Studio 05

Nomad Hutong: Temporary Settlement For Construction Workers

Kevin Hui & Ciro Marquez

Studio Description

“Half of the world's new building construction is taking place in China… Primarily built by rural migrant workers, a segment of the population not officially recognized as residents of the city itself… Currently, an estimated two-thirds of migrants live on the construction sites they work on… Urban mobility in China, is intrinsically linked to prefabricated housing, satisfying only the basic social needs of hygiene, safety and security for an economic subset that is fragmentary and ephemeral.”

- Stephen Alton, Construction worker housing in shanghai investigations of urban mobility

The studio is to design a temporary settlement for construction workers at a generic construction site in China. The project shall consider the whole process from transportation to on-site assembling, use and dismantlement in order to restart the sequence. The design will focus on the relations within the temporary community and the challenges rural migrant workers face to integrate in the urban society.

Studio Outcome

Early stage of the design process will explore comparison and morphological interpretation strategies. Analogies across settlement precedents, abstract-concept images, physical assemblages and interpretation drawings will give form to design concepts. Development of complex and concept related images will led into architectural interpretation by means of models and drawings.

Students are expected to undertake several iterations and deliver:

  1. Plans and sections of the entire settlement exploring the nature of common and individual activities, architecture of public and private spaces, and presenting the relation of the proposal with the suburban context.
  2. A Space-Time sequence by means of 3D projection. This graphic narrative may display the settlement process from transportation to on-site assembling, use and dismantlement.
  3. Further development of the individual pods or living spaces by means of detailed plan, section or 3D projection.
  4. Graphic and conceptual summary of the design process, project qualities and intentions.

Studio Leader

Kevin Hui has been teaching architecture design studios since 2002 at University of Melbourne and Deakin University. He is a director of a small practice, 4site Melbourne, and as a part time architectural photographer. A fanatic architectural traveller with a passion on sharing his love of learning from precedents in architecture and travel, he has recently embarked on taking students privately on his ‘archimarathons’ interstate and overseas.

Ciro Márquez received the Master’s Degree in Architecture from Polytechnic University of Madrid. Founder of mmmm..., an artist group that works on public art, has achieved several international awards, exhibited and worked in Europe, US and Australia. Ciro has been a lecturer in architecture teaching in Melbourne, China, South Korea and Spain. His major fields of research are

  1. drawing and association process as a creative design method and
  2. systems design in adaptable architecture. He is co-author of The Drawing Bazaar, a book on architectural and project development media.

Readings & References

Schedule Tuesdays 09:00-12:00 in Room 117; Fridays 15:15-18:15 in Room 240

Contact Handbook Key Dates

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