Studio D/02

CIRCUS

Oskar Kazmanli-Liffen and Rennie Liffen

Studio Description

I’m on my way, walking it slow
Across my flaws, along the river and down from the estate.
30 miles an hour, 4 days in this hour
Steadycam - our memories handheld

Skylines in every direction
You can get anywhere from here
Sugar glazed Summer anthems competing with echos of worldcup scorelines
Clusters of carefree revellers

I know my path through the madness
A smile but no clowns here
We’re all front like this place
Stuck in a loop but with purpose
CIRCUS

Studio 2 will develop intimate and idiosyncratic projects that explore the spatial and human dimensions of architectural composition. We will engage with the experiential and phenomenological implications of an architecture of both ‘individual’ and ‘community’. The studio will be sited adjacent to a significant public space in London and students will imbue an imaginary immediate context with spatial and experiential profile. The studio thematically focuses on ‘public utility’ as a foundation for programmatic intervention and seeks to understand the compositional implication of programmes that may initially appear banal but hold more meaningful possibilities on further investigation. Each student will form the functional and experiential brief for the architecture of a small building within the context of an imagined urban location. Students will be directed to a series of contemporary architectural references and be encouraged to embrace a reductive and legible architectural language.

Studio Outcomes

Students will use an iterative design process in conjunction with studio leaders and studio collaborators, where orthographic drawing, descriptive writing and physical model-making are central activities. A disciplined and methodical approach which uses these abstract techniques will value and exhibit every ‘trace’ of the process as the ‘archaeology of the mind’. Through these modes of working the studio will explore a singular architectural composition that includes spatial experience, environment, landscape, tectonic and material. Final outcomes will be restricted to specific and consistent communication tools with a focus on the representation of ‘atmosphere’ and ‘construction’. Students will be expected to produce significant and sophisticated drawings and models throughout the semester, communicating their intentions with clarity and passion.

Studio Leaders

OSKAR KAZMANLI-LIFFEN is an architect with Edition Office and a Creative Practioner at The University of Melbourne originally from London. With experience in award winning practices, Oskar has also co-led studios across the masters and undergraduate degrees at RMIT and MSD. Through teaching and practice his interests lie in a close understanding of site, diagrammatic and compositional clarity and the experiential qualities of object and space.

RENNIE LIFFEN is a British Architect from London who has practiced in Europe and Australia. Rennie was involved in design studio teaching for many years in the UK and has been living, working and teaching in Melbourne since 2005. Rennie established Masters Design Studio 2 over a decade ago and this will be his twenty-first version of the studio and the tenth in collaboration with Oskar Kazmanli-Liffen. Rennie’s teaching was recognized in 2022 with an ABP Teaching Excellence Award. This semester he will be contributing part-time to the studio’s activities.

Readings & References

• JULIEN TEMPLE – Film – London: The Modern Babylon
• BEN JUDAH – Writing – This is London
• 6A ARCHITECTS – Architecture + Theory
• SERGISON BATES – Architecture + Theory
• CARMODY GROAKE – Architecture + Theory
• PETER ZUMTHOR – Architecture + Theory
• JUHANI PALLASMAA – Writing + Theory
• TADAO ANDO – Design Process
• ATELIER BOW-BOW – Architecture + Graphics
• LAB-LAB FOR ARCHITECTURE – Theory + Graphics

Schedule Mondays 15:15-18:15 MSD Room 139 and Thursdays 18:15-21:15 in MSD Room 239

Contact Handbook