Collide Gently

This studio attempts to address the current housing crisis and urban sprawls that Melbourne is facing. The studio investigates the means to tackle such problems such as affordable housing, co-living, and co-renting through the occupation of unconventional spaces of the existing building located in the inner-suburban Melbourne neighbourhood. The notion of free space by Lebeus Woods where the new meaning is given to space when it is occupied by different users has played a significant part in generating architectural and urban interventions. Students will explore the urban characteristics of the inner-suburban Melbourne neighbourhood with the consideration of what kind of forces have shaped the city, including regulations, history, and social-economy.

This studio has exposed students to both planning and architectural process via design response to town planning, and various methodologies/ techniques in construction. All projects zoom in and out on different scales: urban, architecture, and interiors.

Given a domestic scale site, students have developed an architectural intervention in the urban context with provided programs (collective housing + amenities), materials exploration, and various construction techniques. Students will also be exposed to the historical context with ever evolving building and urban typologies.

Studio Leaders: Yiyang Xu and Nat Pornvarojanabun

Image: Round window on a map, base map adapted from “Location of Factory Sites in South Fitzroy” from Northern Suburbs Factory Study by Gary Vines and Matthew Churchward.