Design Thesis/02

Open: Social

Rory Hyde and Laura Martires

Studio Description

This is a studio with an open brief. It is a space where students can pursue their own research ideas and be supported by a cohort of peers who are each on their own design journey.

The semester will be structured around the broad stages of project development: dreaming, researching, framing, starting, developing, presenting, and delivering.

All project types are welcome. Students are to arrive with a one-page proposal, to be refined in class in the first few weeks to ensure it’s viable and ambitious as a thesis.

The subtitle ‘Social’ is a nod to the kind of questions we are interested in exploring. Who is your project for? How does it relate to them? How will it create change?

‘Social’ also refers to the studio model. We will be running various group exercises, workshops, and peer critiques, to create a supportive and collaborative space of experimentation.

Studio Outcomes

Students will be expected to bring their own questions to explore – this could be in response to a pressing issue, an unrealised idea, or a new way of building and thinking. The studio will guide you through the process of refining your brief, selecting a site, defining a programme, and articulating a concept.

Each week we will examine a different aspect of the projects together – aspects which are common across all projects – such as site analysis, conceptual framing, programme mapping, user research, presentation and communication.

Students will be encouraged to freely test and experiment in a reflective process as a way to develop a final design. There are no wrong ideas! If you can draw it, we can discuss it.

Deliverables will be a fully-realised design project, of a quality and resolution as expected for a final semester studio.

Studio Leader/s

Rory Hyde is Associate Professor in Architecture, Curatorial Design and Practice at the MSD, and coordinator of Thesis. He was previously the Curator of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism at the V&A Museum in London. He has worked extensively in practice internationally, including for OMA/AMO, MVRDV, ARM, and BKK. Rory’s work examines new forms of practice and the changing role of the architect today. He is the author a number of books, including Future Practice (2013) and Architects After Architecture (2020).

Laura Matires is a co-director at Common, a Melbourne based practice focused on the delivery of public projects. At the MSD she has been coordinating and delivering Design Studio A, Studio 04 and Design Studio Delta. Her research is focused on the relationship between cities and architectural design, through the lens of design process and digital experimentation. In practice Laura has used speculative design competitions as a vehicle for testing ideas, which have formed the basis of her studio teaching at the University of Melbourne.

Readings & References

Readings will be set along the way in response to students’ research interests.

Schedule Tuesday 9:00 am - 1:00 pm, MSD Bldg Room 239 and Thursday 9:00 am - 11:00 am, MSD Bldg Room 140
Off-campus Activities LOCATION_DATE_AND_COST

Contact Handbook