Heliotrope Tactical Metabolism Labratory [HTML] - Ecologies

Jane Caught

Metabolism: the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.

Ecology; the branch of biology dealing with the relations and interactions between organisms and their environment, including other organisms.

Studio Description

The largely unknown part of this city now known as Fishermans Bend can be seen as a discrete entity, an organism that is consuming and producing an array of fabricated matter, gases, ideas and other by-products.

What are these by-products? How can they be collected and re-metabolised into the urban fabric, so that resources circulate to create a balanced ecological system?

Students will be asked to investigate the resources produced within the precinct, test a chosen material through a series of prototyping exercises, and propose an interjection that builds on the system that produces it to improve the ‘biodiversity’ of Fishermans Bend.

How will your architecture evolve a future that continues, amplifies or forces a divergence in the city’s development patterns? Fundamental to the act of evolving a future through an architectural proposal is an understanding of the past and the forces that have brought us to the present.

Studio Outcomes

Through rigorous studies and mappings of Fishermans Bend, students will study the systems that have acted on the precinct across time; and propose a method for amplifying or redirecting their trajectory, while showcasing their predictions of the future condition of the area.

This will involve in-depth studies of the physical, economic, social, cultural and environmental forces that affect the urban context as well as the impact these forces have on both ecotopes and global systems; across scales of both time and distance.

Students will undertake a systematic depiction of local ecologies at a range of scales, from embedded mapping to detail drawing; from 1:1000 to 1:1.

Studio Leader/s

Jane Caught co-founded the collaborative architecture practice Sibling in 2012. After a period of nine years establishing the practice, Jane founded Heliotope in 2021, determined to find a more responsible way of practising architecture in this place, south eastern Australia.

Her research and multi-disciplinary collaborations contribute to the development of low carbon, climate-adaptive projects; with a focus on emerging technologies, construction industry waste streams and local production economies and ecosystems. She is an educator and maintains strong ties with academia, leading design studios at University of Melbourne, Monash University and RMIT, and with affiliations to UTAS.

Jane is Living Future accredited as well as a sitting member of the AIA National Residential Sustainability Advisory Group and various MECLA action groups. She is a founding member of the Melbourne Regenerative Design Forum.

Readings & References

Childs, Holly; Confetti (Non-coding DNA: a Metaphan Continuum), published in Drowning in a Sea of Data,edited by João Laia, published by La Casa Encendida, Madrid 2019

Space Caviar (ed.); Non-Extractive Architecture : On Designing without Depletion Vol. 1, V-A-C and Sternberg Press, 2021

Ghosn, R & Jazairy, EH; Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment, Actar Publishers, New York, Barcelona www.actar.com

Laily, S. (guest editor); Energies – New Material Boundaries, Architectural Design (AD) May/June, Wiley 2009

Bataille, G; The Accursed Share: An essay on General Economy Vo. 1 - Consumption, Zone Books New York 1988 (first published 1949, Paris).

Joler, V; New Extractivism, from Degrowth and Progress, L’Internationale Online,edited by Boned, S.B. and Hirsenfelder, I; 2021 https://internationaleonline.org/

Head, L; Cumbungi, from Plants - Past, Present and Future edited by Margo Neale, Thames & Hudson 2022

Mostafavi, M. & Doherty, G; Ecological Urbanism, Lars Muller Publishers 2010

Petermann, S (ed.); VOLUME 66 – The Guide to Designing with Animals, Plants and Other Critters, Archis, Amsterdam 2024

Varda, A; The Gleaners & I, documentary film, 2000

https://cdn.ca.emap.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/11/architectural-review-architecture-without-extraction-graphic-novel1.pdf

https://www.51n4e.com/

https://nonextractivearchitecture.org/

https://internationaleonline.org/

https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/

https://www.cooking-sections.com/

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Schedule:
Monday 9am-11am, MSD 141
Tuesday 5pm-9pm, MSD 239

Contact Handbook