Studio C/09

Immersion

Ursula Chandler

Studio Description

This studio will use the hypothetical proposal by a small country in the Pacific, Tuvalu, to become the first digitised nation in the metaverse. The country an archipelago of nine islands wants to protect its nationhood and culture from extinction, in the face of sea level rise and the potential loss or distortion of its existing land mass.

The unpredictability of climate change will provide the opportunity to explore architecture which is dynamic, impermanent and responsive to uncertainty, whilst being highly attuned to a specific society, history and place.

Projects will interpret this brief as they see fit, and may consider 1) varied building typologies; housing, cultural centre or museum, and civic buildings, 2) a site in the metaverse, ‘in-place’ which responds to the varied predictions of inundation versus some scientific evidence that suggests the islands are expanding from environment changes, relocation within the Pacific or another county deemed appropriate.

Studio Outcomes

The studio will critique the idea of permanence and longevity in architecture in light of a rapidly changing environment and world. Similarly, how architecture responds to place, identity, nationalism, and culture when abstracted physically will need to be considered.

Informed by comprehensive research, a nuance approach to site- both physical and metaphysical, and the idea of experimentation, projects will be innovative and underpinned by a clear theoretical position.

We will use large and small scale mapping, detailed drawing- including exploring the construction resolution of conceptual ideas and physical model making and material studies as a methodology to investigate, understand and critique existing and unforeseen conditions and notions of architecture.

Studio Leader

Ursula has worked on projects across Australia, the United Kingdom and Africa. She currently runs her own practice [ursulachandler.com] having been employed as a Project Lead at Adjaye Associates (London) and at Robert Simeoni Architects and Bates Smart in Melbourne. The practice works on a range of projects types and scales and in 2019 was short-listed for the annual NGV Architecture Commission Competition. Ursula has led studios in Design Thesis on and off since 2012, has previously taught architectural history and construction technology and is an examiner for the ARBV registration exam. She graduated from the University of Melbourne and received the RAIA Bates Smart Graduate Prize, Robert Barber Award in Landscape Architecture and a Dean’s Honours Award.

Readings & References

• Adjaye, D., Allison P. (editor) (2016). Constructed Narratives. Lars Müller Publishing
• Rossi, A. (1984). The Architecture of The City. MIT Press

Schedule
Mondays 18:15-21:15 and Thursdays 09:00-12:00 in MSD Room 238

Contact Handbook