Design Thesis/09

Open: Heritage

Stuart Harrison

Studio Description

This Masters of Architecture open studio at the University of Melbourne seeks to critique through thesis projects the building conservation movement and provide an alternative framework for re-using, re-working and re-making buildings and landscapes. This is an alternative to the dominant heritage paradigm, and seeks a generational shift in influence. It will look at concepts of elective heritage, sustainability through retention, interim use and adaptive re-use. It promotes a layered histories approach.

Students will develop proposals - selecting sites in Victoria with existing building(s) and landscapes, and work with existing elements to develop a new version of the site. Non-listed / elective heritage projects will be encouraged. Elective heritage is an approach to re-using buildings that are not protected from demolition through heritage controls. New programmes will be proposed and developed, and the sustainability benefits of re-use presented as an equal to the historical and heritage benefits.

A series of talks at the starts of semester will outline historical and current approaches to conservation, as well as more contemporary and progressive heritages practices. Students will develop a position on how to work with existing buildings. Research into national and international precedents will inform approaches. Detailed site research will be undertaken, and then radical propositions for the future of these sites developed by students as a self-directed thesis project.

The studio will be run in-person, with remote sessions if required.

Studio Outcomes

Students will design an architectural project that re-uses an existing building/structure. This will be described in architectural drawings and perspective drawings and/or models as appropriate. An accompanying short position paper will be required on the approach to heritage and re-use. Students will develop an approach to heritage and re-use that builds on both traditional and progressive approaches, and be aware of the sustainability aspects of re-use.

Studio Leader/s

Stuart Harrison is a Melbourne-based architect, director of Harrison and White and President of Open House Melbourne. He is former host of the ABC TV show Restoration Australia, and an advocate for good design and adaptive re-use.

Readings & References

Barasch, D, Ruin and Redemption in Architecture, Phaidon, 2019

Reclaim – Domestic Actions, a+t publishing, 2013

Austin, R, Adaptive Re-Use, Issues and Case Studies in Building Preservation, Van Nostrand Rienhold, 1988

Australia ICOMOS Charter for Places of Cultural Significance, The Burra Charter, 2013

https://australia.icomos.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Burra-Charter-2013-Adopted-31.10.2013.pdf

Harrison, S, 2021, Elective heritage: Town Hall Broadmeadows, Architecture Australia, March 2021 and at:

https://architectureau.com/articles/town-hall-broadmeadows/

Architecture Victoria, Spring 2019, Siting Heritage

https://www.architecture.com.au/vic-chapter/architect-victoria-2019-spring/

Hamann, C, Intricate recasting: The Stables, VCA, Architecture Australia, March 2019 and at:

https://architectureau.com/articles/the-stables-vca-the-university-of-melbourne-southbank-campus/

Harrison, S, 2020 Heritage Victoria / Open House Melbourne, Annual Heritage Address

https://www.openhousemelbourne.org/event/2020-heritage-address-with-stuart-harrison/

Harrison, S / ODASA, Adaptive Re-Use Guidance Note, July 2014

https://cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/environment/docs/her-conservation-adaptive-reuse-guide-odasa.pdf

Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage: Opportunities & Challenges

https://heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/HV_IPAWsinglepgs.pdf

Restoration Australia, season 2, Episode 1, 3 and 6.

https://iview.abc.net.au/show/restoration-australia/series/2

Koolhass, R, Preservation Is Overtaking Us, Columbia GSAPP

https://www.arch.columbia.edu/books/reader/6-preservation-is-overtaking-us

Tschumi, B, Spaces and Events from Architecture and Disjunction, 1944, MIT

Additional Readings

Bronwyn Hanna, Innovation In Conservation: A Timeline History Of Australia Icomos And The Burra Charter Tabula Plena: Forms Of Urban Preservation

Bie Plevoets  Koenraad Van Cleempoel; Adaptive Reuse As An Emerging Discipline: A Historic Survey

Liliane Wong, Walter de Gruyter GmbH; DNA Of Heritage Architecture

Antonello Monsù Scolaro and Stefania De Medici; Downcycling And Upcycling In Rehabilitation And Adaptive Reuse Of Pre-Existing Buildings: Re-Designing Technical Performances In An Environmental Perspective

Shabnam Yazdani Mehr; Analysis Of 19th Century Conservation Key Theories In Relation To Contemporary Adaptive Reuse Of Heritage Buildings

Paolo Ceccarelli; Past Is Not A Frozen Concept: Considerations About Heritage Conservation In A Fast Changing World

Stone, Sally; UnDoing Buildings: Adaptive Reuse and Cultural Memory, Routledge, 2020

Susan M. Ross; Re-Evaluating Heritage Waste: Sustaining Material Values through Deconstruction and Reuse, Paul Meurs; Heritage Based Design, 2016

Stefania De Gregorio, Mariangela De Vita, Pierluigi De Berardinis, Luis Palmero, and Alessandra Risdonne; Designing the sustainable adaptive reuse of industrial heritage to enhance the local context.

Jorge Otero-Pailos; Experimental Preservation,

Ana Tostões and Jaime Silva; Rescuing the Machine a Habiter: The Palladian Villa in the second life of Lacaton & Vassal’s Transformed Grands-Ensembles

Chris Butler; Public housing on ‘The Rocks’: brutalism, heritage and the defence of inhabitance

Yuan Li, Long Zhao, Jingxiong Huang and Andrew Law; Research frameworks, methodologies, and assessment methods concerning the adaptive reuse of architectural heritage: a review

Huey-Jiun Wang, Zhi-Teng Zeng; A multi-objective decision-making process for reuse selection of historic buildings

Dr James Lesh; Forty years of the Burra Charter and Australia’s heritage vision

Annie Clarke and Chris Johnston; Time, memory, place and land: Social meaning and heritage conservation in Australia.

Laurence Gillot, Irène Maffi and Anne-Christine Trémon;“Heritage-scape” or “Heritage-scapes”?

Plácido González Martínez; Built Heritage Conservation and Contemporary Urban Development: The Contribution of Architectural Practice to the Challenges of Modernisation

Schedule Mondays 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm MSD Bldg Room 146 and Thursday 3:15 pm - 5:15 pm MSD Bldg Room 146

Contact Handbook