Studio 11

MONOLITHIC

Chris Barnett

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

Studio Description

Melbourne currently has 45 large scale public housing towers located across 21 public housing estates.

With their design grounded in the utopian visions of Le Corbusier’s 1925 ‘Plan Voisin’, the towers were built in the 1960s by the Victorian Government using an innovative, precast concrete panel system. In 1990 the towers housed over 7,000 families in 7,834 apartments.

These towers now form a substantial public asset containing large amounts of both embodied energy and embodied community history.

MONOLITHIC studio will seek to investigate how these towers and surrounds could be renovated and expanded for 2050 and extend their lives for 50-100 years beyond that. This will include looking at the climate we will need to respond to by 2050 and the likely social and technological changes we will need to adapt to. With a long and proud history of integrating migrants into the Australian community, a brief to rejuvenate the towers also challenges us to think about how we welcome new Australians in an era of climate refugees.

We know these buildings will have to withstand harsher climates and the studio will focus on the science of building and human comfort to understand the performance requirements the building fabrics of 2050 will need to achieve.

With a nod to the original prefabrication of the towers. the studio will also focus on the role the prefabrication of building elements is likely to play by 2050, and the challenges building more sustainable and zero emission buildings are presenting to the profession.

MONOLITHIC will give you the chance to research and design on a range of scales; from the large and monolithic forms the towers create in our urban fabric; to considering scales of functioning communities; and then down to the human scale of the compact spaces and living conditions of the tower apartments.

Come on a journey to explore how the monoliths of our public housing system may be reimagined as beacons of pride in our future communities.

Studio Outcomes

MONOLITHIC  will include research and investigation of:

• The Future of Work – AI, wealth distribution and work/life balance by 2050?
• Our relationship to nature - what can we learn from nature?
• Designing with the environment – systems based design and analysis
• Building Fabric & Human Comfort Science - the climate just got a whole lot harsher
• Zero emission building futures – impacts of a carbon constrained economy
• Modernisation of Housing – manufactured and prefabricated systems and futures
• Materials Revolution - zero emission and sustainable materials
• Manufacturing Technology – architects engaging up the supply chain

Studio Leader

Chris Barnett has practiced architecture and delivered design & construction based projects across Australia and New Zealand. His career spans from sustainable timber activism, through practice to specialisation in sustainability and prefabricated construction.

Chris worked with David Oppenheim in establishing the multi-disciplinary practice Sustainable Built Environments, during which time he led an architectural collaboration with Six Degrees Architects in delivering the award winning UTAS School of Architecture building in Launceston.

In 2006 Chris established Third Skin as an innovative sustainable design and consulting firm. Evolving out of R&D projects undertaken by Third Skin, Chris then used his residential and sustainability experience to found Habitech Systems, an innovative Melbourne company that designed and manufactured a panelised construction system. The company delivered over 65 modular, super strong and insulated houses in Australia and New Zealand over the past 9 years, including some to Passive House standards.

Chris has sat on the Australian Institute of Architects National Sustainability Committee and currently sits on the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council - Sustainable Housing Task Group.

Readings & References

• Architects Declare - resource references (Links to an external site.)
• Australian Institute of Architects - Climate Action Forum_Sept 2021 (Links to an external site.)
• ASBEC-Five Ways to a Net Zero future-COP26advocacy_Oct 2021.pdf
• ASBEC-Decarbonisation-Discussion-Paper_Feb 2022.pdf
• Regulate Embodied Carbon - Architects Climate Action Network (Links to an external site.)
• Passive House & Passive Solar relationship & language_2020.pdf
• Should we really aim for sustainable development? - ABC Radio National (Links to an external site.)
• Shifting from Sustainability to Regeneration_Bill Reed_Building Research & Information-1.pdf
• Imagining a better world: the art of degrowth - The Conversation (Links to an external site.)
• Multiplicity themed art, science and technology - Spectavision (Links to an external site.)
• Rutger Bregman – TED Talk - Poverty isn't a lack of character; it's a lack of cash (Links to an external site.)
• Rutger Bregman – Humankind: A Hopeful History (Book Review reference (Links to an external site.))
• Grand Designs New Zealand – Series 2,  Episode 8 - "Earthquake Rebuild"
• FARMAX - Excursions on Density - MVRDV - 010 Publishers

Schedule Mondays and Wednesdays 12:00-15:00

Contact Handbook