Studio 09

the bends

Rutger Pasman & Ooi Wei Yap

Studio Description

Metropolitan Melbourne is rapidly changing. This is not a new thing but as urban growth on the edges of the city become slowly occupied the pressures on Melbourne’s existing urban fabric to rebuild itself becomes more visible. As a result the liveability in the world’s most liveable city is under threat. Politics is calling for more highways, railways and new airports to accommodate existing and new flows through our urban landscape. Economics argue for relocations and allocations of future development sites. Social scientists are looking for more data and new techniques of engagement. Meanwhile developers are pushing a constricted model for our needs and desires. What do we as architects have to offer? This studio looks for new types of living and working in an urban environment that is constantly changing and under pressure by multiple disciplines. We will use design to investigate and propose alternative methods of achieving urban densities required to accommodate Melbourne’s future residents.

Studio Outcome

You will propose and test strategies that can be both pragmatic and visionary. This will require teamwork, individual diligence, analytical and projective abilities You will search for other ways of analysing a site by drawing, diagramming, model making, reading and re-drawing. You will design across scales between the individual and the city, between different usergroups and programmes.

Studio Leaders

Rutger has been in Australia since 2004. Trained in the Netherlands he has worked at international practices and universities before founding CHORDstudio in 2008 and spatial investigators in 2018. His work has been awarded and exhibited internationally, most recently at the 2018 Venice Biennale. He has taught MArch design and thesis studios since 2009 at the University of Melbourne, RMIT, Monash University and Deakin University.

Wei Yap is the 2nd recipient of the AIA Student Prize for the Advancement of Architecture. He also received the 2001 University Medal from the University of Newcastle. Wei has taught at the University of Melbourne, RMIT, Deakin University, the University of Singapore and Newcastle University since 2003. Wei has worked for prestigious local and international practices that span across sector and scale.

Schedule Wednesdays 18:15-21:15 in Room 240; Fridays 18:15-21:15 in Room 240

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