Studio C/11

Interweaving and Anchoring: Casa de Idosos

Kate McMahon and Rob Nerlich

Studio Description

Using the vehicle of a design competition for an elderly persons home in Portugal (https://architecturecompetitions.com/portugalelderlyhome/), the studio will explore ways that architecture can interweave designed spatial movement, cultural and climatically responsive design, and tectonics and topologies to anchor memory and reinvent accessible architecture.

The sloping site has a pleasant outlook but without heritage charm so to meet the brief captivating and enriched design is required. Portuguese architecture will be researched, as will questions of designing for remote sites and unfamiliar cultures. The brief requires a substantial intervention so a sensitive and sustainable response to the setting is required.

Primarily a housing issue, technical and care aspects must be managed to enhance living. Issues of agism and discrimination, and innovation in the housing of older people will be considered. How do we create a setting for a great life at any age?

Selected projects will be entered in the competition.

Studio Outcomes

Analysis of a remote site by way of research rather than experience will be investigated. Without an intuitive experiential understanding of the climate, topography and ecology of the site students will learn to interpret data to gain their understanding of the setting. Projects will need to respond sensitively and with care to the location.

Most students will be unfamiliar with Portugese culture. Students will be challenged to learn about Portugese culture and architectural culture through research (readings, precedent studies etc.) rather than interacting with Portugese people.

Environmentally sustainable design will be explored in passive climatic design appropriate to the location and orientation of the site. Operational and embodied carbon will be considered, and methodologies explored to test projects and guide construction techniques and material selections.

Social justice issues will be encountered including how architecture can contribute to the creation of dignified and delightful places for elderly people to live.

Studio Leaders

Kate McMahon is a registered architect in Victoria and the United Kingdom and is an experienced Studio Leader in the Master of Architecture at the University of Melbourne. Kate is a co-founding director of mcmahon and nerlich architects a design and research led small practice in South Melbourne. Having worked extensively on a wide range of education and residential buildings here and in the UK, Kate designs iteratively using 3d spatial explorations including a combination of physical and digital modelling, and is interested in how quality design can enrich communities.

Rob Nerlich is a registered architect in Victoria and is an experienced Studio Leader in the Master of Architecture at the University of Melbourne. Rob is a co-founding director of mcmahon and nerlich architects. With considerable experience in projects across many scales, here in Australia and abroad, Rob is interested in housing in all its forms - from individual houses to inner urban apartments, and believes that all members of society deserve a dignified and appropriate place to live.

Readings & References

• Robert McCarter and Juhani Pallasmaa – Understanding Architecture.
• Kenneth Frampton – Towards a Critical Regionalism; Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance.
• Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture.
• Christian Norberg- Schulz – Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture.
• a+t research group: Aurora Fernadez Per, Javier Mozas, Javier Arpa - Density is Home.
• Quaderns d’archittectura i urbanism, no. 225, Scales of Sustainability.
• Rachel Hurst, St Albans Housing , NMBW Architecture Studio with Monash Art, Design and Architecture in Architecture Australia, May/April 2022.
• Schored, Monash University, XYX Lab Gender+Place, A Design Guide for Older Women’s Housing.

Schedule
Tuesdays 12:00-15:00 and Thursdays 15:15-18:15 in MSD Room 139

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