Studio 03
Inland - Public
Virginia Mannering
Studio Description
The broad area of study in this studio is a section of the Murray River roughly between Albury Wodonga and Swan Hill. As the longest river on the driest occupied continent on earth, the ‘Mighty Murray’ exemplifies the paradox of Australian infrastructural systems, being both immense yet incredibly fragile. Despite its scale, or perhaps because of it, the river requires careful stewardship. Exploring a series of nodes as case studies and then expanding to explore the length of the river, student projects will speculate on the impacts of climate change, population growth and decentralisation that might affect the area and the possible futures and public architectures that could be imagined for them.
These projects are subject to the student’s research but it is expected they could take the form of hybrid, novel versions of the following: observatories, interpretative centres, conservation areas, mini-museums, climate monitoring stations, hot weather refuges or community centres etc. Students will be encouraged to consider regional needs and to think of ‘civic’ and ‘public’ architecture in a multitude of ways: archaeological, ecological, material culture, community safety and inclusion.
Studio Outcomes
Idiosyncratic projects developed via careful readings of ‘site’ and imaginative proposals engaging with and questioning the nature of public and civic architecture will be the fundamental outcomes of the studio. Deliverables will include the translation of research into spatial diagramming, mapping, models and evidence of an interactive process.
The semester will require both the development, refinement and questioning of the chosen hybrid typology as well as ongoing spatial research conducted through mapping, forensic reconstructions, cataloguing and narrative production. Students will explore online archives for material from outside canonical architectural resources and methods e.g. film, literature, landscape, art, archaeological reports and language studies.
All student projects will be individual but the idea is that the class will produce a group of interrelated schemes that cover an expansive territory across a chain of regional centres, enabling vibrant discussion and participation across the semester. In addition, our Murray River site is shared with the “Inland-Housing” studio and collaborative workshops and social studios are planned, with the aim of giving students a range of studio experiences and learning opportunities.
Studio Leader
Virginia Mannering is a designer and award winning researcher-writer. She teaches design studio, and art/architectural history and is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne. www.virginiamannering.com
Readings & References
Architectural References:
Asymptote, Steel Cloud; Madelon Vriesendorp and Rem Koolhaas, Hotel Sphinx Planetarium with Swimming Pool; Candilis-Josic-Woods' Free University Building, Berlin; Cristiano Toraldo, Maquina de vacaciones; Cedric Price, Potteries Thinkbelt
Readings:
- Gammage, Bill (2011). The biggest estate on earth : how Aborigines made Australia. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, N.S.W
- Davies, P., & Lawrence, S. (2019). Engineered landscapes of the southern Murray–Darling Basin: Anthropocene archaeology in Australia. The Anthropocene Review, 6(3), 179–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019619872826
- Lawrence, Susan & Davies, Peter, (author.) (2019). Sludge : disaster on Victoria's goldfields. La Trobe University Press in conjunction with Black Inc, Carlton, Vic
- O'Gorman, Emily & CSIRO (2012). Flood country : an environmental history of the Murray-Darling basin. CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria
- Pascoe, Bruce (2014). Dark emu. Broome, W.A. Magabala Books
- Walliss, Jillian (2018). ‘The Antipodean Limits of a Manifesto: OMA and the Australian Countryside’, Fabrications, 28:1, 110-112, DOI: 10.1080/10331867.2018.1410921
- Weller, Richard & Bolleter, Julian, (author.) (2013). Made in Australia : the future of Australian cities. UWA Publishing, Crawley, Western Australia
Schedule Mondays 13:00-16:00, Thursdays 13:00-16:00