E/04

URetrofit

Stuart Harrison and Brendon McNiven

Studio Description

This studio is an Integrated Design Studio (CVEN90073) with MArch Design Studio E students (ABPL90439).

It will look at sustainability through building re-use and retrofit. It will start will overviewing structural engineering principles for retrofit, and those for architecture, utilising the industry expertise of the studio leaders.

Guest experts will come in to discuss principles of carbon modelling and budgeting, life cycle costing and facade engineering.

Integrated project delivery will be discussed as well as other traditional procurement models, and the campus masterplan reviewed.

The University’s property team will be partners in the studio, and projects will be undertaken on Parkville Campus assets that have potential for re-use. In this way, the studio is located in a real world discussion about the merits and appropriateness of retrofit for urban renewal.

Studio Outcomes

Two projects will be undertaken across the semester -  quick individual project on the same building will test base case structural and architectural opportunities. A larger second project will be a collaboration - undertaken with engineering and architecture students working together, each team working on a different real site across the University estate.

Briefs for the second project will be around spaces for learning, student housing, labs, workshops as well as academic support spaces. Briefs will be developed based on the inherent qualities of the host building - the relationship between structure and use one of the areas tested.

For the first project, the re-use of Union House, a fixed brief of collaboration workshop spaces for the design students will be issued.

Studio Leader

Stuart Harrison is an architect and good design advocate. He is a director of Harrison and White, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design at the University of Melbourne and board member of Open House Melbourne. He is an advocate for building re-use.

He is an active good design advocate. He has worked extensively in TV, public radio, architectural history and authored three books on housing. He writes for Architecture Australia and HOUSES magazines. He hosted two seasons of Restoration Australia on ABC-TV and hosted 'The Architects' radio show on Melbourne community station 3RRR. Stuart has authored three books for Thames & Hudson on housing and has been actively involved in debates on housing and the city more broadly.

Professor Brendon McNiven leads the Melbourne School of Design (MSD), Architectural Engineering Masters Course.  He has more than three decades of experience in the construction industry and recently joined University of Melbourne to pursue research in the field of architectural engineering.

His industry experience provides him with an in depth working knowledge of how projects design & deliver. Much of his career was spent working for global design consultant Arup and has included lead roles on projects such as the Millennium Wheel (London), Marina Bay Sands and The Singapore Flyer (Singapore), and the Melbourne Star (Melbourne).

Specialist design skills include architectural buildings, lightweight structures, specialist & moving structures, tall building design, façades, heritage buildings, buildability, and digital design processes (BIM & similar).

Readings & References

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

Plevoets, B., & Van Cleempoel, K. (2013). Adaptive reuse as an emerging discipline: an historic survey. In G.

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

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

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

Clarke, J, Adaptive Reuse of Industrial Heritage: Opportunities & Challenges, Heritage Council Victoria, 2014

Restoration Australia, season 2, Episode 1, 3 and 6, ABC-TV, 2019

Koolhass, R, Preservation Is Overtaking Us, Columbia GSAPP

Giddings, Joe. Demolish nothing: densifying the built environment through accretion, The Architectural Review, Aug 2023

Bronwyn Hanna, Innovation In Conservation: A Timeline History Of Australia Icomos And The Burra Charter

Liliane Wong, Adaptive Reuse : Extending the Lives of Buildings, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2016

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

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

Schedule:
Monday 12:15pm-3:15pm in MSD 241
&
Wednesday 9am-12pm in MSD 238

Off-Campus Activity:

RMIT City Campus

Contact Handbook