Studio Leaders: Kristen Wang, Amos Dahlitz & Andrew Hayes
Edithvale, Chelsea and Bonbeach are three coastal suburbs located about 30 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. A $3 billion upgrade along the Melbourne Frankston train line is underway as part of the Victorian Government's Level Crossing Removal Project, and Studio CONNECT takes this opportunity to further investigate mobility in the 21st century.
Students are challenged to propose new local train stations to improve the infrastructure of Edithvale, Chelsea and Bonbeach precincts with the aims
- To connect central Melbourne and Mornington Peninsula
- To connect urban and landscape
- To connect future development and historic background
- To connect the human and the built environment
Students are also asked to consider and design for different speeds of transportation mode and hence its different types of connectivity from a bottom-up design approach.
During the first half of the semester, students undertook a variety of researches and site analysis on the urban and social-cultural fabric of Edithvale, Chelsea and Bonbeach to establish their conceptual positions of the found issue(s). In the second phase, students chose one station to develop their design proposal iteratively as shaped by their early investigations.
Architectural orthographic drawings and different representation techniques lay a keystone in the studio as a method of design development. Students learn about design with different scale and establish a rigorous design process as aligning with architecture practice.
A number of presentations and workshops were carried out throughout the semester by Cox Architecture and professional consultants from WSP and rush\wright associates to bring students with more insightful expertise to their design projects of train stations.