Studio 38

Amalgam

Mitch Eaton

This studio is available to students enrolled in ABPL90142 Studio C, ABPL90143 Studio D, and ABPL90115 Studio E.

Studio Description

Amalgam studio aims to explore how architecture can support contemporary modes of living and working in a creative microcosm.

As Melbourne’s population continues to swell, centrally located, high amenity sites become increasingly valuable. Typically, these sites are mono use, either large commercial or dense residential buildings with vacant mostly private lobbies addressing the street. However, recent trends see our home, work and public life becoming increasingly blurred.

The studio brief will push this to the extreme, creating a hybrid building displaying Tokyo-esque vertical urbanism, where a cross-section of our creative community can carry out their domestic, professional, and public rituals. We will explore how workspaces for craft, manufacturing and more traditional knowledge-based services influence and overlap with the home as well as ‘third spaces’.

Students will design a mid-rise building on a prominent central Melbourne site, combining residential, studio/workspaces and public program based around a narrative of their fictional creatives.

Studio Outcomes

Students will initially undertake a short series of research and site mapping tasks to develop their understanding of the brief, users and context. We will then design primarily through an iterative drawing process.

As the program is reasonably large and complex students will present through a selective narrative set of moments interwoven with larger scale drawings. Physical models may form part of the design process but will not be a core aspect of the studio.

External readings and precedent studies will be supplemented by invited guests working across art, craft and architectural based practices. At the end of the semester students should be confident:

• Curating a diverse yet concise package of traditional and more experimental architectural drawings to convey a clear concept.
• Developing a cohesive architectonic across multiple scales, macro, human and micro, including bespoke detailing.
• Translating research including from ‘stakeholders’ for unfamiliar programs into meaningful architectural outcomes.

Studio Leaders

Mitch Eaton obtained his Master of Architecture from the University of Melbourne and has been teaching Design Studios at the Melbourne School of Design since 2015. He spent 2019 living in Japan where he deepened his understanding of Japanese Architecture and Urbanism. A registered architect Mitch has worked with award winning practices including McBride Charles Ryan and is currently Design Director at Buro where he oversees a range of projects across the residential, commercial and educational sectors. Outside of architecture, Mitch has a passion for craft, being recognised and invited to exhibit textile and furniture projects.

Readings & References

• 50 Hybrid Buildings: Catalogue on the Art of Mixing Uses, a+t research group: Aurora Fernández Per, Javier Mozas, 2020
• Manual of Section, Princeton Architectural Press: Paul Lewis, Marc Tsurumaki, David J. Lewis, 2016
• Graphic Anatomy, Graphic Anatomy 2, Toto: Atelier Bow Wow, 2007, 2014
• Architecture for Art : Investigating new paradigm shifts in art gallery & museum design in the 21st Century, Belqis Youssofzay, 2015
• Craftspeople and Designer Makers in the Contemporary Creative Economy, Palgrave Macmillan: Susan Luckman, Jane Andrew, 2020
• Beyond Live/Work: The Architecture of Home-based Work, Routledge, Frances Holliss, 2015
• In Praise of Shadows, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, 1933, 1977 (English translation)

Schedule: Monday 5pm - 8pm, Wednesday 10am - 1pm,  2pm - 5pm, Friday 5pm - 8pm

Contact Handbook