Footscray: front

Dr. Kelum Palipane

Studio Description

How deep can an elevation go? This studio will consider the building ‘front’ or façade not as a discrete architectural element, but as a tangible space that mediates life between a building and the street, connecting the scale of personal space to the spatial and temporal complexity of urban life. Through the redesign of a section of the burnt-down ‘Little Saigon’ market in the inner Melbourne suburb of Footscray, students are encouraged to explore new formal and experiential relationships between the body, façade and street. A key focus is an expanded understanding of relevant spatial concepts such as threshold, surface, enclosure, privacy, and gaze explored through culturally varied understandings including First Nations perspectives guided by Studio C Cultural Advisor Jason Tamiru.

Site: The broader context is the suburb of Footscray which has a long history as a gathering or meeting place, initially for Indigenous communities including the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Peoples, and subsequently because of its connection to public transport, for new migrants who come to Footscray for culturally specific goods and services. The social networks that form around these activities have become essential in fostering a sense of belonging and community in an unfamiliar land.

Studio Outcomes

Students are required to design a section of the Little Saigon market at ground level and a dwelling at first floor level with a key focus on the design of the ‘front’ mediating the relationship between urban and domestic space on either side. In addition to this basic brief, students can include programmatic additions/variations as appropriate to their unique conceptual approach to the project.

Methodologically, the studio will move between immersive practices on site engaging in ethnographic methods, and formal exploration through physical models and diagramming informed by a select but diverse range of precedents.  Drop-in sessions will be organized with Faculty experts in façade design and detailing.

Studio Leader/s

Kelum Palipane is Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning (ABP), University of Melbourne. She was awarded a PhD by Creative Works from the University of Melbourne and through her research and teaching, she investigates how creative ethnographic methods can inform design in demographically complex urban conditions. Her teaching at the ABP spans 14 years including coordinating Design Studio Alpha in the Bachelor of Design since 2017.

Readings & References

• Atelier Bow Wow. “Graphic Anatomy: Atelier Bow Wow.” Toto: Japan, 2007.
• Chatterjee, Anuradha. “Vital surfaces and the making of urban architecture.” In Surfaces: Transformations of Body, Materials and Earth, edited by Mike Anusas and Cristián Simonetti, 116-138. London: Routledge, 2020.
• Lucas, Ray. “Threshold as Social Surface.” In Surfaces: Transformations of Body, Materials and Earth, edited by Mike Anusas and Cristián Simonetti, 97-115. London:Routledge, 2020.
• Maribyrnong City Council. “Aboriginal Maribyrnong.” Accessed July 3, 2025. https://www.maribyrnong.vic.gov.au/Community/Discover-Maribyrnong/Our-history-and-heritage/Aboriginal-Maribyrnong
• Palipane, Kelum. “Intersecting Mobilities: A Design Proposition -- Learning from Difference in an Uneven and Complex Public Sphere.” In AMPS Proceedings Series 19.2. Architecture Media Politics Society, 2021.
• Pieris, Anoma, and Kelum Palipane. ‘“Persistent” Migrant Kitchens: Spatial Analogies and the Politics of Sharing.” Journal of Australian Feminist Studies, 37 no. 112 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2023.2199909.
• Tsukamoto, Yoshiharu. WindowScape: Window Behaviourology. Tokyo:PageOne, 2012.
• Wise, Amanda and Greg Noble. “Convivialities: An Orientation.” Journal of Intercultural Studies, 37 no. 5 (2016): 423-431.

Schedule:
Tuesday 9:30am-12:30pm in MSD 237
Tuesday 1:00pm-4:00pm in MSD 237 

Off-site Activities:

Contact Handbook