Design Histories

The Design Histories specialisation introduces students to the ideas, places, social histories, aesthetics, and tools of representation that have shaped the designed and built environment. The electives on offer build essential skills in understanding and writing about design and media, buildings, landscapes and cities. Subjects cover a global and historial reach with a particular focus on Asia, Australia and Europe.

This specialisation will prepare graduates for many important tasks in their future employment including site analysis, writing reports and critical reviews, conservation and heritage assessments, and crucially in becoming a competent and informed designer. The proposed specialisation will also prepare students for entry into the Masters of Urban and Cultural Heritage (MUCH), the M.Arch degree, as well as give important research skills for future RHD entry to MPhil and PhD degrees.

In order to complete the Design Histories specialisation, students are required to complete at least two of the following:

LARC30002 Interpreting Australian Landscape Design (Semester 2)

This subject develops an understanding of the formative influences to have shaped contemporary public and private landscapes.

A critical examination of the historical development of landscape design in Australia requires study of: key international design precedents through history; social influences, personalities and institutions in Australia; and, philosophies, theories and events that have defined physical outcomes.

Fieldwork is directed toward the study and evaluation of selected case study sites as viable heritage landscapes within established principles of conservation, management and heritage interpretation.

The prerequisite for this subject is ONE of the following:

  • ABPL10004 Global Foundations of Design
  • ARCH20003 Modern Architecture: Momo to Pomo
  • PLAN10001 Cities: Past and Future

ABPL30053 Formative Ideas in Architecture (Semester 1)

This subject will examine the importance of formative ideas in architecture design, culture, technology. practice and history from the Enlightenment to early Modernism.

The subject will include study of the following themes: enlightenment, the rise of archaeology and neo-classicism; the emerging language of Modernity including the picturesque and revivalism; the industrial revolution and its implications for new modes of engineering and functionalism; the rise of the architecture, landscape and planning professions; designing and documenting the modern metropolis; colonialism and imperialism across the world; visualising the history of architecture.

Architectural precedents will be considered within their social, cultural, environmental and landscape contexts and analysed through concerns such as spatial organisation, technologies and theories of architecture as expressed in key texts and ideas. International influence and exchange will be examined through comparison to Australian and local significant sites and buildings.

The prerequisite for this subject is ONE of the following:

  • ABPL10004 Global Foundations of Design
  • ARCH20003 Modern Architecture: Momo to Pomo
  • PLAN10001 Cities: Past and Future

ABPL30057 Asia Pacific Modernities (Semester 2)

This subject will offer an integrated overview of urban, design, architectural and landscape related issues in the Asia Pacific region, including Asia and Australia. Fieldwork will include visits within Melbourne.

Topics will include:

Indigenous landscapes and place-making; Religious and Cultural Landscapes in Contemporary Asia Pacific including the Islamic; Colonial cities and institutions; Regional, informal and vernacular settlements and responses; Nationalism, modernism and commemoration; Post disaster reconstruction and design; Globalisation and the metropolis; Tourism and heritage; Transnational architectural discourses/practices in Asia Pacific.

The prerequisite for this subject is ONE of the following:

  • ABPL10004 Global Foundations of Design
  • ARCH20003 Modern Architecture: Momo to Pomo
  • PLAN10001 Cities: Past and Future

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