Design Thesis/03

Palaces for the People

Natalie Miles

Studio Description

Re-imagining Docklands as a liveable neighbourhood.

Can you imagine a future where Docklands is crowned ‘most livable suburb’ in the world’s *third* most livable city?

Docklands currently houses 17 thousand residents, yet it is lacking the types of social infrastructure that make a neighbourhood ‘livable’.

What is social infrastructure?

Schools, libraries, childcare, museums, sports facilities, playgrounds, galleries, cemeteries, community gardens, footpaths…  these are all examples of social infrastructure. Where are they in Docklands?

The complicated planning process of the Docklands has left the area in the hands of developers. It has been considered an entertainment venue for greater Melbourne, but now with so many residents in the area, that isn’t working anymore.

So, how can we re-frame Docklands as a liveable neighbourhood?

The studio will start with a series of exercises experimenting with social infrastructure typologies, user groups, and site studies. Students will then develop their own programmatic brief engaging with the theme of social infrastructure and community focussed programs.

The studio takes its name from Eric Klinenberg’s 2018 book of the same name (Palaces for the People) that outlines the importance of social infrastructure in cities, with the book’s subtitle stating:

“How social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life".

We will also focus on research into social infrastructure “ecosystems” (Greater London Authority, 2020) and “networks” (Miles, 2023), with students’ proposals adding and connecting to existing social infrastructures.

Studio Outcomes

We will start the studio with a series of playful experiments, hybridizing typology and user inputs to test ideas of program and form. Concurrently we will visit the Docklands and examine the existing social infrastructure, hearing from City of Melbourne and other invited guests.

Students will be invited to speculate on possible futures for a liveable Docklands, using a strategic design approach to the broader context. Proposals will lead on from early experiments, combining multiple user groups and typologies.

Students will be encouraged to develop projects of a civic nature, which could take the form of a single building on a chosen site, or a distributed scheme across multiple sites. The building(s) does not need to be big, but the projects should be ambitious in their proposals for the social infrastructure of a liveable Docklands.

School +

An optional brief will be to design a new campus for the local primary school which is currently beyond capacity. Students will be asked to provide a proposal to house the additional school needs, + incorporate at least one other community function. Options for additional programs will be discussed in the first weeks of the studio.

Feel free to reach out via email if you have any questions.

Studio Leader/s

Natalie Miles is a registered architect and has practiced in Victoria and NSW, most recently as a sole practitioner and as an Associate at Austin Maynard Architects. Natalie also runs a collaborative design studio, Studio Neon, with Caitlyn Parry. As well as small built projects in Victoria and NSW, Studio Neon has exhibited work at the MPavilion and Melbourne Design Week.

Natalie is now a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne researching social infrastructure networks, including schools. Natalie’s PhD is associated with the ARC Linkage project Building Connections: Schools as Community Hubs at LEaRN, MSD.

Readings & References

Cleveland, D. B. (2016). A school but not as we know it! Towards schools for networked communities. 11.

Delanty, G. (2018). Community: 3rd edition. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315158259

Dovey, K., Pafka, E., Ristic, M., Pafka, E., & Ristic, M. (2017). Mapping Urbanities: Morphologies, Flows, Possibilities. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315309163

Greater London Authority. (2020). Making London Child-Friendly. Designing places and streets for children and young people. Greater London Authority www.london.gov.uk.

Greater London Authority. (2020). Connective Social Infrastructure. Greater London Authority www.london.gov.uk. https://www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/files/connective_social_infrastructure_0.pdf

Infrastructure Australia. (2019). Australian Infrastructure Audit 2019 | Infrastructure Australia. https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/publications/australian-infrastructure-audit-2019

Klinenberg, E. (2018). Palaces for the people: How social infrastructure can help fight inequality, polarization, and the decline of civic life (First Edition). Crown.

Miles, N. (2020). Integration of Schools and Community Infrastructure: A Network Analysis. https://doi.org/10.26188/13291526

Schedule Tuesday 11:00 am - 2:00 pm MSD  Bldg Room 213 and Thursday 12.00 pm - 3:00 pm  MSD Room 141

Contact Handbook