Studio 24

HERE & NOW (& THEN)

Kate McMahon and Rob Nerlich

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90142 Studio C, ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.

Studio Description

An intensive studio prioritising programmatic innovation and synthesising technical, cultural, sustainable and typological elements for a radical forward-thinking dwelling proposition through an exploration of haptics and sensory-based materiality and form.….

"…..(design) speaks of living and speaking places, in which habitation supports interplay between occupant and structure that leads to a particular kind of relationship. Good buildings evoke thoughts, feelings and stories....."

The studio will use the vehicle of the international ASCA competition “Here & Now; A House for the 21st Century” with 4 student projects selected to be developed and submitted. In conjunction with the studio leaders, students will select inner-suburban sites and develop specific client profiles to provide a degree of specificity to design propositions. The Studio will critique conventional housing and ideas of domesticity, and focus on the potential for contribution to the urban environment, energy efficiency, and engagement with traditional owner knowledge with embedded design outcomes.

Studio Outcome

A RADICAL DESIGN PROPOSAL FOR A 21st CENTURY HOME

Through studio exercises and submissions students will design a multi-family live-work home that is informed by /responds to;

• Local planning policy and site constraints, principles of universal design and local climate
• Emerging neighbourhood context, vernacular precedent and contemporary urbanism
• Cultural context and indigenous engagement and knowledge sharing reflected in design outcomes
• Contemporary construction techniques that inform architectural tectonics in a design that is a personal response to the client/s
• Critiques domesticity and is innovative in programmatic arrangement
• Embraces materiality and explores haptic sensibility for architectural and spatial effect

Students must be prepared to;

• Have a strong conceptual position
• Be radical, creative and innovative
• Research technical and energy efficient construction systems and detailing
• Explore haptics and spatial quality in different seasons/light conditions
• Give equal consideration to the arrangement and articulation of exterior form vs interior spaces
• Undertake specific drawing and model-making techniques

Studio Leaders

Rob Nerlich and Kate McMahon are founding directors of Melbourne-based studio mcmahon and nerlich, who specialise in finely crafted housing, commercial and community projects, with a focus on the spatial, formal and urban-realm aspects of their work, and a passion for teaching at the MSD. Their work has been recognised with shortlistings, high-commendations or awards in the Victorian AIA Awards, IDEA Awards, Architeam Awards and TIDA Awards and various print publications. Recent projects include approvals for a Bhuddist temple in Skye and a cherry orchard in the Yarra Valley, as well as an obsession with residential architecture which incorporates architectural aspects of their studio research into light, materiality and spatial quality.

Rob has experience in projects across many scales in Australia, Europe and Asia. He is passionate about housing in all its forms - from individual houses to inner urban apartments, and believes that all members of society deserve a dignified and appropriate place to live.

Kate is a registered architect in Victoria and the United Kingdom and has worked extensively on education and residential buildings here and in the UK. Kate designs iteratively using a combination of physical and digital modelling, with a focus on exploring how quality design enriches communities.

Readings & References

• Robert McCarter and Juhani Pallasmaa – Understanding Architecture
• Kenneth Frampton – Towards a Critical Regionalism; Six Points for and Architecture of Resistance
• Christian Norberg- Schulz – Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture
• Bruce Pascoe - Dark Emu
• Clare Land – Decolonising Solidarity, Dilemmas and Directions for Supporters of Indigenous Struggles
• Katelin Butler and Cameron Bruhn (eds), The Apartment House
• Friederike Schneider (Ed), Floor Plan Manual
• Claudia Hildner, Future Living Collective Housing in Japan
• Stuart Harrison, Forty-six Square Metres of Land Doesn’t Normally Become a House
• Charles Moore, Gerald Allen and Donlyn Lyndon, The Place of Houses
• Jan Gehl, Cities for People Density, Community and Diversity
• Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow

Schedule Mondays 12:00-15:00 in MSD Room 142 and Thursdays 12:00-15:00 in MSD Room 141

Contact Handbook Key Dates