Studio DE/09

Passive Aggressive: Re-crafted

Katie Skillington, Eve Li, and Jim Stewart

Studio Description

In the context of urgent introspection of the material and resource consumption of our contemporary lives, Passive Aggressive: Re-crafted explores architecture as a vehicle of and for craft.

The built environment is responsible for extensive environmental degradation, as witnessed through its dependence on fossil fuels, consumption of raw resources, and pollution of life sustaining eco-systems. There is a critical need to subvert the ways our built, social and natural environments interact. Promise lies in approaching architecture as a craft: by prioritizing material-based, contextual knowledge and applying fundamental principles, we can create architecture that is both operationally and materially efficient, and authentically connects people with place.

Building on our previous Passive Aggressive and What’s Next? studios (2019-2021), crafted material responses and thermal efficiency (passive) will intersect and overlap with individual design expressions of students’ selected craft product (aggressive).

Studio Outcomes

PA:RC studio students will individually delve into the process of sourcing, making, storing, and sharing an edible product, and be challenged to design a crafted architectural response to house these processes for their chosen edible product. Outcomes will be expected to achieve maximum utility and efficiency – be it energy, water, material, spatial, sociological – with the least amount of material. The notion of craft itself will drive interrogations of programme, materiality, and visual narrative.

After successful completion of the studio, students will be able to:

• Critique the meaning of craft in the face of the growing emphasis on ESD in architecture and construction.
• Implement the basic principles of the PassivHaus standard and perform a simple energy assessment of their design.
• Develop a cohesive architectural response at macro, meso and micro scales, and craft a series of architectural drawings, details and models to clearly convey their intentions.

Studio Leaders

Katie Skillington is a registered architect and Lecturer in Architectural Design at The University of Melbourne. Her research and teaching practice sits at the nexus of sustainability and architectural design, specifically focusing on the environmental implications of material reduction and efficiency. Katie’s top 3 comestibles and consumables are furikake, New England IPAs, and broccolini.

Eve Li is an award-winning graduate of architecture (MSD 2021) at Fender Katsalidis. She is enamoured by the pursuit of narrative architecture and the exploration of spatial qualities and relationships through the lens of storytelling. Her professional experience since graduating has included diverse front-end design and project delivery roles. Eve’s top 3 meals are hot pot, pasta, and ramen.

Jim Stewart is a registered architect and Associate Director at Fender Katsalidis. His experience includes local and international projects ranging from small home renovations to megatall towers. He is passionate about sustainability, design problem-solving and effective communication. Jim’s top 3 food groups are pasta with garlic, pasta with guanciale, and pasta with garlic and guanciale.

Readings & References

To be supplied in class.

Schedule
Mondays 15:15-21:15 in MSD Room 140

Off-campus Activities
Week 4, Week 8, Week 10 / Fender Katsalidis' office, Southbank

Contact Handbook