Summer Exhibition 2022

SUMMER EXHIBITION 2022

A selection of projects from semester two, 2022 at The University of Western Australia, School of Design.

The University of Western Australia acknowledges that its campus is situated on Noongar land, and that Noongar people remain the spiritual and cultural custodians of their land, and continue to practice their values, languages, beliefs and knowledge.

Designed and edited by Lara Camilla Pinho, Andy Quilty and Samantha Dye. Marketing Officer: Natasha Briggs.

Image: UWA School of Design, Summer Exhibition 2022 opening night, 16 November 2022. Photography by Samantha Dye.

INTRODUCTION BY DR KATE HISLOP

The School of Design marked several important milestones in 2022. Architecture and Landscape Architecture courses underwent professional accreditation, both being awarded the maximum five year terms. As well, Landscape Architecture and Fine Arts each celebrated thirty years since the courses were introduced at UWA, and we look forward to the events to mark these occasions that will be held in 2023. Together, accreditations and anniversaries have provided us with opportunities to reflect on the evolution and future imperatives of these courses in particular, and on the direction of the School more broadly. We are excited to take this momentum forward.

It is a privilege once again to enjoy the fruits of our students’ efforts captured in this catalogue of work from the second semester of 2022. First introduced three years ago as an alternative when physical exhibitions were not possible, this series of digital records of student work from across the School’s many disciplines has been one of the positive outcomes of the COVID-19 pandemic. While only a relatively small number of individuals have work featured within the pages, it is nonetheless a comprehensive account of the depth of ideas, range of approaches, and array of techniques explored and mastered by those in the Architecture, Fine Arts, History of Art, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design courses. Projects engage with Country, culture, context and critique. They are bold, sensitive, clever, provocative. Quite clearly and most reassuringly, in what can only be described as a time of global uncertainty, there is an abundance of energy, passion, care, curiosity and talent on show. We are all beneficiaries of the dedication and investment that students make in their and our collective futures.

Congratulations to all who were selected for inclusion in this catalogue: we look forward to seeing what you do next! And thank you to the inspiring group of School of Design staff who led units, mentored projects and supported students. Finally, my sincere thanks once again to the team of Lara Camilla Pinho, Andy Quilty and Samantha Dye, who have collected, compiled and cajoled to ensure the production of this catalogue. It is wonderful to have this edition added to the collection.

Dr Kate Hislop, Dean/Head of School, UWA School of Design

FOREWORD BY PROFESSOR MARIA IGNATIEVA

2022 is the jubilee year for the Landscape Architecture Programme at UWA. Thirty years ago, landscape architecture had been established in the School of Design. This is the only accredited program by the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) in Western Australia.

Landscape Architecture is based on three ‘pillars’ - design, planning, and management, and works with natural and built landscapes to improve the quality and our experience of the environment and community. In a collaborative environment and by using real-world scenarios of varying scales, landscape architecture students gain the knowledge, critical thinking, and skills to respond to, complex issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, urban ecology, ecological sustainability, quality and health of landscapes, heritage conservation and restoration and water sensitive design by applying systems thinking and creative practice to develop longterm, multi-scale solutions.

Landscape Architecture is primarily a design discipline concerned with the quality of the environment however it has a unique interdisciplinary nature that applies scientific as well as aesthetic principles. In 30 years the UWA Landscape Architecture programme educated a cohort of practitioners and academics who contributed to the development of landscape architecture in WA and Australia. Many of our alumni work for government agencies and local governments, nature conservation agencies, heritage conservation, planning consultancies, horticulture and landscape industry.

Landscape Architecture at UWA addresses the unique opportunities of the west coast of Australia and regional positioning in one of the 35 biodiversity hotspots. Landscape architecture studio and research work at UWA clearly highlight the leading role of landscape architects in dealing with the interactions between natural and cultural ecosystems.

The Landscape Architecture program at UWA offers a research pathway – Master’s dissertation by design and PhD dissertations. There was a wide range of research themes from sustainable landscape design and green-blue infrastructure to nostalgia and memory, water-sensitive design, planning and management practices, biodiversity-friendly botanical gardens and spontaneous urban plants and natures that are an authentic part of urban landscapes.

This catalogue documents the works of landscape architecture students at different stages of their education in landscape architecture at UWA alongside the work of their peers in the disciplines of Fine Arts, Architecture, History of Art and Urban Design.The range of presented examples celebrates the unique interdisciplinary nature of landscape architecture. Examples from the studio and theoretical units allowed us to see that landscape architecture students are broad thinkers who thrive on seeing the big picture. They address important issues of our challenging time: creating a resilient urban environment, nature protection and restoration, addressing cultural awareness, creating liveable spaces for sustainable communities, and saving water.

Professor Maria Ignatieva, Head of Landscape Architecture, UWA School of Design

Image: Living Lab 2, Lawn as a Living Lab, UWA School of Design, Nedlands Campus.

FINE ARTS & HISTORY OF ART

Image: UWA School of Design, Level One Studio 101B, Summer Exhibition 2022 opening night, 16 November 2022.

FOREWORD BY CEDAR RANKIN-CHEEK

Art is not effortless, there is no artist nor designer that creates with ultimate ease and clarity, and the university is just one stage in this journey. Entering the world of academia as an artist can be difficult, it transforms and tests prior understandings of practice and the work we make. University is not without conflict, but the conflicts and evolutions we face as artists and designers, ultimately culminate into refined practices and the wonderful and challenging work which we see in this exhibition.

I started out my studies with no intention to major in Fine Arts, yet I remember distinctly taking a class in Biological Art unit led by Dr. Ionat Zurr through the ever-inspiring SymbioticA, and was immediately challenged. There was a feeling that I could really create something amazing in this environment that fostered critique and hard work, challenging me to push myself, my art and my writing. Studying art and design is gruelling, it tests one’s love for art and art making. Honing your craft in an academic institution is not without disagreements and frustrations and the hurdles faced often cause disillusion and feel unfair, especially when your studies and art are so tied to the self and experiences, but despite this, these frustrations can be transformed to create a stronger practice and a stronger artist.

Perhaps a well-trodden discourse but creating work in this present time is not easy, art often feels powerless, and it is difficult to gather the energy and creativity required to make work. The more art I create and the more study I do, there is a sense of urgency and need to create important and impactful work that continues to intensify. I often question my decision to study art and sometimes find myself looking to different careers and pathways that are more ‘important’, but this urgency that I feel for change is born out of my practice, my art and those who have supported and inspired me throughout my studies. Great art is hard to come by without work, critique and questioning, and this reflection that art provokes is so important to the self and to the community. It is wonderful to see the work produced this year filled with the energy and urgency needed to provoke the thought and feelings we all need.

The works you see in this exhibition are the imprints of immensely hard work performed by artists, designers and creatives. They represent hours of work, physical labour and research, a journey embedded with urgency and importance, as important as the artwork itself. It is a joy to see the works produced by these emerging artists and creatives who have pushed through the past year and pieced together their practices and experiences to create works that feels urgent, that feels important and extremely powerful.

Cedar Rankin-Cheek, Fine Arts (Honours), 2022

Image: Cedar Rankin-Cheek, Beige-ness, 2022, found objects, upholstery fabric, thread, glue, cardboard, wood, wire, foam, PET fill.

FINE ARTS

Image: UWA School of Design, Level One Gallery, Summer Exhibition 2022 opening night, 16 November 2022.

Master of Fine Arts by Research

Supervisor: Dr Ionat Zurr

ANNIE HUANG

‘The Outlines of Our World Are Not So Hard After All’

The Outlines of Our World Are Not So Hard After All is an exhibition created as part of a Master of Fine Arts by Research project. It seeks to create an intersectional space where the viewer navigates a narrative that is both inviting yet alien and strange. Here, the audience is subject to a spectrum of experiences that are reflective of the insider-outsider narrative that informs the second-generation migrant subjective where understanding and non-understanding are simultaneously at play with one another. There are three works within this project, including Ephemeral Translations, My mum says I must not leave a single grain, and In Between. Each installation combines multiple forms of narrative telling mediums including animations both hand-drawn and three-dimensionally rendered. Ephemeral Translations is a graphite-pencil animation that references the fluidity of language and comprehension, projection mapped onto a scroll-like, translucent fabric that drapes from the ceiling. My mum says I must not leave a single grain depicts six bowls that were thrown on a potter’s wheel in stoneware clay. Projection mapped on the inside of each bowl are hand-drawn animations based on old photographs of the artists’ parents and grandparents in China. This work explores the displacing feelings that are a result of navigating extended relationships across generations and cultures. The final work, In Between, depicts a fragmented, puzzle like screen. Mapped onto each individual shape, is an animation that combines the handdrawn with the digital 3D rendering of strange and abstract landscapes and maps. What is highlighted, are the intersections between what we know and what is unfamiliar - an awareness of the empty spaces and the gaps that inform our perspectives. What we are familiar with, can all at once become imbued with a narrative that is unfamiliar and alien.

Image: Annie Huang, install shot of In Between, Projection mapping of stop-motion animation and 3D rendered animation onto MDF board.

Image: Annie Huang, install shot of The Outlines of Our World Are Not So Hard After All, Projection mapping of stop-motion animation and 3D rendered animation

animation onto MDF board, nylon fabric and stoneware clay.

Master of Fine Arts by Research Supervisor: Dr Ionat Zurr

NAZILA JAHANGIR ‘Forget-Me-Not’

Inspired by pioneer women botanical artists, Nazila Jahangir explores interconnections among feminist art, botanical illustration and environmentalism. Her creative practice is an extended form of botanical art. Besides focusing on an accurate presentation of plants’ anatomy, she also experiments with planting her flowers or seed pods in different contexts and various narratives, playfully troubling the human/non-human divide. The diversity in subject matters and painting styles, as well as the grotesque imagination, are the axils of Nazila’s work. She deploys these elements to make an intriguing and whimsical form of story-based art making.

Nazila’s recent collection, “Forget-Me-Not”, celebrates Western Australian flora intending to contest “plant blindness” and enhance empathy and care for the local flora.

https://nazilajahangir.com/

Image: Nazila Jahangir, Shoot me if you can, oil on canvas, 61 x 76 cm.

Image: Nazila Jahangir, Apocalypse now, oil on canvas, 76 x 76 cm.

Master of Fine Arts by Research Supervisors: Dr Ionat Zurr and Dr Vladimir Todorovic

SAMUEL BEILBY

‘Workwelt Logistics’

Workwelt Logistics explores the volatile relationship between neoliberalism, automation technologies and the natural labour systems that they appropriate. The project seeks to amplify the fundamental qualities of swarming (biological and machinic) and showcase how it manifests through material voicings, mechanical agency, and historical legacies within the contemporary e-commerce fulfilment centre workplace. Through using the motif of the industrious ant swarm, robotics, insect field recordings, various AV components, construction materials and media-archaeological aesthetics this site magnifies an archaic labour spectacle that has been revived through artificial and machinic form to extract and embellish its presence and worldliness.

The exhibition intends to incite speculation of a fictional fulfilment centre that utilises swarm technologies and automation mechanics but engages in labour that is not at all directed towards generating capital. The project reconsiders the utilitarian function of automation technologies by scheming an abstract story, a fabricated history, about the cathartic emancipation of an authorial swarmic voice from a neoliberal worksite.

For this fictional fulfilment centre, human consumers and human industrialists have been removed from the equation. We are left with their residual presence, the Workwelt Logistics corporation however, this corporation is no longer concerned with fiscal revenue. The exhibition envisions swarmic labourers that have taken it upon themselves to blast through the ceiling of noise parameters that were established in the company’s formative years when human CEO figures sat in the director’s chair. Instead of shifting tangible inventory, shelves or crates, they shift their own body (individual and collective). Hooked up to contact microphones that amplify their mechanical functioning, this stethoscopic set-up operates to project the “anatomy” of swarming to a jarring scale.

Image: Samuel Beilby, Workwelt Logistics Robots #003, #005, #006, #007 and #008 and Video Component, robotics, single channel video (10 minutes).

Image: Samuel Beilby, Host, concrete, 32GB USB, steel, 20 x 20 x 5 cm.

Image: Samuel Beilby, Workwelt Logistics System Diagram Power Supply Stack and Robot #002, Steel, 8x 5v 40Amp Power Supplies, Acrylic, Cables, Robotics.

Fine Arts Honours Unit Coordinator: Dr Ionat Zurr

CEDAR RANKIN CHEEK

‘Beige-ness’

Cedar Rankin-Cheek’s work explores the parallels between the organising of domestic spaces and the organising of bodies and the history of cleanliness as a tool to organise and control. Beige-ness is a soft sculpture installation that explores notions of cleanliness as classiness and how capitalism has harnessed the oppressiveness of neatness to sell furniture, positing that you can purchase and organise your way into a better life. The monochromality of the work is satisfying yet overwhelming, the oppressive ‘beigeness’ a reference to the ‘covering’ of culture with Western ideals of cleanliness and valuableness. The uncanny ambiguity and indecipherable functionality of Beige-ness offers a representation of the exclusion of communities through carefully coded symbols of wealth and class.

Image: Cedar Rankin Cheek, Beige-ness, 2022, found objects, upholstery fabric, thread, glue, cardboard, wood, wire, foam, PET fill.

Fine Arts Honours

Unit Coordinator: Dr Ionat Zurr

CATHERINE BRINDLEY

‘The reunion of forgotten things’

What will your objects think of you, after all this time?

In The reunion of forgotten things, objects come together to reimagine childhood memories in a new light.

The reunion invites us to remember the treasured objects of our childhood; the things we could not part with, and asks where are they now? Using a process of personal reflection and analysis, the work examines childhood attachment through a series of experiments to understand and communicate the complexities of our relationship with objects, while honouring their vitality and separateness.

Image: Catherine Brindley, The reunion of forgotten things, 2022, found objects, nylon thread, acrylic yarn, wire, tape, projected light, mixed media.

Image: Catherine Brindley, The reunion of forgotten things, 2022, found objects, nylon thread, acrylic yarn, wire, tape, projected light, mixed media.

Fine Arts Honours

Unit Coordinator: Dr Ionat Zurr

JUDITH BODGER

‘Cloak of curiosities’

Cloak of Curiosities explores the fascinating world of microbes, using the cloak as a metaphorical reference to the pervasiveness of their miniscule forms. We simultaneously love and loath them; for adding culture to our beer and cheese, and for infecting our throats and blocking our nares. Exploring essential relationships such as the usually invisible microbe through their magnification provides endless imaging opportunities for the artist, and a constant challenge for creative imagination.

Image: Judith Bodger, Cloak of curiosities, 2022, stitched textile.

ARTF3050 Advanced Major Project

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

ANNIE ZHUANG

‘From above and Surrounded’

As a first-generation Chinese-Australian, the natural landscape has always helped the artist build their cross-cultural identity. Informed by their Chinese culture, traditional philosophical beliefs about the environment and the idea of “Oneness with nature” shared with the Western ideals about nature and garden design. These objects are representations of imagined nature biomes informed by known surroundings and unique features of Australian flora to capture the sense of place. Explored through textiles and informed by landscape architecture, memories, sense of place and materiality. The contemplative, intricate process invites the audience to move in, to contemplate the work and to derive an understanding of the artists underlying message and arrive at their own conclusions about their sense of place within the natural environment.

Image: Annie Zhuang, From above and Surrounded, 2022, fabrics, yarn, polyester fibres, glass/plastic beads, freshwater/imitation pearls, thread, string, oak and wood.

Image: Annie Zhuang, From above and Surrounded, 2022, fabrics, yarn, polyester fibres, glass/plastic beads, freshwater/imitation pearls, thread, string, oak and

and wood.

ARTF3050 Advanced Major Project

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

AIDAN BOWDEN

‘M.E.T.A (Modal Environmental Therapy Aid)’

With an ever-growing effort in the pursuit of perfecting a simulated reality, monolithic tech corporations are driving humanity towards a dark future devoid of any real connection with the natural biomes we sacrificed in the name of progress. M.E.T.A is an imagining of the ersatz solution that technology offers to sate our longing for a connection to place and nature, and challenging the effectiveness of our simulated realities in that pursuit.

Image: Aidan Bowden, M.E.T.A (Modal Environmental Therapy Aid), 2022, Projection installation, virtual reality installation.

Image: Aidan Bowden, M.E.T.A (Modal Environmental Therapy Aid), 2022, Projection installation, virtual reality installation.

ARTF3050 Advanced Major Project

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

AGATHA OKON

‘Outside of truth and Self-portrait with fruit’

Entities can be described in terms of pure information, yet we are unable to comprehend this information. In the obsession with data, we have forgotten that information is not the same as reality. Informatic residues of real objects have been created by processes such as photogrammetry, inscription of information onto paper, and extraction of DNA, with the mangled conversions placed into a constructed world mimicking reality. Is it reasonable to treat this extracted knowledge in the same way as the originating object? Are my DNA, scans, and writing the same as me? Obviously not. Yet, highly personal intimate information, like DNA and demographic characteristics, are regarded as being equivalent to, and even superior to, an individual.

Image: Agatha Okon, Outside of truth, 2022, video and paper.

Image: Agatha Okon, Self-portrait with fruit, 2022, DNA on MDF, 8 x 9 cm.

ARTF2054 Drawing, Painting & Print Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andy Quilty

Teaching Staff: Andy Quilty, Bina Butcher and Mark Tweedie

DANIEL GLOVER

‘to use and to possess’

In our consumption and collection of objects, we often remain unaware of the relationships we create around them. This body of works explores and sheds light on the relationships between objects in my life and the value systems I assign them; some holding nostalgic memories and others having little to no value. For example, the cookbook that serves as the base for my arrangements was given to me by my mother when I first moved to Perth, whom I would often bake with as a kid. Moreover, my aunt who passed away from cancer lives on in memory through the little red clock that sits by my bed; one of the few objects I own to remind me of her. She had the most contagious laugh and even though we spent very little time together I can still hear it echo in the back of my mind. My grandmother, who suffers from dementia, holds very few memories of me now, but I can look at the striped bowl and sugar container, and remember her visits, and when she’d stay the night and forget her false teeth in the morning and give us all a big toothless smile. Investing these in the composition juxtaposes these objects saturated with sentimentality against prints of food objects that I pay no attention to. I had to throw out the bunch of bananas last week before I could use them and I have three opened bags of spaghetti in my pantry, but I’ll probably buy another one because I keep forgetting about the ones at home. It is this repetitive consumption of these food objects in my everyday life that blurs them to the point that I no longer remain conscious of my possession of them but I would never forgive myself if I broke grandma’s striped bowl.

Image: Daniel Glover, i remember you now (detail), 2022, oil on paper, 29.5 x 38 cm.

Image: Daniel Glover, to use and to possess, 2022, dry point and oil on paper, dimensions variable.

ARTF2054 Drawing, Painting & Print Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andy Quilty

Teaching Staff: Andy Quilty, Bina Butcher and Mark Tweedie

DIXIE BARTLE

‘Kimberley Landscapes’

Exploring the energy, diversity, textures and colours of the Kimberley landscape with monotype printmaking, these works were achieved using a hand pressed reductive ink technique on a smooth film surface. Found objects were utilised to enrich mark making in both the plate preparation and pressing stages. The marks represent the landscape as referenced from an abundance of perspectives, interweaving micro rock textures, wildlife tracks in beach sand, sweeping pindan cliff views and aerial images of waterways and landforms.

Image: Dixie Bartle, Kimberley Landscape #8 (detail), 2022, ink monotype on film, 100 x 79.5 cm.

Image: Dixie Bartle, Kimberley Landscape #10 (detail), 2022, ink monotype on film, 67.5 x 47.5 cm.

ARTF2054 Drawing, Painting & Print Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andy Quilty

Teaching Staff: Andy Quilty, Bina Butcher and Mark Tweedie

BRINDY DONOVAN

‘la petite misère (ordinary suffering)’

The phrase la petite misère (ordinary suffering), coined by the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, describes our everyday experiences of discontentment that arise from social class stratification. The phrase speaks too to the Buddhist concept of dukkha (suffering) whereby our discontentment is attributed to our continual desire for things we don’t have and our aversion to what we do have.

In this project, I reflect on how ordinary suffering manifests in my experience of social class mobility. Being of low socioeconomic status brings with it the stress of material precarity, and yet there is also a freedom in having idle time and no desire to “keep up with the Jones”. Moving into full-time work after graduation, I will have a level of income I’ve not experienced before, but this is in return for the free time I’ve enjoyed so far and the stress of additional responsibilities. In both instances, one form of ordinary suffering is traded for another and this tension is expressed in the use of juxtaposing elements within each work and between the painting and sculpture.

Image: Brindy Donovan, la petite misère (ordinary suffering), acrylic on canvas and found porcelain sculpture, dimensions variable.

Image: Brindy Donovan, petite bourgeoisie (middle class), acrylic on canvas, 81.3 x 50.8 cm.

Image: Brindy Donovan, misère (poverty), acrylic on found porcelain sculpture, 12 x 9 x 3 cm.

Clear polypropylene ceiling allow for greater observation while working and is able to be sterilized with alcohol

Clean work area

Polypropylene sheets line the working area so they can be sanitized with alchol

Washable pre-filter catches to 0.5 micron

Barrel fan draws in room pressurises the plenum

The frame is constru painted with mould

Box HEPA filter capable to 0.3 microns

catches particles

ARTF2031 Living Art

Unit Coordinator: Dr Ionat Zurr

With thanks to the support of Dr. Donna Franklin

KEALI PYVIS

‘Collaboration Station: The Quest for Do-It-Yourself Sterility’

room air and plenum

My artwork Collaboration Station was born out of the difficulties in the relationship that I grew to have with mycelium and fungi, namely, contamination. As I attempted to culture fungi, contamination from “invaders” of unknown bacteria and fungi thwarted my attempts. No matter how I tried to control the contamination it was a failure.

At the basic level, to prevent microbiological contamination of specimens, a sterile work environment is needed, and this is created with filtered air and laminar flow. I set out to design a DIY clean bench to do so, room air is pulled through a pre-filter (filters up to 0.5 microns) by a blower fan. The fan then feeds this air into another chamber (called a plenum) which builds up pressure, allowing air to pass evenly through a HEPA filter (which filters up to 0.3 microns). This even passage of air through the HEPA filter means the air particles move parallel to each other without turbulence resulting in a sterile environment where specimens can be kept free from contamination.

From an anthropomorphic view the clean bench can be seen as an artificial womb. A controlled and manufactured environment that allows humans and specimens to participate and work together. Although fungi survive without any human intervention in many different and shifting environments, to “work” with these living organisms we desire to control them and their environment. In the working relationship between humans and fungi, we force them to rely on us for their optimal survival.

capable of filtering up

The clean bench is not only for collaboration with living specimens, but also conception requires the community of UWA for support in its construction. In that way the clean bench is a utilitarian object and a metaphoric statement for community and collaboration.

onstructed

,

of 16mm plywood resistant paint

Image: Keali Pyvis, Collaboration Station: The Quest for Do-It-Yourself Sterility

2022.

The filtered laminar flow air creates a workspace free of contaminants

Image: Keali Pyvis, Collaboration Station: The Quest for Do-It-Yourself Sterility, 2022.

The blower fan draws air in and cretes pressure in the plenum to create the laminar

Room air is drawn in through the pre-filter

ARTF2031 Living Art

Unit Coordinator: Dr Ionat Zurr

ROSHEN CHARLES WILLIAM WARD ‘PLAYTIME’

PLAYTIME looks at the idea of ‘play’ in the lifecycle of humans and non-human organisms. The work engages with the early stages of fungi growth, known as mycelium. It explores the similar traits shared between mycelium and children; traits such as curiosity, resilience, and resourcefulness.

The use of a train set symbolises the concept of time and child play. The train illustrates the duration of growth and the journey for development and the aesthetics of a wooden toy train set reminders us of child play and our younger self.

The work also looks at the idea of imagination and creativity. The intentional lack of bridges, tunnels and stations activates the need to imagine the environment and to create a story. It is an interactive installation that requires the touch and the action of play to experience the nostalgic connection to childhood.

Image: Roshen Charles William Ward, PLAYTIME, 2022, mycelium and wood, interactive installation.

Image: Roshen Charles William Ward, PLAYTIME, 2022, mycelium and wood, interactive installation.

ARTF1053 Digital Art and Object Making

Unit Coordinator: Dr Vladimir Todorovic

Teaching Staff: Dr Vladimir Todorovic, Samuel Beilby, Paul Boyé and Annie Huang

BELLA RICHMOND

‘Lifeline’

The story follows a genetically engineered baby which turns into an adult growing in an artificial womb. Quickly, this character is getting used to its own body. From the needle connoting a medical intervention to the swimming sperm and finally the blinking of a confused person, this animation ends with them waking up from this nightmarish dream. It speculates on how these new humans will be shaped based on the desires and intentions of their creators.

Image: Bella Richmond, Lifeline, 2022.

Image: Bella Richmond, Lifeline, 2022.

ARTF1053 Digital Art and Object Making

Unit Coordinator: Dr Vladimir Todorovic

Teaching Staff: Dr Vladimir Todorovic, Samuel Beilby, Paul Boyé and Annie Huang

GERMAINE CHAN

‘Visions from the Future’

Rapid technological advancements are unceasing and we are constantly having to adapt to our changing environments. Under the broad theme of ‘X from the Future’, this piece documents my vision of the possibilities in our surroundings that the future holds. Conceptually and visually experimental, I wanted to paint different scenes that could exist beyond our comprehension of the real. Seemingly bright and colourful, these environments are bleak and desolate. Each of the four panels laid out on the screen plays a different scene simultaneously, mimicking the concept of surveillance cameras that we are familiar with. These cameras follow the journey of a futuristic train moving from one station to the other, a depiction of the daily commute in this fictional world. With a palpable absence of humans, some may believe that it actually depicts the rapture. Despite the environment’s transformation, I wanted to use the emptiness of the atmosphere to create a subtle feeling of unease. One may even consider the view of a mind repository of memories, where technology has become infused with our brains, and even the most natural of our human processes are distorted.

Image: Germaine Chan, Visions from the Future, 2022.

Image: Germaine Chan, Visions from the Future, 2022.

ARTF1053 Digital Art and Object Making

Unit Coordinator: Dr Vladimir Todorovic

Teaching Staff: Dr Vladimir Todorovic, Samuel Beilby, Paul Boyé and Annie Huang

MICHAEL DAY ‘HoneyBeest’

It has been known for some time that bee populations have been declining, affecting their ability to sustain their role as natural pollinators, which the ecosystem relies on them for. The Honeybeest is a prototype of a self-sufficient mobile beehive, a concept with the goal of enabling populations of bees to continue their natural pollination over a wider area with less struggle on their part. I have incorporated Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest leg design, which allows the foot to travel in a smooth stepping motion, minimising disruption to the hive caused by unnecessary movement. The base of the hive module is hexagonal and rotates depending on the direction of the wind as bees are known to build their hives out of reach of the wind, for example a hollowed-out tree trunk. The rotating hive and leaning blades provide similar protection in whichever direction the Honeybeest leg structure faces.

Image: Michael Day, HoneyBeest, 2022. Plywood, dowel, armature wire and oil-based wood stain.

Image: Michael Day, HoneyBeest, 2022. Plywood, dowel, armature wire and oil-based wood stain.

HISTORY OF ART

Image: Detail from Tomoko Nagao, Botticelli - The Birth of Venus with Baci, Esselunga, Barilla, PSP and Easyjet, 2012. Digital image.

HART3330 Art Theory

Unit Coordinator: Arvi Wattel

Teaching Staff: Arvi Wattel and Daniel Dolin

BRINDY DONOVAN

‘Artwork and/or Artifact?

Gell’s Anthropological Answer’

Introduction

In 1988 anthropologist Susan Vogel curated an exhibition titled ART/artifact at the Center for African Art, New York. Various African artifacts and artworks were exhibited in a white-washed and dramatically lit gallery space without identification or contextual information1. Of note was the centrepiece Zande hunting net that had been rolled and bound. The ambiguity of this object, whether it was an artwork or only an artifact, became a central point of contestation for the authors to be discussed.

The 1980s saw several notable exhibitions that sought to question the division between Western and non-Western works, including Primitivism (1984) and Magicians of the Earth (1989). Within art and academia more broadly, shifts were made towards embracing postcolonial and critical theory. In the field of anthropology, the seminal book Writing Culture2 brought to attention methodological limitations, particularly around textual representations of other cultures. The influence of these ideas is noticeable in Vogel’s curatorship.

The exhibition catalogue included an essay titled “Artifact and Art”3 by the philosopher of art Arthur Danto where he argues that the Zande hunting net was not an artwork. It is this conclusion that the anthropologist Alfred Gell critiques in his article “Vogel’s Net”4 written some years after the exhibition. Gell argues instead for the philosopher of art George Dickie’s “institutional theory” of art, along with a more ethnographically grounded understanding of African artifacts.

In this essay, I argue that this discourse marked an important turning point within the discipline towards a more anthropologically aware and sociologically grounded understanding of art. I begin my discussion by outlining both Danto and Dickie’s theories. I then discuss Gell’s critique of Danto and the alternative answer he provides. I conclude with a discussion of its ongoing relevance.

Artwork and/or Artifact?

In “Artifact and Art”, Danto draws an absolute line between artworks and artifacts. He locates the distinction not in the object’s appearance — Warhol’s Brillo Boxes (1964) looks identical to real Brillo boxes, but only the former is an artwork — but rather in its nonexhibited properties. For Danto, the necessary condition is that the artifact must embody meaning or idea(s), or what Hegel terms Absolute Spirit, of the culture from which it was produced5. Danto pushes back on the idea that anything and everything can be art, including the Zande net because only a subset of artifacts can embody ideas or meaning. Instrumental artifacts like nets, he claims, have meaning that is “exhausted in their utility” and do not “express universal content” that could push them into the category of artwork6.

He argues for his case using his “Pot People and Basket Folk”7 thought experiment. Although pots and baskets have identical appearances and uses in both groups, only to the Pot People do pots possess meaning and symbolic significance but not baskets, and vice versa for the Basket Folk. Thus, according to his criterion, only the pots of the Pot People could be categorised as artworks, but not the baskets; the opposite case is true for the Basket Folk. Because of the identical appearances of pots/baskets from both groups, the line between artwork and artifact is unclear for those outside the cultures. To make the distinction, Danto says that we would need to

Image: Zande hunting net bound up for transport, Zaire (Uele River region). Fiber. Length 59 cm. American Museum of Natural History. (Photo: Jerry Thompson).

defer to the opinion of the “Wise Persons”8 of these cultures who could describe the meaning (or lack thereof) of each object. Thus, to Danto the Zande net could not be art because it does not embody any higher meaning other than its instrumental function. In comparison, Dickie proposes an “institutional theory” that outlines two conditions for something to be an artwork: (1) artifactuality; (2) conferred status as being art9. Conferrence implies someone with the authority to do so. Dickie, drawing on Danto’s earlier work10, locates this authority amongst members of the “artworld” comprised at its core of artists, presenters (e.g., curators, galleries), and gallerygoers; but also, art critics, theorists, art historians, and the media amongst others11. One has the legitimacy to confer the status of art onto an object as a function of being a member of the artworld. Analogously, a judge can confer legal status to a person as a function of occupying the role in the state’s judicial system. Thus, in the case of the Zande net, it satisfies both conditions Dickie has laid out. It is an artifact in virtue of being made, and it has been conferred the status of art by the curator Vogel and received as such by gallery-goers as members of the artworld.

Vo[Gell]’s Net

Gell, being an anthropologist, brings a different set of analytical tools, theoretical concepts, and assumptions to the debate. In his article, he highlights the errors made in Danto’s reasoning and provides an alternative answer for consideration.

Noticeably lacking from Danto’s essay is an awareness of the ethnographic literature. One example is Danto’s liberal use of the term “primitive” which had decades earlier been rejected within anthropology12. Without proper familiarity with the ethnographic record, Danto also makes sweeping, unsubstantiated claims about African cultures (e.g.,

“I do not believe Africans have this metaphysics of Reason”13)14. His analysis can thus be described as ethnocentric, in that he privileges his own cultural perspective and assumptions and projects them onto an imaginary homogenous “African culture.” Consequently, in not being reflective of real ethnography, the “Wise Persons” of which his thought experiment relies on is reducible to caricatures of authority figures15.

Moreover, it is apparent that Danto’s theory is subsumed by Dickie’s. Danto reserves the power of conferrence only to “Wise Persons”, whilst curators, gallery-goers, and art theorists are disenfranchised from exercising this function; not only members of the artworld, but also the artisans, traders, and other members of the culture from which the object was made. In his overly narrow focus, he fails to see how art theorists like himself analogously assume the function of “Wise Persons” in the Western artworld16; and yet, the final say on what is or is not an artwork does not in practice always rest with them.

Gell concludes that the Zande net is art for two reasons. First, it has been conferred the status of art by Vogel the curator. Through a process of “complex intentionalities”17, Vogel has intended it to be artwork through placing it in a gallery and engaging with it in art theorical terms. This is true even if the netmaker did not intend it to be art. Second, the net is latent with meaning in virtue of its form: it is a trapped net. It embodies the Absolute Spirit, if not that of its origins, at the very least that of our age. It is, in Danto’s own words, “a work of art, [as] a function of what other works of art show it to be.”18

Conclusion: Implications for Art Theory and Art History

The exhibition and surrounding discourse have continuing relevance for understanding artworks and artifacts of non-Western cultures, but also the

heterogeneity of contemporary art. Furthermore, it brought attention to the institution and functioning of the artworld. Whilst Danto was too limited in his scope of who could confer the status of art, his account does unwittingly reveal how in practice legitimacy is not equally distributed. Whilst it could be the case that in some cultures the claims of “Wise Persons” have greater weight than ordinary people, it is the case that at present the opinions of artists, curators, and art critics have greater weight than those of ordinary gallery-goers. This often plays out negatively to the exclusion of marginalised groups (who less frequently occupy these positions of authority within the artworld) from partaking in the dominant discourse.

Gell’s anthropological approach to the debate also reflected the broader concerns of his discipline, particularly regarding the attempt to shift away from “speaking for” other cultures to finding ways to let other cultures speak on their own terms. The anthropologist Faris notes, however, that the Zande net had been in the possession of the American Museum of Natural History since pre-World War I19 and its original ownership is unknown. Moreover, ART/artifact “had little to say about how and why African materials exist outside their context and is silent on issues of repatriation.”20 How then can members of the artworld best engage with and understand artifacts that are completely decontextualised because of past colonialism? Rather than Danto’s naïve deference to unreachable “Wise Persons”, Faris calls instead for “an aesthetic that admittedly dissolves the content/form union ensured by context and uses the emancipated products as it will” because this is “the only defensible position (and that only because it is honest)”21; just as Vogel had done in ART/artifact

Endnotes

1. James C. Faris, ““Art/artifact”: On the Museum and Anthropology,” Current Anthropology 29, no. 5 (1988), 775.

2. James Clifford and George E. Marcus, Writing Culture (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).

3. Arthur Danto, “Artifact and Art,” in ART/artifact: African Art in Anthropology Collections, ed. Susan Vogel (New York: The Centre for African Art and Prestel Verlag, 1988).

4. Alfred Gell, “Vogel’s Net: Traps as Artworks and Artworks as Traps,” Journal of Material Culture 1, no. 1 (1996).

5. Danto, “Artifact and Art,” 23.

6. Ibid, 31.

7. Ibid, 23.

8. Ibid, 24.

9. George Dickie, Art and the Aesthetic: An Institutional Analysis (New York: Cornell University Press, 1974), 34.

10. Arthur Danto, “The Artworld,” The Journal of Philosophy 61, no. 19 (1964).

11. Dickie, Art and the Aesthetic: An Insitutional Analysis, 35–6.

12. Francis L. K. Hsu, “Rethinking the Concept “Primitive”,” Current Anthropology 5, no. 3 (1964).

13. Danto, “Artifact and Art,” 31.

14. An example that disproves Danto’s claim is the notable 17th century Ethiopian philosopher Zera Yacob, whose works predates similar works by Enlightenment philosophers like René Descartes. See: Claude Summer, “The Significance of Zera Yacob’s Philosophy,” Ultimate Reality and Meaning 22, no. 3 (1999).

15. Gell, “Vogel’s Net: Traps as Artworks and Artworks as Traps,” 22.

16. David Davies, “The Anthropology of Art,” in A Companion to Arthur C. Danto, ed. Jonathan Gilmore and Lydia Goehr, Blackwell Companions to Philosophy (Wiley, 2022), 110.

17. Gell, “Vogel’s Net: Traps as Artworks and Artworks as Traps,” 37.

18. Danto, “Artifact and Art,” 18.

19. Faris, ““ART/artifact”: On the Museum and Anthropology,” 776.

20. Ibid, 777.

21. Ibid, 779.

HART2275 Italian Renaissance Art Now

Unit Coordinator: Arvi Wattel

Teaching Staff: Arvi Wattel and Amias Neville

SOPHIE JEFFCOTE

‘The Divine (Feminine) and the Place of Religion: Examining Botticelli in Picabia’

Write a referenced essay in which you compare and contrast a modern or contemporary artwork with a Renaissance artwork and discuss how the modern work derives meaning from its Renaissance reference.

Introduction

The Renaissance was an era characterised by a reignition of development for humanity. With fervent innovations in arts and sciences, Europe burst out of the Middle Ages with a taste for the classical, the beautiful, and the divine; perhaps nowhere more than Italy. With schools of humanistic thought entwining into the ruling minds of Milan, Rome, and Florence, Italian art underwent a veritable explosion. In 16thcentury Florence, Sandro Botticelli flourished under the Medici family, intertwining the religious and the mythological to create paintings that floundered until the pre-Raphaelites of the 19th century revived his legacy and made them some of the most famous artworks in history. His work has been referenced again and again since then, with contemporary artists often drawing on his images in modern contexts to create new meanings – for example, how Francis Picabia referenced his painting Christ the Redeemer (c. 1495-1505) in Salomé (1930). Though the two paintings were created in entirely different contexts and styles, they both tie into similar religious themes, and the use of the Renaissance reference in Picabia’s work creates new meanings about femininity and religion.

Christ the Redeemer

Christ the Redeemer, was completed by Botticelli between 1495 and 1505. It depicts Christ on a black background, dressed in ornate robes, blessing the viewer. The work is an unquestionably devotional image, created to celebrate Christ and his holy presence. As a half-length portrait, his facial expression and pose are detailed and expressive, casting no doubt about the subject of the painting. As typical of religious Renaissance work, Christ is portrayed as a Caucasian man with soft and benevolent features. His facial expression is serene; drooping eyelids are almost absent, broken only by the single tear visible underneath his left eye. This is at odds with the drops of blood leaking from his forehead and dark maroon gashes in his face and chest – creating a sinister moment in an otherwise peaceful image. Christ’s hands are positioned with one blessing the audience and the other measuring his chest wound, a popular object of worship at the turn of the 16th century.

In terms of composition, the focal point of the painting is Christ’s face – the human eye is naturally drawn to the face, and leading lines from his cape edges create a triangle arrowing towards it. The juxtaposition between the black background, his radiant halo, and the golden tones of his skin also draws the eye through a moment of contrast. The background is entirely black – almost chiaroscuro – creating completely negative space around Christ to make him the unmistakable focus. The painting, therefore, uses composition to celebrate Christ and acts as a devotional image in the Catholic tradition. The colouring of the painting is classic of religious Renaissance paintings. Christ’s skin, halo, and the elaborate detailing of his robes are gold. His robes themselves are a deep scarlet underneath a rich peacock-blue cape, patterned with tiny gold crosses. Shiny, tawny hair falls symmetrically onto his shoulders,

broken only by the dark crown of thorns. Golden light haloes his head and radiates from his wounds, painted in thin, regular lines. This almost robotic use of line work differs from the rest of the painting, which draws on humanism and naturalism in its fluidity and realistic curvature. The general atmosphere of the painting is one of warmth, richness, and holiness; celebrating Christ; and fitting into the canon of religious Renaissance painting smoothly.

Salomé

Salomé was painted by Picabia in 1930. Drawing on contemporary influences of surrealism and abstractionism, it portrays a nude female dancer and figures amidst classical architecture, with the outline of Botticelli’s Christ superimposed in line work. The title is visible in the top-left corner, a reference to the biblical story of Salomé and John the Baptist. The painting’s perspective can be broken down into three layers: first, a full-length dancer and severed head, foregrounded in a Hellenistic building, while two supporting figures in the background point towards the doorway. Second: the outline of Botticelli’s Christ as a bust-view portrait, entirely transparent. Third, the flowers and leaves trailing across the whole painting, also transparent, following the lines of Christ’s hair and the dancer’s upper body. With these multiple transparent layers atop the base image, the number of lines is very distracting, almost overwhelming – arguably leading to no focal point. Form is simultaneously rigid and fluid; firm, gridlike lines mark the tiled floor and columns, but these are frequently intercut by Christ’s wavy hair or the curve of the dancer’s body. Audiences are therefore forced to decipher each layer, compelling their active participation in the artistic process.1 But amidst this chaos, the subject of the painting is the dancer – she is painted in the most detail, with purposeful black shadows around her silhouette creating contrast and

Image: Frances Picabia, Salome (1930), oil and lacquer on canvas, 195 x 139cm.

drawing the eye without disturbing the background. Careful attention is shown to the shading of her muscle and the curves of her hands and feet – she is empowered in the gentle sensual, confident curves of her body without being overtly sexualised.

Colour is used much more minimalistically in Picabia’s work, present in dull, desaturated swatches to highlight key moments such as Christ’s lips and the blood of the severed head. Otherwise, the painting is washed in a murky golden hue, largely without differences to separate the layers. The only point of contrast is the silvery-blue glimmer of the doorway in the background, which the supporting figures are pointing to. The atmosphere of the painting seems to enmesh the religious and the classical – Christ’s huge face imparts an unmistakably religious flavour, but the clothing of supporting figures, swooping drapes, and amphorae suggest a Greek tragedy.

Comparison

The major similarity between these two paintings is, of course, the same image of Christ featured in both. The posing of his face is identical, both wear twin downcast expressions, the same rays of light halo each. But where Botticelli’s Christ is a traditional image in the religious Renaissance canon, Picabia’s is decidedly not. His depiction of Christ is feminised with long eyelashes, clean jaw and highlighted red lips.2 The face and neck are also thinner and flimsier – an effect augmented by the use of simple line work rather than the intricately detailed oils of Botticelli. Picabia’s Christ is also framed in a much closer perspective than Botticelli’s, showing in greater detail the drooping eyelids and thinly arched brows reminiscent of 1920-30s glamour. Through these differences, Picabia takes Botticelli’s devotional image celebrating Christ and deconstructs it, reverses its gender, and places a woman in the divine position instead. This idea of the divine feminine is echoed

in the symbolism of Picabia’s painting: when tying in the title - Salomé, named for the dancer who brought about John the Baptist’s death by decapitation – it becomes apparent that the severed head on the floor is John, and the confidently-posed woman is Salomé. Thus, Picabia deconstructs Botticelli’s original meaning: the celebration of Christ is replaced by an exaltation of the feminine.

The paintings are also similar in colouring. The same golden tones dominate both images, and the paintings are completed predominantly in a primary colour palette. Botticelli’s red robes are echoed in the clothes of Picabia’s background figures; the blue of Christ’s cape is present in the faded hues of Picabia’s floral imagery. The difference is the saturation of each of the paintings; while Botticelli’s rich colours emit warmth, radiance, and a sense of holiness, Picabia’s painting seems dull and murky - indeed, Christ has lost all colour but for his lips and is completely transparent. This perhaps makes a comment on the diminishing relevance of Botticelli’s original religious meanings in contemporary times, a sentiment echoed in the subject and composition of the paintings. While Christ was unquestionably Botticelli’s subject and focal point, this meaning is lost in Picabia’s contemporary recreation – instead, the subject is the woman, and Christ is reduced to a literally transparent idea. The black negative space of Botticelli’s painting, which brought all focus to Christ, has been replaced by the chaotic, distractingly busy deep space of a classically Greek background; multiple figures; and focus on the body of the female dancer. There is literally more to look at than Christ – while he is still present, the background holds much more interest than him. The differing styles of the paintings continue to reinforce this – where Boticelli’s image depicts Christ in the humanistic style associated with devotional images, Picabia portrays him as lost in the contemporary surrealist style. Where Christ is the

absolute focus, the only image, of Botticelli’s work; here, he is one layer of transparent lines atop an image populated with people surrounded by another mythological time; they do not see him or need him. Hence, Picabia’s Salomé derives its meaning from its Botticelli reference: the divine Christ is replaced by the divine feminine; and the importance of Christ is reduced to a transparent echo.

Conclusion

Christ the Redeemer and Salomé are thus signs of their time: Botticelli’s work is an exemplar of the traditional Renaissance devotional painting in its exaltation of Christ; and Picabia’s deconstruction of this idea in a contemporary age. Though they share similarities in composition and religious themes, their differences define their separate meanings but the meaning of Picabia’s work is lost without its reference to Botticelli: without the image of Christ, it might simply be a recreation of the biblical story of Salomé. By drawing on Botticelli’s work, Picabia creates meaning as multi-layered as his painting itself.

Montua, Gabriel. “Giving an Edge to the Beautiful Line: Botticelli Referenced in the Works of Comtemporary Artists to Address Issues of Gender and Global Politics.” In Botticelli Past and Present, edited by Ana Debenedetti and Caroline Elam, 290306. UCL Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv550cgj.23

Picabia, Francis. Salomé. 1930. Oil and lacquer on canvas. 195 x 139cm. Private collection.

Snow-Smith, Joanne. “Sandro Botticelli: A Study of his major allegorical paintings” (M.A., University of Arizona, 1968), 21. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/347627

Endnotes

1. Carrie N. Edlund, “Picabia’s Ply over Ply.” Paideuma: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, 16, no. 3 (1987): 99–109. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24724816.

2. Gabriel Montua. “Giving an Edge to the Beautiful Line: Botticelli Referenced in the Works of Comtemporary Artists to Address Issues of Gender and Global Politics.” In Botticelli Past and Present, edited by Ana Debenedetti and Caroline Elam, 290306. UCL Press, 2019. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv550cgj.23.

Bibliography

Botticelli, Sandro. Christ the Redeemer. c. 1495-1505. Tempera and gold on panel. 47.6 x 32.3cm. Accademia Carrara, Bergamo. Edlund, Carrie N. “Picabia’s Ply over Ply.” Paideuma: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics, 16, no. 3 (1987): 99–109. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24724816.

Lugli, Emanuele. The Hair is Full of Snares: Botticelli’s and Boccaccio’s Wayward Erotic Gaze.” Mitteilungen Des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 61, no. 2 (2019): 203–33. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/26922482

HART2223 Modernism and the Visual Arts

Unit

Coordinator: Dr Darren Jorgensen

JESS VAN HEERDEN

‘Dismantling Art Historical Frameworks from Within: Ser-Gil establishes new dialectical visual relationships to portray India’s dynamic post-colonial modern context’

Considered by many art historians the ‘Frida Kahlo’ of India, Amrita Sher-Gil’s innovative union of aesthetic conventions from East and West allowed her to convey the hybrid quality of modernity and the reality of living in India during this turbulent time. Sher Gil’s Self Portrait as a Tahitian (1934) is a monumental masterpiece that tackles multiple concerns including the status of women, the genre of the female nude, racial stereotypes and colonial power discrepancies. This essay will argue that across Sher-Gil’s oeuvre she creates a discourse between East and West, in which ideologies and aesthetic practices enter an exchange. Sher-Gil opposes the misleading narrative of universalism, maintaining distinctly Indian qualities in her work, whilst dismantling colonial frameworks and assumptions (such as the ‘exotic other’).

The myth of universalism in modernism actively excluded non-European art practices via the equating of Western norms with different, specialised modern contexts (the assumption that the Western norms forged at cosmopolitan centres are global norms)1.

Considering and assigning value to modernist art practices from a universal framework creates a comparison of purely temporal positions, where geography is not considered. This decontextualising effect of a universal framework devalues and discredits modernist art from the outskirts of cosmopolitan centres and from the colonies2, where in reality artists are responding to different versions of modernity and promoting different agendas, so

that formal and aesthetic choices have different significances and outcomes.

Modernism [or the avant-garde, or modernism -consider best phrasing], is a response to the dominant ideologies and values of a specific context, where the avant-garde seeks to push against and upturn them, consequently, all meaning is lost in a process of decontextualization. The principal implication of a universal consideration of modernism is that it permits art history to be viewed as linear, allowing for a hierarchy to form as, from this perspective, all modern art can be read within a single criterion – a criterion that actively promotes and maintains a Western colonial position. Aside from the issue of decontextualization, approaching art history with a single, Eurocentric, criterion also has the limiting consequence of creating skewed hierarchical relationships, where art of the periphery is assigned lesser value or even excluded altogether. Partha Mitter aptly describes the limiting effect of a singular approach, “The purely formalist aspects in abstract paintings are considered to be part of the art historical continuum, while ‘exotic’ eastern spiritual elements are essentially inimical to and incompatible with artistic progress . . .3

Whilst there were certainly other Indian modernist artists whose work represented a synthesis of Western and Eastern pictorial traditions and influences, and who articulated scenes of modern India, their work was typically discredited and excluded from high art categories due to a phenomenon that Mitter describes as ‘Picasso Manaque Syndrome.’4 He coins this term to explain the systematic marginalisation of artists engaging with Cubism from outside of a European cosmopolitan centre. As Cubism was a product of the dominant West and India was a colonised nation, Indian artists were locked into a dependant, inferior relationship in the eyes of European critics, resulting in a situation

Image: Amrita Sher-Gil, Self Portrait as a Tahitian, 900x560mm, oil on canvas, 1934.

where adhering too much to Cubism was mindless imitation and where branching further from it was a failure of learning and lack of understanding.

. . . Where Sher-Gil’s work is different, however, is in her active dismantling of Western conventions from within her work. Instead of falling victim to hyperbolic criticisms, like the ‘Picasso Manaque Syndrome,’ Sher-Gil forces us to re-examine the engrained practices and assumptions that silently maintain colonially skewed power imbalances. This is evident in Self Portrait as a Tahitian, where Sher-Gil’s dialectical approach – an amalgamation of visual language and influences from East and West – portrays the dynamism of modernity, and her creation of a sombre mood portrays the harsh reality of everyday life in modern, colonial India, shattering the illusion of the ‘exotic other’ in the process. In this union of influences and formal choices, Sher-Gil dismantles art historic frameworks, creating a work that speaks to the dynamism and displacement implicit in modernity, yet is grounded in its geography (distinctly Indian).

Sher-Gil’s Self Portrait as a Tahitian is a tribute to Gaugin, as it depicts the artist in the guise of one of Gauguin’s Tahitian women (a visual trope the artists established throughout his oeuvre). While there is evidence to suggest that Sher-Gil admired Gaugin’s use of form5, this work presents a scathing critique of colonialism in Sher-Gil’s upturning of the ‘exotic other’ narrative through her construction of the figure’s subjectivity. This is achieved in Sher-Gil’s purposeful deviation from the conventions Gaugin uses to depict his utopistic Tahitian subjects, and in the figure’s gaze. Gaugin’s depictions of Tahitian women, for example in Two Tahitian Women with Mango Blossoms (1899), are typically set against a natural backdrop giving the impression that they are decorative and wild themselves, the oriental stereotype given a physical form. Gaugin’s women

are passive in their gaze, carefree objects upon which to project his supressed desires as a European man6. Sher-Gil’s unselfconscious Self Portrait as a Tahitian is definitely not intended for the male gaze as although she does not meet our eye, there is a fiery determination and self-assuredness in her distant stare, giving the former ‘subject’ a subjectivity and presence. The figure’s sexuality is not accessible to us, the viewer, as she is positioned on a three-quarter angle, and as her crossed hands deny us access to her body. Saloni Mathur explains that this selfcontained quality and a lack of access subverts the modernist conventions of the female nude and the exotic other.7

Aside from creating agency and dismantling colonial art historical assumptions, Sher-Gil’s construction of the gaze is also significant in Self Portrait as a Tahitian as it conveys the “…the painful paradoxes of colonial modernity…”8. Across Sher-Gil’s oeuvre there is a common thread of an inwardness and deep sadness conveyed through the gaze of the figures depicted. Despite not meeting the viewers eye, the figure’s gaze in Self Portrait as a Tahitian is no exception: a look of deep contemplation and melancholia. Mitter explains that this characteristic construction of the gaze is a depiction of the reality of living in modern, colonial India, as Sher-Gil finds beauty in the every day yet must also acknowledge the suffering and struggle of existence for many during this time; an aesthetic tied to experiences of hunger, genocide and the fragmentation of political and cultural solidarities.9

Sher-Gil’s Self Portrait as a Tahitian is an amalgamation of East and West in both content and form. The artist’s nuanced understanding of traditional Indian culture and aesthetics, and of Western art historical frameworks and contemporary practices, allowed her to depict India’s contemporary context but also the dynamism of modernity (a hybrid state

of being). What truly made Sher-Gril an avant-garde artist, however, was her criticism and dismantling of repressive colonial art historic frameworks (such as the exotic other). In her art practice, Sher-Gil constructed new relationships between the East and West that emphasised juxtapositions (maintaining and celebrating Indian history and neglecting misleading narratives of universalism), but were void of the skewed Eurocentric hierarchies previously implicit in art history.

Endnotes

1. Partha Mitter, “Modern Global Art and Its Discontents,” in Decentring the Avant-Garde (New York: Brill, 2014): 36.

2. Laura Winkiel, “Postcolonial Avant-Gardes and the World System of Modernity/Coloniality,” in Decentring the Avant-Garde (New York: Brill, 2014): 97-98.

3. Partha Mitter, “Modern Global Art and Its Discontents,” 40.

4. Partha Mitter, “Modern Global Art and Its Discontents,” 39.

5. Saloni Mathur, “A Retake of Sher-Gil’s Self-Portrait as Tahitian,” Critical Inquiry 37, no. 3 (2011): 521.

6. Géza Bethenfalvy, “Amrita Sher-Gil: A Painter of Two Continents,” Hungarian Quarterly 52, no. 3 (2011): 94.

7. Saloni Mathur, “A Retake of Sher-Gil’s Self-Portrait as Tahitian,” 524.

8. Subir Rana, “Framing the Political, Rebellious, and ‘Desiring’ Body: Amrita Sher-Gil and the ‘Modern’ in Painting,” India International Quarterly 44, no. 2 (2017): 36.

9. Sanjuka Sunderason, “Toward an Aesthetic of Decolonisation,” Partisan Aesthetics: Modern Art and India’s Long Decolonization, (Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 2020), 261.

ARCHITECTURE, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE & URBAN DESIGN

Image: UWA School of Design, First-year units display, Summer Exhibition

2022 opening night, 16 November 2022. Photography by Samantha Dye.

ARCHITECTURE

FOREWORD BY AMY STEWART

I enrolled in the Master of Landscape Architecture program as a conversion student in early 2020, during the height of the Black Summer fires in the Eastern States. Fresh from finishing my undergraduate studies in Conservation Biology, I was attracted to the program by a desire to make an actionable change in the face of environmental catastrophe. As I reflect now on the last three years, it is impossible to separate my experiences from the broader context of rapid global change occurring in real time- from fires to floods, and the ongoing pandemic that continues to impact our communities and landscapes. The students at the School of Design today are graduating into a distinctly different world, one where the consequences of climate change, once thought of as an abstract future, are unfolding in front of our very eyes.

And yet I can’t help but feel so spoilt. To have spent the last six years of my life studying full time, immersed in the complexities of landscape. To have gained a deeper understanding of place on the banks of the Derbarl Yerrigan, in the heart of one of the most unique, rich, and vulnerable ecological systems on the planet. To have had the opportunity to learn from the wonderful teaching staff who continue to share their wealth of knowledge and experience in the profession, and who continue to foster a passion for design and landscape in their students every semester despite the ever-amounting challenges. It has been a privilege to learn alongside the plethora of creatively minded and passionate students throughout my postgraduate studies, some of whose work is documented in this catalogue. I am very excited to start my career with them and to see how they use their talents, developed, and refined here, to contribute to and shape the profession of Landscape Architectureboth in WA and across the world.

Amy Stewart, Master

of Landscape Architecture 2022 Winner of the 2022 Landscape Architecture Australia Student Prize for UWA

Image: Image adapted from Living Suburbs Empowering Communities Project completed in Semester 1, 2022.

ARCHITECTURE

Image: UWA School of Design, Cullity Gallery, Summer Exhibition 2022 opening night, 16 November 2022. Photography by Samantha Dye.

ARCT5511 Independent Design Research Part 2

Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop

Supervisor: Craig McCormack DEXTER WONG

‘Queer Spaces: Invisible Queer Spaces in Perth, Western Australia’

Homosexuality was widely unlawful across the globe and still is in many countries. Western Australia only recently abolished a law legalising assault on homosexuals as a defence in 2008. Historically queer individuals were persecuted, resulting in their queer history not being valued due to the ramifications of being queer.

The research examined and uncovered historical queer spaces in Northbridge, Western Australia because there were gaps in queer scholarship within architecture and wider Australia. Due to the historical perception of the LGBTQIA+ community, there are gaps in queer architecture research. However, the historical queer spaces do exist and are significant to the LGBTQIA+ community and Northbridge community. Queer methodologies were used including carrying out informal discussions about queer history, archival research on historical periodicals, and the act of mapping and plotting these queer spaces on a map. Planometric-type drawings were used to reconstruct eight of these historical queer spaces.

The main findings were that these queer spaces do exist and have historically been clandestine, with any physical evidence destroyed due to the illegality of homosexuality. Furthermore, a lot of these spaces were hospitality venues such as hotels, pubs and bars concentrated primarily around the fringes of the Perth CBD, Northbridge. This research contributes to a larger scholarship on queer spaces globally but also contributes to the local history of Northbridge. This queer history of Northbridge is validated through planometric drawings and queer maps. Both the drawing and maps contribute to wider queer space research.

Lastly, this research in queer history contributes to the ongoing efforts of collecting queer history at the historic centre of the City of Vincent. This queer research further instils the significance and importance of historical LGBTQIA+ spaces in Northbridge, Perth in educating both the queer community and the general public.

Image: Planometric Drawing of Arcane Bookshop on William Street, 1984 – 1994. Terri-ann White is a highly accomplished writer and publisher who opened Arcane Bookshop in 1984. The queer space provided a safe space for queer and feminists to peruse queer and feminist literature in the 1980s.

Image: (Left and Centre) The queer maps seek to reveal historically persecuted queer spaces firstly at a larger metropolitan scale, then a more focused scale on

and Northbridge; (Right) Planometric drawing of queer spaces, the Shaftesbury Hotel on Stirling Street 1908 – 1988.

Image: Planometric drawings of queer spaces. (Left) Connections Nightclub opened in 1984; (Centre) The Palace Hotel constructed 1896; (Right) and the Aberdeen

Aberdeen Hotel (Red Lion Hotel) constructed in 1886.

ARCT5511 Independent Design Research Part 2

Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop

Supervisor: Lara Camilla Pinho

KATHY CHAPMAN

‘Improving Captive Numbat Welfare Through Design’

This dissertation discussed captive animal welfare, namely the welfare of captive numbats (Myrmecobius Fasciatus), also known by First Nations people as the Walpurti. 1 Welfare was assessed and speculated upon through the critical analysis of past and current enclosure designs, interviews with relevant professionals, and contemplation regarding the future of exhibit design.

The four pillars that uphold the contemporary zoo are recreation, education, research, and conservation,2 allowing urban zoos to operate with the best intentions. The earth has entered a new epoch, the Anthropocene, an era where mankind as a hyper-keystone species has had an unparalleled effect on the environment.3 Due to this, zoos are becoming havens of conservation for many endangered species whilst educating zoogoers about environmental degradation and the necessity of environmentally friendly lifestyles. However, the process of designing animal enclosures for metropolitan zoos is complex. When designing for other animals, designers must translate speciesspecific lifestyles into environments that tackle the dichotomy between encouraging the animals’ natural behaviour, such as hiding and creating engaging displays for the public. The design must navigate these opposing factors delicately, otherwise at least one of the four pillars upholding the urban zoo will be compromised. Designers also must consider and interpret the current social and scientific zeitgeists surrounding animal welfare, utilising policy frameworks, historical records, husbandry guides,

and other publications to define these outlooks. Improving enclosures while also providing engaging educational opportunities for the general public is a difficult task; not all designs will be beneficial for zoogoers and responding to difficulties with compassion is important. Additionally, the concept that metropolitan zoos can act as prominent green spaces within an increasingly urban environment was explored within this project. In 2050, two-thirds of the global population is estimated to be living in metropolitan areas,4 highlighting the importance of urban biodiversity and its’ essential role in preventing further species extinction. Scientists have discovered that due to rapid urbanisation, a significant portion of native vegetation has been replaced by a small number of invasive species through a process called biotic homogenisation.5 Cities and zoos have a symbiotic relationship with one another, as zoos are becoming key places of refuge for wild fauna that have been displaced from their habitat as a result of urbanisation. Local flora can be planted in both the public realm of the zoo and in private enclosures where appropriate, further encouraging local animals such as birds and insects to reside in the zoo. These animals can then germinate the surrounding urban areas with native flora seeds and pollen,6 highlighting the interdependence of plants and animals to zoogoers, and reinforcing the urban zoo’s value of education. This dissertation took this information into account to discuss previous and current enclosure designs for the numbat, particularly focusing on the design of the enclosure in context with the scientific knowledge available at that time. The numbat was selected for this project due to its extremely small population size, the species only being found naturally in Western Australia, and Perth Zoo is the only zoo globally to breed the species. This provided a unique

Image: An example of a modular system that could be utilised in the 2030 Perth Zoo Masterplan. The height of the modules allows for natural numbat digging behaviours to occur whilst also preventing the intrusion of other animals and numbat predation. Vegetation and distance are combined to limit the noise and visual impact of people, and sustainable materials such as wood and mycelium are recommended for a variety of implementations throughout this project.

Image: Proposed utilisation of endangered flora endemic to Western Australia within Perth Zoo’s numbat enclosures.

opportunity to collaborate with relevant professionals in person, whilst also having a significant impact on the understanding of the species. As the design of zoo enclosures is inherently multidisciplinary, this research was necessary prior to exploring potential implementations for future numbat enclosures. A series of interviews with professionals in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, numbat research, veterinary science, and zoology provided invaluable insight into assorted topics such as animal welfare and local biodiversity. These discussions created an informed dialogue that was applied when analysing both past and present enclosure design, while also specifying various opportunities and limitations to be considered when designing subsequent implementations.

This dissertation subsequently investigated alternative materials and aspects of the enclosure, culminating in a series of speculative implementations. By undertaking this study, this thesis aimed to provide innovative approaches to numbat housing facilities, with the goal of improving animal welfare. As Perth Zoo is currently undergoing a massive transformation with the design of the 2030 Perth Zoo Masterplan, this is a crucial time for progress. While it should be noted that although we can learn from previous decisions made for captive numbat enclosures, implementations and decisions made now could still influence the upcoming design of the numbat enclosures in the new ‘Conservation Precinct’ at Perth Zoo, and future numbat enclosure designs at other locations. Examples of successful design implementations can also be viewed in the enclosure design of other animal species with similar characteristics. A notable example of this is the implementation of non-climbable walls in meerkat enclosures7 as an alternative to wire mesh recommended for numbat exhibits, which has caused physical injuries such as broken bones and torn nails.8 Furthermore, a discussion with Perth Zoo

researchers highlighted specific architectural implementations that could be investigated in this project. Some ideas that could potentially be explored were the potential for a modular facility to be constructed within the next few years and then transported to a permanent site when the Conservation Precinct is built, with sustainably sourced materials. These materials and design for an enclosure wall allows a viewing window into the numbat area while minimising visual and auditory impacts of zoogoers on the numbat. The roofing options provide protection from other species while allowing light in winter and shade in summer, and the consideration of substrate options allows for adequate drainage and burrow construction with the possibility of regular replacement.9

As this was a year-long dissertation, time and other resources were limited, and therefore not all of these research options were explored. The modular system was the most prominent potential implementation explored, and within the bounds of this system, sustainably sourced materials and the human-animal connection have been investigated. Through the addition of endangered, endemic vegetation, the modular system has the potential to aid local biodiversity efforts. The implementations proposed within this dissertation have been informed through previous design experience and additional research previously undertaken throughout this project. However, for these theoretic implementations to become a reality, the collaboration between a variety of professionals is required before this concept is fully realised. The success of this system will require the close observation of the animals in their enclosure, and for changes to be made if the absence or presence of certain behaviours is displayed by the numbats. An additional indicator that this modular system is effective would be a comparative study of the captive colony’s breeding

Image: Mycelium as an alternative to foam and polycarbonate.

season over an extended time period, noting how many young were born each year.

As zoologists and researchers gain a better understanding of the numbat and its’ captive husbandry necessities, the modular system can evolve to conform and better suit these requirements. As there is a comparative lack of information on both the numbat and its enclosure, it would be shortsighted to not consider the current research being undertaken when designing. For example, researcher Sian Thorn’s doctoral thesis on the subpopulation of numbats in the Upper Warren region may illustrate that climbing is an important characteristic of the numbat, this behaviour was simply not noted in Dryandra field studies. This would result in the modular system evolving through collaboration with other professionals and further research would need to be undertaken to deem the enclosures appropriate.

Success is influenced by time and the design of animal enclosures does not have the immediacy of other buildings. If an intervention can benefit its’ users, this design is deemed successful. As many of these implementations involve the use of biobased materials, such as mycelium as an alternative to polycarbonate, intense observation of the captive numbats and any subsequent behavioural changes must be noted prior to deeming these materials appropriate. If the material is no longer deemed suitable for a captive numbat environment, the biobased materials can be easily composted and only certain recommendations are exclusive to the numbat. Therefore, this modular system can be altered to suit the needs of an animal species similar in size and behaviour to the numbat, with the caveat that additional research and studies will need to be undertaken to ensure that this system is appropriate.

Endnotes

1. A. A. Burbidge, et al., “Aboriginal Knowledge of the Mammals of the Central Deserts of Australia,” Wildlife Research (East Melbourne) 15, no. 1 (1988): 17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1071/ WR9880009.

2. Jackie Ogden and Joe E Heimlich, “Why Focus on Zoo and Aquarium Education,” Zoo Biology 28, no. 5 (2009): 357. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.20271

3. Boris Worm and Robert T. Paine, “Humans as a Hyperkeystone Species,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution (Amsterdam) 31, no. 8 (2016): 600. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2016.05.008

4. N. Müller and P. Werner, “Urban Biodiversity and the Case for Implementing the Convention on Biological Diversity in Towns and Cities,” in Urban Biodiversity and Design, 3 (Oxford, UK: Wiley‐Blackwell, 2010).

5. Janet E. Kohlhase, “The New Urban World 2050: Perspectives, Prospects and Problems: The New Urban World 2050,” Regional Science Policy & Practice 5, no. 2 (2013), 153, DOI: https://doi. org/10.1111/rsp3.12001

6. Kathy Chapman, “Zootopia? An analysis of the past, present, and future of urban zoo design in the context of animal welfare,” Research Proposal, (The University of Western Australia, 2022), 14.

7. AZA Carnivore Taxon Advisory Group, Mongoose, Meerkat, & Fossa (Herpestidae/Eupleridae) Care Manual (Maryland, USA: Association of Zoos and Aquariums, 2011), 17.

8. Vicki-Louise Power and Cree Monaghan, “CH04 – Numbats” (Unpublished Book Chapter, September 15, 2020), typescript, 34.

9. Dr Harriet Mills, Emily Polla, and Kathryn Cadwell (Perth Zoo employees), personal communication with author. August 2022.

ARCT5502 Independent Design Research

Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop

Supervisor: Dr Fernando Jerez SARAH

WONG

‘Is cyberspace a ‘place’?’

Cities of antiquity were full of ‘place’ – spaces of interaction and social vitality. Over time, cities have grown to unprecedented scales and complexities. To manage this, designers and city planners have developed the metropolis of super modernity into a high-functioning, well-oiled machine, wherein efficiency, connectivity and speed are king. A caveat is a population plagued by solitude, individualism and boredom (or lack thereof); the modern city has become overrun by non-place. Prior to the introduction of high-speed internet in the 1980s, ‘non-places’ consisted of railways, airports, supermarkets and high-speed roads. Now, they are everywhere. More specifically, we carry non-place-inducing devices with us everywhere, in the form of the ubiquitous smartphone. With such devices, humans disconnect themselves from the mundane world. As such, what were once places are reduced to mere transitory space. With the rise of social media platforms and virtual reality, it seems that the complete obsoletion of the city is inevitable.

A novel conception of place may be found in virtual reality. Simultaneously housing billions of users across its various platforms, the digital realm expands our preconceptions of space and time. Although cyberspace is intangible, it has facilitated the formation of community and socialisation across its various platforms, and technological innovation is bound to develop means of access that offer heightened immersion. As more neurologically sophisticated (or invasive) means to disseminate, inhabitancy of earth may dwindle, in favour of a digital counterpart. Ultimately, whether cyberspace is a place, by Marc Auge’s definition, is merely a semantic debate. A new type of interaction, humans operating between each other as digital avatars, complicates definitions of place and non-place. This alternate reality may hold the key to providing respite from the perceived ills of the world, such as loneliness and prospectively, even inequality and the climate crisis, perhaps.

Image: Cyberspace dwelling pods.

Image: Rail village, apartment and micro-apartment.

ARLA4002 Design Research Part 2, Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours)

Unit Coordinator: Dr Philip Goldswain

Supervisor: Lara Camilla Pinho

GENEVIEVE MATTHEWS

‘A New City in Jurien Bay’

Increasing population inherently requires more housing and in Perth this is manifesting itself in the development of outer ring suburbs with low-quality housing and urban sprawl. To combat this provision of housing in regional towns this became the central focus. This concept is referred to as decentralisation which aims to have the population spread amongst different cities rather than concentrated in one. By 2027, 80% of Western Australia’s population will be living in Perth. There is a history of national and state strategies that have tried to focus on growing the regions, but this has largely been unsuccessful, in part due to the spread of resources rather than focusing on one town. I believe Western Australia’s regional towns have potential for growth with the provision of alternative ways of living.

After state-wide analysis and evaluation of the context of three regions, Jurien Bay was chosen as the site for a regional centre. The Dandaragan area is relatively underutilised and provides a good opportunity for future planning. Jurien Bay already has growth plans, but these growth plans are very similar to outer suburb developments in Perth. If outer suburbs of Perth are copied and pasted into this area it would be detrimental to the prominent levels of biodiversity.

Planning alternative ways of living would not only help accommodate biodiversity but also provides an incentive for people to live there. This project is a future plan for Jurien Bay that aims to accommodate biodiversity and also create a climate change, resilient city. The project is primarily conceptual and explores ideas that are aimed at challenging ‘business as usual’ residential developments in regional areas. The primary goal is to start a conversation on how regional residential development can and should be different and accommodate to a site’s unique characteristics.

Image: Context site plan and existing biodiversity.

Image: Three interventions throughout the city.

ARCT5101 Architecture Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Studio Coordinator: Dr Rosangela Tenorio

‘Studio Atauro’

RILEY DRENNAN

‘Eskola BIO-Inovasaun de Atauro’

The Eskola BIO-Inovasaun de Atauro focusses on reconnecting the local youth to its traditional craft and culture, through a concept of ‘play is learning’. An imposing issue among the students is the perceived hierarchy and their view on modernity and tradition, by seeing the modern world as more advanced and desirable. As a result, oral teachings, timber craftsmanship, and knowledge of the land is being lost. The concept was approached by looking to incorporate the existing school’s identity and green canopy, sourcing local materials, and incorporating an advanced program and curriculum. The proposal for fishing sheds along the coastline of Atauro is based on the need of branching out into local towns. With students walking up to 3 hours to get to school, the proposal will allow them to meet in their own village in the morning, where they will catch fish that will be provided as food for the school at lunches. In doing so, providing a sustainable food source, whilst also educating about a local tradition.

NGUYEN BUI

‘Escola Livre de Atauro’

Taking the risk of losing local craftsmanship into consideration, this project aims to establish a skill learning centre with the hope of mending the cross-generational relationship on Atauro Island. A skill learning centre is supported by the implementation of a free curriculum in which practical study is emphasised with appropriate spatial configurations allowing a project-based curriculum. The new design takes the form and preservation of the existing buildings with some additions and adjustments to ensure educational quality and highlight the cross-generational relationship. With these design features, the project hopes to enrich the craftsmanship of the society and extend the reach of the school to the island’s community through a staged approach, starting from a trivial element: curriculum change, to inviting skill exchange between elders and youngsters and finally to social enrichment.

Image:

Riley Drennan, Eskola BIO-Inovasaun de Atauro.

Image: Nguyen Bui, Escola Livre de Atauro, (Left) Site Isometric; (Right) Skill-Learning Centre

ARCT5101 Architecture Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Studio Coordinator: Paul Sawyer

‘The City is (not) Dead’

JD OTTO

‘The 10-minute Perth Neighbourhood is not dead’

‘It is not a place where I want my kids to grow up. I want a safe and open environment for them.’

This phrase is a common argument when people flee the city for the suburbs, especially when people move to Perth for space and a slower pace of life. Unencumbered urban sprawl is the result and has led to Perth children growing up with a suburban spatial framework ingrained into them, even though the city provides a possible rich cultural background that the suburb cannot. They consequently take ownership of the suburban landscape while leaving the city without custodians and devoid of the vibrant character inhabiting many cities worldwide. The design proposal aims to break this vicious cycle by adding the elements of a quintessential suburban neighbourhood into the city, thereby tackling the reason behind moving to the suburbs head-on. This proposal will allow for space, privacy, nature, views, good airflow, local groceries, local hangout spots, neighbourhood activities and most importantly, child-friendly intergenerational living. It will also aim to retain and cherish the cultural richness that the city provides. The sense of community in a neighbourhood will allow the inhabitants to become custodians of their environment, thereby passing the legacy of urban living to their children. These children will, in turn, allow the city to grow with them and become a sustainable inheritance for the future custodians of Perth.

Image: Internal upgrades of the existing building are pulled back from the façade, creating in-between spaces for vegetation and highlighting the heritage components.

Image: Two Lantern-like towers jut out and float atop existing heritage fabric to create the residential components. The lower heritage component caters for communal

communal gatherings and neighbourhood shops.

ARCT5101 Architecture Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Studio Coordinator: Dr Sally Farrah

‘Post-2032 for Fremantle Port: Adaptive reuse of the Port Authority Building’

EUGENE TIONG

‘CO-living FREO’

As an iconic post-WWII building, the Fremantle Port Authority has an integral presence for port operations. However, with the port being decommissioned in 2032, this project shows the transformation of this office building into student housing and apartments.

CO-living FREO proposes the addition of external circulation, including a new staircase and extended floor slab from the original structure on the South side of the building. Shifting this circulation out of the building volume frees up the interior spaces and maximises flexibility. The architecture presents a communicative and place-making system on the outside, while the liminal space created enables spatial potential that is open to definition, and beyond the function of a classical staircase.

Unlike Fremantle’s traditional residential typologies, Co-living FREO provides various types. Each living space proposes a large and flexible area of communal spaces scaled for eating, studying, communicating, and working together, to encourage the formation of communities within the building. Student accommodations are subtly segmented into private, semi-private, and public spaces, where the communal space can be further altered with folding polycarbonate panels, whilst allowing natural light to penetrate. Each room has a balcony with a 1m setback from the North façade however, the double-level family apartment was inspired by Fremantle’s housing typologies, which provided more private spaces and a large balcony to maximise natural light and views.

Overall, CO-living FREO renews Fremantle’s existing residential typologies and living conditions, whilst improving urban circulation and legibility of the port.

Image: Sectional perspective

Image: (Left) Plan oblique - student accommodations in summer and winter time; (Right) Selected plans and section.

ARCT5201 Detailed Design Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Studio Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho

‘Avian Landscapes: Exploring Multi-Species Platforms’

FYNN TURLEY

‘Becoming Fungivore: A Platform for Pests’

In reference to Cooking Sections’ ongoing project “Becoming Climavore”, Becoming Fungivore investigates the potential for mycelium to negotiate the different needs for multi-species diets in the face of a looming food and climate crisis. Through a series of modular mycelium blocks and a portable ‘Shabby Kitchen’, Becoming Fungivore facilitates a performative dining experience atop a digestible mycelium platform intended to provide food for resident pest species of the Canning River.

As Perth continues to sprawl into an expansive urbanised territory, Becoming Fungivore imagines a future where undesirable species such as weeds, moluscs, and insects, become pertinent food sources through necessity.

Image: Full kitchen assembly, section and elevation oblique.

Image: (Top Left) Cage Cart and Myco-chair and tiny table; (Bottom Left) Cram Cart and a (somewhat) larger tiny table; (Top Centre) Collection Cart, dinning desk

desk and tiny table; (Bottom Centre) Pest platform, dinning desk and Myco-chair; (Right) Shabby Kitchen (unfolded).

ARCT5201 Detailed Design Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Studio Coordinator: Philip Stejskal

‘Pop-up Dwelling: a new type of vitality’

JOHANNA LUNDIN

‘Exploration into opportunities of pop-up dwellings to revitalise urban centres’

It doesn’t matter where you wander, in your neighbourhood or the city centres, the number of empty shops around us has increased. More so after the lockdowns of COVID-19. Online shopping is at its peak, and the demand for leasing a property is decreasing, with currently 79 commercial properties for lease in Fremantle.

At the same time, we are experiencing a housing crisis all over Australia. In Perth, the rental vacancy is at 0.8%. The proposition is, can we apply the principles behind the success of pop-up shops and populate empty spaces for lease with pop-up dwellings? What do we replace vibrant streetscapes with cafes and shops?

The idea behind the standard prefabricated module is to give the tenants a choice. Dignified living is to give people a choice. Different tenant needs different configurations. Some shops will be small, and it is central to maximise floor space and make it functional. Colours have been applied to the prefabricated module, preserving the original shop front as it is (cost-effective), and the prefabricated modules will be on display in vibrant colours.

This project approaches the psychology of colours with a bit more distinction. Colour is far from just a visual experience; it affects our mood, our wants, and how we react. Colour can evoke our feelings, be reactive and change how we think. Blue can have the ability to lower our blood pressure or make us lose our appetite. Yellow, in contrast to blue, can whet our appetite. Colours have a crucial role in our daily lives. Colour is more than just a colour. Colour is communication.

Image: Northwest Elevation, 33-37 High Street, Fremantle.

Image: (Left) Adaptable and movable bed module to maximise floor space; (Centre) Bedframe with alternative storage; (Right) Different tenant, different layout.

ARCT5201 Detailed Design Studio

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Studio Coordinator: Richard Simpson

‘Kings Park Cultural Centre’

TYSON HARRIS

‘Kaarta Gar-up Lookout Kings Park’

The brief for the project is to provide a space for Kings Park and the wider community, with a focus on indigenous cultural heritage. The function of the building is to be a lookout and provide a particular framework that is relevant to the design concept. The client (Botanic Parks and Gardens Authority) wants the design to be a “must-see” attraction for tourism and accommodate existing uses, such as school excursions and local storytellers to conduct business. The design approach to the brief is to create a space that can facilitate the function of storytelling in multiple ways (static and dynamic), the cultural sensitivity required to assist a focus on indigenous heritage requires several storytellers from the local community to share their past down knowledge and inject it into the building program. Showcasing the indigenous community to facilitate artworks and stories to the Kaarta Gar-up Lookout whilst providing a “must-see attraction” for Perth with the spectacular city lookout with rooms of artwork, stories, and views. The proposal evolved through the design phase whilst focusing on the core intent through each aspect of the building. Creating a lookout that caters to the community and provides the much-needed acknowledgement for the first nations people, in a particularly significant cultural place such as kings park. Kaarta Gar-up Lookout provides an addition to the stories of Kings Park allowing static and dynamic experiences that can evolve and adapt to events in time and offer a space for the indigenous culture to shine. The lookout is something that needed to be more than a lookout for it to be a must-see destination in Perth, it needed to offer unique and changing experiences with the form seamlessly blending with the landscape allowing it to age gracefully within the natural context of the site.

Image: “Stories of History” Stories of history is a room of openness that allows a thoughtful connection to the past and present. The skylight allows the space to extend beyond its four walls the openness pushes beyond the meaning and reflections of this space.

ARCT5202 Detailed Design Studio 2

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Studio Coordinator: Gemma Hohnen

‘Architecture and the Sun’

FIONA NOWLAND

‘White Mangrove Environmental Centre’

Bunbury is known as the City of Three Waters. Located on a narrow peninsular between the coastal waters of Koombana Bay and the Leschenault Estuary on the foreshore of Bunbury, the site is bounded by two bodies of water as a constant reminder of future sea levels rising. Observing the delicate surroundings of protected White Mangrove wetlands, the transition of wetlands to dry sites has informed the design outcome. The topography of the site forms a bowl on which the retro-fitted existing 3-story 1960s concrete structure sits. Embedding the large structure in the delicate landscape creates the dilemma of the ground floor becoming flooded with sea rises. A new infrastructure that supports community engagement and awareness of climate change becomes even more significant as a sustainable approach.

As part of the metaphor of transparency of climate change, the concrete structure’s ‘stripped-back bones’ is celebrated and revealed with transparent layers of interior and exterior envelopes. The materiality of hempcrete walls, CLT timber beams which provide lateral stability, and the timber slatted walls and screens, reflect the local environment. The transition from endemic landscape to interior spaces becomes the gradient for materiality, light and sound. The programmatic requirements of the building are arranged into spaces on the west and east ends, which are sealed envelopes. The centre of the building is open to the elements with a void piercing all floors, allowing cross-ventilation breezes and light from the north to infiltrate the interior.

Access from the existing car park is via a ramp to entry on the first floor of the same elevation. Elevated walkways between the cafe, bookshop and event space, solve the consideration of possible flooding on the ground level. Offices and studio spaces are on the highest level which enjoys the view.

Image: Overall view of the White Mangrove Environmental Centre.

Image: Interior and exterior views.

ARCT5513 Near Future Scenarios for a New Architectural Era

Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez

‘Perth 2050. What does the future look like?’

GEHAD ABDALLA, BASIM BOULOS, VICKY CHUAYBAMRUNG-HAYNES, MINA MARKOVIC, TIMOTHY MURPHY AND JUSTIN KATSUMATA YU

‘dropsaver’

Located between the desert and the sea, the people of Perth have long experienced difficulties harnessing fresh water supplies. The land’s traditional owners developed a way of life that was resilient. Practices of mobility and land management were passed down between generations, bestowing a responsive custodianship, yet the forces of colonialism have worn down this connection. The implementation of developmental western science and technology has taken its place, propagating a fiction of an endless water supply and an expectation that demands for more water will always be met. Based on foreign climates, these models view water scarcity as an aberration from the norm, a view fundamentally at odds with the environmental realities of the southwest. With groundwater supplies dwindling and a concerning warming trend, scientist Tim Flannery warns the city will become a “ghost metropolis”. dropsaver explores this idea, interrogating the ways in which our daily routine will be forced to change in a time of extreme water scarcity. Looking beyond restrictions on watering gardens and lawns, instead illustrating a fundamental shift in hygiene, diet, and lifestyle habits.

Image: Your dropsaver account has been suspended.

Image: dropsaver, desperate measures to harvest water off grid.

ARCT5513 Near Future Scenarios for a New Architectural Era Unit Coordinator: Dr Fernando Jerez

‘Perth 2050. What does the future look like?’

DARIAN ASTONE, AMIRA BENTERRAK, CARINA VAN DEN BERG, GIORGIA NIGGEMANN AND JENNIFER GARCIA

‘The Future of Dating’

“...the temptation to rely on algorithms is likely to increase. Hacking human decisionmaking will not only make Big Data algorithms more reliable, it will simultaneously make human feelings less reliable…the same is true for the ability to choose spouses…”

- Harari, Yuval Noah, 2019. “3. Liberty” in 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. Vintage Publishing, London: 68-69.

Companionship is a basic human need, to spend time and build relationships and is how the human race has been able to grow and expand. However, what if algorithms fundamentally change the way we communicate and more importantly the way we fall in love? In our pace and technological world how we communicate no longer relies on our voices alone, it has transformed into instant communication that spreads worldwide. COVID-19, the crisis of isolation, only sped up the process at which communication is forever changing, from physical space to virtual Zoom meetings. Projects went virtual, meetings went virtual… yet, how has our quest for love been transformed?

In the near future, facial recognition and DNA matching will increase the success rate of matches for dating apps, most importantly they will seduce us by promising to find our soulmate. AI feeds off of our vulnerabilities and our desire for convenience, it’s programmed such that we’re able to rely on its objective decision-making rather than our feelings and emotions. Thus, we will trust the AI when it chooses whom we ought to be with and love. We are becoming programmed to view love through the algorithm, to choose a partner based on their superficial characteristic.

Image: The Future of Dating, data.

Image: The Future of Dating, effect.

ARCT5510 Housing

Unit Coordinator: Jennie Officer

Teaching Staff: Jennie Officer and Dr Tatjana Todorovic

CHARLOTTE MARTIN

‘Perth’s Missing Middle: A Typology Guide’

The Lure of Suburbia

Perth’s current housing market has been shaped by the traditional idea of the Australian Dream - the ambition to own a large detached house on a quarteracre suburban block with a large backyard. Despite the evolution of the types of housing developed in suburbia over time, the ideals ingrained in the archetypal Australian way of life remain on offer in the suburbs - security, identity, and space.1 The national ideal has become synonymous with the Australian identity, described by Rory Hyde as “the suburbs are Australia and Australia is the suburbs”,2 which has morphed our cities into ever-expanding parasitic sprawl. The future spread of suburbia is inescapable with a growing population to house,3 however increasing density in established areas will help to limit copious growth.

Business as Usual (BAU)

To understand what will improve density in Perth, it is necessary to also comprehend what is happening currently and why it is going wrong. To mitigate against further sprawl, the Perth and Peel @3.5million report outlines an overall infill target of 47% for Perth and its associated sub-regions.4 Despite Perth achieving a somewhat increased infill rate, reports show that, of the infill developments built between 2011 and 2020, ‘battle-axe’ projects with one dwelling per lot (duplex, triplex, quadplex etc.) made up half.5 Research has shown that an average

of just 4% of property developers employ an architect to work on housing designs,6 a scenario described by EHDO’s Dave Delahunty as “project home developers are the lions, architects are the wildebeest”.7 This lack of professional input has significant implications on the performance of the majority of Perth houses, such as neglect of consideration of site orientation, solar access, optimum window placement, adequate shading, and access to quality greenspace.

The Real Missing Middle

Medium density is defined by the Western Australian Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage as “typologies such as dual occupancy, micro-lot, terrace townhouse, duplex, triplex, quadplex, grouped dwellings, and walk-up apartments”.8 These types of development usually fall between R30 and R60 - meaning they sit on the scale between single houses and high-rise apartment towers. Despite their classification as ‘missing’ using this definition, Perth has no issue with the supply of battle-axe infill developments. As put by Daniel Bromley, “WA doesn’t have a missing middle, what we are missing is housing choice”.9 What Perth is truly lacking is quality infill projects that maintain the liveability of traditional ‘Australian dream-esque’ suburbs. This paper will explore new quality infill typologies suitable for established middle-suburban residential areas which do not fall under the usual list of common forms of medium density - the real ‘missing middle’ in Perth.

Courtyard Typology

Current BAU projects in Perth tend to consume the entire site with little to no consideration of natural ventilation, northern light to habitable rooms, green space or landscaping. In contrast to this approach is the courtyard house - a typology that provides a balance between indoor and outdoor,

Image: The ‘Real’ Missing Middle Diagram. Source: “Design competition for missing middle housing,” NSW Government of Planning and Environment, accessed September 29 2022. https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/News/2016/Design-competition-for-missing-middle-housing.

privacy and openness, and the built form and the garden. Despite the existence of several variations of courtyard subtypes,10 all are, by nature, introverted designs that feature a central open space that can be utilised to provide natural ventilation and light to the rooms located in the surrounding building mass if its proportions and orientation are correct. This promotes the environmental quality of internal spaces and, therefore, improves the liveability of the dwelling. The courtyard typology also allows for greater integration of indoor and outdoor spaces than traditional BAU designs, meaning the advantages of the ‘traditional’ suburban backyard can be experienced with less square meterage and a more interconnected approach. Courtyards do not need to be as big as traditional Australian Dream gardens to maintain a sense of space which is beneficial as infill developments usually have limited plot sizes. They often feature natural elements such as trees and plants due to their access to sunlight and rain, which adds liveability for residents by establishing a connection to nature and providing associated mental and physical health benefits11 - with Jimmy Thompson describing his courtyard as a ‘healing’ space.12

Suburb-on-One-Block Typology

BAU infill in Perth tends to be purely residential with one dwelling per lot. Despite several attempts to provide mixed-use residential developments, a large proportion ends up as high-rise apartment towers that neglect to make meaningful groundlevel contributions to the street, often providing a single cafe to act as a ‘community hub’ for the entire population of the building. Instead of cultivating a sense of neighbourhood for inhabitants, these buildings often evoke isolation. In contrast, the suburb-on-one-block typology is focused on integrating flexible mixed-use spaces into shared lot medium-density developments, with the weaving of

community into its design an integral feature. This typology sites individual dwellings on a shared lot to form part of a whole, creating a dense ‘mini-suburb’ that offers inhabitants ample opportunity to socialise and interact organically. For this reason, the suburbon-one-block model reflects its name - it provides the traditional suburbia Australian Dream ideals of community and identity on a single site.

Garden/Oasis Typology

As previously mentioned, a feature of the traditional Australian Dream is the desire for the garden green space provided by the typical suburban quarter-acre block. For future infill projects to maintain liveability, they need to provide access to quality green space whilst increasing suburban density. The garden/oasis house is focused on integrating landscaping and nature into its design, fulfilling this desire. As discussed by Peter Hobbs,13 there are limited examples of true garden/oasis houses in Perth, however inspiration can be drawn from France’s garden apartments. The French concepts of the ‘Jardin sur le Toit’ (garden on the roof) and the ‘Jardin Sauvage’ (wild garden)14 help to integrate nature into the dense city. The green roof concept is an extension of Le Corbusier’s fifth Point of Architecture; the use of roof gardens to replace the green space taken up by the building’s footprint. The garden/oasis typology would be suitable for increasing density in middle-ring suburbs of Perth by softening dense landscapes and therefore pacifying potential backlash from neighbours. Also looking to French architecture for precedence, the landscaping of Parisian streets with ample vegetation and planting helps to provide visual relief from the highdensity streets (See Figure 21). This is recognised as incredibly important when densifying suburbs by NMBW’s Nigel Bertram utilising what he terms as designs that “leave space for the garden”.15

Image: Business as Usual Infill vs. New Hybrid Infill.

Hybrid Infill: a new ‘mongrel’ for Perth

It is evident that Perth’s attitude towards infill needs to change, through ‘Business as Unusual’16 rather than ‘Business as Usual’ typologies. Implementation of either the courtyard, suburb-onone-block, or the garden/oasis houses in Perth would help to deliver the ‘real’ missing –middle-quality infill projects that increase density whilst maintaining a high quality of life for its residents. Despite each having qualities that would work individually to improve liveability standards from current BAU project homes, the best scenario for future developments in middlering suburbs would be to combine all three typologies

discussed in this paper. This style of infill housing would benefit from the provision of the Australian Dream ideals of security, identity and space, whilst also offering a high standard of liveability through the combination of environmental capabilities, provision of community, as well as integration of greenspace contributed by each typology. Such a project would be a new hybrid type of infill; perhaps a grouped courtyard project featuring accessible green roofs with integrated suburb-on-one-block flexible ground-level spaces, and open space of around 50% to leave adequate room for garden/oasis style planting and streetscaping vegetation.

Image: Australian Dream Ideals provided by ‘Real’ Missing Middle Typologies.

Endnotes

1. Philip Cox, Philip Graus, and Bob Meyer, Home: Evolution of the Australian Dream (Edgecliff, NSW: Jane Curry Publishing, 2011).

2. Rory Hyde, “The Suburbs,” Architecture Australia 101 no. 4 (2021): 11-12.

3. Cox, Graus and Meyer, “Home”.

4. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) and Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC), Perth and Peel @3.5million (Perth, WA: Department of Planning, Lands and Heriatge, 2018). https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2021-05/ FUT-PP-Perth_and_Peel_Sub_Region_March2018_v2.pdf

5. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) and Western Australia Planning Commission (WAPC), Urban Growth Monitor 13: Perth Metropolitan, Peel and Greater Bunbury Regions (Perth, WA: Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, 2022). https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2022-08/ Urban-GrowthMonitor-13-report.pdf

6. Emma Wayne, “Project home expansion in WA costing owners in the long run, architects say,” ABC News, April 16, 2019, accessed October 09, 2022, https://www.abc.net.au/ news/2019-04-16/the-hidden-costs-of-mcmansions/10981336.

7. Dave Delahunty, “Compact Houses” (lecture, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, August 01, 2022).

8. “Wider Costs of Medium Density Development,” SGS Economics & Planning for the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH), May 2020. https://www.dplh.wa.gov.au/ getmedia/c82b350c-d3ed-4caa-8c73-ac52668d6aad/DWAAnalysis-of-Typical-Development-200501

9. Daniel Bromley, “UWA Presentation: Residential Design” (lecture, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, September 08, 2022).

10. Gunter Pfeifer, Per Brauneck, and Usch Engelmann, Courtyard Houses: A Housing Typology (Basel, Switzerland: Birkhauser Verlag, 2008).

11. Richard Gupta and Mahendra Joshi, “Courtyard: A Look at the Relevance of Courtyard Spaces in Contemporary Houses” Civil Engineering and Architecture 9(7) 2021: 2266.

12. Jimmy Thompson, “Delicate Density” (lecture, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, September 26, 2022).

13. Peter Hobbs, “Architects and Feasibility” (lecture, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, September 26, 2022).

14. “Career,” Camille Muller, accessed October 10, 2022. https:// camillemuller.com/en/parcours/

15. Nigel Bertram, “Housing Lecture,” (lecture, University of Western Australia, Crawley, WA, September 20, 2022).

16. “What might Australian Cities look like by 2100?”, AUDRC, accessed October 10, 2022. https://www.audrc.org/baucompetition

ARCT5885 Bio-Based Materials in Global Settings

Unit Coordinator: Dr Rosangela Tenorio

JULIA KEYMER, MARIYA SENINA AND LOUISA PETERS ‘(UN)WASTE’

The potential of waste cardboard is explored and demonstrated through its construction of a flexible pavilion. Simple manufacturing and construction methods allow anyone to participate in the pavilion’s construction; an interactive pavilion for learning and new experience. Modularity and flexibility allow user-adaptation and endless alteration of the pavilion’s size and for providing a place to do nothing, or perhaps something, a place to draw nearer to nature, to pause and breathe.

LUCAS ALLEN, MIKKEL LORENTZEN, JD OTTO, SOFIE VON KAUFFMANN AND ALISON WONG

‘The Kelp Rack Pavilion’

The Kelp Rack Pavilion takes inspiration from one of humanity’s oldest food preservation systems, the drying rack. The focus was to make a uniquely Australian pavilion made from bio-based materials that can function as a modular and circular meeting and exhibition space. The pavilion is divided into a Jarrah timber framework and a wooden rack system, which allows using a non-structural bio-based material, such as kelp, to be draped over the facade to create a fluid facade. Easy disassembly allows for better and easier maintenance, reusability, and upcycling at the end of its life cycle.

MAI TRANG, MIDHULA KOTHARU AND PARTHIBAN SUBHASHINI

‘The Box Pavilion’

The Box - Pavilion aims to publicly debate how environmental challenges can be addressed through innovative and affordable construction. The main structure uses Jarrah, a unique Australian hardwood and Japanese joinery called mortise and tenant. The structure also contains mycelium benches for comfortable seating on the Pavilion. This beautiful material creates new life in the form of Pavilion, a perfect example of the circular economy.

Image: Julia Keymer, Mariya Senina and Louisa Peters, (UN)WASTE Assembly.

Image: Lucas Allen, Mikkel Lorentzen, JD Otto, Sofie von Kauffmann and Alison Wong, The Kelp Rack Pavilion.

Image: Mai Trang, Midhula Kotharu and Parthiban Subhashini, Box Pavilion.

ARCT3001 Architecture Studio 4

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho

‘Planet City Perth’

DAVE DEVES

‘Incision 1e10’

Incision 1e10; housing the entire worlds projected population of 10 billion people by 2050, into one hyper dense workable city with the intent to radically reverse the effects of urban sprawl. Sited in Perth, Western Australia, Incision is a response to a speculative brief borrowed from the film Planet City by Australian film director and speculative architect, Liam Young.

Connecting South Port to North Port, Albany to Port Hedland; Incision is a giant infrastructural corridor supporting life to Planet City. A supply chain.

Borrowing from a loose description of incision, a “surgical cut”, methodical and precise; Incision will connect major populous hubs in a similar manner. The built environment is organised & orchestrated via the location of high-density architectural zones with major linear and cross circulation, north to south, east to west. Hyper dense destination hubs act as place-makers identifying and locating neighbourhoods whilst accommodating maximum population density.

The main central infrastructural line also acts as a place of connection, linking populous urban hubs through high-speed subterranean transit and light rail corridors that service the connecting neighbourhoods. The main supply lines, although giant pieces of infrastructure also facilitate a continuous place of transient dwelling and marketplace living. Destination nodes along this spine provide neighbourhoods and housing for essential workers and residents.

Planet city will grow in stages and life supporting infrastructure with the ability to redistribute resources will be key to its success.

Image: Master plan.

Image: Typical neighbourhood plan, section and perspective.

ARCT3001 Architecture Studio 4

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho

Studio Coordinator: Marcus Ormandy Brett

‘Aits, Thames & Leaves’

GHIM CHONG TAN

‘Hampton Marshes’

Hampton Marshes lies between Hampton Court Station and the new Cross-Rail 2 ultra-high-speed underground railway terminus. Residential units are arranged along the perimeter of the Southern side river Ember. The individual units rest on the ground under dry conditions but rise and float during a flood. They will be surrounded by a carefully crafted landscape with terraces set at different levels. These “intuitive landscapes” are designed to flood incrementally so that they could alert occupants when the flood is at a dangerous level. Pockets of spaces are facilitated to allow the homes to float and be anchored into place where small and thin channel pockets will protrude out of these pockets. The height of these units will gradually increase, creating a mountain-like building, with green roofs. Commercial spaces will be zoned along the existing railway and the residential units, this allows for a more organic form that compliments the surrounding’s historically sensitive buildings. The height of the building will be lower than Hampton Court station unless flooding occurs when units start to float. The buildings are arranged to face Hampton Court Palace, as the main vista point. The artist studios will be manifested via boat houses that sit behind the residential units, along the jagged promenade. These moored houses echo the design language but at a much smaller scale. Two performative spaces are placed on the North, demarcated by water channels within an Arcadian landscape, attracting fauna, aquatic and native plants. Circulation follows vista points and green space rhythms terminating in an amphitheatre embedded between the channels and incorporating a lightweight pavilion to the rear to frame the park.

Image: Hampton Marshes, isometric overview.

Image: Marsh Terrace, plan.

Image: Hampton CrossRail 2, exploded axonometric.

ARCT3001 / ARCT2001 Vertical Online Studio

Unit Coordinators: Lara Camilla Pinho and Dr Philip Goldswain

Studio Coordinator: Dr Sally Farrah

‘Domestic-city’

CAITLIN WALTON

ARCT2001 Vertical Online Studio

‘Garage House’

Garage House proposes an ‘infill’ solution for a narrow, vertically subdivided lot in the suburb of Inglewood. Moving away from the characteristics that define a traditional Inglewood dwelling, Garage House challenges three of the Character Retention Guidelines that constrain the area – in relation to materiality and roof structure. Taking a closer look at what other dwellings in Inglewood do with this narrow space on a large traditionalsized lot, it became evident that flat-roof garages built along the boundary line were prevalent. Garage House emulates this narrow use of space and disguises itself as the dwelling next doors garage – taking advantage of the entire building envelope. By doing this, traditional roof structures and materials were able to be challenged, yet the dwelling remains a harmonious part of the streetscape. The dwelling appears as a solid concrete garage, yet the space internally focuses around an internal courtyard and lighting from skylights above.

Garage House focuses on Perth’s urban sprawl, rental shortage and building crises at current. Proposing a faster & cheaper method of building in today’s climate whilst considering multi-generational living and a focus on future generations.

Image: Garage House, mapping.

Image: Garage House, sections and street elevations.

ARCT3040 Advanced Design Thinking

Unit Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov

Teaching Staff: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov and Emily Van Eyk

‘Perth Places’

TINA LIU AND THE EXHIBITION DISPLAY GROUP

‘Perth Places’

Advanced Design Thinking is a multidisciplinary research project with a “hands-on approach”. Students choose a group depending on what skill they wish to develop during the semester. Each group of students produces work for the final output: an exhibition. This year, students have explored places in Perth. Places that are anonymous, of unknown designers, but have special qualities. Places that leave a strong impression when you visit. The final output is a catalogue of Perth places that have been analysed and explained through drawings and diagrams. By finding and understanding interesting qualities in apparently modest places, students become better prepared to recreate similar experiences in their future designs. The exhibition display and proposed atmosphere for the space was designed and built by the students.

Exhibition Display Group: Kyra Ayling, Yafan Cao, Kiu Cheung, Libby Clough, Michael Cook

Cameron Crocker, Cornell Fourie, Zoe Gadenne, Zheng Gao, Baiwei Han, Bella Humm, Sam Johnston, Jenny Kannis, Savannah Kelly, Dorothy Lane, Tina Liu, Tina Ly, Dini Mahmud, Julian Mason, Sumera Min, Asini Molligoda, Ryan O’Connor, Gabrielle O’Halloran, Grace Ogunleye, Ruby Philpot, Benedetta Pozzoli, Silpy Prakash Babu, Keali Pyvis, Savannah Regan, Caitlin Rowlands, Pat Saelee, Christine Stinnette, Muhammad Farhan Supa’at, Ghim Chong Tan, Kai Yang Tan, Xin Tang, Caitlin Walton, Qingyin Yang, Hao Yang and Guang Zhan.

Image: Tina Liu, Perth Places.

Image: Perth Places exhibition display. Designed and built by students from the exhbition display group.

ARCT3050 Active Matter

Unit Coordinator: Santiago R. Perez

‘Project 03: Assemblage’

PARKER NIU AND VIVIAN DU ‘Robotically Fabricated Architectural Models’

This unit investigates the rapidly changing conceptions of ‘matter’ or material innovation in design, through digital fabrication and 1:1 prototyping. Students learn and apply robotic fabrication workflows, emerging technologies such as augmented or mixed reality prototyping methods, and experimental material development, culminating in 1:1 prototypes or assemblages exhibiting bespoke properties.

The Project 03 Assemblage outcome demonstrates individually developed geometric and material processes, utilising highly controlled robotic or augmented reality tools and methods, with a specific digital, material and tooling workflow. The Highrise Model investigates robotic precision, variation and control, for a complex vertically stacked geometry.

Projects research the relation between material properties and specific robotic or AR prototyping methods (stacking, extrusion, fabric forming, etc.) and apply this research towards ‘learning by making’ to design, develop and prototype complex material assemblies. Project development and outcomes explore and apply contemporary topics relating to material craft, digital and robotic fabrication, mixed reality crafting, and smart materials. The overall academic objective of the unit is to develop a critical rethinking of material towards a new approach to design and making, combining analogue and digital craft. Material innovation, prototyping topics and projects provide a critical and practical foundation for students to engage twentyfirst century design practices, whereby the designer is involved in the development of new tools, processes, materials and prototypes.

Image: Parker Niu, Robotically Fabricated Highrise Model.

Image: Parker Niu, Robotically Fabricated Highrise Model.

Image: Vivian Du, Robotically Fabricated Modular Geometry Model.

ARCT2001 Design Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Dr Philip Goldswain

Teaching Assistant: Samantha Dye

‘Collie Cycling Hotel’

JOE KENNY

‘Collie Cycling Hotel’

Located on the traditional lands of the Wilman people of the Bibbulman nation, the southwest town of Collie, Western Australia, is undergoing a process of transitioning from coal mining, power generation and forestry to a centre for renewable energy and tourism. Positioned between river and forest, amongst the industrial infrastructure of dams, railway and mines, Collie is looking to place itself in a network of art-based tourism and outdoor activities.

In this context, the studio examined the programmatic typology of the hotel, not as a luxury boutique destination, but one that serviced Collie’s location as a part of cycling and walking trails that extend through the surrounding jarrah forest. The brief for Collie Cycling Hotel, alternatively dirty/clean, public/private, modularised but specific, examined materials appropriate for these functions and the site context. The studio introduced techniques of urban analysis and the processes of iterative physical modelmaking to investigate appropriate formal typologies that responded to the regional urban context of Collie.

Image: Collie Cycling Hotel, ground plan.

Image: Collie Cycling Hotel, (Left) Perspective section; (Right) Perspective.

ARCT2001 Design Studio

Unit Coordinator: Dr Philip Goldswain

Studio Coordinator: Felix Joenssen

Teaching Assistant: Catherine Roden

‘Collie Mining Museum’

GABRIELLE FARRANT

The museum concept explores the long history of Coal mining in Collie by incorporating design elements reflective of the temporal evolution of coal mines such as open cut, underground mines, and quarries. The museum references the surrounding buildings, using red brick representing the rock strata of mines. The interior is concrete delivering the impression of austerity and presenting a solid form. The garden and cafe area highlight the relationship between nature and industry. The museum will serve as a community hub for the area and additionally attract tourism and foot traffic, supporting local businesses.

GANIS NABILA

The Collie Mining Museum is sited on a long narrow site, previously a car park situated between two forms of transportation networks. Both site boundaries and surrounding transportation networks, have established a great sense of linearity which play a major role in the conceptualisation of form and internal arrangement of the museum. The form of the museum is a composition of several volumes arranged in a linear order. This arrangement is reflected internally through the ways in which the building’s programme is organised along a central pathway, forcing the user to move linearly. Linearity is further expressed through the colonnades of the northern façade.

SUZAN EYSSAUTIER

Situated next to the CMFEU building of Collie, the Mining Museum integrates itself into the mining history of Collie and visual language through its predominant use of corrugated steel common in Collie’s architecture and minimalist treatment of facade and layout. The museum’s temporary exhibition leads to the permanent one by means of a ramp, creating a dramatic mezzanine level that allows viewing of both exhibitions from different perspectives. From the mezzanine level’s dramatic metal-plated domes hang the museum’s statement object- the miner’s helmet.

Image: Gabrielle Farrant, Collie Mining Museum, east perspective

Image: Ganis Nabila, Collie Mining Museum, axonometric.

Image: Suzan Eyssautier, Collie Mining Museum, exploded axonometric.

ARCT1001 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk

Studio Coordinator: Bradley Millis

‘Inherited Context’

CLAIRE STANWIX

‘Monastery’

The inherited site is pictured as being so confronting and inhospitable that one cannot help but feel at peace. As if to say that there is such a weight to the darkness, everything in comparison is light. The goal was to experiment with the idea of “descent into holiness” whereby one could reach enlightenment or nirvana through cathartic processes. Perhaps by being so close to death, or having a sense of dukkha, the only natural outcome would be sukha. The methodical and linear journey to nirvana described in Buddhism established the organisation of this descent. The concept of anatta was the primary influence over the textural and geometric qualities. It is intended as a piece one could ‘forget’ they were interacting with physically, to enhance the spiritual experience.

Image: Concept drawings.

Image: (Left) Context analysis; (Top Right) Sections; (Bottom Right) Plans.

ARCT1001 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk

Studio Coordinators: Alec James and Nic Thuys

‘Trainline | Coastline’

ASHER HORGAN

‘Leighton Dog Beach Micro Surf Club’

Observing the site at Leighton Dog Beach, it is apparent that the landscape has a linear form parallel to the ocean. To align with this, the micro surf club runs parallel to the ocean between two pre-existing paths that connect to the compacted limestone exterior flooring. The main structure is then separated, to distinguish the private nippers’ facilities from the public facilities. Both facilities are constructed of concrete with untreated timber cladding, this is intended to withstand harsh conditions such as salt spray and sun damage without the need to reapply paints or finishes.

FIONA FAN

‘Leighton Dog Beach Micro Surf Club’

The design aims to produce a spacious platform for relaxation and transition. Before continuing their journey, visitors will be able to stop here and gather their thoughts. The curve of the roof resembles the form of the coastal dune landscape. Organic holes are punched into the roof form, allowing natural light into the changing rooms, introducing light and ventilation. The platform is elevated from the ground slope hovering on columns, leaving space for wildlife and natural vegetation to continue thriving.

IMOGEN GOODWIN

‘The Cove Micro Surf Club’

The sharp form protrudes out from the bank, contrasting against the natural shape of the land that it is embedded in. Spanning out over the water, the shallow waves lapping just under the point of the structure create a subtle moment of movement within the design. This structure relates to the context of the site by contrasting against this movement, hence highlighting and elevating the natural aspects of the surrounding environment.

Image: Asher Horgan, Leighton Dog Beach Micro Surf Club site plan.

Image: Fiona Fan, Leighton Dog Beach Micro Surf Club ground floor plan and long section.

Image: Imogen Goodwin, The Cove Micro Surf Club ground floor plan and long section.

ARCT1001 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk

Studio Coordinator: Dr Tatjana Totorovic

‘Shared Space: The Glue that binds our Community Together’

JACK CHOATE

‘Curved Modular Pavilion’

Programmatic requirements are kept simple; pavilions are open-aired. The form is experimented with through the concept of ‘curved modularity’ and incorporating a wave-like ruled surface roof for each module; different combinations of modules produce not only a different plan but a different flow of form in the overall pavilion. The site lies at the heart of the Knutsford community, between two main circulatory flows of pedestrian traffic. The master plan was designed with this in mind; the flowing arrangement of pavilions is intended to encourage movement through the site, rather than walking along the street. A green space with shelter and seating is provided to relax, have a coffee, read a book, do some work, etc., and move on.

Old trees are maintained at the site, and their shelter is utilised, contributing to the sustainability of the design. The western pavilions are consciously oriented and clad to provide additional shelter from southwesterly wind and rain. Modules are made from locally sourced timber, a renewable resource with reduced carbon costs of transportation.

The community of Knutsford is still growing, with large-scale developments forecast. To provide posterity with the flexibility of built space, the modular nature and simple construction of our pavilions lend themselves to disassembly.

Image: Curved Modular Pavilion, plan, sections and concept development.

ARCT1001 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Emily Van Eyk

Studio Coordinator: Frances Silberstein

‘Blackadder Creek Narratives’

JASMINE DIMOVSKI

‘The Reverberations of the River’

The urban and cultural development in Western Australia centres itself around the Derbarl Yerrigan. Like the fluctuation of its calm and turbulent ripples, echoing as they dissipate, human life and nature are a reverberation of the river’s flow. Through site analysis, I have discovered that humanity mimics nature similarly to the rippling reverberations of the river; as the echoing contours extend outwards, the development of the land and urbanisation follows the growth of nature and the shape of the terrain. Humanity organises and orients itself in a manner that subconsciously emulates the growth of nature and the rich contours of the landscape. By trying to understand the flow of the terrain and the ambiguity of nature and wildlife, humanity has the potential to prosper in the environment. The flow of nature, I have found, should not be confined and disparaged as a result of urban development; it should be embraced. When assessing the site, the natural aspects, such as wildlife and plantation, were intertwined with the urban structures and areas of congregation, illustrating the flow of nature into humanity. The directive flow employed by the pavilions’ structural composition presents a visual representation of the reverberations of the Derbarl Yerrigan, conceptualising the theoretical echoes of the river on nature, wildlife and humanity.

Image: Collage reflecting site analysis of Midland.

ARCT1010 Drawing History

Unit Coordinator: Dr Philip Goldswain

Teaching Staff: Dr Philip Goldswain, Dr Sally Farrah and Hazem Hasala

MIRANDA HARTONO AND MELANY DIAZ MARTINEZ

‘Illustrated Essay’

For the second assessment in ARCT1010 Drawing History students debated the idea that if ‘ritual equals architectural form’ then buildings used for religious observance directly reflect the events that take place in them. Students illustrated and supported their written argument with drawings and diagrams of an assigned contemporary religious building and one other religious structure they selected.

Students used analytic diagrams to explore the building’s geometry, the relationship between solid and void and symmetry. ‘Synthetic’ orthographic drawings, such as isometric sections, which illustrated the threshold of the building and place of ritual observance., and narrative sections, which described a route through the building, were used to investigate the manner in which sacred activities might have influenced the architectural form.

Image: Miranda Hartono, narrative section, Bagsværd Church, Copenhagen, Sweden, Jørn Utzon, 1976

Image: Melany Diaz Martinez, (Left) Isometric section, and (Right) Narrative section, MIT Chapel, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, Eero Saarinen, 1955.

ARLA1030 Structures and Systems

Unit Coordinator: Santiago R. Perez

Teaching Staff: Santiago R. Perez, Marcus Brett, Ali Javid and Tejasvi Murali

CLAIRE STANWIX, CARR MERN OOI AND MALMI KODICARA

‘Structural Typology Precedent Diagrams and Models’

This project requires diagramming and physical modelling and analysis of an assigned structural precedent for a selected portion of the building’s structural and material system. Each student models a portion of a precedent building assigned as part of a specific structural typology (cantilever, vault, long span truss system, etc.) at a scale suitable for understanding both the individual elements and connections and their relation to the overall structural system. In-tutorial group activities for understanding structural systems, loads and connections supplement the project lectures, as a primary means of learning. The learning objectives focus on the relationship between structural form and material, as a cohesive, integrated system, considering how individual elements are organized and connected to create a structural system.

Image: Claire Stanwix, structural typology model - Diagrid (Sendai Mediatheque, Toyo Ito and Sasaki).

Image: Carr Mern Ooi, structural typology model - Gridshell (Downland Gridshell by Cullinan Studio and Buro Happold).

Image: Malmi Kodicara, structural typology model - Complex Steel Frame (Shed by Diller, Scofidio & Renfroe and Thornton Tomasetti).

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE

Image: UWA School of Design, Cullity Gallery, Summer Exhibition 2022 opening night, 16 November 2022. Photography by Samantha Dye.

ARCHITECTURE

LACH5511 Independent Dissertation by Design Part 2

Unit Coordinator and Supervisor: Professor Maria Ignatieva

AMY STEWART

‘Fire and Place: Designing for ecological sensitivity and bushfire safety in fire-prone, peri-urban landscapes’

Climate change simultaneously increases the frequency of intense bushfires and reduces ecosystem resilience. As the intersection between bushland and development continues to expand in peri-urban fringe settings, communities and ecosystems are becoming increasingly exposed to the risk of bushfires. In response, local governments and other responsible agencies have developed bushfire risk mitigation strategies that are often in direct conflict with strategies aimed at conserving biodiversity and the structure of ecosystems.

My dissertation, Fire and Place, explores these conflicting themes, utilising landscape architecture design thinking to work towards a balanced approach to development in fire-prone landscapes. Through analysis of case studies conducted in Mediterranean climatic zones in Part One, I evaluated specific design interventions utilised in highlyfire-prone, peri-urban landscapes globally. In Part Two, I applied these strategies to a South-west Australian context. Focusing on a parcel of degraded agricultural land in the Perth Hills put forward for development by the City of Kalamunda, my project explores design solutions that incorporate holistic, multi-scale interventions to mitigate bushfire risk without compromising on the conservation of local biodiversity. The design framework takes a holistic approach to balancing ecological sensitivity and bushfire safety by considering solutions on multiple scales. The first scale, the neighbourhood, focuses on developing broader strategies. At this level, there is an emphasis on connecting the site to broad environmental systems present in the landscape as well as establishing a community-wide bushfire response strategy that is embedded in the town layout. The second scale, the streetscape, uses spatial planning strategies to reduce the impact of bushfire development regulations on the surrounding vegetation by maximising the use of space within highly restricted buffer zones. Lastly, the framework discusses bushfire mitigation and habitat enhancement strategies for the residential garden, highlighting what can be achieved on an individual scale to reduce the impact of bushfire development regulations on local ecosystems and native biodiversity.

Image:

Dissertation Cover Page depicting the naming of Kalamunda from the Whadjuk words Karla (Fire) and Munday (Leader of the Beeloo people at the beginning of British occupation and Traditional Owner of the land where Kalamunda sits today).

Image: Private garden concept plan utilising the strategies developed throughout the research project to balance bushfire safety and biodiversity outcomes.

LACH5511 Independent Dissertation by Design Part 2

Unit Coordinator and Supervisor: Professor Maria Ignatieva

CHAOFAN ZENG

‘Living with Urban Water Greenway’

People in inner-city Perth have less and less green space per capita as the population grows. Water Sensitive Design and related concepts, such as Low-impact Design and the Sponge City Concept, are gaining traction in urban research. This study’s hypothesis is that Water Sensitive Urban Design can be used to improve existing urban green spaces and their ecological qualities, such as urban biodiversity, in urban environments. In addition, practical applications and measurements can be developed to accommodate the various physical environments found in urban areas.

This project redesigns the wetland areas at Mills Park and the Woodlupine Brook Reserve and the trails that connect them with revegetation of the site to increase biodiversity and greening rate. As the existing situation and combination of Noongar knowledge, not only designs the place as stormwater management but also provides more public space and social space for nearby residents. This increases greening rates and ecological qualities in this region and becomes an appealing public space that fits the local situation.

Living stream can connect green spaces and become a wetland ecosystem, encourage nearby residents to use the ecological corridor, and provide green space in a densely populated residential area. Woodlupine Brook Reserve and Mills Park Wetlands were redesigned based on existing drains and brooks because the design sites are in permanent water bodies. WSUD strategies and redesigned water flows were used to avoid water quality and odour issues. The re-design of Mills Park’s wetland and the Reserve’s revegetation island will attract and protect wildlife birds, and improve biodiversity and ecology. In this area, combining the new debris trail and shared paths with the new playground, as a green waterways corridor, will help attract people to use this public open space to gather and exercise. By increasing greenery and planting new plants the area can help reduce the city’s urban heat and water use.

Image: Perspective view of constructed wetland at Mills Park Reserve.

Image: (Left) Site sections; (Right) Perspective view of Living Stream at South of Woodlupine Brook Reserve.

LACH5422 Design Studio - Making

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Gillian Rodoreda

Teaching Assistant: Fahimeh Mofrad

‘Passage as Place’

NADIA LONG

‘Passage as Place’

Located on the east end of Perth, the Fire Station car park is an area characterised by its lack of native vegetation, context to its surrounding area and history, and inviting, safe spaces to pause and gather. In an area with high cultural history and heritage, the potential for meaningful movement is underutilised. Exploring the idea of ‘passage’, this project aimed to create a green urban space that reflects elements of movement whilst also creating spaces that consider the ecological context and significance of the Derbal Yerrigan. Designed to reflect the organic movement of water, this passage was designed with three main strategies; the inclusion of a planted swale which forms the main element of the site; formal and informal pathways that snake around the swale to create a relationship and interaction between passages; and heavy vegetation between surrounding spaces to bring biodiversity into an urban setting.

The design incorporates 3 types of passage; informal passages which are designed to allow areas of pause and contemplation separate from the fast-paced movement of the city environment; a formal passage acting as an area of swift urban movement to cater for the busy travel between Hay Street and Murray Street; and water as a passage to reflect the environmental context of the site, bringing water back into the urbanised landscape as was once seen before the built city. The planted spaces are to have a mixture of existing trees that frame the formal passage and thoroughfare, and newly planted trees that increase the canopy and act as a buffer to the harsh urban edge, reducing urban heat. The planting follows the form of the pathways, reflecting the moment of water and Perth’s unique range of biodiversity, with the inclusion of waterwise planting that also aims to bring colour and more-than-human species back into the site.

Image: Masterplan

Image: Section and elevation.

LACH5422 Design Studio - Making

Unit Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith

Teaching Staff: Rosie Halsmith, Gillian Rodoreda and Fahimeh Mofrad

PATRICK ONG

‘Perth Urban Food Terrace’

The studio brief site is located at the Fire Station Carpark in the East of Perth, in a highly urbanised setting amongst institutions and adjacent to a towering hotel complex. Although currently a carpark, the site was close to the path that Fanny Balbuk was likely to have taken in her trail from Matagarup (present day around Heirisson Island) to the various wetlands that were previously prevalent but now drained. Fanny’s path was an example of resistance, resilience and preservation of her culture, but also of abundance where various foods and staples were collected by the Whadjuk Noongar people - a stark contrast to the current anonymous place of temporary passage.

The project celebrates this previous abundance, transforming the asphalt car park into a place that fosters community stewardship through nourishment and agriculture. The Urban Food Terrace becomes a place to collaborate with groups and communities, provide a platform to express Whadjuk Noongar cuisine, and provide a biophilic reconnection with nature within a highly urbanised setting. It also provides a place for local farmers to sell produce as urban agricultural systems play an important role in growing and securing food to close to a local source. The proposal highlights the possibilities integrating urban agriculture within the city centre and showcasing foods enjoyed for millennia.

Image: View from upper terraces looking towards the gathering point

Image: (Left) Masterplan; (Top Right) View of terraces; (Bottom Right) Section through terraces.

LACH3001 Landscape Resolutions Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Darcy Rankin

‘Learning To Share Country’

KEN CHENG

‘The Therapeutic Landscape’

The Therapeutic Landscape project aimed to reinforce the cultural significance of the Viveash Wetland in Woodbridge and promote ecological connections with people. Experiencing spirituality by nature from past to present and improving mental wellbeing to strengthen the connections to the cultural landscape. With the strong cultural background of the studied site and hearing many stories from the Whadjuk traditional owners, the project is set to integrate with nature and delivers spiritual support through meditation amenities and brings a concept of Sharing Country to embrace the First Nation’s cultural knowledge and the existing cultural landscape. The design helps to experience the unique sense of place of the wetland and allows visitors to understand the unity of all existing elements.

Image: The seating view point, perspective.

Image: (Left) Site sections; (Right) Site analysis.

LACH3001 Landscape Resolutions Studio Unit and Studio Coordinator: Darcy Rankin

‘Learning To Share Country’

DANIELLA KRISANTO

‘Blackadder Creek - Journey through the veins’

Blackadder Creek was a natural creek at first, but some of it has been changed into a network of drains. It empties into the upper Swan Estuary near Midland, upstream of Ray Marshall Park. Journey through the veins focuses on the significance of water and the biodiversity of the species in the site. The aim is to provide innovative experiences that attract visitors, improve the health of the site’s ecosystem and respect the natural and cultural environment. A landscape that acknowledges and respects cultural and historical significance will strengthen the site’s identify and provide visitors with a greater sense of context and historical roots. Falling under three design principles, the project aims to focus on connection, integration, and diversity within the site. Intergeneration place to connect people with each other and the existing environment and increase biodiversity of endemic species whilst providing habitat and resources for native fauna in the site. As well as a place that integrates the diverse community in a place with mutual respect that enhances the recognition of Noongar and other Aboriginal culture, heritage, and connection.

Introducing a nature boardwalk that creates memory of place, through walking in the journey of the waterways. For some, knowledge systems, cultures and governance systems are all rooted on their water and lands. The First Nations recognize that the waterway is the interconnectedness of all life, therefore the sacredness of the water should be well respected. The wetland boardwalk pose allows visitors to observe wetlands and other aqueous environments up close, as well as creating a space that allows people to have a closer proximity to water and living habitat. This creates a space in which connects the people with not only the dry existing land but also the wetlands, animals and habitats in the Blackadder Creek.

Image: Blackadder Creek, perspective.

Image: (Left) Sections; (Right) Blackadder Creek, perspective.

LACH3001 Landscape Resolutions Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Darcy Rankin

‘Learning to Share Whadjuk Country’

TOM RYCROFT

‘Viveash Wetland Trail’

In Australia, whenever we are designing, we are designing on Country. We recognise a responsibility as landscape architects, in acknowledging Country, to work respectfully and with the direction of Elders. In the studio, we considered what it meant to engage in respectful consultation and develop a landscape proposal that was grounded in place and responded to directions from Whadjuk Traditional Owner Herbert Bropho. The Viveash Wetland site includes the Swan River ‘Derbarl Yerrigan’ and Blackadder Creek have significant spiritual and cultural meaning for the Whadjuk Noongar People. The Viveash Wetland Trail is a community landscape that aims to educate visitors about history, culture, biodiversity and conservation. The 1.9km boardwalk with floating sections is designed to provide universal access to the wetland while limiting the impact on it. Cultural stories and information on native flora, fauna hydrology and geology of the site will be explained through interpretive signage, way finding elements, digital media and art. All were developed with guidance and involvement from Traditional Owners and community groups to share and celebrate culture.

Image: Viveash Wetland Trail. masterplan.

Image: Wetland boardwalk.

LACH3001 Landscape Resolutions Studio Unit and Studio Coordinator: Darcy Rankin

‘Learning to Share Whadjuk Country’

BELLA DAVIS

‘Continuing Culture Circle’

Viveash Wetland is a Whadjuk Noongar site of importance that has experienced land clearance for agricultural use, climate change, landfill and encroaching development since colonisation. The over-arching aim of this design is to protect the site from these threats through increasing understanding of the site’s importance and subsequently increasing appreciation.

The Continuing Culture Circle is a multi-functional hub with areas of differing scales. The space provides a place for visitors to come to the site and continue the tradition of requesting permission from Whadjuk Noongar Elders to enter Country. It features an area for formal smoking ceremonies and large gatherings as well as pockets of seating to provide spaces for story sharing and truth-telling of different scales to be facilitated. The purpose of this design is to facilitate pre-colonial Whadjuk Noongar traditions whilst also creating a space for everyone.

The wider strategic plan for this site includes a proposed storytelling program which is formed in consultation and led by Whajuk Noongar Elders. It also includes the implementation of an active campsite and amenities to facilitate a practice that has always occurred on site, camping. Thirdly, the strategic plan incorporates re-vegetation with local endemic species throughout the site increasing biodiversity and resilience of the site whilst providing the opportunity for passive education through exploration of Western Australian Flora and Fauna.

This design was informed by knowledge and direction from Whadjuk Noongar Elder Herbert Bropho.

Image: Continuing Culture Circle. site plan.

Image: Continuing Culture Circle, section.

LACH3003 Design Through Landscape Management

Unit Coordinator: Professor Maria Ignatieva

Teaching Staff: Professor Maria Ignatieva and Christina Nicholson

PATRICK ONG

‘Bodkin Park Living Stream Proposal’

Located in the suburb of Waterford within the Perth metropolitan area, Bodkin Park is a residential park surrounded by low density residential housing to the west, north and east, and the Djalgarro Beelier /Canning River to the south via Andrew Thompson Conservation Reserve. The park is uniquely located within a world biodiversity hotspot that is under increasing pressure from new developments, owing to the inner-city urban location within the Perth metropolitan area.

The park is noted for having artificial lakes linked by open drainage channels that eventually empty out onto the sedgelands of Andrew Thomson Conservation Reserve. Areas adjoining the artificial lakes are observed to be increasingly degraded with regular algal bloom events occurring within the stream and lakes. As a result, Bodkin Park has been identified by the City of South Perth as a place to investigate additional living stream installations.

Living streams present the opportunity of managing water in a recreated nature, by replicating natural systems in a constructed way. This is important in the context of the Perth Metropolitan area due to its historic hydrological process for expressing groundwater to the surface in the forms of interconnected wetlands which are an important part of the overall ecological system in the Swan Coastal Plain, supporting biodiversity and environmental resilience in the process.

In an Australian context, a living stream is an ephemeral (seasonally wet) stormwater system

or converted stormwater drain into a stream that replicates natural processes, providing ecosystem services and potential for additional recreational activities. A living stream still conveys stormwater as per the original intended infrastructure design and intent; however, a living stream provides additional benefits to:

• Reduce nutrient loading filtration of chemicals and impurities prior to distribution onto the wider tributary system (or seas).

• Stormwater management through mitigation of high intensity storm events due to bank stabilisation via vegetation communities

• Increasing biodiversity and thus improving environmental quality and resilience against environmental stressors.

• Create additional shade and relief against urban heat island effect.

• Improve physical and mental wellbeing through interaction with nature

• Improve community stewardship.

As living streams aims to replicate natural stream ecologies, some typical qualities for stream systems specific in a south-west Australian context have been assessed by ecologists and noted by Waters and Rivers Commission to include1:

• Overhanging fringing woodland and vegetation to shade the stream against full sunlight. Typical canopy vegetation in the Swan Coastal Plain include Eucalyptus rudis, Meleuca raphiophylla, Melaleuca cuticularis, and Paraserianthes lophantha.

• Vegetation communities contribute to detritus through fallen branches and foliage that contributes to tannins in the water, thus further inhibiting algal growth.

• A variety of habitats and zones within the streams to promote biodiversity in wildlife and

Image: Concept plan.

vegetation communities that support each other in a complex food and energy web.

The living stream proposal at Bodkin Park aims to recreate these ecological processes within the confines of the site, and balances with community benefit through passive and active recreation, as well as improved landscape identity. Through a gradual understanding of ecological systems and increasing environmental awareness in recent years, there is an increasing acceptance for landscapes to have a diverse expression away from traditional turfed playing fields and parklands for ecologically enriching landscapes in contemporary society. The proposal also presents opportunities and discussions to convert other existing stormwater infrastructure in the Perth Metropolitan area, as a changing climate and higher population density increases demand for higher quality public open spaces.

Endnotes

1. Government of Western Australia, Water and Rivers Commission, Water Facts no. 4 - Living Streams (Perth, January 1998), p.4, accessed October 2022 via https://www.water. wa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/5484/9762.pdf

Image: Section through proposed living stream.

Image: Sectional axonometric of proposed living stram.

LACH2001 Landscape Dynamic Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith

‘Landscape as Transition’

KATE DRIVER

‘Collie Revitalisation Strategy’

Building on Collie’s international trail hub aspirations, this strategy links with the community vision and strengthens the Collie River Valley Trails Strategy 2018 –2021. Layered site analysis and mapping is used to consider social, environmental, and recreational intersections that address gaps and present opportunities for trail development.

The design proposes two new town-based walk trails to increase ways people can connect with local flora, heritage and Mardulup (Collie River). A new outdoor space surrounded by Allocasuarinas and revegetated bushland is proposed as a meeting and learning place. The use of this space will be shaped through engaging the community in creative experiments, which will identify needs and possibilities as they emerge. These may include an outdoor classroom, a sculpture park and/or an immersive Aboriginal heritage experiences.

The Collie Revitalisation Strategy is informed by Alexandre Chemetoff’s Atelier de l’Ile plan-guide process and guidelines, allowing a dynamic site-responsive approach. The guiding principles of the strategy include the following themes:

Celebrate heritage: links the town to the Mardalup river, a significant cultural place for the traditional owners, the Wilman people.

Re-purpose industrial plant and equipment: Colliecrete will be used to construct amphitheatre seating.

Interventions in response to site use: the outdoor space provides a canvas for multiple uses. Creative experiments will engage people in subsequent stages of the design and the way the site is used by different community groups and visitors will shape the place, aligning with needs and aspirations.

Visiting Collie after the mapping process was an integral part of the project as it enabled me to walk the trails, feel the land and adjust the proposal in response to new discoveries. The value of returning to site confirmed the decision to create a dynamic plan that adapts to human and non-human use over time.

Image: Layered site analysis and mapping used to consider social, environmental, and recreational intersections. These identified gaps and opportunities for trail development.

Image: The proposed meeting and learning place is surrounded by Allocasuarinas and revegetated bushland. Local native plants, including food and medicinal

medicinal plants, have been selected. Willman Elders will determine how the plant knowledge is shared.

LACH2001 Landscape Dynamic Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith

‘Landscape

as Transition’

SALLY FOSS

‘Collie Revitalisation Project’

The town of Collie is found on Wilman Bibbulmun country, 200km south of Perth. Since 1896 coal has been mined around Collie and the history of this industry holds great importance to many people who live in the town as it has been their livelihood and part of their culture. The town now faces the challenge of change, as the coal industry ends, and the state looks forward to the ecological benefits this will bring. Collie is surrounded by beautiful Jarrah and Marri forests and the river, which is of great spiritual significance to the Wilman Bibbulmun people, winds through the town and beyond. There are many ways that Collie can benefit from this forced renewal and this project focuses on trying to draw the surrounding natural environment back into the town to increase biodiversity and habitat for non-human residents. While searching for ways that Collie could repurpose the infrastructure and industrial sites already in place, the abandoned mining tunnels beneath the outskirts of town were an interesting unused space. Researching precedents that repurposed old railway tunnels for mushroom growing, and the proximity of Collie to the Southwest and the fungi found there, formed the idea of the new industry being related to mycology. Combining research and industry to create an ecologically sustainable revitalised Collie.

Image: Collie town centre, masterplan.

Image: (Top Left) Sections through Treetop Canopy Walk and (Bottom Left) Forested Zone; (Right) The Courtyard.

LACH2050 Plants and Landscape Systems

Unit Coordinator: Christina Nicholson

Teaching Staff: Christina Nicholson, Professor Maria Ignatieva and Denis Wittwer

PRISCILLA HUBBARD

‘Plant Visual Diary and Planting Strategy / Palette’

Without plants we are nothing. They sustain life. The Landscape Architect has long used plants for aesthetic and amenity benefits. Our profession increasingly uses plants to help resolve anthropogenic problems due to their bioremediation and biosequestration abilities.

Botanical illustrations of 50 native and introduced species were hand drawn and incorporated into a Visual Diary, slowing down to observe and physically touch each plant’s leaves, flowers, seed pod and bark. By capturing these components in a drawing, it provided an opportunity to truly notice the unique details of each of the specified plants. Aside from considering each species’ individual planting/maintenance requirements, potential design applications and ethnobotanical uses, the drawings provided a beautiful mindfulness experience. Hand drawing teaches the practice of “seeing”. I now find myself really noticing both the beauty and morphological details of each of these plants whenever I see one of them in a garden or a bush setting. A planting strategy and plant palette was also created for a park of my choice. Tara Vista is a small park located in a newer area of West Leederville. The elevated, sloping site overlooks nearby Galup where a massacre of Wadjuk Noongar tragically occurred in 1830. The land at Tara Vista was previously owned by the Sisters of Our Good Shepherd who had homed “destitute girls”. My plant typology and palette vision was to create a naturalistic, gentle space that utilises mostly fine textured vegetation with predominantly yellow accents in remembrance of the historical hurt that occurred at and near this site. The reduction of turf was an additional requirement of the design brief. The updated plant selection compliments the existing trees and is shade, dog and child friendly.

Image: Sepia ink drawings of (Left to Right) Banksia grandis, Platanus x acerifolia, Lepidosperma galdiatum, Brachychiton acerifolius, Stenotaphrum secundatum, Corymbia calophylla, Eucalyptus marginata, Jacaranda mimosifolia, Anigozanthos manglesii and Liquidambar styraciflua.

Image: Turf reduction planting strategy and temporal plant palette for Tara Vista, West Leederville.

LACH1000 Landscape Groundings Studio

Unit Coordinator: Christina Nicholson

Studio Coordinators: Yuqi Yang and Bessie Lemann

‘Design Response & Representation: From Cypress Hill to the Swan River’

SOPHIE MASSINGHAM

‘In the Spirit of Nature’

Cypress Hill is the highest point in North Fremantle and has both historical and botanical significance with an abundance of native plants. The walk from Cypress Hill to the popular swimming spot of Harvey beach on the Swan River is steep, overgrown, and difficult to navigate. The design intervention has a strong focus on this journey, allowing residents and visitors to feel immersed in nature whilst causing minimal disturbance to the existing area. The footbridge is sheltered by the tall native trees which grow in abundance, these are manipulated to form arches, creating a ‘tree corridor,” and solar-powered lights inspired by grass tree flower spikes hang from above. The arch form is found forming organically in nature and is often seen as a symbol of rebirth or signifying a passageway to new perspectives. The proposed spaces are designed with the purpose of improving health and well-being within the community. Spiritual awareness, meditation and a variety of holistic approaches to improve overall health continue to gain popularity in the fast-paced modern world.

Creating a small, enclosed space for spiritual contemplation allows connection to the earth and spiritual realm which has been deliberately designed with filtered light in the shape of circles to symbolise the infinite and complete wholeness. On the Swan River below, an open community space encourages social interaction and appreciation for the beauty of the area and the designs are inspired by the local materials and organic forms found at the site.

Image: The Hidden Space, model.

LACH1000 Landscape Groundings Studio

Unit Coordinator: Christina Nicholson

Studio Coordinators: Yuqi Yang and Bessie Lemann

‘Design Response & Representation: From Cypress Hill to the Swan River’

BEN MORESCHI

‘Cypress Hill Watch’

Cypress Hill overlooks the Swan River East and North. The summit at 29m above sea level is the highest point, with two dishevelled lookouts and is covered in remnant shrubland disturbed by human interaction, erratic paths, erosion, nuisance weed species and overgrowth obscuring views across the river towards Mosman Park, East Fremantle and Fremantle Port. The Hill is a highly significant site for botanical, historical and social reasons. The design proposes the opportunity to experience the majestic views of the Swan River and landmarks significant to the First Nations People and settlement that has shaped Fremantle to the present time. The very top of Cypress Hill will host a new timber lookout area with in-built seating that integrates with the natural surroundings and is slightly elevated above the existing level, to enable views and historical perspectives to the North, East and South. Timber walkways around the lookout will wind along the cliffside descending to the water level of the Swan, providing ease of access to Harvey Beach and the Waugul Caves at Rule Street Park. Harvey Beach is to be extended and attractive with new public facilities and shoreline appearance. The paths are lined with a riot of native plants reminiscent of the years before 1829 that create a seasonal rainbow of colour and allow human interaction with minimal impact on the environment. Tree selections provide shade and minimise shoreline river corrosion and pollutants and act as a natural barrier between revegetated and trail areas. Both structures and walkways interact with the existing contours and deviate around existing or planted native trees.

Image: Exposed space model.

URBAN DESIGN

Image: UWA School of Design, Design HUB, Summer Exhibition 2022 opening night, 16 November 2022. Photography by Samantha Dye.

URBD5802 Urban Design Studio 2

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Dr Robert Cameron

Teaching Staff: Dr Robert Cameron, Dr Julian Bolleter and Timothy Greenhill

‘Beckenham Activity Precinct’

SHUBHAM GAUTAM

‘The Urban Spine’

In the 2040s Australia with an increased inflow of immigrants into the country will grow to become a culturally diverse and inclusive nation. In achieving this vision, a major role will be played by transit-oriented developments with higher-density neighbourhood redevelopments across cities such as Perth, WA. Beckenham is one such neighbourhood 12 kms from Perth CBD. In the 2040s the current industrial wasteland in front of the Beckenham station will be reimagined into a transit-oriented development that will prioritise the liveability and walkability of its habitants while providing seamless connections between the transit hub and the surrounding neighbourhood.

The site will be developed into a continuous megastructure spanning the vast expanse of the site and centred around the planned elevated train station. The concept revolves around eliminating vehicular usage by creating an urban movement network on top of a continuous mixed-use development to reach the train station. The residents of Beckenham will arrive on top of the continuous roof from the station and will move down to their individual dwellings.

Additionally, the proposal also includes higher-density residential towers having multiple public and semi-public spaces of varied scale and character designed across it vertically creating a distinctive identity and character for the area which is presently non-existent. The mixed-use development will also provide required amenities and recreational spaces in walkable distance to the residents of the site and its surroundings. Reintroducing endemic species and redevelopment of existing drains into living streams will also be done.

As the site will be developed in stages, an organic growth of the surroundings will be observed with new cafés, restaurants and retail outlets eventually transforming William Street. There is also a newly proposed Beckenham high street next to the revitalised drain that will finally give Beckenham its identity and make it a destination for people from across the city to visit and experience.

Image: View of rooftop movement network around Beckenham Station.

Image: Axonometric masterplan of Beckenham Activity Precinct.

URBD5802 Urban Design Studio 2

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Dr Robert Cameron

Teaching Staff: Dr Robert Cameron, Dr Julian Bolleter and Timothy Greenhill

‘Beckenham Activity Precinct’

SALONI BARI

‘The Welcoming’

In 2040, the Beckenham station precinct will be transformed into a user-friendly activity centre with smart technology and net zero infrastructure. While the political economy demanded increasing rates of growth within an environment of limited and unevenly distributed resources, the government has attempted to implement and respond to the negative impacts of such growth and develop or facilitate the development of urban activity centres along public transport networks. These activity centres are community focal points. They include activities such as commercial, retail, higher density housing, entertainment, tourism, civic/community, higher education, and medical services. The aim of these transit-oriented centres is to be well-serviced by public transport. The activity centre will be driven by the community and will be inclusive. Through a well-connected transport facility and accessibility. New road connections will be introduced to improve movement. The trainline will be lifted to create a green freemovement and transit space for pedestrians and cyclists. The community will grow as the centre facilitates the exchange of all sorts of commercial activities and through the way it will reciprocate to the surrounding. Housing that accommodates various castes and backgrounds of people for sharing and renting will be proposed. Species that create a more liveable environment that empowers people. Recreational spaces that create social inclusivity. More open spaces that will become publicly approachable in Beckenham will come up.

It will be an environment-friendly zone that has not only fewer negative impacts on the environment but encourages social growth. The spaces will become pedestrian friendly and the centre will include a well-designed cycle path and a bus lane network along with footpaths for a higher goal of reducing carbon emissions.

The activity centre but an idea of welcoming people to the centre of inclusivity with easy access will be inculcated.

Image: The Welcoming, masterplan.

Image: (Left) Connection Park; (Top Right) The opening; (Bottom Right) Green free-movement.

URBD5802 Urban Design Studio 2

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Dr Robert Cameron

Teaching Staff: Dr Robert Cameron, Dr Julian Bolleter and Timothy Greenhill

‘Beckenham Activity Precinct’

IMANN AZZUDDIN

‘The Last Stop, Our Forever Home’

As the lifestyle and needs of the residents in Beckenham change with the increase of population and overall changes to global infrastructures and technology, in 2040 this suburb will not be a location you drive by and overlook anymore - it will be one where the community stands at its forefront with vibrant communal spaces and pedestrianfriendly infrastructure.

With the introduction of a mixture of vibrant urban plazas, gardens, and parks, Beckenham has become a place that is not only valued by its community but also by those that are visiting. It has become a place where community engagements are more apparent and have created a much more communal society within the suburb.

Beckenham has become a place where families set their roots and build their forever homes. Its surrounding areas are enhanced with amenities that provide convenience and have helped improve the quality of life of its residents, especially with the accessibility of childcare and aged care facilities, which are made more available.

As Beckenham aims to be a more green-forward suburb, public transportation is a daily commodity and access to safe and covered pedestrian and cycling trails has helped in decreasing the usage of personal vehicles and overall carbon emissions. Furthermore, the medium-density vertical residential houses have allowed for better town planning and better usage of land for more environmentally sustainable infrastructure such as gardens, recreational parks and urban farming.

Now, Beckenham provides a solid plan of mixed-use developments that engages well with the public, provide convenience to the residents and is set to achieve a vibrant and safe setting for the community.

Image: Beckenham isometric masterplan

Image: (Left) Beckenham masterplan; (Right) Section and perspective of the landscape under the train line.

URBD5805 Contemporary Urbanism

Unit Coordinator: Dr Julian Bolleter

ANNA COSTELLO

‘Social Housing in Australian Cities: Urban Inequity and the Modernist Solution’

Modernism

Modernism initially emerged in Europe, in reaction to the chaos that erupted with the onset of WW1, and the societal discontent towards the industrialised economy that had been steadily growing in the years prior.1 As Greenhalgh (1990) explains, early modernism was ‘fundamentally a political activity, concerned with the achievement of a proper level of social morality,’ based on the ‘growing belief that the “lower-class” had become perpetual victims of capitalism.’2 Foundationally, the movement aimed to ensure the basic living standards of the city’s populous,3 and restore order to what had become ‘a muddled and inequitable world.’4 Despite these good intentions however, key principles that were established within this early-modernist period, came to define the primary criticisms levelled against the movement in the postwar, ‘late’ period. These include:

1. anti-traditionalism, which sought to obliterate complex, organically formed neighbourhoods, making way for sanitised, simplified and reorganised urban landscapes;5

2. comprehensive, state-driven master planning,6 pursued through a technocratic paradigm,7 and;

3. a desire to ‘reshape urban landscapes in conformity,’8 through rationalised orderings of urban space, and repetitive forms, technologically-enabled through mass production, prefabrication and modular design.9

Reflecting on the initial impetus behind Modernism, it is difficult to ignore the similarities to

Australia’s contemporary social housing crisis, and the calls to action from advocacy groups, that once again see society’s political and economic systems victimising vulnerable populations. As Freestone (2000) poignantly states, ‘urban planning once again faces a challenge that its modern founders confronted a century earlier: the need to argue against the selfregulatory mechanisms of laissez-faire.’10

The question now is whether or not Freestone (1994) is correct. Are these principles inherently problematic, or did their de-radicalisation and alignment toward a capitalist agenda derail their potential successes? With this in mind, the three “criticisms” listed above, that emerged against the practices of late-stage Modernism will be utilised according to their foundational intentions as principles and evaluated as potential solutions to the current issues surrounding social housing provision in Australian cities.

Principles in Practice

After analysing the social housing challenges present in Australian cities, five key recommendations, across the phases of site selection, planning and construction, were identified as recurring throughout the relevant literature. Below, each recommendation has been outlined and linked to one of the three modernist principles:

Site Selection

Anti-traditionalism, that sought to obliterate complex, organically formed neighbourhoods, making way for sanitised, simplified and reorganised urban landscapes.

• Increased supply of urban social housing – use of ‘greyfield’ precincts in urban areas as potential sites for social housing developments,11 needed to address the critical shortage of metropolitan social housing and, the increasing spatial

Image: Proposed social and affordable housing development plan for Inner-City and East Perth, following principles of Modernism. The plan depicts a variety of precincts located on sites of underutilised land, with developments differentiated according to the distinct needs of various groups requiring increased access to urban social and affordable housing.

inequalities within the system, regarding the ongoing removal of social housing stock from inner-city areas.12

Planning

Comprehensive, state-driven master planning, pursued through a technocratic paradigm.

• Increased government intervention – the need for the state to reclaim its role as system steward,13 implement a state-driven ‘non-market’ system of social housing provision,14 reinstate the legitimacy of societal welfare15 and recognise the inability of the private rental sector to provide an adequate supply of low-cost housing.16

• Large-scale planning – comprehensive master planning that considers social housing developments at the precinct, neighbourhood and city scale17 and incorporates a coordinated, governmentplanner approach, in place of piecemeal, private-market-led property development.18

Construction

A desire to ‘reshape urban landscapes in conformity,’ through rationalised orderings of urban space, repetitive forms, technologically enabled through mass production, prefabrication and modular design.

• Innovative construction methods –material costs and construction time must be reduced to increase the supply and affordability of dwelling outputs,19 a balance between low cost and high levels of structural and environmental sustainability must be achieved.20

• Diversity of housing typologies – a supply of social housing that reflects the diversity of prospective household compositions and preferences,21 and includes, flexible dwelling designs that can be adapted to evolving

household requirements and modified, depending on future needs.22

Applications of Modernism Positioning

According to research undertaken by the AHURI (2020), inner-city ‘greyfield’ precincts, defined as ‘undercapitalised residential land with ageing housing stock,’ present enormous potential as development sites for urban intensification and strategic housing delivery.23 Aligning with modernist ideals of urban clearing to deliver improved, reorganised spaces, and improved social equity through increased urban social housing, this recommendation marks an excellent starting point for site selection. In the context of Perth City, a number of expansive carparks, light industrial areas and excessively turfed greenspaces present immediate opportunities for social housing developments.

Planning

The proposed planning framework will require significant government intervention. As has been noted in regard to site selection, there are a number of variously sized lots throughout the inner-city area that could be better utilised for social and affordable residential developments. By taking a large-scale planning approach and considering all of these potential lots as individual pieces of a singular plan, two key benefits arise. Firstly, developments can be slightly differentiated dependent on prospective tenants and strategically located nearby to appropriate services and transport nodes. Secondly, by diffusing the development across a number of smaller sites, a higher quota of social housing can be achieved, without running the risk of social polarisation.24 Furthermore, this framework will support an ‘off-market’ approach, in that the prices of purchase or lease of properties within the developments will be fixed, regulated and when necessary, supported by the State.

Construction

Modernist principles of mass production, prefabrication and modular building design are increasingly becoming recognised as valuable strategies to combat housing shortages, across Australia and globally.25 Repetitive built forms, resulting from mass-produced construction elements, allow not only for time and cost savings,26 but generate buildings that can be dismantled and recycled, reconfigured or relocated, and further, can be easily maintained, adjusted and modified both before and after installation.27 This concept of prefabricated, modular buildings presents an incredibly exciting opportunity for the future of social housing accommodation, a sector that has been plagued with the inability to feasibly modify conventional housing stock to the needs and preferences of tenants.28 Addressing another significant challenge to the management of conventional housing stock in Perth is the ease of maintenance afforded by prefabricated modular buildings, and furthermore, their ability to be deconstructed and recycled, repurposed or relocated.29 Considering that WA’s social housing stock is continuously falling into disrepair, with many dwellings demolished over the past decade,30 the potential of prefabricated modular housing cannot be understated. In fact, as of August 2022, 1,927 dwellings were recorded as vacant, waiting indefinitely for essential maintenance or demolition.31 Prefabrication processes also allow for significant sustainability gains.32 Wood chips, generated as a by-product of timber processing, can be compressed into durable, sustainable and recyclable building panels,33 and factory mass-production can facilitate significant reductions in material waste and energy use.34 Off-site manufacturing, allowing for rapid onsite construction can also significantly reduce labour costs,35 which in Australia, comprises one of the largest financial concerns.36

“As Freestone (2000) poignantly states, ‘urban planning once again faces a challenge that its modern founders confronted a century earlier: the need to argue against the self-regulatory mechanisms of laissez-faire.’ 10 ”

Reflection

In the current age of neoliberalism, and the numerous, complex and compounding issues that are manifesting spatially as a result, the limitations of current business-as-usual approaches are becoming increasingly obvious. Even the Productivity Commission, in their 2022 report plainly states, ‘Australia’s social housing system is broken.’37 For all the promises made by neoliberalism, it is a philosophy that is fundamentally unconcerned with social equity or societal welfare. As the spatial outcomes of this planning paradigm continue to manifest across Australia, concentrating within its cities, the investigation of alternate urban design theories is becoming increasingly necessary. With the hope of adding to this growing pool of research, this essay has aimed to explore the potential applications of Modernism. After detaching its core intentions from its capitalist-shaped outcomes, the applicability of the movement’s key planning principles is compelling and presents many potential strategies to effectively address Australia’s social housing crisis. Today, as economic prosperity takes precedence over social equality, we are faced with the same fundamental problems Modernism sought to address a century prior, and it may be time to question, was the movement’s potential ever fully realised?

Phenomenology 6, no. 1 (2019): 41.

6. Martin Murray, “Introduction: The Modern Metropolis and the Eclipse of Modernist City Building,” in The Urbanism of Exception: The Dynamics of Global City Building in the TwentyFirst Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 1.

7. James Lesh, “From Modern to Postmodern Skyscraper Urbanism and the Rise of Historic Preservation in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, 1969-1988,” Journal of Urban History 45, no. 1 (2019): 127.

8. Murray, “The Modern Metropolis,” 13.

9. Murray, “The Modern Metropolis,” 12.

10. Robert Freestone, “Urban Planning in a Changing World: The Twentieth Century Experience,” (2000), quoted in Leidenberger, “The Search for a Useable Past,” 454.

11. “Accommodating the diverse housing needs of city-dwellers,” Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI), 2020, https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/brief/accommodatingdiverse-housing-needs-city-dwellers; Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Australia’s Welfare 2003 (Canberra: AIHW, 2003) 165.

12. Productivity Commission, Introducing Competition and Informed User Choice into Human Services: Reforms to Human Services (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2017) 180; AIHW, Australia’s Welfare 2003, 165; AHURI, “Housing needs of city-dwellers.”

13. Productivity Commission, Introducing Competition, 171.

14. Jennie Vartan and Barry Doyle, West Australian Affordable Housing Policy: Where to from here? (Perth: Community Housing Industry Association Western Australia, 2019) 5.

15. Andrew Beer, Bridget Kearins and Hans Pieters, “Housing Affordability and Planning in Australia: The Challenge of Policy Under Neo-liberalism,” Housing Studies 22, no. 1 (2007): 21; Lucy Groenhart and Terry Burke, “What has happened to Australia’s public housing? Thirty years of policy and outcomes, 1981 to 2011,” Australian Journal of Social Issues 49, no. 2 (2014): 144.

Endnotes

1. Kevin O’Neill, “When Form Follows Fantasy: Lessons for Learning Scientists From Modernist Architecture and Urban Planning,” The Journal of the Learning Sciences 25 (2016): 136.

2. Paul Greenhalgh, “Introduction to Modernism in Design,” in Modernism in Design, ed. Paul Greenhalgh (Reaktion Books, 1990), 92.

3. Georg Leidenberger, “The Search for a Useable Past: Modernist Urban Planning in a Postmodern Age,” Journal of Urban History 32, no. 3 (2006): 456.

4. O’Neill, “When Form Follows Fantasy,” 136.

5. Brian Irwin, “Abstract City: The Phenomenological Basis for the Failures of Modernist Urban Design,” Journal of Aesthetics and

16. Groenhart and Burke “Australia’s public housing,” 145; Julie Lawson et al., Social housing as infrastructure: rationale, prioritisation and investment pathway (Melbourne: AHURI, 2019) 3; Vartan and Doyle, West Australian Affordable Housing, 13; Community Development and Justice Standing Committee, A Fading Dream – Affordable Housing in Western Australia (Perth: Parliament of Western Australia, 2011) 51.

17. Stone et al., The housing aspirations of Australians across the life-course: closing the ‘housing aspirations gap’ (Melbourne: AHURI, 2020) 46.

18. Community Development and Justice Standing Committee, A Fading Dream, 32; AHURI, “Housing needs of city-dwellers.

19. Productivity Commission, In need of repair: The National Housing and Homelessness Agreement (Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 2022) 24.

20. Productivity Commission, In need of Repair, 24; Beer et al., “Housing Affordability and Planning,” 20.

21. Stone et al., The housing aspirations of Australians, 46; Groenhart and Burke, “Australia’s public housing,” 144.

22. Stone et al., The housing aspirations of Australians, 46.

23. AHURI, “Housing needs of city-dwellers.”

24. AIHW, Australia’s Welfare 2003, 165.

25. Joseph Percy, The Viability of Constructing Social Housing Infrastructure Using Relocatable Modular Housing on Temporarily Vacant Public Land (Melbourne: University of Melbourne, 2017) 4.

26. Percy, Constructing Social Housing Infrastructure, 12.

27. Monash University, Handbook for the Design of Modular Structures (Melbourne: Monash University, 2017) 176.

28. Groenhart and Burke, “Australia’s public housing,” 144.

29. Percy, Constructing Social Housing Infrastructure, 27.

30. Vartan and Doyle, West Australian Affordable Housing, 9.

31. Jacqueline Lynch and Patti Brook, “Number of vacant social homes in WA rises by 25 per cent as housing crisis continues,” ABC Radio Perth, August 12, 2022, https://www.abc.net.au/ news/2022-08-12/number-of-vacant-social-houses-in-wa-risesby-25-per-cent/101323282

32. Scott Ludlam, Building a New Way: Australian Fast-Build Prefab Housing (Canberra: The Greens, 2013) 3.

33. Ibid.

34. Monash University, Design of Modular Structures, 15.

35. Ludlam, Building a New Way, 3.

36. Productivity Commission, In need of Repair, 537.

37. Productivity Commission, In need of Repair, 171.

Image: UWA School of Design, Summer Exhibition 2022 opening night, 16 November 2022. Photography by Samantha Dye.