Reconfigure

These units form part of a live research project to be undertaken by the Urban Laboratory at Monash Architecture with Disability Homes Victoria (DHV) that will investigate and develop design strategies for reconfiguring DHV-owned shared homes for people with particular physical and mental health care needs.

The project will focus on reducing numbers of residents per house and use this as impetus to increase the amenity of the home for residents, carers and visitors, particularly aiming at enhancing;

  • the interior room arrangement for optimum spatial and environmental performance,
  • the relationship of the interior to outdoor space and surrounding landscape setting,
  • the presentation and relationship of the house to the street and neighbourhood.

A key consideration for implementing the design strategies will be how to reduce the impact on residents during the reconfiguration construction process. Off-site prefabrication will be explored as a primary construction method to this end.

In the Design Studio, students will work on developing design strategies for various types of houses owned by DHV, working across scales from the macro of the urban setting of the house to the micro of a construction detail. Students will learn about the considerations of designing for people with particular health care needs, from the regulatory to the experiential and from the normative to the experimental. These learnings will ultimately tune students to designing for diversity and with greater empathy and care for occupants of any project in the future. The studio will place emphasis on carefully executed 2D drawing and model making as means to design and articulate strategies and ideas to a high tectonic resolution.

The Studies unit will run alongside and help inform the Studio. The unit will focus on:

  • Regulatory Research: The study and analysis of the regulatory environment that defines universal access. This will include research and analysis of relevant case studies.
  • Case Study Research: The study and documentation of systematic approaches to retrofitting.
  • Approach to Representation: Development of approach to architectural representation that effectively communicates proposed design strategies to a diverse audience and relevant stakeholders. This will be explored in the format of an architectural exhibition.
  • Catalogue: Design and development of an exhibition catalogue.

Within these units, students will have the opportunity to present design ideas to representatives from the DHV and in addition to the MADA Now event, develop and exhibition that publicly disseminates the design research that has been undertaken in the studio.