Studio 11

Mental distress and space

Stephanie Liddicoat

Studio Description

This studio asks students to explore critical spatial practices related to youth mental wellbeing, and formulate innovative ways to address current challenges in mental health. In Australia and worldwide, the prevalence of serious mental illness among young people continues to increase. Young people who do not receive the mental health support they need can face many challenges including discrimination, homelessness and suicidal distress. This studio explores the potential of the built environment to ensure young people have appropriate and timely access to mental health services and interventions across a continuum of needs.

Studio Outcome

Students in this studio will develop a coherent mental health facility design response, delivered in virtual reality. Students will have adequate support to prepare them for working with virtual reality in their future practice careers, in addition to other representation techniques such as drawing and rendering. This studio has been structured to introduce you to the process of research through design and builds in opportunities to experiment across mediums, to generate work quickly and critically, and to reflect back on that work in order to refine it. In line with the learning outcomes for design thesis, at the end of this studio students should be able to:

• demonstrate a capacity to contribute to the existing body of knowledge in architectural theory and practice;
• critically approach the question of how design (both at the object and building scale) has the potential to influence human behaviour;
• demonstrate critical awareness of how their chosen specialisation contributes to this body of knowledge;
• demonstrate an understanding of design as a form of research enquiry;
• employ reflective practice in refining design response, through iterative experimentation and peer engagement, to produce a theoretically coherent body of work;
• demonstrate the ability to employ the following disciplinary skills within the context of a design process: the clear articulation of a design idea through written, verbal and graphic presentation; an understanding of architectural terminology demonstrated through correct usage; analysis of social and cultural contexts relative to an architectural proposition; critical thinking and analysis; the ability to respond creatively to complex problems; the ability to select an appropriate design approach to the design problem presented.

Studio Leader

This studio is lead by Dr Stephanie Liddicoat. Dr Liddicoat is a Research Fellow at MSD and Director of her own design and research consultancy, LiddicoatDesign. Dr Liddicoat’s research interests are at the nexus of architecture and health, and include how the built environment can support wellbeing within hospital settings, and the role of design practice in mental health service environments. Dr Liddicoat’s recent research explores the mental health service user perceptions of built environments and implications for design. She is also interested in participatory research methodologies, and furthering the field of evidence-based design, through research and community engagement projects. She is a regular speaker at conferences and colloquia regarding design for mental health, and directs her own design consultancy focused on developing supportive environments for mental health services. Previous studios lead by Dr Liddicoat include ‘wearable space’ (2015), 'the [un]prescribed hospital' (2016), ‘I remember, you remember’ (2016), ‘a house for unrequited love’ (2017), ‘create / curate’ (2017), and she also supervises independent thesis students.

Schedule Mondays 12:00-15:00 in Room 213; Thursdays 12:00-15:00 in Room 238

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