Studio Gamma explores the relationship between the dynamics of dwelling and urban landscape, between cohabitation, density, and integration of systems in an urban setting. We explore and speculate on the “missing middle” of Melbourne by proposing strategies of incremental densifi cation and intensifi cation of an urban neighbourhood with a strong heritage characteristic. Th is was approached by interrogating the existing urban morphology, civic and ecological system and forming landscape and architectural responses to them. Th e MacArthur Place precinct in Carlton is the urban site of the studio. Students work on three neighbouring house plots and their associated backyards, laneways access routes, adjacent greenways and other interstitial spaces. Th e design outcome consists of a schematic spatial and massing confi guration of an interconnected multi-unit residences of up to 3 levels and associated landscapes tied to the public realm, and the development one of these residences into a compact and adaptable multigenerational dwelling. Integration of landscape and architecture are explored at the scale of the urban precinct, neighbourhood, and through inside-outside spaces of the dwelling unit. Ultimately, students are challenged to respond to the following design agenda of Studio Gamma:
“Plan for a future in which people have witnessed the impacts of sea level rise and daily temperature increases, as well as droughts and instances of heavy precipitation. A future in which the COVID-19 pandemic led to global rethinking of how we should live in terms of population density and green space access.”
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Subject Coordinator
Associate Professor Rochus Hinkel
Academic Collaborators
Dr. Amanda Achmadi – Architecture and Design
Prof. Alex Felson - Chair of Landscape Architecture
Dr. Anna Hooper - Landscape Architecture
Senior Tutors
Joel Benichou and Brendan Josey
Tutors
Dhanika Kumaheri
Kate Corke
Sarah Kahn
Anneke Prins
Yui Uchimura
Joel Benichou