analysis techniques, descriptive, parametric and non-parametric statistics, mapping visualization and analysis skills, free-hand drawing skills, and 3D digital modelling skills. The foundation report is an outcome of group efforts, which not only develops an understanding of healthy city theory and practice, but also contributes information (attached in appendix of the report) to a data pool to be shared by all students. The final report is an outcome of individual research and planning efforts, including the planning narrative in the main text, and a journal recording key tasks and progresses throughout the semester in the appendix.

For information about intended learning outcomes and the assessment scheme please refer to subject overview in handbook.

STUDIO LEADER

Sun Sheng Han is Professor of Urban Planning at the Melbourne School of Design, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, the University of Melbourne.  He was trained as a landscape architect and practiced as a town planner in his early career. Since completion of his PhD degree program, he has focused on academic teaching and research in the areas of urban and regional development, strategic planning, and analytical methods in urban studies. Professor Han worked for the United Nations and the National University of Singapore before relocating to Melbourne in mid-2007. His most recent books include Towards Low Carbon Cities (Lead editor, Routledge 2015), Population Mobility, Urban Planning, and Management in China (Co-editor, Springer 2015), and Essays on Healthy Future Cities (Lead Editor, China Architecture Industry Press 2018).

ST1 Tuesdays 15:15-18:15 in MSD 216
ST2 Friday 12:00-15:00 in MSD Room 240

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