Studio DE/17

Outpost 07

Ariani Anwar, Michelle Gan, and Thomas Proctor

Studio Description

OUTPOST is a series of teaching studios run by studio leaders from John Wardle Architects. Established in 2019 the core intention of the studio is to bridge academia and practice by creating a microcosm of practice set within the research framework of the university. This purposeful bridging of academia and practice is intended to promote a fluid exchange between industry expertise, experimentation and discourse.

The architectural brief for Outpost 07 will be for students to re-imagine Melbourne’s Immigration Museum. Using the Museum collection and specific local sociocultural phenomenon students must explore the diverse cultural landscape of Victoria and identify a unique opportunity for cultural exchange, immersion, and education to be integrated within the current Museum program.

This experience will become the catalyst for an extension to the existing Museum that is currently located in the Old Customs House in the heart of the Melbourne CBD.

Studio Outcomes

This studio begins by posing new questions to develop a Return Brief. This approach promotes a habit of mind where questioning is celebrated as a central act of the design and research process.

Through the development of a vision statement and detailed return brief students will need to propose the scale and scope of their intervention within the existing built fabric that also responds to the Museum's functional and operational requirements. The studio’s emphasis on sustained questioning will be enacted through a series of focused design tasks, site visits, readings and group discussions that will provide the conceptual tools to develop a robust and considered architectural design proposition. Design iteration, collaboration and experimentation will be encouraged.

Students will engage with storytelling through architecture and must take a critical position on what their design represents. They will be encouraged to consider their own cultural narratives and to use the design process as a platform to discuss themes of migration, identity and community.

Studio Field Trips:

• The Immigration Museum
• The National Gallery of Victoria

Studio Leaders

ARIANI ANWAR is a registered Architect and an Associate at John Wardle Architects. She has over 10 years of industry experience, with a focus on the design and delivery of cultural and community buildings. Ariani has a strong interest in the interface between research and design practice and is passionate about creating meaningful spaces that have a profound impact on the people that use them. She graduated with her Master of Architecture from the Melbourne School of Design and the University of Technology, Delft. She is a gallery enthusiast with a Bachelor of Arts specializing in Art History and was a founding editor of Inflection journal.

TOM PROCTOR works for John Wardle Architects as a designer on projects ranging from residential, educational and commercial development to large scale master planning proposals. During previous employment he has worked on infrastructure and civic projects such as the Melbourne Metro, Perth Stadium, and the WA Museum. Tom has a strong background in mathematics and parametric modelling which has led to collaborations with a number of industry leaders including augmented reality software firm Fologram and engineer James-Murray Parkes of Brookfield Scientific Solutions Group (BSSG).

MICHELLE GAN is a passionate and driven Graduate of Architecture at John Wardle Architects. As a key player in the design team, Michelle’s design philosophy is deeply rooted in storytelling and ideas that push the envelope of critical thinking. She places emphasis on small scale detailed interventions grounded on narrative, to create connections between person and architecture. Her professional involvement spans various typologies including civic/cultural, education, residential and commercial. In her personal design endeavors, she has had multiple shortlists, nominations, and awards at RMIT. She is also actively involved in community projects in the Philippines and is currently part of a team delivering the Philippine Pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2023.

Readings & References

Culture and Identity:

• Architecture of Happiness Alain De Botton
• The Eiffel Tower - Semiology and Urbanism - Roland Barthes
• Aujourd’hui, L’architecture Hubert Damisch
• Elements of Architecture - OMA Rem Koolhaas
• Australian Ugliness Robin Boyd & After the Australian ugliness Naomi Stead and Tom Lee with Ewan McEoin and Megan Patty
• Rowan Moore, 2018. The Future Starts Here Review – An Engaging Vision in The Guardian,
• London, UK: https://bit.ly/2EJqd1q
• Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley, 2016. Are We Human? Lars Muller Publishers
• Guy DeBord. 1970. The Society of the Spectacle, Michigan: Black & Red

Exhibition Design:

• Hal Foster, 2011. The Art-Architecture Complex. London: Verso
• Hal Foster, 2015. ‘After the White Cube’, London Review of Books. 19th March
• Rosalind Krauss, 1990. The Cultural Logic of the Late Capitalist Museum, The MIT Press
• Julian Schubert, 2015. ‘Designing Exhibitions- Something Fantastic’ in Displayed Spaces: New Means of Architecture Presentation through Exhibitions, Spector Books, Leipzig.
• Hans Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton-Jones, 2014. Serpentine Galleries Extinction Marathon.

Precedents:

• Ningbo Museum - Wang Shu – Representation of demolished rural towns to pave way for rapid gentrification. Richness in material grain, constructed with town debris by local town folk.
• All of This Belongs to You - Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England - breaking Museum Boundaries of public space

Schedule
Mondays 17:00-20:00 and Thursdays 18:00-21:00 off-campus at JWA

Off-campus Activities
Week 2, Week 5 / Immigration Museum, NGV

Contact Handbook