Rebecca Mallaby

The Social Step aims to establish the tools for refugees of MITA to integrate within the broader community of Broadmeadows. The study centre focuses on ideals of reflection, community, collaboration, and a space for tranquility. Driven by the idea of circulation and flow of space, the grand staircase wraps around the building to provide such movement. The shared connection point at level one allows for a moment of the public and residents to connect and integrate with one another before alternative routes for refugees to a space of solitude descending to the floor below, or for further collaboration by ascending upwards.

Expanding beyond the learning centre, the entry pathway running between religion and study, the open courtyard, and upper deck aim to provide similar moments of relaxation and reflection for the MITA residents and wider community of Broadmeadows to come together. Optimal resting spots allow for viewpoints of particular spaces to be captured within the site. The surrounding of biophilia similarly aims to create a tranquil environment for those amongst it.

Circulation and flow of space served as a main principle in this design through the celebration of transition and entry spaces whether the laneway that pierces the building, the grand staircase that wraps the structure, or the central staircase through the internal courtyard to create access and overlap into the external community of Broadmeadows.

The facade is built to capture viewpoints within the masterplan and surrounding. The blades that build the facade are both fixed and adaptable depending on the needs internally, as well as open-air spaces and an internal courtyard providing regulation of openness and privacy. The Social Step was developed to reflect lessons of values for the refugees divided within floor levels, with the ground floor provided as a MITA-only refuge.The celebration of transition and entry spaces through the laneway, the grand staircase that wraps the structure, or the central staircase through the internal courtyard create access and overlap into the external community of Broadmeadows.

The Melbourne Grid is a proposal for the new NGVC, presenting a 100% temporary art gallery with a constant flow of exhibitions. The Grid aims to culminate the exterior world of its surrounding environment. The architecture presents an analysis of the successes of the city, and further critique on what is lacking, taking inspiration from external cities with lessons of communal squares and the benefits of greenspace pockets. The proposal further aims to utilise the fabric of the building to enforce the adaptability of the proposal with a skin that is able to be reconfigured based on the needs of the temporary exhibition.

The year 2120 sees the Melbourne city transition into a place enveloped with landfill. The
outside world and ground plane uninhabitable as it has become an expansive rubbish tip due to long lasting effects of excess pollution and waste production. The project offers a utopian escape for the dystopian exterior environment providing a total contrast of a self-sufficient building to avoid ever having to travel outside with clean, open interiors with deliberate restricted views of the outside world. The multi-space building has designated spaces for community gathering indoors and outdoors as well as all essential needs for happy, healthy living.