Studio 04
Suspended
Laura Martires
This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90142 Studio C, ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.
Studio Description
Conventional architectural and urban design strategies generally view the city as static, when in fact the urban environment is a dynamic field of interrelated elements that are in a constant process of change, resulting in the continual production of new hybrid architectural types and forms.
The studio will examine the relationship between the architectural object and the urban field and begin to test how different techniques of editing and deformation can result in the production of new architectural types and formations.
Testing of these speculations will take place in Mount Isa, a major centre for mining in north-west Queensland. The studio will engage with the specific material culture of the site and begin to speculate on techniques for the hybridisation and production of new architectures.
More broadly the studio will examine emergent design technique, both digital and analogue as a means of working with and acting upon existing fields of matter and material – both through editing the existing and speculating through the architectural element to the scale of architectural typology.
Studio Outcomes
The studio is structured around a live project currently being developed by Common and Enlocus for Mount Isa City Council. The project involves the adaptation and reconfiguration of the Outback at Isa tourist precinct, including an underground mine experience & museum, Riverslea Fossil Discovery Centre and Indigenous Cultural Centre. Students will work with the project team to develop concepts for 1) a precinct and landscape strategy and 2) conceptual propositions for a museum of mining investigating the role of experience, education and entertainment in the contemporary museum and the relationship between the existing underground mine shafts and aboveground infrastructure on the site.
During the first half of the term students will perform a series of tasks aimed at building up their set of design techniques in order to formulate a clear understanding about the site and the conceptual framework of the studio. During the second half, students continue to develop their projects focusing on developing their ideas through the study of precedent, program allocation and drawing iteration. Rigorous and bold experiments will be rewarded.
Studio Leader
As an individual I have always been interested in cities and how urban infrastructure, form or fabric can inform a certain design process. I believe architecture isn't formed in a vacuum and cities constitute an endless and rich field for research and design experimentation. These ideas have been pursued at different scales through my practices, MartiresDoyle (together with John Doyle) and COMMON (with John Doyle, Edmund Carter and Ben Milbourne). In both of these practices each project is seen as a unique opportunity to create spatial complexity from seemingly abstract notions of urbanity, cohabitation or socio-economical factors. The goal as a practitioner is always to create unique, complex and beautiful spaces that work as a connective platform between the context they're inserted in and their occupants.
Readings & References
- Poling, Clark V., “Kandinsky’s Teaching at the Bauhaus - Color Theory and Analytical Drawing”. pp 107-155;
- Allen, Stan, “Trace Elements in Tracing Eisenman”, pp.49-65;
- Lynn, Greg, “The Proto-Functional potential of diagrams in architectural design” in El Croquis 72, pp 16-31;
- Corner, James, “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention”;
- Allen, Stan, “Practice: Architecture Technique + Representation, II_Notations + Diagrams: Mapping the Intangible”;
- Allen, Stan, “Field Conditions I +II”;
- LIM, CJ, “Short Stories: London in two-and-a-half dimensions”;
- Reiser + Umemoto, “Atlas of Novel Tectonics” excerpts;
Schedule Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays | 9AM-1PM