Studio 02

CONCRETE AND CLAY

Virginia Mannering | Civic Focus

Studio Description

In this studio, students will explore the relationships that exist between architecture and its context. Our studies will extend beyond the usual readings of site and city (the current and the physical, for example) to examine less tangible but equally present and potent fields and forces (historical, political, geological,cultural and transnational perspectives etc) as drivers for design. Idiosyncratic architecture and critical readings of place will be the fundamental outcomes. Students will need to be prepared to critique and questions stories of the city, and engage in practices such as but not limited to, excavation, incision, demolition and deconstruction. Students will produce a museum/interpretation centre, using scalar research methods and investigations. The ongoing spatial research conducted will include mapping, forensic reconstructions, cataloguing and material explorations. Students will be encouraged to incorporate material from outside canonical architectural resources and methods e.g. film, literature, landscape art, archaeology and language studies. Projects will be situated in one of the following: Auckland, Brisbane, Perth, or Vancouver.

Studio Outcome

The studio asks students to think of the cities in which we are working as a dynamic but fragile and contested spaces. To do this we will engage in creative and critical thinking and careful and thorough research. Throughout semester there will be an emphasis on:

• Mapping and ‘forensic’ reconstructions
• Research and research methods
• Scaled equisses and stages, moving from the XL (urban scale) to the S (the architectural detail)
• Interdisciplinary approaches e.g exploring film, literature, landscape art, archaeology and language studies.

Studios will consist of a mixture of pin ups and desk crits, at the MSD and off campus workshops in Collingwood.

Studio Leader

Virginia Mannering is a designer, researcher and award-winning architectural writer. She has taught at the MSD since 2014. Project information can be found at: www.virginiamannering.com

Readings & References

• Edmonds, Penelope Urbanizing frontiers : Indigenous peoples and settlers in 19th-century Pacific Rim cities. UBC Press, Vancouver, 2010.
• Desimini, Jil and Waldheim, Charles, (author.) Cartographic grounds : projecting the landscape imaginary. New York Princeton Architectural Press, 2016.
• Onciul, Bryony Museums, heritage and indigenous voice : decolonizing engagement (1st). Routledge, New York, 2015.
• Raisz, Erwin Principles of cartography. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1962.

Schedule Tuesdays 15:15-18:15 in MSD Room 236; Fridays 15:15-18:15 in MSD Room 449

Contact Handbook Key Dates