ARCH13-128: Design Futures Studio: Australasian Cities

Concentrating upon the socio-cultural and bio-climatic context of the urban regions of the Australasian and Oceanic context as a testing ground, this subject will engage a project of intermediate complexity utilising creative and speculative design solutions to confront issues of regional and global concern – the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Students will engage in an inclusive studio environment to develop solutions to sustainable and resilient community dwellings. Sustainable design education methods accompany the students to find adequate design concepts and spatial propositions for the contemporary inhabitation of denser urban environments and their morphological pre-context (such as built-up space, transport, open space, green space, public-private, infrastructure). This subject engages students to develop contextual relationships of building forms, program, space as solutions, adapted to local climate, culture and challenges. Design proposals are expected to critically engage with a contemporary urban and architectural discourse within a specific region and to produce a project that exhibits detailed integration of design process work and conceptual endeavour. Projects will be explored through both manual and digital techniques, both collectively and on an individual basis. This studio is supported by seminars on climate design and responsive architectural and urban design strategies. Output is focused on collaborative methods of craftsmanship in both 2D and 3D outcomes including the physical construction of models utilising the Architecture Fabrication and Research Workshop.