Sri Lanka
2018 Sri Lanka Travelling Studio
Studio Leaders: Dr Kelum Palipane and Dr Derlie Mateo-Babiano
Subject Outline:
In demographically diverse suburbs in Melbourne, place making practices are unconsciously enacted through cultural practices and habits of citizenry imported from other places. Where do they originate? How do they change during the migration process? Can they inform urban regeneration policy and design? This design studio will focus on developing approaches for urban regeneration through a twin study in the City of Greater Dandenong and Colombo, Sri Lanka with students and staff of the University of Moratuwa.
Students will begin preliminary work on a pilot project for urban regeneration identified by the City of Greater Dandenong. They will undertake fieldwork in a selected precinct through a series of creative place-based methods to uncover and document existing place-making practices of communities. The travel component to Colombo will include engaging in a similar fieldwork process in selected urban precincts, collaborating with architecture students and staff from the University of Moratuwa. Students will receive feedback on their work by notable local practitioners including Robust Architecture Workshop (Recipients of the Global LafargeHolcim Awards Silver 2015 and regional Bronze prize for Asia Pacific in 2014). Returning to Melbourne they will use the perspectives and insights gained from their travel component as a framework of analysis through which they will re-consider their designs and fieldwork from the local urban precincts. Students will continue to develop and refine their schemes. The studio will culminate in a presentation to Places Victoria/Council, invited practitioners including Professor Ariadne dos Santos Daher, Partner at Jamie Lerner Architetos Associados and exhibition.
The travel component will also include an architectural and urban development tour of selected historic and contemporary works in Sri Lanka.
The studio is suitable for Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design and Urban Planning students with strong conceptual three-dimensional thinking, and a high level of communication skills (drawing and modelling, either digital or physical).
Studio Objectives:
The intended learning outcomes of the Sri Lanka studio:
PLACE
1. Demonstrate critical understanding of issues related to urban space in the context of a diversifying world.
2. Demonstrate systematic/creative thinking and problem solving by analysing how local issues affect planning, design and construction processes in a particular location.
3. Identify and critically respond to ethical challenges related to inequity and social justice.
PROCESS
4. Demonstrate proficiency in skills associated with collaboration within interdisciplinary teams both in local and international contexts.
5. Critically engage in social research methods & creative place based site interrogation methods to uncover site dynamics.
6. Develop skills in comparative analysis through the consideration of two distinct contexts.
PRODUCT
1. Propose strategies/tactics, designs responses that engage with the social, political and cultural contexts of place, contributing towards inclusive, diverse urban spaces.
2. Effectively communicate and convey a sense of design work through strategic use of multiple media tools.
Dates:
Applications close:8 July 2018
Subject census date: 31 August 2018
Pre-trip teaching: commences start of Semester 2, 2018
OH&S information session: To be confirmed
Overseas travel dates: 22 September - 6 October 2018
First submission/presentation: 6 August 2018
To Apply:
Applicants will be assessed and selected based on academic merit, and “expression of interest/personal statement”. Students must address the following question: “State in 200 words why you wish to undertake this studio, what you could contribute to the studio and how will the experience shape your future practice.”
To apply, go to EDSC Travelling Studios page at http://edsc.unimelb.edu.au/graduate/subject-options/travelling-studios and click the ‘Travelling Studio Application Form’. Complete all mandatory fields, as well as attaching your personal statement, and submit by 8 July, 2018.
You will be contacted of the application outcome via your University of Melbourne email account.