Thesis Studio 11
Architecture as Identity

The New Fishermans Bend Campus

Studio leader: Hans van Rijnberk

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In the 21st century we are facing critical issues which affect our continuing coexistence on this planet. An increasing pressure to mesh the colliding cultures of the global city created by air travel and modern communications, to reconcile rising economic growth with the need to repair and sustain our already damaged natural environment, and to provide refuge from the stresses and uproar of the marketplace, the media and our increasingly urban lives.

Universities have always been places of critique and independent thought, forever preparing the next generation to do better than the previous one. These places of learning have a responsibility to provide environments that address the issues we are dealing with in our daily life. A campus as an ever-changing vessel of ideas, needs and desires, that are expressed, formed and reformed. The buildings, spaces and objects that compose these places are the elements that we use to create awareness and more importantly an identity.

The design task is focused on researching about, and then designing a Campus Hub Building in a New Campus setting around contemporary Architectural Representation of Identity. Through extensive architectural, social and cultural research, the students are expected to take a theoretical position on architecture as a system of codes, symbols and signs. Based on this position students are asked to design a building that is able to represent the Identity of this new campus, all in response to:

* The positioning of a new campus in a competitive global environment;

* Local geographic challenges and bigger issues of climate change and sustainability;

* The significance of the site, both pre and post-colonial;

* The changing demographic of the student body.

Image: Yinping Zhang

Architecture 2020_summer