THE/09

Open: Future Civic

Emilio Fuscaldo

Studio Description

Future Civic offers an opportunity for students to delve into innovative civic architecture and urban design projects. The studio, while closed due to its focus on public amenities, allows students the freedom to choose their sites and program, fostering their creativity and independence.  Student projects will bolster local communities by enhancing their access to social infrastructure. A theoretical understanding of social justice, gender, power, and sustainability will guide the design of these architectural urban spaces.

This studio is a direct response to Melbourne's rapid growth, and its proposes projects that are more agile, focused, and flexible than the large-scale responses seen in recent projects such as Dandenong & Sunshine. The complexity and scale of the proposed projects will depends on the programs chosen by the students. A single set of public toilets will be too small, and a sports stadium will be too complex. Students will be supported through a combination of options and arrive at the appropriate level of complexity and scale.

Students will be encouraged to think beyond traditional projects like libraries, community hubs, sports pavilions, public transport infrastructure, pool, and recreation areas. While elements of these projects may be included, students will be urged to be innovative by integrating concepts related to social justice, gende, and the climate crisis to address future social needs. They will also be encouraged to take an interdisciplinary design approach, considering the needs of non-human "clients" such as plants, animals, and environmental systems. This approach may results in project that initially focus on landscape and geography before incorporating architectural and urban design strategies.

Students will be required to situate their projects in public spaces of their design, and as such, their projects will be both an architectural and an urban design provocation. The urban design component must support multiple programs and respond to the location' unique social and environmental challenges.

At the beginning of the semester, students will undertake theoretical research focusing on urban design topics such as spatial justice, privatisation, gender, text, place, or the concept of a citizen's right to the city. This theoretical research will form the basis of their propositions by framing their thesis question. They will then use creative mapping to demonstrate how and why their research focus has manifested in the city. These two exercises provide students with a theoretical foundation for their projects supported by real-world observations.

Creative mapping can also provide clues for students regarding where to locate their project based on socio-political environmental distribution, such as wealth, equality, liveability, heat and water, or locations of contested ideas and identities, such as sites of protest and gender-based violence. Translating research findings into design-based strategies will be a focus of the second half of the semester. Students will undertake exercises such as precedent research, 2D and 3D parti-diagrams and first-person vignettes to shape their research questions.

The studio encourages students to investigate the city they live in and discover aspects of the city that are not visible.  This research will shape their propositions that fill gaps or mend scars in the city's social infrastructure.

Studio Outcomes

The studio's materials and activities are chosen to stimulate students to consider and thing  beyond their own experiences. Through written and drawn exercises, students will research the connections between architecture and other disciplines, such as film, art, literature, landscape and urban design. Through this, they are challenged and encouraged to take agency in their learning process, instead of simply following directions. You'll hear voices other than my own, inviting speakers into the studio to present on their craft and different topics.

This studio will start with a theoretical, social and cultural study of social infrastructure from Australia and worldwide. We will also look outside of architecture, to go beyond our traditionally accepted notions of what social services should be offered. Students will then be encouraged to lead in building their brief and selecting their site for their project, ensuring that projects are culturally relevant to the student. Students' final projects will propose an entirely new piece of social infrastructure whose principal function is to help create and maintain communities. Projects will have both an urban design focus and an architectural resolution, and students will be encouraged to blur the line between the two disciplines.

The studio will encourage students to leave behind their computer screens and walk the streets. The gathering of primary research will be central to the studio.

Great outcomes are the result of students developing their own learning interests through critical thinking and feeling supported. I try hard to suspned my own biases, too listen deeply to students and to do everything that I can to mentor them so that they can be proud of their achievements.

Studio Leader

Emilio Fuscaldo, founder of Nest Architects, has significant experience leading projects across diverse sectors, including single-residential, hospitality, retail, and education. He has also taught design studios in the Architecture and Interior Design departments at RMIT and The University of Melbourne.

Before completing an Architectural degree, Emilio completed an Arts degree with Honours in Philosophy, including a thesis concerning Environmental Ethics. He is passionate about the power of collaboration and strongly advocates for environmental sustainability and inclusive design in all projects. To Emilio, being an architect is an opportunity to improve behaviours and communities.

Readings & References

To be provided  in class.

Schedule:
Tuesday 3:15pm-6:15pm in MSD 138
&
Friday 12:00pm-3:00pm in MSD 138 

Off-Site Activity:
TBA

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