Student projects have been purposefully designed to introduce the students to the intellectual, material and spatial culture of architecture; seeing, understanding and responding to the parameters of place; recognising landscape as architecture… all intended to foster design and strategic thinking skills and the value of risk-taking in the creative process.
Postgraduate student work
Amoz Boon - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: Field Connectivity. Analysing how various field conditions could interrelate and act to create a highly contextual architecture: between the field and the object. This is tested through a design proposition on Brisbane’s Roma Street railway precinct. Thesis adviser: Haig Beck
Dane Asmussen - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: Extreme Adaptations. In one of the world’s remotest and harshest environments, a journey is envisaged between the once-thriving cargo port of Punta Arenas in Chile to the booming tourism destination of the South Shetland island group on the Antarctic Peninsula. The project consists of the port building (a ground-up design); repurposing an existing cargo ship (keeping its structure and refitting the interior to accommodate and transport up to 140 tourists); and relocating an oil rig to be a permanent research base in the South Shetland island group. Thesis adviser: Sarah Lindsay
Collette Skinner - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: High-rise interventions. As places become more urbanised and densely populated, a dearth of effective design investigations into high-rise live-work typologies becomes apparent.
Dylan Robinson - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: Humanitarian Intervention. Australia has an obligation to allow in more refugees. Proposition: a built-form oasis near a large watering hole in an existing ghost town, Betoota, Queensland. Homes, jobs, recreation and tourism facilities. A prototype for the future, the built-form oases can be reproduced. The resulting city will accommodate refugees of war, famine, disease, climate change and rising tides. Thesis adviser: Jasper Brown.
Megan Stuart - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: Evolutionary Micro Housing. Tea estate workers in Sri Lanka, mostly women, live in poverty and misery. To ameliorate their circumstances, this project proposes a series of small, low-cost, bottom-up interventions: existing rooms reconfigured to maximise space, natural ventilation and sunlight; kitchen relocated; safe bathing facilities installed; and a gathering place made to cater for community activities, religious festivals and schooling the estate's children.
Michael Parsons - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: Enterprise interventions. The Hong Kong Maker-hive is a contemporary commercial environment. The growing 'maker' culture of digital and urban artisans has different programmatic and architectural requirements from those of a conventional commercial building.
Rory Spence - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: Enterprise interventions. The Hong Kong Maker-hive is a contemporary commercial environment. The growing 'maker' culture of digital and urban artisans has different programmatic and architectural requirements from those of a conventional commercial building.
Scott Deppeler - Master of Architecture (2016).
Project title: School. All over the globe, the overwhelming presence of built form and dense infrastructure produces the displacement and estrangement of individuals and communities. Such urban pressures unsettle older use patterns of the city, and in particular the ways public space can be experienced. Civic intervention investigates the core of civil institutions like parks, libraries, city halls and cultural facilities. Projects critically question identity, design and the boundaries of civic space, seeking to connect public spaces and the diverse demographic groups using them.
Michael Parsons - Master of Architecture (2016).
Project title: Formalising Informality. It is predicted that by 2050, informal settlements in Africa alone will triple. Informal settlements have their own distinctive character and pattern, like a social fingerprint. Applying an algorithmic pattern language to unplanned settlements, this thesis tests the viability of using computational control while trying to preserve the existing formal pattern. The result is a series of formal explorations that establish a viable modular construction system for informal dwellings. These are well-built homes rather than temporary shacks. Thesis adviser: Jonathan Nelson.
Amoz Boon - Master of Architecture (2016)
Project title: High-rise interventions. As places become more urbanised and densely populated, a dearth of effective design investigations into high-rise live-work typologies becomes apparent.
Matthew Wadham - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Inter-generational Housing. This thesis hypothesised a new response to the growing demand of multi-dwelling housing. Situated in the void between high density and detached single dwelling housing typologies in Australian Architecture, the design turned to an appropriation of the granny flat, utilising typically left-over space as the architectural device to control privacy and permeability, while adding valuable shared garden space.
Emma Raunik - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Gold Coast Ferry Terminal. What kind of a place might a Gold Coast ferry terminal strive to be? A place for the community to meet, journey through or stay a while; a place for architectural and environmental experience; and an acupunctural insertion that catalyses positive change throughout its immediate urban environment. The proposed ferry terminal could be used as a prototype design to be adapted to each site for the overall system. While each site’s individual characteristics would dictate the designs, a programmatic kit of parts ensured that a unified design language could be followed.
Rachel Don - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project Title: RESET: Our Distopian Future. The starting point for the design investigation was at the intersection of the disciplines of architecture and film. By targeting the popular discourse of dystopia within the genre of sci-fi, this endeavour aimed to highlight the opportunities designers have within the newly growing markets of virtual spaces. Intangible places experienced via virtual and augmented realities are a real part of our future, and architects and designers alike have a responsibility to ensure these spaces are well designed and provocative
Peter Brown - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Architecture for Autism Autism is characterised by a difficulty with verbal and non-verbal communication, challenges with social interaction, and repetitive and routine behaviour. The project involves the design of a school for autistic children on the Gold Coast. The autistic condition was researched in depth, and informs the architectural proposal at all scales, with the aim of achieving the most suitable possible suite of environments for the occupants.
Rory Spence - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project Title: New Education Building Models in Papua New Guinea. The project investigated potential new models for the education system in Papua New Guinea. An analysis of vernacular building traditions sought to underpin propositions for both new timber building typologies, and organisational strategies on the selected terraced coastal site.
Steven Palomo
Project title: Skin. Cellulose is the most abundant material in the world, and it can offer unexplored opportunities for the built environment. The work sought to investigate new spatial paradigms and situations whereby a bacterial culture was a catalyst for the development of a culture in a community. Acetobacter Xylinium, the material that the investigation is focused on, can be grafted, dyed, stitched and cut to create an array of enclosures whose light transmittance can be calibrated by means of varying its growth. The aim was to shelter selected communities who are searching for their place in this city by providing them with a kit of parts.
Samara Hayes - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project Title: Making 'The Away' a Place: Exploring the Catalytic Capacity of Architecture and the Natural Realm. The selected site was a covered landfill area at the north end of the Gold Coast, which contained a grid of off-gassing pumps that audibly discharged at irregular intervals. The architectural proposal placed a sequence of embedded ‘celestial funnels’ throughout this surreal landscape, which sought to forge an intensified connection between the occupant and both the compressed waste below ground and the orbiting heavens overhead.
Abbey Englington - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project Title: Fortifications of Light and Silence: Thresholds of Universal Human Spirituality How we can acknowledge and celebrate our innate human spirituality in an era in which the majority of architecture that is built ever- increasingly disconnects people from places where they can feel a part of something greater, submerse themselves in a moment of silence, or connect with nature and the universe? This research considered how we can redefine a new spiritual bottom line for architecture, and hypothesised that an architecture of universal human spirituality can anchor, sustain and enrich civilisations for millennia in a way that cannot be substituted by any other human endeavour.
Collette Skinner - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project Title: Inter-generational Integration It is predicted that by 2050 the number of people over 65 years old will be greater than those less than 15 years for the first time in history. The urban design implications of this significant demographic shift are explored in this design for an aged care facility in the Gold Coast suburb of Southport. The building’s splayed wings enclose a semi-public landscaped courtyard, which mediates between the private modular dwellings and the wider urban context.
Joao Douglas Ramos - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project Title: Maputo Modular Can an affordable modular construction system be applied to the Maputo’s slums and act as a catalyst for change to existing community structures? A filigree of dense courtyard dwellings formed the prevailing urban context of the chosen site near the centre of Maputo city, the Capital of Mozambique (population 1.2 million). The project sought to provide self-build dwelling assembly kits with which families within the existing community could incrementally add to and improve their dwellings through the use of locally available building materials and fabrication techniques.
Sofia Zuccato - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Alternative Tourism Models for New Caledonia. Located in New Caledonia, a series of architectural interventions explored local traditional methods of construction, promoting indigenous fabrication savoir-faire and the use of natural materials. The buildings adopted an alternative model to develop the tourism activity in New Caledonia and included gathering, sleeping and observatory spaces that aimed to enhance the natural beauty and assets of the site. The project also consisted of a ‘hybrid model’ which suggested a sustainable approach that was based on mixed principles of ecotourism, agritourism and voluntourism.
Siddharth Paulraj - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Jellurgal Cultural Centre, Burleigh Heads The Kombumerri people of the Gold Coast are considered to be one of the oldest living cultures in the world, with a heritage that dates back to between 60,000 to 80,000 years. These Indigenous people of Australia have a strong tradition that ties their culture to the landscape of the South-East Queensland coastline. They are a part of the larger Yugambeh language group. The Jellurgal Cultural Centre proposal was a study into the possibilities of how this rich culture can be revitalised and given an identity through an architectural intervention, in the spiritual Kombumerri location of the Burleigh headland in the heart of the Gold Coast.
Melanie Miller - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Locally Responsive and Sustainable Shipping Container Architecture. An ambition to form a contribution to the body of knowledge on rebuilding after natural disasters was a motivating factor in choosing this thesis topic. The design proposal was for a new lecture theatre and student common room for the University of the South Pacific (USP) in Vanuatu. Through the use of shipping containers, it sought to achieve a context-driven outcome, which was resilient to natural disasters.
Patricia Manyuru - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Re-visualising Realities. An investigation into the integration of mixed reality technology and architectural education was undertaken. The project looked at the application of Mixed Reality (MR) as a device for design analysis and design communication in learning. It explored the relationship between architectural education, future technologies, and video games, and the indispensable link that mixed reality has the potential to provide between these fields.
Matthew Brabeck - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Surfer's Paradise Law Courts A new Law Courts building was proposed in the heart of Surfers Paradise, as part of a masterplan proposal for the Cypress Avenue area, between the Nerang River and the Pacific Ocean. The suspended jury deliberation chamber became the focal point of the proposed building.
Alexandra Bogdanova - Master of Architecture (2017)
Project title: Architecture and Wilderness What is wilderness? How do we behave in the wilderness? Do we need to protect wilderness from human impact? How can we protect it? Can architecture enhance the experience of being in the wilderness? The thesis explores the creation of a route and associated structures through a coastal national park to the south of Sydney.
Undergraduate Student Work
Lachlan McKelvie - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2016)
Project title: Winery. A regional winery investigates the confluence of cultural and industrial activity with areas of landscape sensitivity.
Nicholas Palmer - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2016)
Project title: Housing. The diversity and complexity of modern metropolitan regions defy easy categorisation and analysis. Globally there are significant shifts in patterns of urban growth and decline. In this dynamic context, architecture offers new urban strategies, including ways to generate urban clusters and building types.
Shannon Thompson - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2016)
Project title: Drawing explorations. Drawing is a fundamental tool in architectural design and the foundation of design thinking. It is necessary to master both 2D and 3D drawing techniques, both digitally and through traditional means of representation. Students develop skills in expressive and analytical drawing methods and strategies to communicate ideas clearly. Drawing is also understood as medium for design in itself.
Theona Kessaris - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2016)
Project title: Winery. A regional winery investigates the confluence of cultural and industrial activity with areas of landscape sensitivity.
Michael Parsons and Brendan Walker - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2016)
Project title: Student pavilions. Hypothetical and built pavilions were designed by undergraduate and postgraduate students in several workshops and studios typically run over a short, intensive period of production. A tight time-frame pushed students to rapidly prototype and swiftly produce work.
Siman Dhillon - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2016)
Project title: Bathhouse. All over the globe, the overwhelming presence of built form and dense infrastructure produces the displacement and estrangement of individuals and communities. Such urban pressures unsettle older use patterns of the city, and in particular the ways public space can be experienced. Civic intervention investigates the core of civil institutions like parks, libraries, city halls and cultural facilities. Projects critically question identity, design and the boundaries of civic space, seeking to connect public spaces and the diverse demographic groups using them.
Steven Baleva, Kyle Loutit, Shannon de Sousa, Emily Smith, Brough Whibley, Mikayla Simic - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 1: People, Experience, Scale. The projects undertaken during this first studio of the program expose students to ideas about making, experience, personal space, place, narrative, collaboration and critical and conceptual thinking. Students are invited to propose and construct small scale interior installations as well as pieces of wearable architecture. They then take on the challenge of designing a small building within a landscape context.
William Hickman, Santiago Rendon Bechara, Jere Toivonen, Russell Ward, Juliana Moreira, Shane Collins - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 2: Context, Interactions, Making. In the second studio, the main design project introduces students to ideas about the city, the section, hybrid buildings, fine grain urbanism and small scale models of densification. Each student is provided with an individual site in the Gold Coast suburb of Palm Beach, and is given an individual brief for a small scale mixed-use urban intervention.
Megan King - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 2: Context, Interactions, Making. In the second studio, the main design project introduces students to ideas about the city, the section, hybrid buildings, fine grain urbanism and small scale models of densification. Each student is provided with an individual site in the Gold Coast suburb of Palm Beach, and is given an individual brief for a small scale mixed-use urban intervention.
Sidney Russell - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 2: Context, Interactions, Making. In the second studio, the main design project introduces students to ideas about the city, the section, hybrid buildings, fine grain urbanism and small scale models of densification. Each student is provided with an individual site in the Gold Coast suburb of Palm Beach, and is given an individual brief for a small scale mixed-use urban intervention.
Santiago Rendon Bechara, Patrick Lovell-Davis, Travis Armes, Russell Ward, Shane Collins, Megan King - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 3: Domesticity, Dwelling, Ritual. Design Studio three explores alternative dwelling models to accommodate the rapidly expanding city of the Gold Coast. A brown-field site within an established neighbourhood is selected on which to test new configurations of dwelling densities and public space. Students undertake detailed precedent analysis and collaborative group master-planning exercises, prior to taking on the challenge of individually designing dwelling configurations. Projects are explored through both manual and digital techniques, and seek to address prevailing climatic and environmental conditions. The studio work is linked directly to concurrent studies in design communications and technical subjects, while deepening the understanding of architectural history and theory.
Juliana Moreira - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 3: Domesticity, Dwelling, Ritual. Design Studio three explores alternative dwelling models to accommodate the rapidly expanding city of the Gold Coast. A brown-field site within an established neighbourhood is selected on which to test new configurations of dwelling densities and public space. Students undertake detailed precedent analysis and collaborative group master-planning exercises, prior to taking on the challenge of individually designing dwelling configurations. Projects are explored through both manual and digital techniques, and seek to address prevailing climatic and environmental conditions. The studio work is linked directly to concurrent studies in design communications and technical subjects, while deepening the understanding of architectural history and theory.
Alexander Ewart & Abbey Summerville, Megan King, Nathan Grimmond, Logan-Maree Gunthorpe, Zhaoqiu He, Herodotos Constantinides - Bachelor of Architectural Stuides (2017)
Studio 4: Landscape, Nature, Community The fourth design studio shifts to a non-urban scenario with a greater degree of programmatic complexity, and considers the relationship of built-form to an existing landscape context. The projects explore civic and public building types, while investigating: social and cultural issues; connection to environment; site and place; experiential qualities and appropriate climatic design strategies. The selected sites were: the Tyalgum Public Recreation and Preservation of Native Flora and Fauna Reserve located in the Northern New South Wales village of Tyalgum; and the Gold Coast hinterland plateau of Mount Tamborine.
Jake White, Alec Gentle, Juliana Moreira, Santiago Rendon Bechara, Mikayla James - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 4: Landscape, Nature, Community The fourth design studio shifts to a non-urban scenario with a greater degree of programmatic complexity, and considers the relationship of built-form to an existing landscape context. The projects explore civic and public building types, while investigating: social and cultural issues; connection to environment; site and place; experiential qualities and appropriate climatic design strategies. The selected sites were: the Tyalgum Public Recreation and Preservation of Native Flora and Fauna Reserve located in the Northern New South Wales village of Tyalgum; and the Gold Coast hinterland plateau of Mount Tamborine.
Logan-Maree Gunthorpe, Mia Medic, Benjamin Perkins, Arvin Abassian, Nathan Grimmond, Sam Wilson, Travis Armes, Santiago Rendon Bechara, Russell Ward, Carolina Carsjoe, Amelia Mohajer, Adam Svard - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 5: Public, Materiality, Structure. Design studio five engages students in complex urban scale projects that confront issues of architectural design in civic scenarios of collective public space. Projects in this subject involve complex sites and institutional programs. In the High and Mighty studio, students explored the ‘high-rise’ typology through a non-standard program. With substantial anticipated increases in population density on the Gold Coast, opportunities will arise to explore and propose new urban forms. Consequently students were asked to explore a range of technical, programmatic, environmental, and urban possibilities for this type, on a series of sites in the Southport district of the Gold Coast.
Shane Collins - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 5: Public, Materiality, Structure. The Lost in Transition semester offered students the chance to propose buildings within the tight low-rise urban fabric of the Gold Coast suburb of Burleigh. The brief for a community centre and library required students to carefully consider the existing context, and challenged them to provide a design response whose scale, materiality and public circulation strategy all served to benefit the surroundings.
Sarah Kukkiriza Ndagire - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 6: City, Threshold, Place. In the sixth and final semester of the under-graduate program, themes of densification, programmatic hybridisation, civic presence and urban threshold conditions are explored. In the 'Kids in the City' design studio, students were invited to critically examine contemporary cultural practices, urban morphology and the role of the architect in city.
Shane Collins - Bachelor of Architectural Studies (2017)
Studio 6 - City, Threshold, Place. The 'On the Waterfront' studio investigated alternative water’s edge conditions, and challenged prevailing suburban densities and dwelling configurations for the Gold Coast. he existing Gold Coast suburb of Florida Gardens was then considered in terms of how it might more effectively relate to our contemporary changing patterns of transportation, technology and living. The ambition for the projects was for them to become widely adopted templates for future suburban development.
Architecture Design Charrette
The Architecture Design Charrette is an opportunity for first year, second year and Masters students to interact and work together in groups. In 2018, the students were briefed with the task of designing a structure for the Burleigh Headland that showcased the experience of Burleigh, and also incorporated the area's cultural significance.
Learning through making
Students were tasked with creating a physical 1:1 space for a hypothetical guest of Peter Cook, the architect of the Abedian School of Architecture. Working in groups they were required to develop the space within a designated area of the building and meet three key criteria: a place to sit, a framed view and the structure was to be easily disassembled. Students were encouraged to explore a particular sensory characteristic and develop a specific narrative on the user and the connection to place. The project exposes students to making, experience, space, place, narrative, collaboration and critical and conceptual thinking.
EAMON - by Nathan, Rod, Morgan, Mia & Johnny
BERNAED - by Alec,Travis, Mikeala, Ben, & Jesse
EVE THE SCULPTER - by Sam Wilson
Cellular Tessellation
"Cellular Tessellation" pavilion for the 2014 Vivid Light Festival, Sydney. Cellular Tessellation is a pavilion designed by Abedian Architecture academic staff Jonathan Nelson, Chris Knapp, and masters student Michael Parsons, and in collaboration with structural engineer, Phil Wallace Consulting Engineers P/L, AFRL workshop manager Nathan Freeman, and many architecture student assistants. The project is designed using Rhino and Grasshopper, and is an exploration in geometric resolution of a complex surface, subdivided using a variation of the Voronoi tessellation. The project employs alucobond sheeting, acrylic, and HDPE plastic to create 380 individual cells, all nested to create the overall pavilion.
Sushi pavilion
The first semester of study in architecture focused upon learning through making, experienced through three successive projects. The cardboard sushi pavilion challenged students to design and fabricate a micro-pavilion using 15 sheets of cardboard and only packing tape for fixing. Working in teams, students were asked to consider issues that arise from placing their pavilion on a public part of campus, develop an understanding of sun and wind, and to create fundamental spatial sequences and the thresholds that frame them.
Shirt Seat
Shirt Seat is an exploration of materials and the dimensions of the body. A simple project at first glance, it actually produces a great challenge to the novice student in confronting gravity, scale, dynamic forces, and aesthetics. The main constraint of the project was that each student would build a “seat/chair” using a long sleeve button up cotton shirt as the primary material. Ancillary materials could be used, provided the shirt be the main point of contact and support for the body.
Nice To Meet You
Nice To Meet You put students into the collaborative space of teamwork to develop a pavilion displayed publicly on the university campus. Notions of urban relationships between the 7 teams of the studio were deemed significant, as were the ways their pavilions would register meaningful experiences for the project’s public occupants. Cardboard was the primary medium of work, and students were asked to explore its full potential as a legitimate building material.
Design Studio Four
For the final presentation students designed and strategically sited a landscape intervention/installation in the grounds of the Gold Coast Arts Centre. The pieces expressed their own personal interpretation of landscape, demonstrating an awareness of place and their history within it, both acknowledging the past, speaking to the present, and where possible musing on the future of landscape via speculative interventions in it. Students projects were informed by the synergies of musical composition, philosophy and architecture and landscape architectural design.