The character and atmosphere of buildings and places

The studio will be concerned with the ‘as found’ relations between present-day Melbourne and its historic past. It engages therefore with two intertwining discourses of a different nature: the first relates to the architectural culture of Melbourne’s architecture and its transformation, the second to the relevance of Critical Regionalism as a theoretical framework for architectural design and place making.

The assignment is to design a residential building and supporting programs in Hardware Lane Melbourne. The chosen site is an existing carpark at the southern corner of Hardware Lane and Bourke Street. The studio proposal is to create a response personalised and adapted to the specific contexts of climate, place, construction techniques, cultural and indigenous heritage of Melbourne/ Naarm. As well as address the current issues raised by the climate emergency – sustainability, Indigenous values and heritage both colonial and immigrant, and the recognition of these within an urban housing crisis scenario.

Students undertook research into works of global architects whose work embodies principles of Critical Regionalism and visits to Melbourne/ Naarm and Hardware Lane to learn from context. Students presented their research site depicting history, topography, climate, built fabric, uses and other constraints. Construct a surrounding context physical model of the site. Develop an urban concept for a multi-use dwelling programme of scale and density appropriate for the chosen site and finally develop their proposal in plan, facade and 3 dimensional form.

Studio Leaders: Devkrishna Mistry