Studio C/02

Radical Ur-topias: The Australian Suburb and new Housing Prototypes for 2050

Peter Raisbeck and Michael Maginness

Studio Description

This studio is based on the proposition that the future Australian suburb will be a place where current housing typologies are no longer viable. The development of new housing types in the suburbs is now urgent, for both ecological and climate reasons. In pursuing this question through design students will be asked to work with and consider indigenous knowledge systems, settler colonial histories, urban play and utopian housing models. A central question will be to ask, what is “spirit of place” in the suburbs beyond the city.

The project will be a medium density housing project suitable for 2050. This will be located at Beveridge 27Km North of Melbourne. Planning is underway there to develop a new suburb. Beveridge is the location of Ned Kelly, the Australian bushranger’s home. More importantly, Beveridge is on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri and part of the East Kulin nation.

Studio Outcomes

Students will begin by thinking about indigenous knowledge systems of Country, countering settler-colonial notions of the suburb. Studio participants will then develop a manifesto, different scenarios for 2050 housing in Australia, and a design for medium-density housing. The outputs will be drawings and 3D-printed models. The studio program will be structured around several tasks and milestones. The studio will focus on fostering a constructive culture of design criticism and feedback.

The studio is designed for the new Studio C program. It will teach students skills in analysis, acknowledging Country, concept and manifesto development, and the conceptual design and design of medium-density housing.

Studio Leaders

Associate Professor Peter Raisbeck is an architect, academic and teacher, he has published a number of books. Architects Sustainability and the Climate Emergency: A Political Ecology (2022), is an contribution to sustainability and climate debates. Architecture as a Global System (2019), questions the agency of architects alongside design band community perspectives. Robin Boyd: Robin Boyd Late Works (2020)—co-authored with Christine Phillips—is a book on the later works of the Australian architect

Michael Maginness is a graduate of MSD and member of the Berlin Based ON/OFF Collective.  He currently resides in Melbourne.

Together, in November 2022 Michael and Peter co-taught Design Activism at MSD. In 2016 they completed the collaborative project Pilbara—Country, Colony and Urbanisation. This project was exhibited and published as a part of the ARCH+ Planetary Urbanism competition.

Readings & References

• Tyson Yunkaporta’s, Sand Talk, 2018.
• The First Knowledges Series, Edited by Margo Neal, 2021.
• Co-machines: The Mobile Disruptive Architecture Handbook, ON/OFF Collective, (2018). This book investigates practices of place-making, occupying and squatting, and alternative economies.
• In contrast to the above settler colonial histories will be pursued through the writings of Robin Boyd, Australia’s Home (1952) and The Great Great Australian Dream (1972).

Schedule
Mondays 12:00-15:00 in MSD Room 140 and Fridays 15:15-18:15 in MSD Room 138

Contact Handbook