Thesis Studio 02
Interstitial territories : Exploring ecological design opportunities in decline
Alistair Kirkpatrick
Studio Description
Land speculation in peri-urban regions is common in times of economic boom, but what happens to this land when there is an economic bust? This studio explores the design opportunities offered by devalued peri-urban land. Using the lens of hybridism, students will explore new ecologically driven development possibilities for undeveloped land earmarked for housing and industrial development.
In a time of economic slowdown, how could development contribute greater environmental and social value? How might the fusion of housing, food production and landscape manipulation offer a net positive ecological effect for land which was formerly grazing?
Studio Outcomes
Students will map and identify liminal spaces in peri-urban regions and choose their own site to engage in design research. Off-shore students can look at sites in their own cities. Design methodologies and theoretical frameworks will be introduced in the first half of the studio to aid in the generation of meaningful form. Students undertaking this thesis course will learn about ecological systems, plant communities, alternate strategies for housing development and food production, and designing with and through time.
Studio Leader
Alistair Kirkpatrick is co-director of AKAS landscape architecture. He has had a varied career over the last 20 years, working in the disciplines academia, landscape architecture and ecology focusing on Melbourne’s’ indigenous and novel vegetation communities. Alistair graduated from RMIT with distinction in 2012 having explored urban weed ecologies for his Masters dissertation and has written and taught multiple subjects in tertiary institutions for the last nine years investigating themes of terrain vague and urban ecologies. Through both teaching and practice Alistair has been exploring and testing ideas of vegetation as a space generator, distorting the current top down model of hardscape being the dominant element in built projects. Alistair Kirkpatrick has five published articles in Landscape architecture Australia.
Readings & References
- Collin Ellard (2010) Places of the Heart: The psychogeography of everyday life’ , Bellvue literary press
- Matthew Gandy (2006) ‘Zones of indistinction: biopolitical contestations in the urban area’ Vol 13 issue 4 p 497-516
- Joan Nassauer (1995) ‘Messy ecosystems, orderly frames’ Landscape Journal, University of Wisconsin Press
- Tim Low (2002) ‘The new nature: winners and losers in wild Australia’ Penguin Australia
Schedule Fridays 09:00-12:00 and 13:15-16:15