Circ: The Labs 2

Katie Skillington

Studio Description

As buildings evolve over time, they must adapt to environmental crises that challenge established architectural paradigms based on the linear cycle of take, make, and waste. Universities, too, must continually reimagine how to nurture students with diverse and evolving desires. And students, in their own journey, must navigate the vibrant circus of chaos — thrilling, disorienting, peculiar, and wondrous — that university life unfolds.

Circ: explores the individual and collective experiences of being a residential student in the 21st century, set against society’s increasing push to do more with fewer resources in a circular, sustainable way. This studio proposes an alternative approach to the ongoing educational architecture arms race – one that values existing structures, experiments with materiality, embodies the environmental initiatives often sidelined in strategic plans, and represents a new kind of architecture capable of rapidly adapting to both current and future environmental needs.

Studio Outcomes

Circ: focuses on circularity through the adaptive reuse of a 1930s building, affectionately called "The Labs," into a 24-hour student recreation centre for a residential college at the University of Melbourne. The building must now adapt to new ways of living, socialising, and sharing. Students will work with a real client at the College (the students and staff) to define a brief for “The Labs” that captures their aspirations and needs. The studio invites students to craft a small-scale architectural proposition for a unique typology – a fusion of education, domestic, and hospitality, where boundaries blur and all three converge.

Projects will build on a deep understanding of circular material strategies, long-term adaptability, material harvesting, and the role of materials in the environmental and phenomenological aspects of architecture. Students will gain skills in applying circular economy principles and develop expertise in material design practice. Students will blend art and science by visually representing their architectural outcomes while evaluating the full life-cycle carbon impact of their designs.

Studio Leader/s

Katie Skillington is a Registered Architect and Lecturer in Architectural Design at The University of Melbourne. Her research and teaching focus on the intersection of sustainability and architectural design, particularly material design practice. She recently completed a PhD examining the environmental implications of material reduction (dematerialisation) in residential buildings. Passionate about integrating sustainability into the design studio, Katie embraces the opportunities that arise from this challenging, yet rewarding, context. She is a graduate of both The University of Melbourne and the University of Tokyo and once lived at the residential college where Circ students will be designing.

Readings & References

Baker-Brown, D. (2024). The re-use atlas: A designer’s guide towards the circular economy (Second edition). RIBA Publications. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781032650272

Cheshire, D. (2021). The handbook to building a circular economy (Second edition). RIBA Publishing.

O’Donnell, C. (with Pranger, D.). (2020). The Architecture of Waste: Design for a Circular Economy. Taylor & Francis Group.

Potting, J., Hekkert, M., Worrell, E., & Hanemaaijer, A. (2016). Circular economy: Measuring innovation in the product chain (No. 2544). PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency.

Ellen Macarthur Foundation - https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org

+ more provided in class

Schedule:
Thursday 12pm-6:30pm, MSD 241

Off-site Activities:

Visit to College Campus (Week 2); Visit to Architecture Office (Week TBC)

Contact Handbook