Studio A + B

Urban Design Studio A + B: Commonwealth Games Athletes Villages - Designing an urban legacy for Victoria beyond the sport competition

Marjan Hajjari and James Whitten

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90061 Studio A and ABPL90273 Studio B.

Studio Description

Victoria will be the host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games, held across three regional hubs in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, with athletes' villages and sports programs. The Games are an opportunity for transforming community infrastructure and housing, revitalising urban centres.

The Games present an unprecedented opportunity for Victoria to catalyse the transformation of regional city systems by leveraging significant levels of public investment in community infrastructure and housing. This urban design studio will explore the potential for the athlete’s villages to promote the objectives of current urban and regional plans and transform the space of each city.

In this studio, students will explore how athletes' villages can respond to the immediate needs of the athletes and visitors and become a driver for liveability and sustainability in the long-term, leaving a positive legacy for the host city and its region. The work of the studio will be underpinned by multiscale analyses of the selected sites and strategy plans that articulate the relationship between the design intervention and its urban and regional contexts.

Studio Outcomes

Students will develop an urban design proposal that responds to the needs of Games organisers while addressing the critical housing and infrastructure needs of local communities including the needs and aspirations of traditional owners'. Students will use the tools of design representation to articulate their urban design proposals, including two-, three- and four-dimensional maps and drawings that communicate the intended social, economic and environmental outcomes for athletes, visitors and the broader community of each city.

Studio Leaders

Dr Marjan Hajjari is an urban designer and architect who obtained her PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2015. Marjan has over 15 years of experience leading complex urban projects and has taught various urban design subjects in Australia and overseas. Drawing on her PhD research and professional experiences, Marjan‘s interest is in employing a multidisciplinary approach to planning and designing inclusive urban spaces in partnering with the stakeholders and community. Currently, Marjan is the Manager of Better Planning Approvals at the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (Victorian Government).

James Whitten is an urban designer and architect with twenty years’ experience working on academic and professional projects in Australia, North and South America and South Asia. In recent years, he has taught urban design, urban governance and participatory planning at The University of Melbourne and planning practice at Monash University, delivering lectures, studios and tutorials to graduate students. James has also worked as a research assistant at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, RMIT Centre for Urban Research and the Swinburne Centre for Urban Transitions. His Ph.D. research explores the relationship between regional politics, spatial planning and urban governance, using recent high-speed rail proposals in Australia as case studies.

Schedule Mondays 12:00-15:00 in MSD 144 and Online and Thursdays 13:00-16:00 in MSD 236 and Online

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