Studio 01

Exchange

Kelum Palipane and Mitchell Walker

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90169 Design Thesis.

Studio Description

This studio will consider the expanded role transport hubs can play in broadening the conceptual understanding of the public sphere as one that is diverse and complex. Beyond an infrastructure project, we will consider the hub an important architectural site of intersection and exchange; of moving from one modality to another, of trajectories and timeframes, of formal and informal, of private and a multiplicitous public. We will explore, “…‘urban potential’, where ‘new modalities of public space may be experimented, [which] are the counter-spaces of the metropolis’ beyond the imperatives of logic and commodification” (Chatterjee, 2020). To do so, students will undertake design research aiming to reconceptualise archetypal elements of architecture through a socio-spatial lens -for example, threshold as performative- with which they will interrogate spatial moments of their hub.

Studio Outcomes

In this studio students will propose a new contextually relevant transport hub in a site that is local to them. Using ethnographic methods and the inscriptive practices of architecture, students will undertake a deep site analysis to understand local material cultures as well as networked socialities and economies to interrogate the issues highlighted above. They will be encouraged to draw on their own situated, culturally specific knowledges. The studio will include guest lectures and external critics from academia and practice including principal architects from John Wardle Architects (JWA).

Studio Leaders

Kelum Palipane is Lecturer in Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, University of Melbourne. Through her research and teaching, she investigates how creative ethnographic methods can inform design in demographically complex urban conditions. Prior research has included developing a design framework that would help retain and foster the placemaking practices of multicultural communities in urban regeneration projects. She coordinates Design Studio Alpha in the Bachelor of Design.

Mitchell Walker is a designer and project leader at John Wardle Architects with experience across large scale public, residential, commercial and healthcare projects. He has worked on the integration of transport interchanges within the public realm in Australia and the UK, having been part of the design team for Melbourne Metro, London High Speed Rail and Cross Rail stations. He is keenly interested in the idea of civic space and the potential of architecture to shape our relationship to the public realm.

Readings & References

• Lucas, Ray. Anthropology for Architects: Social Relations and Built Environment. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.
• Lucas, Ray. “Threshold as Social Surface.” In Surfaces: Transformations of Body, Materials and Earth, edited by Mike Anusas and Cristián Simonetti, 97-115. London: Routledge, 2020.
• Mehrotra, Rahul. “Negotiating the Static and Kinetic Cities: The Emergent Urbanism of Mumbai.” In Other Cities, Other Worlds: Urban Imaginaries in a Globalizing Age, edited by Andreas Huyssen, 205-218. Duke University Press, 2008.
• Mukhija, Vinit and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, eds. The Informal American City. Cambridge Ma: MIT Press, 2014.
• Psarra, Sophia. Architecture and Narrative: The formation of space and cultural meaning. London: Routledge, 2009.
• Volk, Carmella Jacoby and Anat Messing Marcus. "Haptic Diagrams: From Cinematography to Architectural Performance." Journal of Architectural Education, 62 no. 3 (2009): 71-76.

Schedule Mondays and Thursdays 17:15-20:15

Contact Handbook