Winter Collective 2023

A selection of projects from semester one, 2023 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 Officers: Natasha Briggs, Telisha Norrish, Lucille Spierenburg and Caitlin White.

Image: UWA School of Design, Design HUB, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023. Photography by Samantha Dye.

Dr Kate Hislop

Foreword by Dr Kate Hislop

“We sit at the end of dazzling legacies and at the beginning of a future that is terrifying...”1

Within the pages of the 2023 Winter Collective catalogue are myriad propositions and speculations made by students across the disciplines of Architecture, Fine Arts, History of Art, Landscape Architecture, and Urban Design. Projects explore the ephemeral and enduring; humanity and the non-human; natural phenomena and Artificial Intelligence. They are richly informed by context: precedents that have come before. They share a basis in conceptual thinking, whether engaging with worlds of millennia or centuries past, or places immediately local. They engage respectfully with Country, and interrogate the sprawling metropolis across urban and peri-urban realms. The students articulate this stretching of imagination in their project statements. But importantly, asks Maraya Takoniatis in her student Foreword, “did you have fun? And, did you grow?” And, suggests (Master of Architecture graduate) Julia Keymer, “Let’s never stop seeking to learn”. Both have nailed what it is that drives creative pursuits. Knowledge, growth and enjoyment are essential to keeping students motivated, enabling the obtainment of capacities that underpin life benefits (such as work opportunities and secure futures). The educational offerings in the School of Design aim to balance the vocational imperative with the speculative opportunity. The ability to consider, evaluate, synthesise, up-end, see things anew: these are the skills we seek to engender because they are core to the creative purpose of our disciplines. They are equally central to finding expression for and resolution to what are ubiquitously called the ‘grand challenges’ of our time. Social, cultural, environmental, and economic in scope, the challenges are fundamentally concerned with improvements in the health and welfare of people, places, and ecologies.

The work featured in this catalogue shows that our students are up to the challenge, equipped with the essential tools that bring imagination to life. The opportunities for transformation in the near future are great: I hope all our students see themselves capable of being the stewards who will create for collective benefit and enjoyment a “dazzling legacy”.

Congratulations to all who are featured in this catalogue: we look forward to seeing what you do next! And thank you to the School of Design staff who led units, mentored projects and supported students. Finally, sincere thanks once again to the team of Lara Camilla Pinho, Andy Quilty and Samantha Dye, for producing another fabulous issue for the Exhibition Catalogue collection.

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

Endnotes

1. Foreword by Maraya Takoniatis, Maraya Takoniatis (Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Philosophy and Fine Arts, 2023 and Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Philosophy, 2023)

Fine Arts & History of Art

Image: UWA School of Design, Level One Gallery, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023. Photography by Samantha Dye.

Foreword by Maraya Takoniatis

We’ve all had that embarrassing moment in our Fine Art studio when someone has come over to look at our portrait only to see a Picasso-esque drawing of a donkey. It is a common experience (hopefully). But so is the moment which comes next. A tutor, or maybe even a peer, approaches with a pencil in hand to demonstrate a few quick strokes, perhaps even making some new lines on your work and tells you to keep going. It’s not always the easiest thing to dedicate your time to a work that looks like it has no potential and is going nowhere. But considering this class doesn’t end for another two hours, what are you to do? You push through. Move beyond any embarrassment or hesitation and you keep trying. Often, by the end of class, you have a decent-looking portrait that even gets you a few compliments. And the best part? No one except you knows that it used to look like a donkey.

Some would say this anecdotal experience sums up most art degrees. Sceptical at the beginning and unsure whether any potential is lying dormant, voices of doubt inevitably seep in. It takes courage and faith to step into this world where your vulnerabilities will undoubtedly rise to the surface, but through perseverance and effort, and the encouragement of those you meet, growth is inevitable and the best part? You can take that growth for what it is – proof that your dedication and effort will reward you and that not all donkey-moments have to be donkeys.

Studying Fine Arts and History of Art requires generously giving your time to develop your own abilities and support the development of those around you. Grasping the seriousness and intensity from which each artistic practice bears its fruit is a hard lesson to learn, and even harder to put into practice. Whether writing in response to the gore and glory that is art history or attempting to establish your own brand of art making, each student searches for their own voice. We sit at the end of dazzling legacies and at the beginning of a future that is terrifying, hopeful and if our art is successful, perhaps a little better than now.

Though sometimes it’s just fun too! Collaborating with friends, rushing deadlines and painting floors! (And then scrubbing the paint off those floors through the innovative technique of crawling with rags underneath your hands and knees due to the School of Design’s lack of a mop. True story!). Maybe not everyone will understand why we do what we do (the crawling or the art degree). Perhaps we’ll keep questioning our choices for a long time to come. In the end though, there are only two things that matter: did you have fun? And, did you grow?

Maraya Takoniatis, Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Philosophy and Fine Arts,

and Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Philosophy, 2023

2023

Image: Noa Williams, Ants Nest (detail), 2023, plywood, found pallet, nails, aerosol, charcoal, whiteout, watercolour paint, watercolour paper, permanent marker, graphic markers, tape and double-sided tape, 122 x 102 cm.

F ine A rts

Image: UWA School of Design, Level One Gallery, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023.

Photography by Samantha Dye.

ARTF3000 Advanced Studio

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

CAIT DOWLEY

‘Ashes to Ashes’

Ashes to Ashes focuses on the exploration of permanence and impermanence, and the inextricable connection between the two. Inevitably, within these concepts come ideas surrounding life, death, preservation and decay, as well as allusions to spirituality and identity. The materials and methods behind the piece open the opportunity for dialogue between the multifaceted concepts, delving into the inherent impermanence of everything in conjunction with the human desire to preserve and prolong. The viewers are prompted towards an individualised reflection on the ephemeral and the enduring – on the fragility and ultimate beauty of our lives and everything in them.

Image: Cait Dowley, Ashes to Ashes, 2023, wax, pressed flowers and diary entries on card.

Image: Cait Dowley, Ashes to Ashes, 2023, wax, pressed flowers and diary entries on card.

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

KAI YEE LEE (BESTON) ‘Watch...’

We are living in a world where people are incessantly subjected to watchful eyes and pervasive monitoring, leaving us with little privacy or freedom. Every step we take, every interaction we have and every digital footprint we leave behind becomes entangled within the intricate web of monitoring. This situation has woven itself into the very fabric of our lives, blurring the boundaries between the seen and the unseen. Yet, did we question its implications, or have we accepted it as an inescapable reality? Watch… evokes a sense of discomfort and prompting the consequences of living under constant observation.

Image: Kai Yee Lee (Beston), Watch..., 2023, digital animated processed images.

Image: Kai Yee Lee (Beston), Watch..., 2023, digital animated processed images.

ARTF2040 Earth, Water, Air & Fire: Material Explorations in Environmental Art

Unit Coordinator: Dr Ionat Zurr

Teaching Staff: Dr Ionat Zurr, Samuel Beilby and Annie Huang

NARELLE CRIDLAND ‘Dead Run’

The sailing terminology, Dead Run - meaning the wind is coming directly from behind, is the title of the installation. Conceptually, Dead Run is a personal response informed by my husband’s passion for sailing and the tragic loss of his presence at the helm that rendered the surviving family members overboard and at the mercy of the sea. Each family member is represented by a unique clay interpretation of a boat buoy. The boat buoys are vessels, semiotic actors which are being impacted by whirlpools of waves symbolising the trauma constantly engulfing each family member. The uniqueness of the boat buoy is suggestive of how trauma presents differently in everyone.

Image: Narelle Cridland, Dead Run (detail), 2023, mixed media, dimensions variable.

Images: Narelle Cridland, Dead Run (detail), 2023, mixed media, dimensions variable.

ARTF1054 Drawing Foundations

Unit Coordinator: Andy Quilty

Teaching Staff: Andy Quilty, Annie Huang and Yvonne Zago

GERMAINE CHAN

‘The Victory’

The Victory features a bird in three scenes, journeying and at times floundering through different stages of life to finally emerge victorious. Through overcoming challenges and self-discovery, the bird is seen to transform and grow out of its first home by the end of the story. A self-portrait through figurative representation, this work documents important parts of my life that have shaped who I am today.

Image: Germaine Chan, The Victory, 2023, 3D animation, duration 2:38 mins.

Image: Germaine Chan, The Victory, 2023, 3D animation, duration 2:38 mins.

ARTF1054 Drawing Foundations

Unit Coordinator: Andy Quilty

Teaching Staff: Andy Quilty, Annie Huang and Yvonne Zago

SASHA TITOVICH

‘Untitled’

Untitled is based on a relationship between an individual and their trauma.

Part 1 is a performance (video). It captures how trauma may be perceived in childhood, adolescence and adulthood. From barely being aware of its existence to fully embracing it and finding tools and the knowledge of how to move forward, heal and use those experiences to your advantage.

Part 2 (digital prints) is the outcome of the performance – drawings that represent the repetitive nature of the healing journey. They consist of a single square that progresses to two, then three, eventually unfolding into a complete square, only to return to the starting point – a single square. The drawings are photographs of the marks left on my skin by the rope covered in paint during the performance.

Part 3 (net and rope) is purely process-based, a by-product of the performance and the creation of the drawings.

The three parts of the Untitled cannot exist without each other – an analogy of our trauma and how it shapes us.

Image: Sasha Titovich, Untitled (parts 1, 2 and 3), 2023, digital prints, 19 x 19cm (each), rope and paint, dimensions variable, video, duration 3:10 mins, cinematography by Dasha Melnik.

Image: Sasha Titovich, Untitled (parts 1, 2 and 3), 2023, digital prints, 19 x 19cm (each), rope and paint, dimensions variable, video, duration 3:10 mins, cinematography

cinematography by Dasha Melnik.

ARTF1054 Drawing Foundations

Unit Coordinator: Andy Quilty

Teaching Staff: Andy Quilty, Annie Huang and Yvonne Zago

AUDREY CHIA

‘The Head in My Songs’

The type of music we enjoy are like self-portraits of our mind - why we enjoy some songs and dislike others paint a picture of our personalities and who we are as individuals.

The Head in My Songs is an experiential piece that reflects the emotions and movements that I, the artist, associate with the experience of listening to music. When I listen to some of my favourite tracks, it sparks movements within the synapses of my brain as if there is an entire performance going on emotionally. In some of these instances the music brings me to different places mentally. In movement and in art, I hope to be able to describe my experience and let others experience it for themselves too.

For each piece in this series I first filmed myself dancing to each track. This was not a choreographed dance but the movement of my body as I allowed the different notes and rhythm of the music guide me both emotionally and physically. Next, I translated my movements into drawing by tracing them digitally and recording the development of these markings in real time. Listening to these tracks takes me to places mentally alongside the emotions evoked. These places are usually nature, whose serenity I enjoy immersing myself in. As such, I placed different live videos for each background as well as an added filter to capture the tranquility and mood of the environment. From left to right it reflects a meditative, black-and-white piece to a vibrant, feel-good track, with the middle piece as a good in-between being reflective yet uplifting.

Image: Audrey Chia, The Head in My Songs (left to right: Nuvole Bianche by Ludicivo Einaudi, Fotografia by Yiruma, My Neighbour TOTORO by Joe Hisaishi and the London Symphony Orchestra), digital prints - 46 x 27 cm (each) and digital video - duration 6:03 mins.

Image: Audrey Chia, The Head in My Songs (left to right: Nuvole Bianche by Ludicivo Einaudi, Fotografia by Yiruma, My Neighbour TOTORO by Joe Hisaishi

Hisaishi and the London Symphony Orchestra), digital prints - 46 x 27 cm (each) and digital video - duration 6:03 mins.

ARTF1052 Record, Visualise and Imagine

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

Teaching Staff: Sarah Douglas and Annie Huang

LUCA CONTE

‘Reminiscing Soundscapes’

Sound is a participating factor in our lives which we typically take for granted. It is a sense which is often overlooked in how we as humans remember. Our memories are shaped not only by our visual experiences but our audio experiences. Reminiscing Soundscapes highlights these audio experiences in a visual format. The work is a display of twenty-three images, each one reflecting a sound from my childhood. Each image is a display of the entire spectrogram, including frequencies that we as humans are unable to hear. The sounds around us shape us.

Image: Luca Conte, Reminiscing Soundscapes, 2023, spectrograms on paper.

Image: Luca Conte, Reminiscing Soundscapes, 2023, spectrograms on paper.

ARTF1052 Record, Visualise and Imagine

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

Teaching Staff: Sarah Douglas and Annie Huang

BOBBY ZHENG

‘Periphery’

The capacity of human attention is limited; thus, we often find ourselves distributing it towards the most prominent aspects of our lives. This perception undermines how we see the world, often with less vigour. Collages of cityscape oil paintings inspired by digital effect manipulation mimic ephemeral aspects of the city and explore liminal spaces; transitional spaces between destinations, though never a destination themselves. The wind blowing on the installation offers an additional sensory element. The paintings and arrangement intend to emphasise the beauty within everyday mundanity and offer a window into lives beyond our own.

Image: Bobby Zheng, Periphery, 2023, mixed media.

Image: Bobby Zheng, Periphery, 2023, mixed media.

ARTF1052 Record, Visualise and Imagine

Unit Coordinator: Sarah Douglas

Teaching Staff: Sarah Douglas and Annie Huang

MATTHEW VINCE

‘Something from nothing’

Celestial bodies emerge from a distant stellar nursery – arising from nothingness, light emanating to an unknowable destination across an infinite universe. The contradictory but dichotomous relationship of life – arising, only to deteriorate towards disorder and entropy. Disintegration and decay amongst the chaos of the merciless and unfeeling universe – an eternal redistribution of energy, continually evolving and devolving to inevitable biological oblivion. Random and ephemeral, the gossamer of ruinous lifeforms continues to exist for future anthropological discovery. Time is impermanence.

Image: Matthew Vince, Something from nothing, 2023, solvent transfer on paper from reimaging of solvent transfer collage.

Image: Matthew Vince, Something from nothing (detail), 2023, frottage on black gesso paper.

History of Art

Image: Detail from A Mughal Nobleman on horseback, after a Mughal miniature; a man, with slight beard, holding a two-headed lance seated on a white, with some scraping-out, on Oriental paper. © The Trustees of the British Museum.

horse which is rearing to r. c.1656-61. Pen and brown ink, with grey and brown wash, touched with red and yellow chalk and heightened with

HART3666 Australian and Aboriginal Art

Unit Coordinator: Dr Darren Jorgensen

ALISON LANE

‘Summoning the Witch: Naomi Blacklock, Gender and Postcolonialism in Australian Contemporary Art.’

Naomi Blacklock’s performance artwork is instantly recognizable: the Meanjin-based artist can usually be heard before she is seen, as haunting screamscapes sound through the gallery, followed by occult imagery of altars, salt rings, mirrors and circles of dirt constructed in the space. She frequently evokes the historical archetype of the witch in both her academic and artistic work, explaining that “aligning the image of the witch alongside intersectional feminist thought, the figure can be understood from multiple narratives, which includes the voices of the presently oppressed... the witch is a product of a construction that has changed throughout the course of history through myth, tradition and gender.”1 Moreover, “the witch has revolutionised from a specific figure to a collective appropriation that can offer race, sex and gender minorities strength to create, self-actualise, and politicise.”2 It is through this lens that Blacklock engages with the imagery and archetype of the witch as a political figure, aligning her work with intersectional feminist discourses of gender and in the broader postcolonial context of Australian art history.

Blacklock engages with an intersectional feminist politic within the Australian context, evoking the contemporary and historical figure of the witch as an embodied ‘Other’. Her body of work frequently combines “elements related to witchcraft such as circles, candles, salt, mirrors and black elements in red light”3 in order to reconfigure

the witch as an embodied, gendered subject. In Padma (2018), the artist is filmed in darkness, illuminated through a single source of red light which backlights the figure as she runs her hands through rows of bells. They chime ominously as the camera pans, and the silhouette of the witch emerges in a gothic archway as ringing bells and creaking floorboards created a layered soundscape – the camera then cuts to a close shot of the artist crawling across the gallery floor, clawing at the layer of dirt that has been placed there. Her body as an instrument for sound making and as a spectral presence pervades the performance work. This haunting soundscape, combined with the eerie lighting effects and the transference of earth into the gallery, is Blacklock’s performance art typified: from her gallery installations to her performance at Tasmania’s Dark Mofo exhibition, where visitors were warned to “listen out, as rituals of primal screaming and meditative breathing ring across the dark gardens... (as she) explores mythologies of the witch: a symbol old and new of otherness, rebellion and emancipation.”4 It is this representation of the witch as a distinctly gendered figure of discomfort and rebellion which engages with an intersectional feminist discourse. As Katie Deepwell notes in her analysis of representations of witches in contemporary art, the witch is often understood by feminists “in the context of patriarchal attitudes towards women in both the church and state in feudal Europe”5 and as a reconfiguration of this historical understanding in contemporary terms. Notably, in contemporary art “it is not simply that myths or stereotypes found in already existing representations of witches inform the images of women that they make, but how their own imagination, fantasy and story-telling extends or challenges the same myths or stereotypes and often transforms them.”6

Blacklock’s version of the witch both extends and challenges these myths trough her choice of performance art – in choosing this medium, she actively engages with the witch as “simultaneous embodiment of female marginalisation and feminist subversion.”7 In an extension of the witch as a mythological figure, Blacklock evokes distinctly visceral and occult imagery in her art which alludes the position of the witch in history as “voracious and repulsive.”8 Padma (2018) exemplifies this in its dark, uncomfortable visuals and discomforting soundscape. The layering of bells and breathing alongside the immersive darkness of the installation creates a haunting presence within the room that is as much linked to the aesthetics of the work as it is to Blacklock’s embodied presence within it.

Similarly, Blacklock’s 2017 work Parallel Presence uses sound to create a “voracious and repulsive” presence. Blacklock sits on a mirror connected to an amplifier and surrounded by a ritualistic circle of dirt. The audience watches her black-clothed body from behind as she “builds on the hypnotic soundscape through distortions of choreographed noise—deep rasping breaths; rhythmic thumping; the crystalline crackle of salt slipping through her fingers onto glass.”9 The audience is prevented from witnessing her face, masking her expression and identity. Instead, we are left only with the confronting presence of her body and the haunting sounds that emanate from it towards the salt-ringed altar before her. Importantly, Blacklock connects the historic figure of the witch with a contemporary

Image: Padma, Glass mirrors, brass bells, soil, with sound created through effect pedals, contact microphone, amplifier. Performance documentation from Spring Hill Reservoir, Brisbane 9th of June 2018. Photo: Charlie Hillhouse. Image available at: https://www. naomiblacklock.com/works

one through the inclusion of screaming as an embodied expression of rebellion: “(she) pierces the auditory mélange with a scream, layered with an undulating drone that lends an unearthly quality to her primal release.”10 Hare and Moore note in their feminist analysis of screaming: “we scream, by which we mean that we engage in a rough and loud audible resistance as personal and political protest to that which harms us, holds us back, troubles us.”11 Indeed, in engaging with the scream as a sight of gendered political resistance, Blacklock’s screamscapes engage with the complex history of the scream as a “mindless action of those (normally femme, infantilised and/ or racialised) who do not have power, class, ability or control”12 and instead reconfigures this action as intentional and radical. What troubles Blacklock is the condemnation of the witch as a tragic historical figure, as an ‘Othered’ presence, and she screams in “rough and loud audible resistance” to the relegation of the witch to the past. In this way, the screaming of the witch in Blacklock’s work can also be heard “as continuing – continuing resistance, continuing assertion, continuing presence” which rebelliously disrupts gendered assumptions13 by calling the witch as a feminist figure into the present moment.”

Within the Australian context, Blacklock’s embodied presence as an immigrant woman of colour in her artwork challenges assumed power dynamics of race and gender, engaging with Australian postcolonial art-historical discourses. As Anthony Gardner asserts, “’the field of postcolonial studies is not a unified field,’ but comprises a range of different responses to specific local conditions… There are as many postcolonial studies as there are postcolonial spaces, and we must attend to this scattered array when we evaluate the shifts from the postcolonial to the global.”14 With this attention to specificity in mind, Blacklock’s postcolonial

engagement emerges from Australia’s colonial and contemporary ties to Europe, where the historical figure of the witch became culturally and historically prominent as “part of a story about capitalism and colonialism, and draconian measures to control women’s lives.”15 She accesses this history, however, through the contemporary context of Australian postcolonial discourses, intersectional feminism – which has been championed in Australia by Indigenous women artists – and from her personal identification as an ‘Anglo-Indian’ immigrant woman. This is the “specific local conditio(n)”16 from which she conceptualizes the figure of the witch, which ties together the local, the colonial and the global. Blacklock’s embodied presence in her performance artworks “ties into the global practice of artists replicating the display of Indigenous or othered bodies with their own”17: as she uses her ‘Othered’ body to represent the body of the ‘Othered’ historical figure of the witch, she engages with a lineage of marginalisation that connects her contemporary context to historical formations women’s marginalisation. This is particularly evident in her use of archaic occult imagery such as the altar in Parallel Presence: combining an ancient ritual with the distinctly modern, geometric construction of the candle sticks and the presence of amplifier cords amongst the piles of dirt. Subsequently, the element of embodiment in Blacklock’s work “pay(s) deep attention to the female-marked bodies we occupy as sources of animation, revelation, and deep struggle... these bodies, both ours and not ours, are haunted by fantasy bodies, archetypes, and the social body marked by gender, race, class, sexuality, and ability.”18 This attention to embodiment mirrors the work of Indigenous women artists like Fiona Foley, who frequently represents an abstracted archetype of stereotypical Aboriginal women with her own body, and in doing so “forces

viewers to confront their level of comfort with reductive stereotypes, with the objectification and commodification of women.”19 This attention to the marginalised body as an intersectional, postcolonial figure is important to Blacklock’s artistic practice, as she argues that “the contemporary narration of witchcraft continues to be whitewashed and appropriated without acknowledging its traditions outside of a European context... the problem goes far beyond appropriating the witch figure when women of colour are killed once their bodies become associated with magic.”20 In engaging with the figure of the witch as a postcolonial construction within the contemporary Australian and global context, Blacklock’s attention to embodiment in her art challenges assumed power dynamics. Ultimately, Naomi Blacklock’s performance artworks evoke the historical archetype of the witch in order to engage with intersectional feminist constructions of womanhood and the postcolonial embodiment of marginalised women. Using elements that evoke occult imagery such as altars, candles, red lighting, soil and salt rings, she conjures the figure of the witch as a gendered “symbol old and new of otherness, rebellion and emancipation”21 and engages with the witch (and the contemporary woman) as a marginalised other. Moreover, her artworks align with a broader global and postcolonial movement in Australian art history, as she uses the figure of the witch to bring together Australia’s colonial European lineage with her “specific local conditio(n)”22 as an ‘Anglo-Indian’ Australian creating art amongst other intersectional feminist identities. It is with this sensibility that Blacklock conjures the figure of the witch: rebellious, ominous and with the ability to deconstruct gendered assumptions of intersectional womanhood in Australian art.

Endnotes

1. Naomi Blacklock, “Conjuring Alterity: Refiguring the Witch and the Female Scream in Contemporary Art” (Ph. D., Queensland University of Technology, 2019), 39.

2. Blacklock, “Conjuring Alterity”, 39.

3. Courtney Coombs, ““Hauntings: marking flesh, time, memory,” Text and Performance Quarterly 37, no. 1 (2017): 61.

4. Michael Connor, “Weimar on the Derwent,” Quadrant 63, no. 9 (2019): 54.

5. Katie Deepwell, “Feminist Interpretations of Witches and the Witch Craze in Contemporary Art by Women,” The Pomegranate 21, no 2 (2019): 147.

6. Deepwell, “Feminist Interpretations of Witches,” 148.

7. Monica German in Deepwell, “Feminist Interpretations of Witches,” 148.

8. Deepwell, “Feminist Interpretations of Witches,” 147.

9. Ophelia Lai, “Naomi Blacklock,” Art Asia Pacific 115, no. 106 (2019): 106.

10. Lai, “Naomi Blacklock,” 106.

11. Amber Moore and Kathleen (Kaye) Hare, “Come scream with Me: On feminist stories and screaming into the void,” Journal for Cultural Research 25, no. 3, (2017): 317.

12. Moore and Hare, “Come scream with Me,” 317.

13. Moore and Hare, “Come scream with Me,” 319.

14. Hassan in Anthony Gardner, “Whither the Postcolonial?” Global Studies: Mapping the Contemporary Art and Culture, (2011): 143.

15. Deepwell, “Feminist Interpretations of Witches,” 160.

16. Gardner, “Whither the Postcolonial?” 143.

17. Marina Tyquiengco, “Black Velvet: Aboriginal Womanhood in the Art of Fiona Foley,” Feminist Studies 45, no. 2 (2019): 471.

18. Tessa W. Carr and Deanna Shoemaker, “Hauntings: marking flesh, time, memory,” Text and Performance Quarterly 37, no. 1 (2017): 69.

19. Tyquiengco, “Black Velvet,” 499.

20. Blacklock, “Conjuring Alterity,” 38.

21. Connor, “Weimar on the Derwent,” 54.

22. Gardner, “Whither the Postcolonial?” 143.

HART3361 The Dutch Golden Age and the Art of Exploration

Unit Coordinator: Arvi Wattel

KYARA DEVASER ‘VOC Dish’

With Singapore’s colonial history mostly relegated to the British Empire, there was a short period of time in the 17th century when the Dutch ruled. Prior to their monopoly over principal trade routes, the familiarity with weak points in the Portuguese voyages had led them to be aware of what is now the Straits of Singapore — a small region infamous for pirates both local and foreign.1 To continue dampening the Portuguese dominance, the Company had plans to fortify parts of Singapore in 1609, for it was surrounded by hostile powers, but these were never constructed for they were costly and naval squadrons in the region sufficed.2 Even after the Portuguese had ceased its rule in Malacca, Dutch surveillance had remained in the Straits, pressuring merchants into trading at Batavia.3 Objects like this porcelain plate uncover the true reach of Dutch power during the 17th century, allowing for intimate histories in Chinese, Japanese,and Indonesian contexts. By extending its relevance in a Singaporean setting, it fills the gaps, revealing more than just what has been commonly known about a small fishing village turned busy port.

The first handlings of porcelain by the Dutch were during the Ming Era (1573-1619), where the treasures of Portuguese carracks, en route from China, were brought to Holland. Known as kraakporselein, its demand was exacerbated by the inability to replicate the Wan Li style in Delft.4 During their reign, the Dutch had survived the harsh rule of the Shogunate in Japan, who eradicated all

foreign influences, especially those for the Roman Catholic Church.5 For over two-hundred years, the Dutch settled on the island of Deshima where they were allowed to trade. With the civil unrest in China unfolding at the end of the Ming era, the Dutch turned to the kilns of Japan, which were still relatively new in porcelain making. Japanese porcelain at the time bore close resemblance to Korean constructions, but its shift to imitating Chinese styles happened over the course of 50 years.6 Despite these ill-equipped kilns, they met the requirements of the Dutch to create European shaped plates with Chinese illustrations.7

On this porcelain plate in the Maritime Trade Gallery in the Asian Civilisations Museum, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) insignia is encircled by two phoenixes, one in flight with its flowing tail, while the other gently perches on a rock. These phoenixes, or hō-hō, are synonymous with the Japanese Emperor; for its motif is found on palanquins, imperial buildings, furniture and even the palace itself.8 These meanings are shared with Chinese lore and were most likely imitated from the prototypes brought to Arita by the Dutch, whom admired its allure.9 This motif increased in popularity, frequently combined with a floral pattern, and in this case, flowering pomegranates. This seeded fruit, as seen with painted spots, represents the birth of many sons, which may have been unbeknownst to the Company yet would have advantaged them, due to the death rates in the Indies.10 The border, in Wan Li style, has six larger panels, three with peonies and three with bamboo. Between them are thinner panels with florets and scrollwork under a wash of blue, a Japanese decision to replace the commonly found tassel motif on Wan Li porcelain and with a painted outline, these bracketed panels replicate relief borders.

Image: VOC Dish, porcelain, blue underglaze and overglaze, late 17th century, Arita, Japan, 3.5 x 22.0 x 22.0 cm, Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, Accession No. 2014 – 00931, Permanent Exhibit in Maritime Trade Gallery. VOC Dish, late 17th century, Asian Civilisations Museum Collection, accessed April 10, 2023, https://www.roots.gov.sg/Collection-Landing/listing/1144101

The quality of this porcelain dish is difficult to determine for it varies, technically and artistically. To understand this, the requirements of high-quality plates are attributed to a light green tinge in its overglaze, while its underglaze leans toward violet tones. This dish, however, has a dimpled white overglaze, and its blue underglaze has melded into dark inky depths, alluding to it being more of an ordinary quality. Another indicator of inferiority was that superior quality paint was accessible to the kilns of Arita at the time for they relied on cobalt oxide imported from Amoy in the Fukien province. The pigment in question appears to be an inky blueblack alluding to impurities in its cobalt, leaving some places as dark as black. The indistinct spots on the dish, as seen in surrounding foliage, could have been caused by burnt pigment, as a result of insufficient glazing.11 As for its texture, it shifts between smooth and coarse when viewed from certain angles, but it is evident that its surface has minuscule indentations throughout, as though a muslin cloth had laid on it, which could once again be due to inadequate glazing. This plate has spur marks on its base but lacks potters’ marks, shop marks, and merchant marks, all of which are characteristic of Wan Li period porcelain. Artistically, the hō-hō’s tail feathers lack elegance and have been reduced to thorn-like stems, a lackadaisical approach as compared to its other finer counterparts. Scrollworks and florets have blended into patchy washes, leaving more to be desired of its intricacies. Overall, this plate does not appear to be a forged one for those that were too sparsely decorated and left in the hands of those that brought them to Deshima.12

The sudden demand for monogrammed porcelain is still under speculation, with the initial theory that its addition was to discourage theft.13 Another opinion points to the customised plates as

a prestigious display for public occasions rather than private use, and were commissioned by Batavia’s elite to bear the insignia.14 It was through this representative use they signalled social status, to be admired by visitors and instigate conversations of these traded objects to other elites, creating fascination surrounding such exotic places.15 This is especially reminiscent of the VOC in Batavia, for its insecurities, thus personalised dinnerware became a crucial part of the social interactions among the Batavians.16 The latter theory reports that they were obtained from China but is highly unlikely due to its lack of profit for the Company. This led to its production in Japanese kilns, for the Dutch oversaw the decoration on export ware and therefore an inexpensive task — perhaps due to its lack of rococo cartouche, a common feature in coat of arms at the time. This too falls in line with the trend of armorial porcelain, where the Portuguese and the English had already established this emblazonment of their coat of arms onto dinnerware.17 Plates like these were undoubtedly made for the use of the Company, but it remains unclear where and when they were used. There have been no reports of them being used in Holland and Batavia’s order for 7000 pieces to use aboard Company ships specifically requested for coarse porcelain.18 By elimination, this hints to its use by the officials in Batavia. According to the expense accounts made in 1753, items labelled as ‘porcelein voor het gouvernment’ appeared several times and were concluded to be for senior servants and staff at the gemeene tafel 19 Though regarded as a privilege, it could seem that the plates were not valued for their newness but as they became rarer, it repurposed itself from table to wall; for each office required a Company plate to be hung.20

With its white and blue charm, the VOC Dish brings about the multiplex of histories that occurred through trade routes during the

17th centuries. Like Singapore, this creation of the porcelain plate is an amalgamation of cultures, traditions and customs, owing to various communities that have owned the respective artistic subjects, technical construction and use.

Endnotes

1. Peter Borschberg, “Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch plans to construct a fort in the Straits of Singapore, ca. 1584-1625,” Archipel 65, no. 1 (2003): 59, https://www.persee.fr/doc/ arch_0044-8613_2003_num_65_1_3751

2. “VOC Blockades of the Singapore and Malacca Straits 1600,” HistorySG, accessed April 12, 2023, https://eresources.nlb.gov. sg/history/events/720e0137-1e4c-40ac-bea1-a713ea20faed

3. HistorySG, “VOC Blockades.”

4. C.S. Woodward, Oriental Ceramics At The Cape of Good Hope 1652-1795: an account of the porcelain trade of the DEIC with particular reference to ceramics with the V.O.C Monogram, the Cape Market and South African collections (Cape Town: A.A. Balkema, 1974), 3.

5. Woodward, Oriental Ceramics, 17.

6. Ibid, 18.

7. Ibid.

8. Catherine Cornille, “The Phoenix Flies West: The Dynamics of the Inculturation of Mahikari in Western Europe.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18, no. 2/3 (1991): 265, http:// www.jstor.org/stable/30233445.

9. Woodward, Oriental Ceramics, 57.

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid, 59.

12. Ibid, 58.

13. Ibid, 53.

14. Jean Taylor, The Social World of Batavia: Europeans and Eurasians in Colonial Indonesia (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009), 58.

15. Karl-Heinz Spieß, “Asian Objects and Western European Court Culture in the Middle Ages” in Artistic and Cultural Exchanges Between Europe and Asia, 1400-1900: Rethinking Markets, Workshops and Collections, ed. Michael North, Taylor & Francis Group, 28.

16. Dawn Odell, “Public Identity and Material Culture in Dutch Batavia,” in Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration and Convergence (The Proceedings of the 32nd International Congress in the History of Art), ed. Jaynie Anderson. (Carlton, Victoria): The Miengunyah Press, 2009), 307.

17. Xue Hui Li, “Development History and Art Characteristics of Chinese Armorial Porcelain,” Ceramics Technical, no. 42 (2017): 16.

18. Woodward, Oriental Ceramics, 62.

19. Ibid, 62.

20. Ibid.

References

Borschberg, Peter. “Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch plans to construct a fort in the Straits of Singapore, ca. 1584-1625.” Archipel 65, no. 1 (2003): 55-88. https://www.persee.fr/doc/ arch_0044-8613_2003_num_65_1_3751

HistorySG. “VOC Blockades of the Singapore and Malacca Straits 1600.” Accessed April 12, 2023. https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/ history/events/720e0137-1e4c-40ac-bea1-a713ea20faed

Cornille, Catherine. “The Phoenix Flies West: The Dynamics of the Inculturation of Mahikari in Western Europe.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18, no. 2/3 (1991): 265–85. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/30233445.

Woodward, C.S. Oriental Ceramics At The Cape of Good Hope 1652-1795: an account of the porcelain trade of the DEIC with particular reference to ceramics with the V.O.C Monogram, the Cape Market and South African collections. Cape Town: A.A. Balkema, 1974

Taylor, Jean Gelman. The Social World of Batavia : Europeans and Eurasians in Colonial Indonesia. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2009. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ uwa/detail.action?docID=3444841.

Spieß, Karl-Heinz. “Asian Objects and Western European Court Culture in the Middle Ages” in Artistic and Cultural Exchanges Between Europe and Asia, 1400-1900 : Rethinking Markets, Workshops and Collections, edited by Michael North, Taylor & Francis Group, 9-28. 2010. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/ lib/uwa/detail.action?docID=4758222.

Odell, Dawn. “Public Identity and Material Culture in Dutch Batavia,” in Crossing Cultures: Conflict, Migration and Convergence (The Proceedings of the 32nd International Congress in the History of Art), edited by Jaynie Anderson, 303-308. Carlton (Victoria): The Miegunyah Press, 2009.

Li, Xue-Hui. “Development History and Art Characteristics of Chinese Armorial Porcelain.” Ceramics Technical, no. 42 (2017): 16–19. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ informit.243451160495104

HART2207 Caravaggio and the Baroque

Unit coordinator: Arvi Wattel

Teaching Staff: Amias Neville

VALENTINA CASTRO SUAREZ

Comparing Michelangelo’s Risen Christ and Francois Duquesnoy’s Christ Bound

Michelangelo’s Risen Christ and Francois Duquesnoy’s Christ Bound are separated by a hundred years of artistic history and tradition as seen in their depictions of Jesus Christ in sculpture form. Religious depictions of Christ during the Baroque period are abundant, but Michelangelo’s and Duquesnoy’s takes are unique amongst the rabble. In comparing the two we must discuss the changing landscape of catholic dogma which influenced the visual traditions surrounding depictions of Christ, his sexuality, and the influence of Greek antiquity on the formation of the male body in baroque sculpture.

Risen Christ is a solid marble sculpture of a nude Christ, holding his cross. He stands at a slightly larger than life-size 2.05 metres tall in the Santa Maria sopra Minerva Cathedral in Rome and has stood in place to the left of the main altar since it was finished in 1521. Michelangelo unusually depicted Christ as a nude with no specific reference to any one biblical story but can be assumed to be sometime after his crucifixion, perhaps after his resurrection. He is posed in popular contrapposto with most weight being on his right leg, leaning slightly sideways on the cross he is embracing, with his left leg outstretched. By using contrapposto Michelangelo utilises the cross to create balance despite the asymmetrical stance so that it is visually interesting and dynamic despite the static nature of the sculpture. The Christ stands still as if he is in

a moment of rest or waiting on someone. He looks towards the main altar, to his left with a strong gaze. Michelangelo depicts his human form dutifully and naturalistically, when compared to other works like David, Christ looks like a man who once truly existed rather than a stylised ideal of a mythological man.

Michelangelo chose to depict Christ completely naked which is unusual, despite the fact that it is not abnormal to see Christ nude, the difference being that a naked Christ is usually only depicted as a child with the Madonna this following the theory of ostentatio genitallium.1 As an adult he is almost always covered in a loincloth especially during scenes of his crucifixion or thereafter. It can only be seen that Michelangelo intended him to be this way through the sheer strength in presence and the shamelessness he possesses. In line with Catholic tradition, the idea of Jesus Christ as a person and mystic is that he is the only one who has been born free from sin, or shame. Michelangelo has stressed this by the pride he depicts in this figure, and that he should be seen to with no humanely shame for his sex. Of course, that does not stop the audience from seeing him in an improper way. But the fact that we see him with shame does not mean he must possess any.2

His bold depiction which was just as unpopular amongst Michelangelo’s contemporaries as it is with modern audiences, prompted an addition of a bronze loin cloth to the statue sometime during the late 1500’s. This addition, which alters Michelangelo’s true vision, detracts from the message of a pure and free Christ. By adding a cloth, we are conceding that he is improper, that there must be some shame in this body. The discomfort in his sexuality is a sort of catch-twentytwo, how do you create a detached depiction of a pure being who inhabits a human body. To the audience who is as human as can be, how can they

Image: (Left) Francois Duquesnoy, Christ Bound (1620); (Right). Copy of Michelangelo’s Risen Christ (1521).

detach their preconceptions to view this sculpture as it was intended.

In Renaissance society, nudity in the visual arts had degrees of acceptance.3 It was only after the counter reformation movement where the Council of Trent decreed that nudity especially of religious subjects must be treated with decorum in the aesthetic and ethical sense.4

The change in public perception only furthered the development of the stylistic approach to nudity into La maniera Greca, by Duquesnoy and his pupils.

Christ Bound is a small-scale ivory statue measuring 30cm tall, depicting Christ with his hands bound from the biblical scene where he is apprehended by Roman soldiers before his crucifixion. Like Risen Christ, Duquesnoy employs contrapposto by placing emphasis on Christ’s posing, his left hip jutting out while the rest of his body leans to his right. When compared to Michelangelo’s use of the same technique, Duquesnoy opts for an overt example which creates drama typical for the baroque period.

The delicate sculpting places emphasis on his hips where he is wearing a cloth that does nothing for his modesty, loosely draped leaving the audience wondering when it will fall away.5 The line of focus is then brought up the body, where he is touching his head to his left shoulder, looking through his eyelashes. The bound wrists are the second focal point, but like the cloth, the rope binding his wrists is more an excuse to depict them gently crossed. This small, personal statue is dripping with delicate sensuality and slow drama. Duquesnoy effectively creates a sense of movement within the work, and as aforementioned his maniera greca creates an idealised version of Christ.6 According to 18th century art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann in his book Reflections describes his theory of Greek aesthetic tradition and the idea of the body

in sculpture as a hyperrealist ideal rather than the realistic depiction of male athleticism.7 This is certainly evident in both Michelangelo’s Risen Christ and Duquesnoy’s Christ Bound. With this theory in mind, Duquesnoy’s work is a natural progression into style over nature. Biographer Giovanni Battista Passeri wrote of Duquesnoy as ‘rigorous imitator’ of the Greek manner.

Despite Duquesnoy thinking so highly of Greek antiquity as his goal, his artwork is distinctly different to any Greek standard since genuine Greek statues were hard to come by, and even more difficult to differentiate between the abundance of Roman antiquities. Thus, his Maniera Greca is not an authentic reproduction of the Greek standard but rather his take on it. When compared to the wider baroque style of his peers like Bernini it is more restrained and less dramatic as seen in Christ Bound.8

The joining factor in both these sculptures are the physicality of the bodies of Christ. Both works utilise symmetria or proportionality for the basis of the body. This idea exists outside anatomically correct bodies and should be seen as hyper realistic art rather than grounded in reality.9 Like their portrayal of the musculature which wraps around the iliac crest. When viewed from the front both statues are realistic in that they present a toned lower stomach however it turns into hyper realistic when it protrudes and wraps around the back of the body. Though not as prominent as some traditional statues, it is still present. If anatomically correct and naturalistic this muscle would not appear as a ‘belt.’10 When comparing Michelangelo’s robust depiction, contemporaries were commenting on the choice of delicate contour versus strong, Aretino Dolce remarks:

…the tender and delicate nude is naturally more pleasing to the eye than a robust and muscular one, let me

refer you to the works produced by the ancients, whose practice it was to make their figures extremely delicate.11

This idea of subtlety being superior existed mutually with the idea of Greek sculpture being superior to Roman and thus developed into Duquesnoy’s visual thesis. Despite Christ Bound being an early work, likely made to pay the bills instead of a prized large-scale commissioned work, the care taken to maintain his stylistic concept is definite.

In the same train of thought when connecting nudity and Greek ideals, it is important to note the difference in its perception in relation to decorum. What is different between Michelangelo’s image and Duquesnoy’s? The obvious answer is oretatio genitallium or display of Christ’s genitals.12 Perhaps, similar complaints of appropriateness would be heard if Chris Bound was a life-size large-scale work intended for a cathedral such as Risen Christ.13 Despite covering his groin, it is still an overtly sensual image. If shamelessness was the goal of Michelangelo, Duquesnoy puts the onus of shame on the audience. Due to the personal nature of the work, being small-scale and made of ivory it is possible to assume that whoever owned this would have kept it privately unlikely to be showed to guests.

Michelangelo denuding Christ is more shocking to audiences despite the prevalence of nudity in antiquity because of the guilt that is associated with ‘modern’ religious works that did not exist for antiques. There was no ‘morality’ to the nude body, therefore no shame.14 And even though Christ is the only being foregoing corruption of original sin the audience still associates man with Adam. It is important for the audience to ask themselves when seeing Risen Christ why the image becomes less religious because of the choice to include Christs genitals.15

Overall, these two examples of renaissance and baroque religious sculpture are incredible

at demonstrating the development of tastes, visual artistic tradition in the one hundred years that separates them. Both Michelangelo and Duquesnoy employ repetition, and appropriation of Greek ideals to create their own visual language for depicting the adult Christ. Neither are without critique, especially in their scandalous choices to include sexual themes and representation which were not popular during their time and have garnered censorship in the case of Michelangelo.

Endnotes

1. Leo Steinberg, “The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion,” October 25 (1983): 1–222. https:// www.jstor.org/stable/778637

2. Steinberg, “Sexuality of Christ,” 1983, 42.

3. C. H. Stocking, “Greek Ideal as Hyperreal: Greco-Roman Sculpture and the Athletic Male Body.” Arion (Boston) 21, no. 3 (2014): 51. https://doi.org/10.2307/arion.21.3.0045

4. Stocking, “Greek Ideal as Hyperreal,” 2014, 52.

5. Steinberg, “Sexuality of Christ,” 1983, 189.

6. Estelle Lingo,. “‘Un Sapere Non Ordinario’: The Art and Theory of Francois Duquesnoy.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1999, 24.

7. Stocking, “Greek Ideal as Hyperreal,” 2014, 46.

8. Stocking, “Greek Ideal as Hyperreal,” 2014, 68.

9. Stocking, “Greek Ideal as Hyperreal,” 2014, 51

10. Stocking, “Greek Ideal as Hyperreal,” 2014, 50.

11. Estelle Lingo, “The Greek Manner and a Christian Canon: François Duquesnoy’s Saint Susanna.” The Art Bulletin (New York, N.Y.) 84, no. 1 (2002): 69. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043 079.2002.10787011

12. Steinberg, “Sexuality of Christ,” 1983, IV.

13. Laura Camille Agoston, “Michelangelo’s ‘Christ’: The Dialectics of Sculpture.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1993, 2.

14. Steinberg, “Sexuality of Christ,” 1983, 23.

15. Steinberg, “Sexuality of Christ,” 1983, 44, xxi.

HART1000 Great Moments in Art

Unit Coordinator: Dr Susanne Meurer

SALINA RE

‘In Control of Water: Cosimo I de’ Medici’s political ideas as reflected by his patronage of Ammannati’s Fountain of Neptune’

Introduction

In the Florence of the Cinquecento, the patronage of art was utilised by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici as a tool of propaganda to support his political image as a ruler, and the notion that his Republic brought prosperity to the city. Cosimo’s political ideas are certainly reflected by his patronage of The Fountain of Neptune (Fontana del Nettuno), a monument created between 15601574 by Florentine artist Bartolomeo Ammannati. The fountain, which was in the Piazza della Signoria in front of the town hall, the Palazzo Vecchio, was the first public fountain in Florence since antiquity and at over 18 feet tall, featured likely the largest monolithic sculpture of the period.1 As the patron, it is widely understood that Cosimo’s main intentions were for the piece to celebrate the marriage of his son Francesco I de’ Medici to Grand Duchess Joanna of Austria, and to celebrate his construction of aqueducts throughout the city. The choice of subject matter in the Roman god Neptune aligned with Cosimo’s manufacturing of an association between Florence and water, as part of his water-related projects including maritime ventures. The political ideas of Duke Cosimo during his reign of Renaissance Florence are reflected overtly in his patronage of The Fountain of Neptune, which crucially serve in maintaining the Medici legacy.

Cosimo I de’ Medici as Patron

During his reign as Duke of Florence from 1537 to 1569, Cosimo I de’ Medici was an exceptional patron of Florentine art. Else succinctly describes his broad intentions: it “reinforced his political authority, legitimised dynastic power and promoted an image of Florence as prospering under Medici rule,” and this was no different for The Fountain of Neptune.2 The Fountain commission was first granted in 1559 to Baccio Bandinelli, set against a backdrop of extensive maritime development and particularly the conquest of Siena, in which Cosimo became the Duke of a united Tuscany from 1569 to 1574.3 After Bandinelli’s untimely death in 1560, his student Ammannati was chosen to bring to life his design along with the help of several other artists including Giambologna and de’ Rossi.4 Ammannati’s commission had a timeline; Cosimo wanted the piece to be part of the entrata (entrance) of Joanna of Austria during the wedding procession in 1565, as part of this image of a prospering Florence. The marriage of Cosimo’s son Francesco to Joanna of Austria was also an important political alliance for the Medici to the Habsburgs, as she was the daughter of the late emperor Ferdinand I – Cosimo had something to prove about his Florence in this entrata to his powerful allies.5 Unfortunately, due to lengthy delays in the transport of materials, the piece was not complete by the time of the wedding and so had to be temporarily revealed and completed with the more ephemeral material of painted stucco. This proved to be useful for Ammannati, who was able to include iconography relevant to the entrata that did not remain in the final execution.6 These included some of the items that the bronze marine deities hold, which may have been items intending to symbolise fertility and abundance in a similar way that the overflowing marine cornucopias currently do.7 Ultimately, the Fountain served its purpose

Image: The Fountain of Neptune, Bartolomeo Ammannati, 1560-1574. Image by MarcusObal under Creative Commons.

during the entrata and was a centrepiece in what to the wider citizens of Florence was essentially a festival of abundance and prosperity.

The Fountain was completed in 1574, 15 years after the initial commission, during which Cosimo died and was succeeded by his son Francesco I de’ Medici. At this time, the monument fully realised Cosimo’s intention of promoting prosperity under Medici rule, as a celebration of his construction of aqueducts and his ‘gift’ of clean water. Contemporaries had a genuine appreciation of his achievement and praised the quality of the freshwater.8 As a fountain, and perhaps one of few functioning public ones for some time, the finished piece was received as a public ornament. Popular rumour suggests that Florentines would use the fountain to wash laundry and inkpots, possibly proven by the existence of a plaque behind the monument forbidding inappropriate use of the water.9 Almost immediately following the unveiling until modern security could adequately protect it, the Fountain has been a victim of vandalism, conceivably few with political relevance. Whether the artistic value or political ideas of the monument were appreciated by the average Florentine throughout history, they recognised it’s indisputable charm, giving the sculpture the apt nickname Biancone (“Big Whitey” or “White Giant”).10 Ultimately, the Fountain of Neptune holds an undeniable presence within the Piazza della Signoria that has withstood the test of time, continuing to reflect the legacy of the Medici rule.

Neptune as a Political Symbol

The choice to create a Fountain of Neptune was not an original concept to contemporaries. It was commissioned specifically because of the political associations with the character of Neptune as a Roman god of waters. Bandinelli, as the first artist to

receive Cosimo’s patronage, had previously created another fountain of Neptune where the Genoese navy admiral and mercenary captain, Andrea Doria, was the model. Undoubtedly, Bandinelli would have drawn inspiration from his previous work, and Cosimo himself had an amicable relationship with Doria and revered his image.11 Doria as Neptune is transparent when considering his legacy, and Genoa as a naval power and seaport that could easily draw upon marine imagery in its propaganda, whereas Florence is a landlocked city. Therefore, why Neptune and marine iconography? As previously explained, Cosimo had many water-related projects, and so wished to magnify Florence’s maritime prowess through Neptune as a political symbol. The Fountain is, as Else describes, Cosimo’s “manifestation of the Olympian represented –that is, command over the maritime frontiers and freshwater springs.”12 Cosimo was essentially manufacturing an association between Florence and water as part of a propaganda effort celebrating his maritime ventures. Freedman explains that depictions of Neptune were particularly difficult for Cinquecento artists to construct as they did not have classical models of Neptune to imitate, and in relying on their imagination, created quite humanistic renditions of the pagan god that could more easily link Neptune to the contemporary ruler.13 It is commonly thought that Cosimo was the model for Neptune (as Doria was), however Else challenges this notion, stating that “the Olympian was not meant to be too literal a portrait of its Medici benefactor.”14 However, much of the iconography in Neptune’s imagery that was known to Cinquecento artists was downplayed or absent in Ammannati’s rendering of his Neptune; for example, Neptune’s lack of a trident, and sporting a shorter beard and crown.15 It is assumed that part of this was due to the technical constraints

of the marble block he was working from due to Bandinelli’s vision, but it can also be understood as translating from a desire to reflect his contemporary ruler, Cosimo. Regardless, Cosimo pushed for marine iconography to become prevalent throughout Florence through his patronage of the arts, overtly reflecting his political ambition to be perceived as in control of waters, whether they be through his aqueducts or his maritime efforts.

Conclusion

Cosimo I de’ Medici’s patronage of The Fountain of Neptune by Bartolomeo Ammannati was a deliberate enterprise intending to reinforce his authority and promote the prosperity of Florence under the Medici rule. To his contemporary Florentine citizens, it symbolised an important union and political alliance, as well as a renewed accessibility to freshwater through the construction of aqueducts. In using iconography associated with Neptune as the pagan god of waters, Cosimo manufactured an association between his authority and the maritime prowess of Florence. Cosimo’s utilisation of art as propaganda during his reign solidified his legacy and continued in the succession of his son, thus forever reflecting the political ideas of the Medici family and reinforcing its wider legacy.

5. Else, “Water and Stone”, p.85.

6. Felicia M. Else. “‘La Maggior Porcheria Del Mondo’: Documents for Ammannati’s Neptune Fountain.” Burlington Magazine 147, no. 1228 (2005): 488. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/20074040.

7. Else, The Politics of Water, p. 97.

8. Ibid., p. 84.

9. Deirdre Pirro, “The white giant,” The Florentine, May 19, 2011, https://www.theflorentine.net/2011/05/19/the-white-giant/

10. Luba Freedman, “Neptune in Classical and Renaissance Visual Art,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition 2, no. 2 (1995): 231. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02678622

11. John T. Paoletti and Gary M. Radke, “Mantua, Parma, and Genoa: The Arts at Court,” in Art in Renaissance Italy (Boston: Prentice Hall, 2012), p. 433.

12. Else, The Politics of Water, p. 9.

13. Freedman, “Neptune in Classical and Renaissance Visual Art,” p. 219, 231.

14. Else, The Politics of Water, p. 76.

15. Ibid., p.65.; Freedman, “Neptune in Classical and Renaissance Visual Art,” p.232.

Endnotes

1. Felicia M. Else. “Water and Stone: Ammannati’s ‘Neptune Fountain’ as Public Ornament.” (ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2003), p. v.

2. Ibid., p. 47.

3. Felicia M. Else. The Politics of Water in the Art and Festivals of Medici Florence From Neptune Fountain to Naumachia (Florence: Routledge, 2018), p.73, https://doi. org/10.4324/9780429469305

4. Hildegard Utz. “A Note on Ammannati’s Apennine and on the Chronology of the Figures for His Fountain of Neptune.” Burlington Magazine 115, no. 842 (1973): 300. http://www.jstor. org/stable/877303.

Architecture, Landscape Architecture & Urban Design

Image: UWA School of Design, Cullity Gallery, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023. Photography by Samantha Dye.

Foreword by Julia Keymer

“Why did you choose to study Architecture?”

The answer to this question has often involved some vague explanation of being interested in both art and science, technology and design, passing maths in high school and watching Grand Designs. Now, having completed my Master of Architecture, I revisit this question, with over five years of architectural education under my belt.

I have not only learnt about architecture in the strictest sense of the word, but I have also gained insight into the innumerable disciplines associated with developing architectural thinking; urban design, landscape architecture, geology, hydrology, anthropology, urban design, construction, film making, philosophy, history, graphic design, to name a few.

I have learnt to say yes to opportunities, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone. Being invited to join the HUB team for two semesters, assist in undergraduate studios, take part in jury panels, present work to other students and assist in exhibition preparation have been invaluable experiences that have shaped my learning, outside course requirements.

I have learnt near and far. The School of Design’s focus on conceptual thinking, accompanied by both global awareness and rigorous local knowledge, has been evident during my time at UWA. I have had the privilege of learning from Noongar Elders who so generously share their knowledge and experience of the Whadjuk Boodjar we live and design within. I have also had the privilege of travelling to Portugal, learning from practicing architects while experiencing their local context, and creating lifelong friendships with fellow archi students; the most valuable month of my degree.

I have learnt that, although we might work well by cramming weeks’ worth of work into a couple of allnighters, it probably isn’t the most healthy habit to adopt over the course of a university degree (or two). This lesson I am apparently still learning, with my years of study aptly coming to an end at 2am one Monday morning, accompanied by a low-fi Spotify playlist and an Up & Go. Having closed the endless tabs of my browser, I closed the lid of my worn-out laptop, and so closed this chapter of university studies.

I have learnt that the learning doesn’t stop here. It truly has only just begun. Gaining experience in architecture firms has reinforced the knowledge that we will continue to learn and evolve our thinking every day. Be a sponge.

The works collected in this catalogue are a record of the learning undertaken over a single semester. They are so diverse in their thinking, their approach to challenges and their creative outcomes. They are a testament to the dedication of our tutors who share their own knowledge and, more importantly, encourage us to develop our own. Congratulations to all the students whose work fills the pages of this collective. Congratulations to my fellow graduates of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. Let’s never stop seeking to learn. And what comes next? Work on developing an answer to the question: “So, what do you do?”

Julia Keymer, Master of Architecture, 2023

Image: Praia Da Adraga, Portugal. Lisbon Summer Studio, 2023. Drone image of final group submission, with Camryn Mercorella, Jess Gibbs and Stuart Confait. Photography by Eduardo Nascimento.

Architecture

Image: UWA School of Design, Cullity Gallery, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023. Photography by Samantha Dye.

ARCT5011 Independent Research Part 2

Unit Coordinators: Dr Kate Hislop / Dr Philip Goldswain

Supervisor: Craig McCormack

GRACE WEBSTER

‘A Queering of Fremantle’s West End Heritage Policy’

Fremantle’s West End is celebrated for its unique cultural heritage value, but its reliance on colonial imagery raises questions as to who this cultural heritage is truly representative of. The current heritage policies’ reliance on heteronormative and colonial understandings of cultural value undermines and excludes the diverse nature of Fremantle/Walyalup. This project adopts queering as a framework for radical inclusion by identifying areas of harm perpetuated by heteronormative interpretations of place. The application of a queer reading of the Local Planning Policy reveals an obsession with facadism that prioritises the federation-era facade as the epitome of cultural value in the West End, discrediting any value that falls outside this scope. San Francisco, Toronto, and New York give precedent to queer approaches to heritage and the need for broader reform in conjunction with specific policy alteration. Through the Local Planning Policy and case study analysis, the project’s findings include Local Planning Policy and broader structural recommendations. These recommendations expand on current heritage frameworks to allow for greater inclusion and subsequently a built environment that is more reflective of its rich cultural heritage.

Image: Selected image taken from the 3-part zine series that made up the dissertation.

Landscape Architecture

Image: Selected images taken from the 3-part zine series that made up the dissertation.

ARCT5011 Independent Research Part 2

Unit Coordinator: Dr Philip Goldswain

Supervisor: Dr Nigel Westbrook

ERIC GAOXIANG LUAN

‘Ma (間) Space - In Praise of The Penumbrae Between Light and Shadow’

This independent thesis consists of a written dissertation and a design project parallel to it, with the written component interrogating the theoretical framework forming the design concept, while the design project illustrates and experiments with what the dissertation explores – Ma Space. While the concept of Ma Space contains a spectrum of various perspectives of representation, this thesis project mainly experiments with the lens of light, shadow, and the penumbrae between the two.

Ma (間), as a highly abstract concept, is firstly studied through a literature review and case studies to be extracted into a more sensible language in an architectural sense, for the development of the project brief. The literature review focuses on Mimesis and Mimetic Architecture, which could be understood as close concepts and theories to Ma Space, from existing architectural literature. A series of ‘Investigations of Ma’ was conducted, by looking into the Japanese cinematic context, theories of musicology, modern pop music, Chinese terracotta warriors, and ancient Chinese poetry. After extracting and interpreting the Ma concept from different categories of examples, an investigation of spatially – related and architecturally – related precedents was made, to exemplify how Ma could be embedded into a space, in an architectural context. This investigation includes ‘Deprogrammed Space’ by Soriano and Palacios and ‘A Third Place’ by Oldenburg. With the above investigations being conducted, a theoretical review of Ma is written to de-abstract the concept and incorporate it into a design brief. This was further followed by interviews with Professor Sarah Collins of the Music School, and Professor Andrea Quagliola, which revealed information about lighting and sonic perception in a musical context and light-and-shadow design strategies, respectively. A live observation of an orchestral performance in the Callaway Auditorium was conducted, with reflective writing attached to help form a theoretical approach to the design of a project for the expansion of the UWA music conservatorium.

Image: The De-linear Chaos - Immersion by light and shadow - Listeners, with freedom to locate them a ‘seat’ between light and shadow, are immersed in an orchestra that hugs them in. Performers are cast in light, shadow or the penumbrae in between, leaving perceptual impression across the spectrum of visual clarity.

Image: (Left) Grid of Light and Shadow - The Grid Hall – At 12pm, when the moment of story is captured, light and shadow grids become ‘invisible partition human bodies; (Right) Sub-Corridor - The Quiet End - Into the Middle of The Pine Tree Forest - Sound - A Sonic Sense of Shadow.

partition walls’ giving purpose of the space. A lecture is taking place in this moment, the dimension of the grid might suggest a sense of being occupied by

ARCT5010 Independent Research Part 1

Unit Coordinator: Dr Philip Goldswain

Supervisor: Jennie Officer

CHARLOTTE MARTIN ‘Why Do We Live Like This?’

Despite the prevalent and recurring motifs associated with Australian living of both the bush and the beach, the majority of the country’s population reside in the low-density sprawl of suburbia.1 In an attempt to mitigate further sprawl, the Perth and Peel @3.5million report outlines an overall infill target of 47% for Perth and its associated sub-regions.2 So far, only conservative progress has been made towards these goals. Despite Perth achieving a somewhat increased infill rate since 2018, reports show that, of the infill developments built between 2011 and 2020, ‘battle-axe’ projects (house-behind-a-house, duplex, triplex, quadplex etc.) made up half.3 Building on the trajectory that backyard infill is currently the most popular and publicly accepted form of infill, rather than higher density developments such as apartments, this research will investigate the performance of Perth’s ‘Business As Usual’ infill, using the suburb of Bedford as a case study, to consider alternative housing typologies that would reduce costs to both residents and the surrounding environment, whilst also allowing choice and variety. For the purpose of this research, ‘business as usual’ (BAU) will refer to current commonly utilised infill practices in Australia. It has been widely recognised that one of the main forces that shape this form of development in Australia is money and economics. Tax incentives and government funding schemes have led to houses often seen as investment properties, rather than as a ‘home’.4 5 This has led to decreased concern for quality in terms of

longevity, as houses are often treated as short-term stepping stones. In response to increased demand, mass housing companies have dominated the housing market by producing dwellings cheaply at the least cost possible - albeit whilst making a profit themselves. The combination of cost cutting and profit driven incentives, has come at the expense of affordability and quality.

To ground the research in a ‘real-world’ context, a study area has been selected for analysis. The City of Bayswater has been allocated by the Perth and Peel @3.5 million Planning Framework an enthusiastic target of achieving 15,750 new dwellings by 2050.6 The framework outlines Bayswater Town Centre as a ‘station precinct’ and a ‘major growth area’ - with planned density increase around this area and along major ‘transit corridors’ within the LGA intended to achieve the infill target. A highly urban area, Bayswater only has four percent of pre-European native vegetation extent remaining.7 Within the City of Bayswater, the suburb of Bedford has been chosen as a specific case study area for analysis of BAU background infill. The suburb presents a unique study area as it is significantly comprised of residential suburban blocks - all aligned along a NE-SW axial grid pattern street network. The standard pre-infill block size across Bedford is around 980m2. A specific study zone in the North of the suburb of Bedford has been selected for study through a projective design. This area has been chosen due to its location at the site of a previous wetland that has since been mostly lost to development. A system of open air drainage can be observed running South-West from the remaining wetland. It is also located in the section of Bedford shown to have least canopy cover.

This research sets out to investigate the performative quality of BAU infill housing in suburban Perth. It will test whether use of alternative typologies (other than BAU background infill typologies) could

Image: “Percentage of Canopy Cover Bayswater LGA” adapted from Bolleter & Hooper, ‘The importance of place-based narrative in suburban forest planning.’

create quantifiable improvements to amenity for both residents and the surrounding environment. Broadly, the aims of this research are to:

1. Expose and communicate the downfalls of BAU suburban infill housing in a format that is accessible and comprehensible for the general population.

2. Propose a scalable and repeatable alternative to BAU infill that could create quantifiable improvements to amenity for both residents and the surrounding environment.

Endnotes

1. Sue Turnbull, “Mapping the vast suburban tundra: Australian comedy from Dame Edna to Kath and Kim,” International Journal of Cultural Studies 11 no. 1 (2008): 15.

2. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage (DPLH) and Western Australian Planning Commission (WAPC), Perth and Peel @3.5million

3. 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).

4. ‘Should your first property be a home or investment?’ Commonwealth Bank, accessed April 6, 2023. https://www. commbank.com.au/articles/property/first-property-home-vsinvestment.html

5. ‘Should your first home be an investment property?’ Realestate.com. au, accessed April 16, 2023. https://www. realestate.com.au/advice/should-your-first-home-be-aninvestment-property/

6. Element Advisory Pty Ltd, Bayswater Town Centre: Structure Plan (Perth, WA: Element Advisory Pty Ltd, 2021). https://www. wa.gov.au/system/files/2021-11/SPL-SPN2145-Bayswater-TownCentre.pdf.

7. “Native Vegetation Clearing Statistics: Approvals under Part V, Division 2 of the Environmental Protection Act 1986,” Western Australian Government, last updated 26 April, 2023, accessed May 03, 2023. https://www.wa.gov.au/service/environment/ environment-information-services/native-vegetation-clearingstatistics.

Image: Study Zone Collage Maps - (Left) Vegetation vs. (Right) Infill Housing

Image: Land Zoned for Urban Development” adapted from DPLH & WAPC, ‘Urban Growth Monitor 13.’

ARCT5102 Architectural Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook

‘The End of Architecture: Housing the City’

LOUISA PETERS

‘A modern Agora for Perth’

What gives architecture a cultural and social purpose? How does it remain significant, long after its creators have passed? The way architecture, to this day, connects with and remains in our memories. Looking back in time, the Agora (ancient Greek: ἀγορά) in ancient Greek cities served as a meeting ground for various activities of its citizens - a place filled with memories and architectural structures. What made the principle of the Agora successful was its central location in the heart of the city, connecting to its immediate surroundings and enabling its citizens to interact with each other socially, commercially and culturally. These are all important characteristics that modern social housing complexes tend to lack, leading to architecture that fails to fulfill its potential and purpose.

This proposal introduces a modern Agora in the Heart of Perth – a “gathering place” for the people of the city to connect, interact and create new memories. The newly established housing project situated between Northbridge and the RAC Arena offers its inhabitants and visitors a centre for social, artistic and cultural exchange. Theatrical spaces and walkways enclosed by natural vegetation create an ephemeral atmosphere within the city centre that facilitates the formation of memories linked to the surrounding architecture.

Image: Social housing interior.

Image: (Left) Detailed section; (Right) Axonometric view of Agora in Perth CBD.

ARCT5102 Architectural Studio 2

Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook

Studio Coordinator: Paul Sawyer

STUART CONFAIT

‘Perth Commons’

Three government-commissioned studies of WA’s cultural infrastructure identified a deficit in the supply of workspaces for small to medium creative enterprises in Perth’s inner city local government areas (Making Space for Culture, Hatch-RobertsDay). The intervention takes place between 197 Murray St Mall and 164 Hay St Mall, which contains two one-way laneways connected to either mall. First, a through laneway is implemented, then supplemented by an elevated laneway between the Malls and Perth Cultural Centre. Creative Work and Gathering Spaces are then placed along these laneways to receive exposure from those moving through the site and activate the spaces they’re located on. Apartments are placed within a tower at the centre of the site to maintain consistent pedestrian movement through the site and make good use of passive design principles. This intervention seeks to enable repeated, incidental meetings, to foster a sense of community within the Perth Commons

Image: Commons Lane section

‘The City is (Not) Dead’

Image: Commons Lane ground plane activation, diagrams.

ARCT5101 Architectural Studio

Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook

Studio Coordinator: Santiago R. Perez

‘Post Form: Reimagining PICA’

SASKIA DAALE-SETIADY

‘Fabric Formwork’

Fabric, a material of flexibility, durability and weightlessness, has the ability to translate movement and energy into structurally sound and solidified matter. Fabric Formwork explores the physical and digital influence of fabric in architectural form in a post-boundary relation with the ‘natural’. An exploration into the possibilities of mould-making with fabric and concrete as well as digital iterative processes of stretching, draping and subtracting reconfigures the barrier between the inside and outside allowing a deeper connection to nature in architecture.

Extending the possibilities of site exploration and working with the fluidity of natural forces to inform placement of solid and void encourages users to experience built space as a framed and natural phenomenon. The project reimagines the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) into a place of reflection, visual interaction, and connection to ‘nature’ through art- created by both man and the unseen yet ever-present forces of nature.

Image: PICA+ Fabric Formwork photomontage.

Image: Fabric Formwork (Left) Interior views; (Right) Digital iterations.

ARCT5101 Architectural Studio

Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook

Studio Coordinator: Philip Stejskal

‘Broomehill Studio’

LACHLAN WILLIX

‘Broomehill Cooperative Brewing’

The Broomehill Imperial Hotel has recently become a community-owned building and restoration project. It follows the departure of the previous owner-operator and the creation of a co-operative tasked with purchasing the property and returning it to the service of the community as the local ‘watering hole’.

This studio explores the potential of a building to act as a ‘catalyst’ in the transformation of a place, with all other considerations serving this primary objective of breathing life back into the town. The project is no longer simply a restoration exercise. Instead, each intervention must consider its place in the wider scheme. To this extent, the explorations will necessitate speculation about a new future for the town, beyond Holland Track.

Starting with a focus on the Hotel as a ‘catalyst’ building, the studio extends its analysis beyond these walls to see what broader transformations the renewed edifice might enable in the spaces around it to secure the long-term survival of Broomehill.

Analysis into how the industrialisation of agriculture and globalisation of supply chains has caused the decline of rural communities such as Broomehill has aided in developing a proposal that understands the limitations and potential of the rural context.

From this understanding the proposed project looks at how local civic economies could help revitalises these small rural towns through community-owned and controlled Industry. The cooperatively owned and managed Broomehill Brewery acts as an example of what community empowerment and self-actualisation could look like for these rural Australian towns.

Image: Broomehill village co-operative reactivation plan.

Image: Historic and economic analysis

ARCT5201 Detailed Design Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Gemma Hohnen

‘Crisis Studio 6 – Material Matters’

EUGENE TIONG

‘Beaconsfield Community Pavilion (BCP) Centre’

The proposed design for Beaconsfield Community Pavilion (BCP) Centre aims to mitigate environmental impacts, enhance energy efficiency, build social cohesion, and promote adaptive strategies by embracing material practices, construction methods, in-use operational energy and end-of-life.

It was conceived as three connecting pavilions inviting people to build relationships and share resources. The internal spatial consistency provides ample space for each pavilion to fulfil various event modes and sizes, for example, community hall, workshop, open collaboration space, cafe, and meeting spaces.

Timber and hempcrete are chosen as primary construction materials due to their low embodied carbon and carbon sequestration capabilities. Following circular economy principles, the modular building system with prefabricated offsite components allows for rapid on-site construction and future adaptability.

The structure incorporates passive design strategies and renewable energy sources, such as solar panels, to reduce its carbon footprint. Rainwater run-off is captured by the surrounding landscape for natural irrigation, eliminating the need for downpipes or gutters. Using ground frame pin foundations minimizes the disturbance to the soil, vegetation, and water flows, while embankments provide pedestrian access to the deck, promote social activity, and eliminate the need for hand railings.

Overall, the BCP Centre presents an innovative architectural concept combining low-tech approaches, bio-based materials, and offsite construction to create an ultra-low embodied carbon building while serving as a model for climate-responsive design and community empowerment.

Image: Vertical section perspective & detailed perspective section through Meeting Room’s floor and wall.

Image: (Left) Sections in summer and winter time; (Right) Exploded axonometric and construction methodology.

ARCT5201 Detailed Design Studio

Unit Coordinator: Gemma Hohnen

Studio Coordinator: Peter Frederick Cole

‘Practice Studio Synopsis’

JASON ZHANG

‘C Private House’

The architectural design concept for this project revolves around the creation of a shared living space that harmoniously caters to the privacy needs of two couples, while fostering a strong sense of community. The central idea is to design a spacious communal area with an open-plan layout that intelligently separates the private spaces of the couples. The aesthetic inspiration draws from minimalism and simple geometric forms, complemented by the integration of off-form concrete and Shou Sugi Ban materials for the façade. These materials not only provide an aesthetically appealing appearance, but also offer fire resistance and establish a profound connection between the building and its natural surroundings.

To optimise the building’s volume and seamlessly integrate the program, the shared living space and bedroom is divided into three staggered rectangular boxes. These boxes are interconnected by a well-designed compact corridor, which allows for easy access while respecting the desired level of privacy. The interior design thoughtfully incorporates elements such as plants and light wells, creating a seamless connection between the living space and nature. Moreover, careful consideration is given to the orientation of the rooms and public areas, to maximise the infiltration of natural light and provide captivating views throughout the space.

The communal areas feature a double façade design that comprises large glass panels and movable screen sliders. This architectural feature introduces versatility, enabling the space to be fully open to the surrounding environment or partially closed to cater to privacy needs and control the amount of shading.

Image: Entry courtyard rendering.

Image: (Left) Sections; (Right) Bedroom rendering.

ARCT5589 Architecture of Furniture

Unit Coordinators: Peter Kitely and Guy Eddington

‘Furniture and Lighting: Design – Development – Prototype’

KATHRYN NEALE

‘Micro spaces/macro conditions: Light on a Pulley’

Ferguson Valley Marri, brass, steel, sand-coated painted Pine

Tackling issues of sprawl and liveability, the lamp sought to contemplate the creative use of space, and the possible outcomes this philosophy could translate to within a small footprint. Accommodating opportunities for a diverse collective of tasks; pull the pulley down for a reading light, or navigate it up for an ambient social scene.

‘Micro spaces/macro conditions: Obscure Table’

Ferguson Valley Marri, sand-coated and painted Jarrah, metal

Embellished with playful, expressive geometry using the CNC, the convex surfaces of the tabletop encourage use, and forms a concave in its ‘in-between’ surfaces – reducing wasted space and echoing flexibility for micro spaces.

ANDY JONES

‘Everyday Lamp & Table’

Plywood, recycled plastic, and aluminium

The Everyday lamp and table are made from various recycled materials. The projects explore the versatility of recycled plastics for furniture production. Designed to be disassembled, up-cycled and to create a circular economy – they highlight the beauty of ‘new’ recycled products.

FRANK BARRETO ROJAS

‘Flor de Banksia (Light) & Mesa del Oeste (Furniture)’

Melamine faced plywood and epoxy resin

A dual heritage and landscape architecture-inspired design, celebrating Roberto Burle-Marx, a Venezuelan Orchid, and a WA Banksia. The lighting product experiments with resin to diffuse light, while the furniture product incorporates Parque del Este’s plan and playful removable elements.

Image: Kathryn Neale, Micro Spaces/Macro Conditions: Obscure Table

Image: (Left) Kathryn Neale, Micro Spaces/Macro Conditions: Light On A Pulley; (Centre) Andy Jones, Everyday Lamp & Table; (Right) Frank Barreto Rojas,

Flor De Banksia (Light) & Mesa Del Oeste (Furniture)

ARCT5521 Empowering Communities Through Design

Unit Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho

JESSICA GIBBS, CAMRYN MERCORELLA, AND ELIZA SNELLGROVE

‘Food Waste /Repurposing Local Seafood Waste’

The project, led by Jessica Gibbs, Camryn Mercorella, and Eliza Snellgrove, explores the question: How should we dispose of our food waste as our climate continues to change? The aim is to reduce pressure on landfills and minimise the environmental impact, with a specific focus on Perth’s seafood waste. The seafood industry generates significant waste each year through processing methods such as gutting, filleting, scaling, and shucking. These processes result in inedible fractions that are unsuitable for direct human consumption. Currently, most of this waste is destined for landfill or sea dumping, which has severe negative impacts on the environment. These include increased greenhouse gas emissions, water and ocean pollution, and depletion of natural resources. Therefore, the framework aims to shed light on how seafood waste can be repurposed into simple or valuable resources and biomaterials, ensuring the long-term sustainability of the fishing industry.

To achieve this, the group has created a series of manuals and labels targeting seafood sellers, restaurants, and consumers. These resources provide information on how various seafood waste can be repurposed and the necessary steps to do so. The overall goal of this body of work aims to highlight the waste crisis and encourage communities to divert and repurpose it for other uses.

Image: Waste disposal and reuse methods for consumers.

Image: How to recycle and recover underused or discarded marine materials to achieve a bioeconomy for our seafood resources.

ARCT5580 Advanced Architectural Animation

Unit Coordinator: Craig McCormack

Teaching Staff: Bradley Millis

FYNN TURLEY

‘City Interchange’

Archigram was concerned with discovering better methods of living through speculative architectural projects. Their work played with the notion of the “Living City” where resources are mobilised and accessible to all. Warren Chalk and Ron Herron’s City Interchange (1963) proposes the city as a web of rapid networks. Transportation, communication and services are linked via tubular conduits that run between service nodes – much like veins and arteries to organs – reinforcing their belief that the city is a unique form of life.

In each of the drawings for City Interchange, the most notable aspects are the tubular transport tunnels spanning from structure to structure. They suggest a vast new city landscape with much more vertical possibility. Transport tubes link directly to neighbouring buildings above ground as well as below, with some dedicated to pedestrians, others cars, as well as others for rail systems. The three-dimensional web of transport possibilities proposes a generous planning scheme for city users, one where citizens are given far more agency in their choice of transportation. However, like most speculative megastructures, it becomes difficult to imagine City Interchange as a desirable space for living. Concerns of infrastructure and technology suffocating its liveability are genuine critiques, as well as the association of megastructures with neoliberal and authoritarian ideologies. There is a noticeable lack of playfulness in the City Interchange project, especially in comparison to other projects like Walking City (Ron Herron 1966), and hence this animation explores the more dystopian elements of the Archigram project, taking specific influence from Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 film, Stalker.

Image: The sewers of City Interchange, still image.

ARCT3000 Architecture Studio 3

Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop

Studio Coordinators: Dr Kate Hislop and Santiago R. Perez

‘City of Three Waters: Housing Plus’

JOE KENNY

‘Koombana Bay Co-Op’

The Koombana Bay Co-Op adopts a Cooperative Land Trust (CLT) model, proposing an innovative solution to the housing affordability crisis in Western Australia. By separating land ownership from building ownership, the Co-Op enables individuals to obtain long-term ground leases for housing units, fostering community ownership and control of land. This model paves the way towards more affordable and sustainable housing options.

COOPER ANDERSON

‘The Missing Middle’

This project explores the post-COVID-19 context and the Bunbury City Centre Action Plan priorities relating specifically to attracting increased population in diverse housing types. This ‘missing middle’ housing project has been developed for the near future Bunbury, designed around environmental principles and compact community living. Green space and gardens are important organising features, along with optimal natural ventilation and solar gain.

CAITLIN WALTON

‘It Takes a Village’

This project provides a housing solution for the expansion of Bunbury by 2040 and beyond, for working families, students, the elderly, and couples. The ‘village’ is an alternative to the single detached dwelling that floods Bunbury - bridging the gap between housing affordability, isolation, and the shift in societal patterns. Society has shifted from one working parent to most families having both parents working, creating a higher demand in childcare and relying on family support. This housing module consists of three-bedroom multigenerational dwellings and single dwellings ideal for couples or singles.

Image: Joe Kenny, Koombana Bay Co-Op, montage.

Image: (Left) Cooper Anderson, The Missing Middle, ground floor site plan, site section and model; (Right) Caitlin Walton, It Takes a Village, perspective.

ARCT3000 Architecture Studio 3

Unit Coordinator: Dr Kate Hislop

Studio Coordinators: Dr Kate Hislop and Santiago R. Perez

‘City of Three Waters: Housing Plus’

MAC PERKINS

‘COMMUNE: Artist’s Housing in Goomburrup, Knarla Kaala Boodja’

Creative communities play a vital role in reviving and maintaining the cultural heartbeat of a city, such as Bunbury. These groups have historically been priced out of the housing market due to factors such as the rising cost of living and gentrification. Commune: Artist’s Housing has been designed for low-income professional artists and their families. It proposes 48 mixed occupant dwellings where occupant’s rent is calculated based on their income.

SAADMAN KHAWRIZMI

‘Our Big Fat Families’

Given the medium density project within the chosen site of a medium size block of land in the CBD of Bunbury the aim was to bring families into the CBD and re-invent typical Australian suburban living. As medium density living is on the rise alongside the affordability crisis, families have resorted to living in smaller and more compact homes. My project is in line with this shift in society looking to incorporate family living, student living and elderly living all within the same vicinity.

LIBBY CLOUGH

‘Bunbury: the liveABLE city’

The Bunbury liveABLE project is an ageing-in-place active community located at the old port site in Bunbury, Western Australia. This medium-density Baugruppen-style community merges with the existing port infrastructure through the repurposing of the sheds for a shared public community centre and via a free CAT bus to the town Centre. To foster a sense of connection within the residential community, all hard barrier fencing between lots is replaced with soft boundary native gardens and hedges.

Image: Mac Perkins, COMMUNE: Artist’s Housing in Goomburrup, Knarla Kaala Boodja, sectional isometric.

Image: (Left) Saadman Khawrizmi, Our Big Fat Families, isometric perspective; (Right) Libby Clough, Bunbury: the liveABLE city, site plan.

ARCT3030 Materials and Large Construction

Unit Coordinator: Andrea Quagliola

Teaching Staff: Andrea Quagliola and Mark Jecks

DAVE DEVES

‘RMIT Design Hub – Sean Godsell’

The RMIT Design Hub, designed by Sean Godsell Architects in association with Peddle Thorp Architects, is a multifunctional research, exhibition and studio space at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Victoria. Completed in May 2012, the Design Hub’s rectilinear volume is enclosed by an operable façade comprising of over 16,000 sandblasted glass discs, each measuring 600mm in diameter.

The façade functions as a “second skin,” a protective mechanised outer layer characteristic of Sean Godsell’s earlier works. The buildings solar gain is controlled through operable glass discs designed with a motion of up to 90 degrees, rotating on horizontal axles for the north and south elevations, and vertical axles for the east and west elevations. Electrically operated actuators, coordinated by the Building Management System, automate the movement of each panel in response to the façades orientation and Melbourne’s daily weather conditions.

The Southeast corner of the façade illustrates the interconnectedness of the operable discs, forming a protective outer layer. This mechanised outer layer enhances the building’s energy efficiency through its solar gain system and the integration of perimeter air intakes, facilitating passive cooling for the under-floor air distribution system and structural slabs.

Internally, the circulation within the building is defined by perimeter corridors that can be transformed into gallery spaces. The open plan design fosters mixed use, allowing for flexible furniture arrangements to accommodate various functions and activities.

The RMIT Design Hub embodies technological innovation and functional adaptability, resulting in purposeful architecture that pushes the boundaries of design.

Image: RMIT Design Hub – axonometric detail.

Image: RMIT Design Hub – sectional, structural & axonometric analysis.

ARCT3010 History and Theories of the Built Environment

Unit Coordinator: Joely-Kym Sobott

Teaching Staff: Joely-Kym Sobott and Dr Daniel Grinceri

GIULIA CELI

‘Sustainability Beyond Capitalism: Designing in Opposition to Neoliberalism for a More Equitable Built Environment’

…Within this “green capitalism,” sustainability is just another trendy buzzword that can be slapped onto the next product launch in order to attract a new market of “eco-conscious” consumers, a contradiction in and of itself. The issue with this “sustainable consumerism” is that the transactional relationships between “producers and customers” that exist within the capitalist market are “not equipped to cope with the issues of long-term sustainability” due to the nature of the system that prioritises gains in the present “at the expense of the long-term future.”1 Economic growth under capitalism is seen as a necessity that benefits all, when in reality “in developed countries, economic growth is no longer inextricably tied to increased well-being.”2 In general terms, sustainability would increase well-being globally, for both humanity and the planet, while, historically and presently, capitalism is a detriment to the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of those who live under it while simultaneously degrading the environment.

Sustainability under capitalism is commodified and sold as a consumable product rather than as the set of values and collective practices that it represents. Capitalism calls for consumerism and consumerism calls for commodification, which, in turn, calls for things to be made into products.

This trend is clear in the fashion industry which has seemingly totally embraced the new sustainable zeitgeist. Companies like H&M and Zara showcase new “green” options like the use of recycled materials and the placing of recycling bins in stores which, more often than not, end up with clothes in landfill rather than actually being recycled, while simultaneously introducing around 12 to 24 new clothing lines a year, respectively.3 Products must constantly be new and exciting, and currently, sustainability is used as an “exciting” new business model to attract a new, young market. Any attempts by corporations to introduce sustainable practices are immediately overshadowed by the sheer amount of harm they do simply due to the nature of their business models. Marketable goods are given a deliberately short lifespan, which relates to the cost-cutting nature of capitalism in order to promote economic growth. By making products last for shorter and shorter spans, through the use of cheap materials, poor manufacturing, and mass production, companies are able to make consumers consume more, therefore increasing profit on their end. This highlights one of the most evident contradictions between sustainability and capitalism as a system. To be sustainable is to think about the long-term and to do so with care for the environment and the people that live within it. Meanwhile, to participate in capitalism is to do active harm to said environment and the people within it. This isn’t to say that one can simply escape capitalism and easily live outside of its bounds, but rather to point to the impossibility of achieving sustainability through a system that promotes active environmental degradation in the name of unfettered growth.

Another sinister aspect of commodification under capitalism is the theft of indigenous landcare practices, and more specifically of architecture, building techniques and materials by the Western

Image: Bamboo classrooms at the Green School Bali campus. Innovations in sustainable, Balinese vernacular architecture that are only accessible to children of wealthy expats, and not the communities from which they originate. Image taken by author.

corporate/business sector. One specific case study is the Hardy family and their various businesses in Bali, Indonesia. The Hardy’s have established themselves in Bali as “pioneers” in the bamboo architecture industry, stating that they more or less “created” said industry through their innovative use of the material.4 The Hardys own, and have owned, various interconnected bamboo businesses within Bali, all for-profit and run by expats who have transplanted themselves into Indonesia. These businesses include Bamboo U, an education programme that runs courses both in person and online for those interested in bamboo design. These 11-day inperson intensives located at their Bali campus can be purchased for a mere $4,140 AUD, not including airfare.5 Another business is their private school, named the Green School, which has various locations globally. Tuition for their Bali location is approximately $28,000 AUD annually for a high school student, which is comparable to some of Perth’s wealthiest private schools.6 Conversely, the minimum monthly wage in Bali is approximately $275 AUD.7 Local Balinese people are priced out of participating in the bamboo industry as customers and are instead relied upon to contribute the physical labour and expertise that they possess as the native people of a land with a cultural history of bamboo use. Bamboo U and IBUKU, the architecture firm that partners with Bamboo U and both run by members of the Hardy Family, are entirely dependent on the labour of Balinese craftspeople and carpenters, whom they pay minimum wage and allow to work in hazardous conditions.8 The Hardys, like many others in the sustainable design industry, have inserted themselves into a landscape that they do not culturally or ethnically belong to, and have commodified local techniques and physical labour in order to sell a product on a global scale. Orin Hardy, the co-founder of Bamboo U, spoke at a lecture to UWA students

about the practices of his business as well as IBUKU and implied that bamboo should be first introduced to the rich and wealthy as a means to showcase its ability and legitimise it as a sustainable material, rather than work first with local middle to lower class communities in Bali, therefore building the industry from the ground up.9 Statements like these perfectly outline the agenda behind “sustainable” businesses today. Products are marketed to those with “clout,” while those who do not have the privileges afforded to them by having amassed wealth are left behind by movements that would benefit them the most. Sustainability under capitalism only functions to further exploit those who are marginalised by environmental degradation and the mechanisms of capitalist business practices.

If all this is to be said, how then can architecture truly become sustainable? Architecture and construction as industries are highly polluting, energy-intensive, and closely tied to capitalism and globalisation. In the West, “buildings consume more than the entire transportation sector,” highlighting the need for significant change in how architecture interacts with the environment.10 Another aspect of these distorted interactions is the ability of architects, as they exist in a globalised industry, to design for places thousands of kilometres away without ever leaving their present location, leading to a distancing “from the building as space of dwelling, instead aligning them with the production of branded images.”11 The true sustainability of architecture is linked inextricably to its place and the environment that surrounds it.12 The architect should design in a manner that prioritises place, therefore working on a much smaller scale than the current practice of global firms and cookie-cutter designs. Current methods of assessing sustainability are often purely quantitative and are based on current systems of construction “and therefore only [create] incentives

for marginal improvements,” which leads to designs that do the bare minimum to be sustainable.13 As previously discussed, no true progress can be made if benchmarks for said progress are tied to the system that actively opposes the furthering of sustainability. Architecture should move toward a practice that is specific to certain climates, environments, and socioeconomic conditions, due to the premise that “sustainability is more a matter of local interpretation than of the setting of objective or universal goals.”14 Simply placing bio-based or energy-efficient materials, or even new eco-friendly technologies, onto a site is not enough if by doing so there are no real benefits to the comfort of the inhabitants or the overall carbon footprint of the project.15 This line of thought poses a plethora of new challenges to architects as they must work closely with their site, but it is not a new approach to the practice. Mario Botta states in his 1997 book, The Ethics of Building, that “the encounter between ideological thought, abstract architectural design and the real physical world is also an encounter with a historical situation, a cultural entity and the memories a site is steeped in.”16 Sustainable architecture should be intimate and specific to place. It should involve a series of considerations such as location, climate, human comfort, and more. And most importantly, it should distance itself from capitalist modes of interaction and design.

Over hundreds of years, capitalism has evolved into something to be feared. It is, by nature, an exploitative system under which only the wealthy are afforded certain comforts. One might ask, where does that leave the sustainability movement? We cannot expect a system to change itself when those in power like how it functions. It then falls into the hands of everyone, not as individuals but as a collective, to take issues of sustainability seriously and truly examine how neoliberalism and capitalism endanger

the wellbeing of humanity and the environment. Only then will true, sustainable, progress be made.

Endnotes

1. Colin Crouch, “Sustainability, Neoliberalism, and the Moral Quality of Capitalism,” Business & Professional Ethics Journal 31, no. 2 (2012): 365, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41705489

2. Paola Sassi, Strategies for Sustainable Architecture, (Independence: Taylor and Francis, 2006), 7.

3. Kenneth P. Pucker, “The Myth of Sustainable Fashion,” Harvard Business Review, January 13, 2022, https://hbr.org/2022/01/themyth-of-sustainable-fashion

4. Elora Hardy, “Nature Led Design” (Lecture, Bamboo U, Bali, Indonesia, November 1, 2022).

5. “The 11 Day Build & Design Course,” Bamboo U, accessed May 4, 2023, https://bamboou.com/11-day-course/

6. “Green School Bali Tuition & Fees Schedule,” Green School Bali, accessed May 4, 2023, https://www.greenschool.org/ bali/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/02/GSB-ADMISSIONSTuition-Fees-Schedule-2023-24.pdf.

7. “Upah Minimum Provinsi Bali Tahun 2023 (Bali Province Minimum Wage 2023),” Pemerintah Provinsi Bali (Bali Provincial Government), accessed May 4, 2023, https://www.baliprov. go.id/web/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/UMP-Bali-2023.pdf

8. Orin Hardy, “PT Bamboo Pure Factory” (Lecture and tour, Bamboo U, Bali, Indonesia, November 2, 2022).

9. Orin Hardy, “Bamboo U” (Lecture, Bamboo U, Bali, Indonesia, November 3, 2022).

10. Thomas Auer, Joshua Vanwyck, and Eric Olsen, “Sustainability Beyond LEED: Integrating Performative Delight In The Built Environment.” Perspecta 45 (2012): 177, http://www.jstor.org/ stable/24728128.

11. Elizabeth Yarina, “How Architecture Became Capitalism’s Handmaiden: Architecture as Alibi for The High Line’s Neoliberal Space of Capital Accumulation,” Architecture and Culture 5, no. 2 (2017): 245, https://doi.org/10.1080/20507828. 2017.1325263

12. Terry Williamson, Antony Radford, and Helen Bennetts, Understanding Sustainable Architecture (London: Spon Press, 2003): 29.

13. Auer, Vanwyck, and Olsen, “Sustainability Beyond LEED,” 178.

14. Simon Guy and Steven A. Moore eds., Sustainable Architectures: Cultures and Natures in Europe and North America (New York: Spon Press, 2005), 1.

15. Williamson, Radford, and Bennetts, Understanding Sustainable Architecture, 11.

16. Mario Botta, Ethik des bauens = The ethics of building (Basel: Birkhäus, 1997), 25.

ARCT2000 Architecture Studio 2

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho

Teaching Staff: Tasmin Vivian-Williams

‘Cañada Real Galiana - Exploring the ingenuities of the forced city’

ASHER HORGAN

‘The Growing Tents Project’

The proposed Growing Tents Project of Cañada Real Galiana offers an expandable design that adapts within a framework to changes residents may encounter. A ‘tent’ like structure is built by residents using scaffold and rubble trench foundations. Residents may source tarps, canvas, sheet metal or any other forms of roofing that are then laid on top of the framework. This roofing runs down to half a metre above the ground, providing privacy for the most exposed sides of the house.

The house is constructed of adobe bricks which are made by residents using formwork and local earth and laid within the 3-metre-wide framework of the scaffolding. An entrance from the road guides residents into a simple kitchen and open space, designated for eating and socialising but flexible to changes. The bedrooms and bathroom lie at the rear of the house for privacy with basic sliding doors that can be locked for security.

The roof is made of salvaged timber decking which is laid on a series of beams. With a ladder leading up to it, this space can be used as an open communal living area. Over time residents may wish to expand vertically, especially if they have limited room to expand horizontally. In this case they can begin constructing a second story on this decking, using the same beams and salvaged timber as previously.

All construction of the project is owner driven; however, the modularity of materials and the guidelines of the scaffold framework ensure the construction creates a healthier housing typology for the people of Cañada Real Galiana.

Image: The Growing Tents Project, isometric.

Image: The Growing Tents Project, section.

ARCT2000 Architecture Studio 2

Unit Coordinator: Lara Camilla Pinho

Studio Coordinator: Dr Philip Goldswain

‘#RetroFirst, ReHousing Design: Measuring, designing and drawing for a low carbon future’

SAM GRAY, JENNY KANNIS, CLARA LAURENCE, NOLAN WATTS, AND TAYLOR WELSHMAN

After a large donation from the secretive philanthropic organisation the Fondation Bastonne, the School of Design, Education and Population Health are to be relocated back to UWA’s main Crawley campus. One of the conditions of the Fondation’s generous gift is that the buildings on the Nedlands campus are retained and converted into student housing. A Fondation spokesperson said in a press release that accompanied the announcement; “The greenest building is the one that already exists”.

To satisfying the Fondation’s request for a carbon-neutral, deep retrofit first approach to the creation of new student housing, the studio explored the conversion of offices, seminars rooms, studio spaces of the School of Design/ ALVA Tower Building 681 into collective accommodation and associated facilities, exploring modes of living together as well as methods of retaining, reusing, altering, and adding to the existing built fabric.

The studio explored precedents, tactics and strategies for retrofit, methods of construction and materials that have low or no embodied carbon as well as representational techniques that highlight carbon and climate as a vital consideration of any future design, construction and deconstruction process.

The studio worked within the context of The Architect’s Journal’s RetroFirst campaign, the widely acknowledged carbon consequences of demolition, the radical proposal for the creation of a Grade III listing of all buildings in Great Britain (where significance is determined by its embodied carbon) and the emergence of recycling and reuse consultants. In addition, the studio recognises the rich material potential of, and deft spatial skills required to make, an architecture of reuse.

Image: Retrofit strategy diagrams: (Top Left) Jenny Kannis; (Top Right) Taylor Welshman; and (Bottom) Sam Gray.

Image: Embodied carbon calculations: (Left) Nolan Watts; and (Right) Clara Laurence.

ARCT2030 Materials and Small Constructions

Unit Coordinator: Emiliano Roia

Teaching Staff: Emiliano Roia and Jake Gethin

MIRANDA HARTONO ‘Analysis of Building Systems’

This unit aims to develop students’ ability to critically observe and analyse small-scale contemporary buildings. Through studies of the relationships between technology and design, the unit presents various construction systems and building materials. By using a methodological approach based on analytical drawings/diagrams, the unit also aims to teach the act of drawing by hand as a way of thinking rather than just representation. The analytical drawings aim to reveal the underlying patterns of organisation that exist within buildings (e.g. structure), to highlight the relationship between design and construction systems. Through highly selective drawings, the analysis is devoted to simplifying and clarifying the some of the construction systems that define a building.

The unit also studies construction techniques, building materials, structure and site works for small/medium scale buildings. The unit introduces some structural systems and behaviour, looks at the various parts of buildings, and concentrates on how technology informs and influences the places and spaces of the built environment. The unit places particular emphasis on the relationship between technology and design, which, in my teaching experience, is often perceived as two separate architectural issues.

Image: (Left) Steel structural typology; (Right) Concrete structural typology.

Image: (Left) Timber structural system; (Centre) Timber enclosure system; (Right) Concrete enclosure system.

ARCT2010 Modern Architecture

Unit Coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook

Teaching Staff: Dr Nigel Westbrook and Monroe Masa

MIZUKI ONO

‘Louis Kahn’s re-evaluation of ‘form follows function’ and Salk Institute’

Introduction The saying ‘form follows function,’ coined by American architect Louis Sullivan, has had a profound impact on the development of modern architecture. It symbolises both the rise and decline of modernist architectural principles, with different interpretations by architects resulting in diverse architectural styles and complexities. This essay examines the evaluation of Sullivan’s maxim before World War II and explores the humanistic approach of Louis Kahn in post-war architecture, shedding light on the evolution of architectural theories and the interplay between form and function in shaping the built environment.

The Evaluation of ‘Form follows function’ by Louis Sullivan before WWII

Louis Sullivan’s notorious dictum ‘form follows function’ had imposed a utilitarian approach upon his design of skyscrapers before World War II in Chicago. After the Great Chicago Fire in 1871, the city has grown its population to one of the most prosperous cities in the United States and there was an emerging demand for building types to accommodate people with limited plots of land, which has lead to skyscrapers.1 ‘Form ever follows function’ was a notion that Sullivan applied to design such a new type of building that had never existed before. The design shows a building’s structural,

spatial, programmatic, and material expression. In other words, the building shapes the lives of people. His design expresses the capitalistic nature of society such as business, democracy, and selected institutions as well as the interaction of humans with nature and each other. The vegetal-formed ornamentation in his design functioned as an advertisement proclaiming its market value.

He significantly incorporated his theory of organic expression and believed that architecture should reflect the natural form and purpose of things in nature. Those plant-formed ornamentation symbolises the spirit of growth as if it is the growth of the city and it’s capital.

Later, Modernist architects interpreted Sullivan’s phrase in a rationalist-mechanistic way, emphasising a viewer’s immediate understanding of a building’s purpose and integrating industrial aesthetics through mass production.2 A GermanAmerican architect and a founder of the Bauhaus school, Walter Gropius, was a part of group of architects who were searching for a new approach to architecture. They were concerned about the formalistic use of ornamentation and motifs under the prevailing influence of the English Arts and Crafts movement. At the time, there was a division of production between craftsman-made products influenced by the arts and crafts movement and mechanic mass production. The Deutsche Werkbund and the following establishment of Bauhaus were attempts to integrate the “machine style” and the design integrity of the arts and crafts movement to produce quality products.3 A leading German architect, Herman Muthesius, argued that arts and technology should be integrated into producing industrial design. This was a modernisation of the arts and crafts movement. Gropius promoted a modernist functionalist style, in search of an industrial aesthetic using mass-produced industrialist materials

such as steel frames, and concrete and glass curtain walls. The notion of “form follows function” was incorporated with the industry to maximise the potential of mass production.4 The simple geometric, undecorated, and uncapitalised style ultimately became the internationally recognised iconic modernist style in the 20th century such as the notion of ‘machine aesthetic’.

Re-evaluation of ‘Form follows function’ by Louis Kahn after WWII

However, after World War II, there was a shift in architectural approaches due to a changing

attitude toward science and technology. At the time, technology and science were ill-conceived as possible instruments of war. Architects like Louis Kahn embraced a humanistic approach, prioritising generous spaces for human interaction and gathering. Kahn’s design philosophy focused on creating monumental and timeless structures to foster cooperation and respect among individuals. Unlike some pre-war modern architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright who favoured open concepts and organic architecture, Kahn reconsidered the importance of rooms and designed spaces without predetermined purposes but instead

Image: The Salk Institute towards views of the Pacific Ocean.8

created something more generous. According to Kahn, “the spaces need not be all named for their purposes…the place of meeting is almost of major importance.”5 In a way, he designed spaces as functionless and simple forms for people’s assembling. His ‘rooms’ were the elements with which he composed his massive complexes, in an attempt to convey his whole design scheme to viewers. His designs incorporated a sense of spirituality and integrated classical and vernacular styles with modernist elements. He went back to the basics and reconsidered what was important for a better society after the war.

Kahn’s approach aligned with the emerging ideals of humanism and regionalism.6 Americanturned-French architect Paul Nelson argued that architects after the war needed to adapt to the new principles in which each individual is respected and collaborates with others to support the new mass production society.7 Kahn built upon precedents such as William Morris and Alvar Aalto, who exemplified humanism, emphasizing individuality and romanticism in their designs. Architects like Kahn sought to create spaces that encouraged public participation and expression, reflecting the new principles of a mass-production society where everyone is respected. Kahn’s designs, such as the Salk Institute, featured opensky public plazas that represented tradition and national ideals for the future, providing spaces for gatherings without suppressing individuality. It indicates that Kahn’s design contains a sort of nationalistic representation.

Kahn also incorporated elements of classical and vernacular architecture, drawing inspiration from ancient structures like Egyptian pyramids and Roman ruins. He thought about the past and memory as a starting point for the present and as a function that leads us to ponder and

generate new humanist principles that could be translated into the language of the contemporary world. In the design of the Salk Institute, the orientation indicates his attempt to interpret traditional representation. The plaza is facing towards the west to the Pacific Ocean, unlike the composition of the traditional design of a church with the nave being towards the apse to the east. It is as if he designed it to pull the visitor’s attention to the future, not the East, which symbolizes tradition and the past. This sensitive and poetic expression in the open plaza allows visitors to question themselves about their memory and translates them into the present situation. Khan’s solid, almost primitive masses, without any ornamentation or inscription, recall the heavy, massive, and symmetrical complex of the Egyptian pyramids covered with limestone. For Kahn, the pyramids were seen as pure light which provided the pharaoh with a transport to the sun.8 His manipulation of light increases the effect of massive, heavy, and solid structures, successfully providing hierarchy and dramatic patterning of light and shade in the spaces. He also employed massive voids to subdue the presence of glass, reminiscent of ancient Roman ruins. In the design of the Salk Institute, you would not see any glass on the surface, as it is set back. The exposed concrete slab structure and the wood panels are placed in front, showcasing a subordination of elements and a reference to ancient architectural forms. It was the beginning of his use of images of the ruins of Rome. Hadrian’s villa is one of those examples. When you look at the plan of Hadrian’s villa, you can see a similarity in their composition with the second phase of the plan of the Salk Institute with the unbuilt meeting house. It could be considered that there was an intention of reminding visitors of the past and memories

through the reference to the ancient Roman ruins. His interpretation of ‘form follows function’ reflects the emerging national ideals of humanism and regionalism after World War II.

Conclusion

The saying ‘form follows function’ has shaped modern architecture, with different interpretations by architects throughout history. Louis Sullivan’s original concept influenced the design of skyscrapers in Chicago, while later modernist architects emphasized immediate understanding and industrial aesthetics. After World War II, Louis Kahn’s architectural philosophy and his departure from a strict interpretation of ‘form follows function’ marked a shift towards a more humanistic and holistic approach to design. His works combined functionality with generous spaces, tradition with innovation, and individuality with collective experiences, reflecting a nuanced understanding of architecture’s role in shaping human lives and communities. He also integrated spirituality, classical and vernacular styles, and referenced ancient structures. His ideal function at the time may be respecting a collective and nationalistic voice for every individual in society to be respected and to form a gathering for a better nation and the future. The evolution of architectural theories and the interplay between form and function continue to shape the built environment, reflecting changing attitudes and ideals.

3. Herbert Bayer., Walter Gropius, and Ise Frank Gropius, Bauhaus, 1919-1928 (London: Secker and Warburg, 1975).

4. M. Jean Edwards. “Lessons of the Bauhaus.” Journal of Interior Design 44, no. 3 (2019): 135–40. https://doi. org/10.1111/joid.12158

5. Kent Larson, and Louis I. Kahn, Louis I. Kahn: Unbuilt Masterworks (New York: Monacelli Press, 2000).

6. Sarah Ksiazek, “Architectural Culture in the Fifties: Louis Kahn and the National Assembly Complex in Dhaka.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 52, no. 4 (1993): 416–35. https://doi.org/10.2307/990866

7. Paul Nelson, “Design for Tomorrow.” Perspecta 5 (1959): 58–65.

8. Vincent Scully, “Louis I. Kahn and the Ruins of Rome.” MoMA (New York, N.Y.), no. 12 (1992): 1–13.

Endnotes

1. Mark Richard Smith, Louis Sullivan: the struggle for American architecture, directed by Whitecap Films (Chicago, Illinois: Whitecap films, 2010), DVD.

2. Lauren S. Weingarden Louis H. Sullivan and a 19th-Century Poetics of Naturalized Architecture (Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009).

ARCT1150 Architecture Studio 1

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov

‘Fundamentals’

At the very beginning of their architectural education, students have produced multiple exercises throughout the semester relating to fundamental architectural qualities. In MEMORY they have developed training in memory use as an operative tool that can be applied in architectural design. In AFFIRMATION they have developed thinking techniques related to concept design and methods of expression and visualisation. In TOWER they have understood tectonic qualities and developed skills in modular construction. In ROOM, they have learned how to design an atmosphere and understood how spatial qualities and the limit between space and outside elements can define an ambience that relates to a possible client. HOUSE was the last exercise. Students have learned how to develop spatial qualities control and how to develop material sensibility. After choosing a piece of music, students have explained the music’s characteristics through drawings. They have defined a program for the house with three distinct rooms that relate to the chosen piece of music. They were asked for each room to be for a different activity and for each room to have memorable spatial qualities. They have produced models in evolutive iterations until a satisfactory result was achieved. The models were produced with the same materials as the final proposal would have. An exercise in space, light qualities and material explorations.

Image: Fundamentals, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition.

Image: Fundamentals, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition.

ARCT1150 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov

Studio Coordinator: Bradley Millis

‘In-Between Behaviours’

This design studio introduces students to the fundamentals of studio practice and architectural design.

The built environment is a major part of our ecological system - a designed environment that mediates the behaviours of humans, natural phenomena, and physical elements. The work of architects is to skilfully design changes to this environment. This is complex by nature, all parts of the whole are dependent on each other in some way, and every change results in emergent properties and unpredictable outcomes. Minimising the negative consequences/by-products of the change is a key challenge for architecture. The unintended by-products of our actions as designers (and anyone interacting with the built environment) are a major contributor to the destabilisation of our planetary life-support systems but are mostly overlooked and often ignored in design and construction.

At the same time, by-products and unintended consequences are extremely valuable for the design process itself, challenging your assumptions, creating new and surprising insights, and leveraging the deep knowledge of intuition. This was the basis for our design process, shifting focus from a ‘final’ outcome to a process with outcomes, and allowing students to freely explore the ecological essentials of architecture – behaviours of people, materials, and natural phenomena. The process included observation, experiments, analysis, drawings, photography, film, and physical models. Students were encouraged to lean into uncertainty and fold the resulting insights into their design process. With this, the studio built an intuitive awareness of the unplanned, the by-products of design, and the often overlooked costs and value that they can create.

Image: In-Between Behaviours, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition.

Image: In-Between Behaviours, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition.

ARCT1150 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov

Studio Coordinator: Craig Nener

‘Do Machines Dream of Physical Space?’

DYLAN FRKOVICH

The idea is to create a multifunctional home that combines a barber shop and cosy family residence. Nestled into the serene Darlington, Perth Hills landscape, it embodies a ‘Nordic/Scandinavian’ feel. Arranged on a sloping hill, including a campfire area appreciating native flora. Materiality reflects nature with wood, earthy textures. The design features a transparent/linear typology, with compact, narrow design, tall ceilings and glazing. Abundant natural light floods through tall glazing, allowing Eastern morning sunlight and Western evening sunset. A crisscross roof pattern forms an artistic play of light and shadows. Minimalist, primitive storage, seating, and tables enhance functionality and charm.

AMY MACDONALD

The client needed a multi-functional room that served as a music studio, office, and relaxation space. This space harmoniously blended comfort, with cozy furnishings and natural light, and the edgier aesthetic of a recording studio. The room had distinct areas with varying ceiling heights, creating atmospheres ranging from intimate to open. An angled, elliptical skylight and east-to-west orientation ensured artificial lighting dominated the office area throughout the day, aiding in establishing a work-focused atmosphere. This room was the perfect fusion of relaxation and work zones, underpinned by a love for electronic music.

DANIEL BURGESS

The project focuses on creating a private lounge that embodies calmness and contemplation for the client. The space features a skylight for morning coffees and reading, along with rock-like textures contrasting the rest of the house, all promoting a conducive environment for reflection. Positioned strategically at the compound’s pinnacle, the room, built from textured white stone, enhances the client’s connection to nature. The interplay of light and shadow enriches this atmosphere, helping to actualise the client’s wish for a serene haven.

Image: Dylan Frkovich. AI — Bedroom.

Image: (Left) Amy MacDonald. AI — Concept; (Right) Daniel Burgess. Model — Bedroom.

ARCT1150 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov

Studio Coordinator: Kathy Chapman

‘Sharing Our World with Animals - Movement, Rise, Routine’

MELANY CLAUDIA DIAZ MARTINEZ

‘Movement’

This proposal seeks to investigate a more playful and sustainable way of interaction, in which the human and the red panda feel freer. The project invites the human to visit the red pandas’ environment and to play and move like the animal. The design uses bamboo, a durable, sustainable material native to the red pandas’ habitat, to create the different elements of design.

QI CAO

‘Rise’

Rise is an artificial roosting structure designed to provide a sanctuary for Gould’s Wattled Bats. It is a visual representation designed to raise awareness of the profound impact of bushfires on bats and their critical role within our ecosystem. This project is supported by a central post and consists of a variety of roost units. It has been intentionally charred, not only for its water-resistant quality but also to symbolise the significant habitat loss for bats caused by bushfires. Known for their remarkable adaptability to coexist alongside human beings, this project can be installed in national parks, riverbanks, and urban parks.

ASTRID COLE

‘Routine’

This project is situated at the end of a hiking trail in the Western Australian bush, where hikers and Carnaby’s Black Cockatoos can eat, rest, and play. The structure uses three activities to follow the cockatoos’ daily routines, allowing human visitors to mimic the birds. The mesh structure is flexible and highlights the ephemerality of the project. Some times the birds and hikers will occupy the structure together, other times the structure is completely abandoned.

Image: Melany Claudia Diaz Martinez. Movement model, scaled drawings, and diagrams

Image: (Left) Qi Cao. Rise model highlighting the roosting units, feeding station, and materiality; (Right) Astrid Cole. Routine scaled drawings and diagrams

ARCT1150 Architecture Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Kirill de Lancastre Jedenov

Studio Coordinator: Marcus Pierse Wolfgang Ormandy Brett

‘Wenn (Liminal + Cluster) Groupwork’

The studio makes use of proprioceptive intuition and informal, improvised narration to generate a conceptual framework constrained by two factors (Liminals and Clusters) for collaboratively designing the primal form of urban architecture: the Wenn or fort. The design draws upon both the existential literary framework present in Georges Perec’s “La Vie mode d’emploi” and “Espèces d’espaces” - as an OuLiPo-esque exercise using word play and Walter Benjamin’s didactic “Naples” for spatial creation, massing and the interarticulation of spaces.

Students: Millie Baker, Susanna Che, Jack Choate, Jemma Foley, Aiden Fyvie, Luke Hermann, Alex Keech, Donna Le, Katri Nyman, Sandra Ricelli, Siggy Semmens, Ragas Suteja, Alessio Traynor, Bojan Vucic, and Danielle Yip.

Image: Wenn (Liminal + Cluster) Groupwork, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition.

Image: Wenn (Liminal + Cluster) Groupwork, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition.

ARCT1011 Early Modern Architecture

Unit Coordinator: Joely-Kym Sobott

Teaching Staff: Joely-Kym Sobott and Haz Halasa

JOSHUA BOTTRELL

‘Spaces that Ascribe Identity: Domus Aurea and Bruder Klaus Field Chapel’

By employing form and light to establish atmosphere, architecture can assign identity to the individuals in contact with it. The Octagonal Room of Nero’s Domus Aurea (Golden House) in Rome and Peter Zumthor’s Bruder Klaus Field Chapel in Wachendorf both convey identity. They stand, in many ways, in stark contrast to one another. A grandiose statement of opulence, drama, and absolute authority, Domus Aurea (Golden House) was the bold assertion by a young emperor that he was indeed fit to rule. Zumthor’s humble pastoral chapel was built with the specific intent that the owner “…did not want an object that would be a monument to the glory of the architect but a place where a man could meet God.”1 Where they align is in the use of open vertical form and light for the intent of establishing identity. Both the Octagonal Room and the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel use the impression of an uncapped vertical scale to minimise the individual, enveloping them in the presence of a God. Where they differ is that the Christian God of the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel humbly invites the individual to draw near, whilst Nero – the god of the Octagonal Room –diminishes his guests, distancing himself as he reaches for his own deification.2

“In its widest sense architecture and the space we make inhabits us; it conditions how we feel and respond to our surroundings. We, our identity and

the physical world, are intimately and inseparably connected by the way we create space, and the way we exist in it.”3

The spaces we build speak to how we see the world, while also revealing how we hope to change it; how we hope others might see it also. The objects and spaces we interact with have a palpable effect on us, and through careful design, we can hope to guide the emotions evoked.4 Though no truly contemporary description of the construction of Domus Aurea survives, the power of the space remains evident. By studying the design, the beliefs and intentions of Nero and his architects continue to be heard almost two thousand years later. Nero considered himself an artist, and his palace was built to be rich with meaning – as much a piece of propaganda as a work of indulgence.5 Via materials, form, and cultural context, Nero conceived a space that was not just impressive, but awe-inspiring. It is likely that, given the narrative he created around himself, Nero hoped the Domus Aurea would induce worship, cementing his rule and legacy. 6

With Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, Zumthor aimed to create a meditative space in which an individual might connect with the divine. In Thinking Architecture Zumthor describes his process of design, aspiring to create something that “…is imbued with an inner tension that refers to something over and above the place itself. It seems to be part of the essence of its place, and at the same time it speaks of the world as a whole.”7 Although commentators conjecture about the significance of Saint Niklaus von Flüe’s (Bruder Klaus) biography to the design of the chapel, Zumthor denies a direct correlation.8 To Zumthor, the space is not a representation of history, but is a conduit that engages the present with the past, placing contemporary users firmly within history. According to Zumthor, “…there is almost a spiritual

Image: Hélène Binet, ‘Photographs of the work of Peter Zumthor,’ 2009.

aspect of identity. I think there is character in good architecture. It creates place – place that you can relate to, and this produces identity.”9

A group of farmers proposed a new Chapel in honour of their patron saint, Bruder Klaus.10 Arguably more sculpture than building, the resulting structure consists of a restrained palette of materials. Layers of concrete compose the bulk of the mass. Steel rods perforate the structure, allowing light to bleed through points in the walls. A simple metal door that echoes the tent-like interior. Each element is tied to the immediate environment; concrete made with an aggregate of local sand and gravel, compacted over logs of native pine. As the pine was burned away, the ash charred the walls, leaving an unfinished and organic scalloped surface. The chapel’s materiality distils the surroundings, prompting the user to engage with an expanse beyond themselves.

Constructed by architects and engineers Severus and Celer under supervision by Nero11 between 65 and 68 A.D., the Domus Aurea (Golden House) similarly epitomised its environs. Lavishly decorated with the finest art, sculpture, precious stones, gold, marble, and more, all from the furthest reaches of Caesar’s Empire, the entire complex testified to power and wealth.12 It served residence to the emperor, but perhaps more importantly as a monument to Nero’s own legacy. Using the great fire which ravished the centre of Rome in 64 A.D. as a pretext, Nero razed swathes of land to create landscaped surrounds at the Palatine. Taking advantage of then-recent advancements in Roman brick and concrete, Nero oversaw the building of a sprawling complex with vaulted ceilings that soared over ten metres, flaunting Rome’s technological advancement.13 At the threshold of the public space, the Domus Aurea converges on a banquet hall known as the

octagonal room. Topped with a brick and concrete dome, the room was once home to an inner array of ornate decoration,14 described by Suetonius as revolving “day and night, like the heavens.”15 However stripped of ornamentation, of flower petals and perfumes, today, the tectonics of the space nonetheless express its patron’s intent. Vertical lines of pillars draw the eye upwards, where at the room’s centre the dome gives way to a vast oculus.

At the centre of the Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, the space also converges on an oculus. The scalloped concrete catches light falling through the opening, strengthening the verticality. The Octagonal Room too is carefully designed taking full advantage of the movement of the sun, illuminating significant areas of the room on significant days.16 Today, neither building have roofs to seal their respective spaces from the elements, though studies of the Domus Aurea suggest the existence of a tempietto that stood over the oculus, protecting the hall from rain whilst allowing light penetrate the interior.17 In Bruder Klaus Field Chapel, the exposure inexorably ties the occupant to the environment. Both spaces call on powerful juxtapositions of light and shadow, air and concrete, solid and void. Each express the heavenly colliding with the telluric, and divine with mortal.

Although the Domus Aurea did not prove effective to safeguard Nero as emperor, it was nonetheless revolutionary as a piece of architecture, and continues to communicate millennia beyond his death. To an extent, it was successful in securing a legacy for Nero, though not as grand as he would have hoped. The oculus of Bruder Klaus Field Chapel holds a humbler purpose – it draws up the individual beneath and invites us to find our own place, small as it may be, in the heavens with the divine. The oculus of

Endnotes

1. Anna Maria Wierzbicka, “Oskar Hansen - an Architect Looking into the Future,” IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 603, no. 3 (2019): 032050, https://doi. org/10.1088/1757-899x/603/3/032050

2. Keith Bradley, “Nero the Sun King,” Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity 14 (January 2005): 122–27, https://search. informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/informit.922580973245750

3. Paul Brislin, “Identity, Place and Human Experience,” Architectural Design 82, no. 6 (November 2012): 8–13, https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.1485

4. Peter Zumthor, Atmospheres : Architectural Environments, Surrounding Objects (Basel ; Boston ; Berlin: Birkhäuser, , Cop, 2006), 16-17

5. Robert Hannah, Giulio Magli, and Antonella Palmieri, “Nero’s ‘Solar’ Kingship and the Architecture of the Domus Aurea,” Numen 63, no. 5/6 (2016): 521, https://www. jstor.org/stable/44505307; Keith Bradley, “Nero the Sun King,” Scholia: Studies in Classical Antiquity 14 (January 2005): 124, https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ informit.922580973245750

6. Hannah, Magli, and Palmieri, “Nero’s ‘Solar’ Kingship,” 127

7. Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture (Basel: Lars Müller Publishers, 1998), 36

8. Stefano Casciani, “A Saint and an Architect,” www.domusweb. it (Domus, September 19, 2007), https://www.domusweb.it/en/ architecture/2007/09/19/a-saint-and-an-architect.html

9. Michael Asgaard Andersen, “In Conversation: Peter Zumthor and Juhani Pallasmaa,” Architectural Design 82, no. 6 (November 2012): 22-25, https://doi.org/10.1002/ad.1487

10. Casciani, “A Saint and an Architect” (Domus, 2007)

11. Cornelius Tacitus, The Annals : The Reigns of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero, ed. John Yardley and Anthony Barrett (Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 35860, https://www.oxfordscholarlyeditions.com/display/10.1093/ actrade/9780192824219.book.1/actrade-9780192824219book-1.

12. Federico Gurgone and Marco Ansaloni, “Golden House of an Emperor,” Archaeology 68, no. 5 (2015): 37–39, https://www. jstor.org/stable/43825196

13. David Hemsoll, “Reconstructing the Octagonal Dining Room of Nero’s Golden House,” Architectural History 32 (1989): 1-3, https://doi.org/10.2307/1568558.

14. Hemsoll, “Reconstructing the Octagonal Dining Room of Nero’s Golden House,” 5-7

15. Suetonius, Suetonius: Lives of the Caesars, trans. J.C. Rolfe, 1st ed., vol. II (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914), 137.

16. Hannah, Magli, and Palmieri, “Nero’s ‘Solar’ Kingship and the Architecture of the Domus Aurea,” 516-522

17. Hemsoll, “Reconstructing the Octagonal Dining Room of Nero’s Golden House,” 9

the octagonal room does not invite us – rather it dictates to us our proper place. Under Nero’s light, we are all insignificant.

ARLA1040 Techniques of Visualisation

Unit Coordinator: Jennie Officer

Teaching Staff: Jennie Officer, Samantha Dye and Alec James

SUNNY LIU, MILANA ROKSANDIC, MELANY DIAZ MARTINEZ, AND JACK CHOATE

‘Chopsticks and Triptych’

This unit develops students’ skills in visualisation – the fertile territory between ideas and reality. We posit that design is transformative and speculative, not just a means to an end, and that visualisation is intrinsic to communicating design ideas, things and processes. Students are introduced to a range of software programs and digital techniques that are intended as a springboard for further exploration in their own project work.

Assignment One: After David Hockney

Photomontage and line drawing exploring space and time in two dimensions with the signature item of Chopsticks.

Assignment Two: A Triptych: Figures, Yearning, Tableau

Figures: A figure ground drawing of student’s home for the semester.

Yearning: Travel (digitally) by drawing a place in regional WA that students wanted to visit - draw everything unbuilt.

Tableau: A still life of student’s desk this semester, in a room, with a window, and occupied by works completed in this unit.

Image: Sunny Liu, Chopstick, 2023, photomontage.

fig·ures

Image: Milana Roksandic, Triptych, (Left to Right) Figures, Yearning, and Tableau.

(plural)

a combination of points, lines and planes that form a visible palpable shape.

The City of Fremantle sits within the Aboriginal cultural region of Beeliar.

Its Nyoongar name is Walyalup (the place of walyo) and local people are called Whadjuk

feeling of intense longing for something.

tab·leau

[ˈtabləʊ]

a group of models or motionless figures representing a scene from a story or from history.

Melody, Leo and Milana aknowledge the Whadjuk people as the Traditional Owners of the land we call home.

We recognise and respect their cultural heritage and its significance to all of us as Australians.

TWO THOUSAND TWENTY THREE KALBARRI

o dan

Image: Melany Diaz Martinez, Triptych, (Left to Right) Figures, Yearning, and Tableau.

jack choate | 23640136

50M

184

Landscape Architecture

Image: UWA School of Design, Design HUB, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023. Photography by Samantha Dye.

LACH5504 Independent Dissertation Part 2 Supervisor: Professor Maria Ignatieva

MITCHELL DAVIES

‘Prevention before cure; landscape architecture and design for exercise’

Imagine there was a pill that conferred all the proven health benefits of exercise. It is certain that physicians would widely prescribe it to patients and health care systems would see to it that every patient had access to such a wonder drug.1 Unfortunately, there is no magic pill, no single profession or industry that can address and solve the issues associated with the growing obesity epidemic, however landscape architects and other built environment professionals are in a unique place to help alleviate the epidemic. This can be undertaken in a variety of ways, and while active transport is often touted as a possible solution design for exercise is a much more targeted option that can help tackle the growing epidemic head on. Commonly used interchangeably exercise and physical activity are not the same, with exercise a subset of physical activity. Physical activity is any bodily movement resulting in energy expenditure, whereas exercise is a planned, structured, repetitive and purposeful activity that is intended to improve or maintain one or more components of physical fitness2. Despite the benefits of exercise being well known the obesity epidemic continues to spread. The issue is made more difficult with the origin of the obesity epidemic is largely known but theorized that it is linked to food marketing of energy-dense foods and institutional drops in physical activity with additional factors including increased restaurant dining, built environment design prioritising cars over pedestrians and the

prevalence of high-fructose corn syrup in food and falling rates of physical activity.3 To address the issue exercise could be considered a simple and straightforward solution, however with people becoming increasingly time-poor more must be done to provide opportunities for exercise in a more accessible location. This research investigates case studies and establishes that if exercise opportunities were available directly out the front door of people’s homes, and provided in a legible and safe manner more people would find exercising easier and more attractive, thus addressing the growing health and social impact from the obesity epidemic.

The link between health and the built environment has long been established and is the basis of land zoning separating residential areas and heavy industry.4 As designers of the built and natural environment landscape architects are uniquely placed to address the issues associated with the obesity epidemic most effectively through exercise, but how is this best done? This research included a literature review, case study analysis, a policy review and field observation in order to determine how best landscape architects could design for exercise in Perth, Western Australia

Through the policy review, it was noted that there is largely a lack of public open space compared to the increase in population and population density and that public open spaces such as parks or sports fields are typically not readily accessible to everyone. It was identified that the most accessible space for people was directly outside of their front door within the verge between the road and home. The case study analysis investigated both domestic and international case studies that each included features that could help encourage exercises which included dedicated use lighting, lane marking and

Image: The Bloomingdale Trail (The 606, 2016).

strong involvement of landscape architecture of the Bloomingdale Trail in Chicago, IL, USA. vibrant use of colour and lighting as part of the Te|Ara Whiti –Light Path, Auckland, New Zealand. The dedicated thought of cycling for transport is seen in the Safe Active Streets Program and Principle Share Path Network in Perth, Australia. The destination-based use for exercise at Hillary’s Beach Park, Perth, Australia and the Warrimoo Down Hill Mountain Bike Park, Sydney Australia, and the looped

pathway with dedicated lighting and excellent wayfinding of the Swan River Loop, Perth, WA.

The case study analysis and field observation identified elements that helped create an environment that was attractive for exercise included: grade separated pathways, good wayfinding through signage and/or clear directional delineation, good supporting amenities such as drinking fountains, accessible toilets and exercise specific lighting. Shade cover and increased

Image: Land Lab, 2015,Te Ara Whiti Lightpath, Land Lab, Auckland, New Zealand.

planting densities were also identified to help beautify and cool the environment and make the space as attractive as possible. A concept loop was developed to run through the suburbs of Joondanna and Tuart Hill, WA, selected for their low levels of public open space and existing exercise potential. It was determined that a 5km loop that ran past as many public open spaces as possible, was bright and vibrant in colour, well signed posted to local amenities and that had dedicated use lighting and increased planting densities was most likely to encourage exercise. This research noted that while all the best efforts can be made to design to encourage exercise there remains the physiological link it people actually getting out to exercise and that this research is best placed to highlight to practitioners that they have a role and the ability to encourage exercise through design.

In summary “the data are unambiguous: exercise not only delays actual death but also prevents both cognitive and physical decline, better than any other intervention.”5 To add to this, we don’t have that magic pill that confers the positive benefits of exercise that can be prescribed by health care systems everywhere,6 but it has been established that Landscape architects can help tackle this problem through the design for exercise.

Planner, - June: 10-12. Accessed September 22, 2022. https:// cityfutures.ada.unsw.edu.au/documents/118/New_Planner_ special_issue_June_2012.pdf

5. Attia, P., 2023. The secret to living longer is already known, and it’s not expensive, Sydney: Sydney Morning Herald.

6. Sallis, Robert. 2015. “Exercise is Medicine: a call to action for physicians to assess and prescribe exercise.” The Physician and Sportsmedicine 22-26. Accessed August 22, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913847.2015.1001938

Endnotes

1. Sallis, Robert. 2015. “Exercise is Medicine: a call to action for physicians to assess and prescribe exercise.” The Physician and Sportsmedicine 22-26. Accessed August 22, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913847.2015.1001938

2. Casperson C, P. K. C. G., 1985. Physical Activity, Exercise, and Physical fitness: Definitions and Distinctions for health related research. Public Health Reports, - March - April, pp. 126 - 131.

3. McAllister E, D. N. K. S. A. L. J., 2009. Ten Putative Contributors to the Obesity Epidemic. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, p. 79.

4. McCue P, Thompson S. 2012. “Healthy Planning in NSW: Key resources for Effective Policy Making and Practice.” New

LACH5510 Independent Dissertation by Design Part 1 Supervisor: Professor Maria Ignatieva

MICHAEL ALLEN

‘Nature-based solutions in outdoor community sports spaces: Promoting resilience and the stewardship of nature in sport’

Health, well-being and inclusion through community sport

As is the case globally, Australia’s cities have experienced a rapid decline in the availability of urban greenspace within our residential neighbourhoods, owing to the development of formerly remnant land to meet the needs of ever-expanding sprawl and the loss of private greenspace through shrinking residential blocks.1 This tightening of urbanisation and the ensuing disconnect from the natural environment has been detrimental to human health and well-being, an outcome described by Pyle as the extinction of the experience of nature.2 Drawing upon data sourced in a 2008 study, of residents across 73 new housing developments in Perth, Wood et al found that both the number and size of public green spaces within walkable distance of respondents’ homes showed a significant association with greater mental wellbeing.3 Classifying urban greenspaces as either recreational, nature or sport, the study further found that sports spaces showed the greatest positive impact on mental health.

While the effects of exercise on individual health and wellbeing are well understood, participation in social sports brings further benefits to both individuals and the community. Townsend and McWhirter credit the social connectedness derived from participation in sports with improvements

to individual sense of well-being and self-worth.4 Conversely, they identify an absence of social connectedness with feelings of loneliness, alienation, and a lack of purpose. Social isolation has been shown to be particularly prevalent among the elderly population, with continuing participation in community sporting clubs, even beyond an individual’s sporting participation years, proving a valuable tool in combatting social isolation in this age group.5 For this reason, it is imperative that community sports parks provide the equipment and facilities for activities across a range of intensities and abilities, as well as provide sheltered space and seating for spectators and non-participants.6 While it is easy to think of outdoor community sports spaces as simply places for exercise, they also serve as important community vectors for social interaction and inclusion.7 Efforts by policymakers and designers to reduce mobility barriers and widen the appeal of these spaces to non-participants can assist in improving social cohesion and inclusion.

Sense of place and identity through community sport

Community sports spaces can be highly influential in the formation of personal and community identity, playing a role in defining an area’s distinct sense of place. McCullough and Kellison explore the relationship of sporting venues with a sense of place, outlining three subconstructs: place attachment, place identity, and place dependence.8 The authors define place attachment as “an individual’s affective or emotional connection with a specific place”, citing literature supporting the notion that social interaction and the desire for collective experience motivate an individual’s attendance at sporting events.9 Though the authors here refer to fan attendance, the concept can logically be extended to social sports participation, where community sports clubs

often form important vectors for social inclusion, particularly so for members of minority groups and migrant communities.10

McCullough and Kellison define place identity as the symbolic importance an individual may place on their physical environment for self-definition. With reference to extreme or nature sport athletes, they contend that an athlete’s repeated interaction with their respective sporting environment can facilitate a deeper connection to nature as the athlete’s identity reflects this natural space.11

Similar connections have been drawn across the literature between recreational and social sports venues and the formation of place identity for towns and suburbs.12 Tonts and Atherley describe the contribution of sporting clubs in rural Western Australian towns in the formation of place identity through social interaction and shared memory and the symbolic boundaries these sporting identities create between competing neighbouring towns.13

Chapin et al contend that a strong sense of place increases awareness of environmental degradation,

Image: Stormwater management at JMD design’s Julia Reserve Youth Park, Oran Park, NSW. Photo credit: jmddesign.com.au

prompting public concern and action.14 By instilling aspects of the natural environment and local biodiversity into the sense of place of community sports spaces, these attachments can motivate greater environmental stewardship at an individual and organisational level.15

Community sport and climate

Despite outdoor sports being particularly vulnerable to the changing climate, there has been relatively limited research linking the effects of climate change on community sports assets within an Australian context. A review of the literature in 2019 by Dingle and Mallen found that research to that point had been limited in focus, exhibiting a northern hemisphere bias by primarily addressing sports that were dependent upon snow and ice surfaces.16 Seeking to expand on the existing literature, the authors undertook their own study into atmospheric climate impacts on community sports fields with a qualitative comparison of Australian and Canadian perspectives. Within the global context, the researchers identified multiple significant and broad-ranging impacts of the changing climate. These included the degradation of turf conditions from extreme heat, drought, flooding and extreme rainfall events, along with the secondary impacts of both waterlogged and compacted playing surfaces on player safety. Survey respondents also noted an observed shift in climatic seasons affecting player safety and participation. Additionally, the increased demand on water for irrigation of playing surfaces and the rising costs associated with maintenance and repair were identified as major concerns for the management of community sports. Within the Australian context, the authors also identified the growing risk of bushfires, citing both the impacts of fire damage and the secondary damage to community sports

fields attributed to their use as community refuge points during fire events.

Sports governance and stewardship for climate and biodiversity

For its part, the IUCN has identified the potential for sporting federations and venue managers to become “stewards of nature” to help address mounting climate and biodiversity concerns.17 The IUCN Sports and Urban Biodiversity framework, published in 2020, lays out the argument for a nature-based solutions approach not only to the development of new urban sports parks and venues, but the retrofitting of NbS actions and measures into existing facilities at the community scale, along with the adoption of NbS management practices at these venues. The framework posits that even modest native vegetation improvements to individual small venues, if adopted across our urban centres, can result in substantial biodiversity gains regarding patch size, connection, matrix quality and habitat diversity. Further, the IUCN here contends that these improvements to urban biodiversity will equally improve the experience and well-being benefits derived from these spaces by sporting participants and spectators.

The IUCN’s 2022 Sports for Nature framework, developed in collaboration with the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations Environment Programme, calls directly upon global sporting organisations to declare their support for climate action and join the collective effort to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals target to “halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.” The framework provides a template declaration for signatory sporting organisations to uphold Sports for Nature’s four principles:

1. Protect nature and avoid damage to natural habitats and species;

2. Restore and regenerate nature wherever possible;

3. Understand and reduce risks to nature in our supply chains; and

4. Educate and inspire positive action for nature across and beyond sport.

While the reporting and governance requirements of a commitment to the IUCN framework may prove impractical at the community level, there is no reason why its objective principles could not be adopted and applied in the design and management of community sports spaces.

org/10.3390/ijerph19031466

7. Yi-De Liu, “Sport and Social Inclusion: Evidence from the Performance of Public Leisure Facilities,” Social Indicators Research 90, no. 2 (January 2009): 325–37, https://doi. org/10.1007/s11205-008-9261-4.

8. Brian Patrick McCullough and Timothy B. Kellison, “Go Green for the Home Team: Sense of Place and Environmental Sustainability in Sport,” Journal of Sustainability Education

11 (February 1, 2016)

9. Daniel L Wann et al., “Motivational Profiles of Sport Fans of Different Sports Motivational Profiles of Sport Fans of Different Sports,” Sport Marketing Quarterly, January 1, 2008

10. Karen Block and Lisa Gibbs, “Promoting Social Inclusion through Sport for Refugee-Background Youth in Australia: Analysing Different Participation Models,” Social Inclusion 5, no. 2 (June 29, 2017): 91, https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v5i2.903., William B D Abur, “Benefits of Participation in Sport for People from Refugee Backgrounds: A Study of the South Sudanese Community in Melbourne, Australia,” Issues in Scientific Research 1, no. 2 (February 1, 2016).

Endnotes

1. Lisa Wood et al., “Public Green Spaces and Positive Mental Health - Investigating the Relationship between Access, Quantity and Types of Parks and Mental Wellbeing.,” Health & Place 48 (September 23, 2017): 63–71, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. healthplace.2017.09.002

2. Masashi Soga and Kevin J Gaston, “Extinction of Experience: The Loss of Human-Nature Interactions,” Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 14, no. 2 (March 2016): 94–101, https://doi. org/10.1002/fee.1225

3. Lisa Wood et al., “Public Green Spaces and Positive Mental Health - Investigating the Relationship between Access, Quantity and Types of Parks and Mental Wellbeing.,” Health & Place 48 (September 23, 2017): 63–71, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. healthplace.2017.09.002

4. Russell Hoye, Matthew Nicholson, and Kevin Brown, “Involvement in Sport and Social Connectedness,” International Review for the Sociology of Sport 50, no. 1 (February 2015): 3–21, https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690212466076

5. Richard Philip Lee and Paul Potrac, “Understanding (Disrupted) Participation in Community Sports Clubs: Situated Wellbeing, Social Practices and Affinities and Atmospheres,” Wellbeing, Space and Society 2 (2021): 100005, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. wss.2020.100005., Vera Toepoel, “Ageing, Leisure, and Social Connectedness: How Could Leisure Help Reduce Social Isolation of Older People?,” Social Indicators Research 113, no. 1 (August 1, 2013): 355–72

6. Yawen Sun et al., “Influence Mechanisms of Community Sports Parks to Enhance Social Interaction: A Bayesian Belief Network Analysis.,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 3 (January 27, 2022), https://doi.

11. Brian Patrick McCullough and Timothy B. Kellison, “Go Green for the Home Team: Sense of Place and Environmental Sustainability in Sport,” Journal of Sustainability Education 11 (February 1, 2016)

12. Rebecca Madgin, Lisa Bradley, and Annette Hastings, “Connecting Physical and Social Dimensions of Place Attachment: What Can We Learn from Attachment to Urban Recreational Spaces?,” Journal of Housing and the Built Environment: HBE 31, no. 4 (January 27, 2016): 677–93, https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10901-016-9495-4

13. Matthew Tonts and Kim Atherley, “Competitive Sport and the Construction of Place Identity in Rural Australia,” Sport in Society 13, no. 3 (April 2010): 381–98, https://doi. org/10.1080/17430431003587947.

14. F. Stuart Chapin et al., “Design Principles for Social-Ecological Transformation toward Sustainability: Lessons from New Zealand Sense of Place,” Ecosphere 3, no. 5 (May 2012): art40, https://doi.org/10.1890/ES12-00009.1

15. Vanessa A. Masterson et al., “The Contribution of Sense of Place to Social-Ecological Systems Research: A Review and Research Agenda,” Ecology & Society 22, no. 1 (2017), https:// doi.org/10.5751/ES-08872-220149

16. Greg Dingle and Cheryl Mallen, “Community Sports Fields and Atmospheric Climate Impacts: Australian and Canadian Perspectives,” Managing Sport and Leisure 26, no. 4 (July 4, 2021): 301–25, https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1766375.

17. M Wheeler et al., Sports and Urban Biodiversity: Framework for Achieving Mutual Benefits for Nature and Sports in Cities, ed. G Carbone (Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, 2020), https://doi.org/10.2305/IUCN. CH.2020.14.en

LACH5510 Independent Dissertation by Design Part 1

Supervisor: Professor Maria Ignatieva

LISA LIU

‘Potential Nature-Based Solutions for Verges in Perth’

As a type of urban green space and a part of Green Infrastructure, verges have the potential to mitigate a range of problems including reducing Urban Heat Island Effects, improving air and water quality that absorbs stormwater runoff, reducing the risk of flooding and erosion, and providing habitat for wildlife. In suburban areas of Western Australia (WA) with limited available green space, the importance of verge vegetation is especially apparent due to the high density of housing and lacking backyards for tree canopies. As an accessible and visible form of green space, verges can enhance the aesthetic quality of neighbourhoods and provide opportunities for recreation and social interaction.

This research aims to analyse and find options for Nature-Based Solutions for verges that mitigate the impact of climate change, biodiversity loss, and the limits of green space accessibilities based on the analysis of existing verge typologies, their overall ecological conditions, and planting design characteristics such as plant’s forms, colour (leaves, flowers) and texture. The study’s methodology is a literature review, which includes a review of government policies concerning verges, an analysis of verge typologies, and case studies. This research material will serve as a theoretical foundation for Part Two, in which I intend to propose a Nature-Based Solutions design for different types of verges in Perth.

The proposed Nature-Based Solutions will be efficient both from ecological points of view and public acceptance as a framework for relevant stakeholders to create a sustainable and resilient form of verges which will be an important green space type and a part of GI that can also provide a range of ecosystem services.

Image: Potential future Nature-Base Solutions for verges in WA.

Image: Sections of typical nature strips in WA, existing common types of median strips worldwide, normal green boulevards globally and ordinary existing

LACH5510 Independent Dissertation by Design Part 1 Supervisor: Professor Maria Ignatieva

EMMA MAHER ‘Polarising Places’

Polarising Places; Exploring design opportunities for inclusivity and widening sensory experience for children on the autism spectrum

For a neurotypical person, modern public space can be an exciting place to interact, observe, immerse and interact in and an opportunity to embrace society. However, it can also be a polarising place for many autistic people, a space that can come with physical or social obstacles that may cause a sense of rejection within society. A lack of inclusive design may explain why public spaces have been identified as environments where autistic children feel excluded from peer interactions, increasing feelings of isolation and creating a diminishing sense of belonging. 1

Standards Australia provides a benchmark for landscape architecture to ensure overall design standards for public space2. Australian standards also provide greater inclusivity for a person living with a disability or limited mobility.3 4 However, as significant changes have been made and public campaigning to create better inclusivity, little has been reviewed in the sensory standards which would have a greater impact on the inclusivity of these spaces for people with autism spectrum disorder. While designing for a person who has an alternative sensory perception to yourself, it is essential to take the time to explore forms that may describe this. Although we may never fully understand it, it is necessary to gain an immersive understanding.

For an autistic person, public life can be isolating and provide a sense of loneliness.5 Places that may seem accommodating for all; however, when your sensory experience is being challenged,6 the public space may be the last place you may want to experience. The public realm can be seen as one perspective needing more comment from this diverse group. As landscape architects, ensuring inclusivity for neurodiverse people is extremely important in how we design; looking at the options for greater inclusion can create far greater opportunities for a more profound sensory experience. Despite this, local councils may feel overwhelmed with the ability to transform spaces.

As we explore, the research does not look at ways we, as landscape architects, can provide sections of public space for neurodiverse people; however, how can we fully integrate all experiences while also providing respect and opportunities to feel safe and welcomed into the public realm?

To see how design can provide these elements, a focus on a child’s experiences will be defined within this research. As early learning and social skills can impact development, looking at how the public realm can provide opportunities for inclusive play and improve social impacts is essential. Ultimately, sensory exploration and the ability to belong in public interest areas create greater inclusion for everyone.7 These spaces will allow education and connection for neurotypical and neurodiverse communities. We can all gain an understanding of our sensory processing and see that true accessibility cannot just be seen on a physical level. This research aims to connect sensory experiences and universal design to create a more inclusive environment.

Personally, this research becomes an opportunity to work through my passion for accessible public space and providing safe and

Image: Lewington Reserve, Rockingham.

Image: Naval Memorial Park, Rockingham.

calming spaces for autistic people. Having a family member diagnosed with ASD at a young age and being aware that not every outing to the public realm was enjoyable. Being distressed and overwhelmed in areas was common. However, the opportunities I viewed for interventions to change this became obvious. On top of this, I worked professionally at a disability organisation for over five years, with autism being a significant diagnosis in the client base. Not only seeing opportunities for a more inclusive public realm for not only autistic people but parents, support workers and the public. This research has also become more important for me to work through and provide a framework to landscape architects to extend the link between design and people. Overall, my research area looks for a local council that would benefit from additional design overlay within focus areas. Ultimately, these ideas and strategies benefit a whole society and create a holistic approach to accessible design and overall human design.

6. Jill Locke et al., “Examining Playground Engagement between Elementary School Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder,” Autism 20, no. 6 (September 4, 2015): 659, https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361315599468

7. Denver M. Y. Brown et al., “A Scoping Review of EvidenceInformed Recommendations for Designing Inclusive Playgrounds,” Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences 2, no. 2 (May 24, 2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2021.664595.

Endnotes

1. Denver M. Y. Brown et al., “A Scoping Review of EvidenceInformed Recommendations for Designing Inclusive Playgrounds,” Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences 2, no. 2 (May 24, 2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2021.664595

2. “History of Standards - Our History - Standards Australia,” Standards Australia, 2019, https://www.standards.org.au/ about/our-history

3. “History of Standards - Our History - Standards Australia,” Standards Australia, 2019, https://www.standards.org.au/ about/our-history

4. Helen Larkin et al., “Working with Policy and Regulatory Factors to Implement Universal Design in the Built Environment: The Australian Experience,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 12, no. 7 (July 15, 2015): 8161, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120708157

5. Denver M. Y. Brown et al., “A Scoping Review of EvidenceInformed Recommendations for Designing Inclusive Playgrounds,” Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences 2, no. 2 (May 24, 2021), https://doi.org/10.3389/fresc.2021.664595

LACH5424 Landscape Complexity Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith

‘Landscape as System’

PRISCILLA HUBBARD

‘Making a Beeline to the Remnants’

The solitary resin bee Rozenapis ignita was selected as the client for this animalcentric studio.

Uexküll’s concept of Umwelt, which translates from German as environment, was first explored. Graphically capturing the way R. ignita spends their short life and makes sense of their world helped build an understanding of this native bee. Relying primarily on sight and smell, R. ignita locates their preferred food source of Jacksonia species (which many other species of bee cannot pollinate due to the flower’s odd shape), as well as other niche floristic requirements associated with their reproductive cycle. Aside from providing insight into this animal’s world perspective, this drawing began to build personal empathy. I formed a genuine attachment to this inconspicuous species that plays an important pollination service to the Southwest floristic region. The preparation of this umwelt drawing also prompted me to think beyond just habitat creation during the design process.

Ultimately, my studio design response was improved connectivity for native bees between three fragmented remnant Banksia woodlands. The design provides important foraging and reproductive floristic requirements for native bees found on the Bassendean vegetation complex, while simultaneously ensuring pollination services critical to the survival of the woodland flora. These three pollination corridors, or “beelines”, provide increased cross-pollination, which strengthens the remnant’s genetic diversity and improves their resilience. As most native bees have a flight range limited to 1km (500m return radius), the beelines provide floristic and nesting requirements for a broad range of burrowing and cavity-nesting bees at least every 500m between the three remnant cores. A chain of bee “motels” along the beeline routes provides both nesting habitat and branded wayfinding for humans. These biodiversity-positive interventions comprise human/bee interactive living laboratories and bee-friendly gardens in both private and public open spaces.

Image: R. ignita nests in trunk cavities created by wood boring species. Indumentum or “fuzz” from Banksia flowerheads are used to line / separate the nest cells. A cache of Jacksonia nectar and pollen is left to sustain their offspring before the cavity is sealed with Eucalyptus / Corymbia sp. resin to prevent predation by Gasteruptiid wasps.

Image: (Left) Sections and (Right) perspective of native bee living laboratory next to Dept. of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) Head Office

LACH5424 Landscape Complexity Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith

‘Landscape as System’

GEORGIA BRASHAW

‘Jirda’

In this design process, we were challenged with contemporary issues facing professionals working in the built environment. Our challenge was to develop a design that solved a problem for the non-humans of Victoria Park.

The more-than-human design was introduced to us as a practice by which humans are not placed at the centre of the design process. Rather, the non-human agency is actively engaged in the process. The end goal was to ensure that human residents of Victoria Park developed a sense of empathy for fauna and awareness that the suburb doesn’t belong to people alone.

We underwent a process of analysis, strategy, design development and design communication, all whilst taking on the perspective of our chosen non-human client. My client was the birunbirun, also known as the rainbow bee-eater.

Throughout this journey, I was encouraged to critique the human-centred design approaches that are entrenched in today’s suburban setting. As Victoria Park’s human population increases, climatic and social conditions will be felt by all the residents of this place. It is our responsibility to ensure we design for future conditions that support the wellbeing of the whole ecosystem.

The birunbirun arrives in Victoria Park around Kambarang, for breeding, before chasing the warm weather north again toward the end of Djeran.

It is often seen building its underground burrows in open spaces such as remnant bushland, vacant blocks and parklands. The disappearance of these places will mean the birunbirun loses a vital link in its lifecycle.

My design focused on building ecological resilience via recreating, reclaiming and rehabilitating the severely degraded conditions surrounding remnant bushland. Community engagement is a key element that occurs at each phase of my design.

Image: Birunbirun Umwelt

Image: Reclamation Boardwalk

LACH5424 Landscape Complexity Studio

Unit and Studio Coordinator: Rosie Halsmith

‘Landscape as System’

LEONARD SEE ‘The Suburban Shingleback’

Perth has an infamous reputation for being one of the longest cities in the world with the largest urban sprawl and lowest infill. This paired with urban development has caused loss of habitat and the introduction of threats such as vehicles, domestic pets and deep water for local biodiversity. What once used to be a large area of bushland has been reduced to suburb with patches of remnant vegetation disconnected by car-filled roads and housing. Tiliqua rugosa, or the Shingleback Lizard is a slowmoving reptile that relies on basking in the sun to regulate its temperature now risks its life by basking on dangerous roads. Due to their monogamic nature, they also have to travel through pet-infested backyards year-round to meet up with their partner to mate before splitting up again to meet the next year.

This design, The Suburban Shingleback aims to provide a connection from the Kensington Bushland to the Swan River through a backyard trail (Shingleback-Yard Trail), generate human empathy through an educational trail around the suburb (BobTrail) and provide recommendations for shingleback friendly backyard designs.

The images show a portion of the Shingleback-Yard Trail which is achieved by giving back the backyards of private homes to the shingleback lizards. The trail features a shingleback corridor and a human corridor for people to be able to utilise the space as well. Communal and private decks along the trail allow homeowners to conduct activities that they would normally do in their own backyards. Educational signage and sheltered seating areas provide an unobstructed view of the shingleback corridor for people to learn about and observe the shingleback lizards in their natural habitats.

Image: Detail plan of the Shingleback-Yard Trail.

Image: (Left) Masterplan of the Shingleback-Yard Trail; (Right) Sections.

LACH4423 Landscape and Urban Ecology

Unit Coordinator: Professor Maria Ignatieva

PRISCILLA HUBBARD

‘Urban biotope mapping and analysis’

The term “biotope” is derived from the Greek prefixes of bios/life and topos/ place. More specifically, a biotope is defined as a section of the earth’s surface, either terrestrial or water based, with a similar abiotic environment and associated characteristic plant community.

This assessment required recognising a number of different urban biotope types, mapping them and analysing their respective ecological character.

The option was offered to concurrently utilise the LACH5424 “Landscape as System” Studio site for the biotope assessment. This provided an opportunity to conduct on-ground analysis of a study area we were already working on. As such, the area chosen for my biotope analysis comprised of the Jirdarup bushland precinct in the Town of Victoria Park, as well as nearby Kensington residential properties, Technology Park and the Collier Park Golf Course located in the City of South Perth. Analysing relevant biotopes at these locations provided a deeper understanding of the broader site. This exercise provided important information on existing plant species and associated habitats in the area. The study was a useful tool for identifying focus areas for my studio sites, as well as informing my dismissal of other prospective sites I had been considering. In particular, immersing myself in the beauty of the Jirdarup remnant Banksia bushland prompted me to look further afield at two other nearby remnants. It also afforded a better understanding of the environments on the corridors in-between.

Beyond the understanding this study gave me of my studio site, analysing urban biotopes reminded me that plants can be tough little buggers. They colonise wastelands and obscure places, like cracks in pavement to create their own unique habitats that still contribute to biodiversity and provide various ecosystem services in our expanding urban environments.

Image: Quadrat location, Jirdarup remnant Banksia woodland.

Open woodland - Remnant Banksia woodlands

Location Etwell Street, Kensington. Part of Jirdarup Bushland Precinct. -31° 59’ 17”, 115° 53’ 12”

Total area 10.87 ha (including the 9.1 ha Bush Forever Site no. 048).

Ownership / responsibility Town of Victoria Park.

Quadrat size 20 x 20m (approx.)

Origin Ancient / natural (pre-colonial).

Conservation Status Designated Threatened Ecological Community (TEC) “Banksia Woodland of the Swan Coastal Plain” in 2016. Endangered under EPBC Act.

Soil type Quartz based Bassendean sands.

Plant species Open woodland / Kwongan. Dominant species in quadrat are E. todtiana, B. attenuata and B. ilicifolia trees. Understory comprises mid-size shrubs such as A. humilis, A. cygnoram, Jacksonia sp. and dryland sedges and grasses. 208 plant species recorded in the whole reserve.

Overall % tree canopy cover ~10%

Overall % ground cover ~80%

Species richness 20 (at least).

Vegetation Condition Scale (Keighery scale)

Very good.

Disturbance Fencing minimises risk of trampling, weed and dieback introduction. Bushfire occurred in February 2016, evidence of some trunk blackening on Eucalyptus species. Animal burrowing and consumption of plant matter noted. Soil and dead plant matter tested negative for dieback in 2017.

Fauna Evidence of Oryctolagus cuniculus (rabbit) via scats, burrows and Pindone® treated carrots present in quadrat. Birds such as Gymnorhina tibicen (magpie) observed. Site visit outside of diurnal cockatoo roosting / foraging times. Insects such as ants observed.

Evidence of management

Revegetation on fence fringe and weeding efforts by Town of Victoria Park and Friends of Jirdarup Bushland apparent. Other management strategies outside of quadrat comprise fencing, limestone paths, seating, interpretive signage, Phytopthora cinnamomi shoe cleaning stations and bird water stations.

Design features Due to this biotope’s endangered status, there is a light touch to the landscape design. The design intent is not to alter the landscape but to protect and restore the vegetation community. A controlled path network and nearby sit spots allow human users to passively enjoy the space.

Image: (Right) Biotope analysis of 20m2 quadrant at Jirdarup remnant Banksia woodland.

LACH3000 Landscape Synthesis Studio

Unit Coordinators: Daniel Jan Martin and Liam Mouritz

‘Bilya Bidi Wardan’

The Cockburn Community Wildlife Corridor stretches from the Beeliar wetland chain to the coast. Once planned as violent Roe 8 and 9 highway extensions, these were defeated after sustained community backlash. In its place, we have been imagining a 7-kilometre living corridor for people, plants and wildlife, guided by respect. We imagined the Bilya Bidi Wardan as a continuous space for care and repair. This studio was named by Whadjuk Traditional Owner Sandra Harben: Bilya; Beeliar: waterway chain; umbilical; giver of life – Bidi: a path walked together – Wardan: ocean; westward direction of the spirit.

Image: Students on their ‘amazing race’ across the 7-kilometre Cockburn Community Wildlife Corridor in March 2023.

Image: Students each explored one of seven quadrants that together make up the corridor ‘from wetlands to waves.’ The students, stitched from left to right

right are: Daniella Krisanto, Bella Davis, Kane Morriss, Asha Combes, June Liu, Sally Foss and Glenn Tan.

Image: Students each explored one of seven quadrants that together make up the corridor ‘from wetlands to waves.’ The students, stitched from left to right

right are: Kate Driver, Beth Cook, Haoyuan Xu, Ella Martinazzo, Sacha Winter, Jesse Liebregts and Arnav Sinha.

LACH2000 Landscape Context Studio

Unit Coordinator: Agata Cabanek

Studio Coordinators: Agata Cabanek and Ruben Spurge

Revitalisation of Russell Square, Northbridge

RYAN MUNYARD

‘Culture Forest’

The multicultural aspects of Northbridge didn’t happen quickly. Though the Whadjuk Noongar people made productive use of this land as seasons allowed, people from many cultures have contributed to make Northbridge the multicultural centre that it is today. While acknowledging the Whadjuk Noongar history in this place, this design explores the time that it took to become such a centre.

It makes space for the stories that make up our cultures, uncovers what time has forgotten, and leaves space for new stories to be written.

The planting in the park starts slowly. Annually the communities come together to plant another layer in the park; each culture coming together, planting together.

As planting progresses, organic shapes that are borders in the lawn or lines of low plants become recognisable as first a garden, then a forest. The shapes are revealed to reflect the lakes lost beneath Northbridge due to colonisation. They emerge as if being uncovered after almost two hundred years. On their ‘banks’, culturally significant plants and trees China, Italy, and Greece as well as local natives These represent the three cultures that first made Northbridge ‘multicultural’ as well as the original custodians of the land.

The strength of multiculture is expressed in the motif of ropes, braids and weaves. A braid takes a singular element and strengthens it by uniting it with other singular elements. This is a concept that can be expressed very simply but has complex meaning for our lives as adults.

A Culture Forest has plants and trees from around the world dwelling together and creating beauty, and can be a strong communicator of the strength and beauty of multiculturism.

Image: Sunken hardscape with introvert seating to encourage storytelling.

Image: (Left) Rope-based play with weave motif; (Right) Site sections.

LACH1010 History and Theory of Landscape Architecture

Unit Coordinator: Professor Maria Ignatieva

TAMARA KENNEDY

‘What are the principles and characteristics of the Gardenesque style and how was it interpreted in different countries?’

Introduction

The gardenesque style is attributed to JC Loudon, a 19th century Scottish designer. It was a reaction to the preceding naturalistic or picturesque designs of the prominent 18th century landscape architects, William Kent and Lancelot Capability Brown, who designed open landscapes on large country estates. These designs imitated nature, with indigenous trees in natural groupings; lakes and rivers, acres of lawn, large vistas and ruined classical temples. The new gardenesque design aesthetic was the opposite to the previous movement, rooted in its time, with the discovery of new flora from around the world and advancements in science and technology. The gardenesque style has influenced both public and private garden designs around the world.

The age of science and British Colonialism

In the 19th century, the United Kingdom was changing. In 1837, Queen Victoria ascended the throne, during a period of peace after the Napoleonic wars ended. Queen Victoria oversaw an expanding and increasingly wealthy empire based on technological changes stemming from the Industrial Revolution, scientific discoveries and spoils from the British Empire. Wealth was no longer held entirely by the aristocracy, as the industrial revolution had created a wealthy middle class1.

The rapid expansion of the British Empire during this period, led to the scientific discovery of many new plant species. The previously scientific pursuits of botany and horticulture were elevated in the minds of the general public and many people became interested in the discovery of new plants. Plant hunters excitingly went abroad to find and collect new exotic plants and return them to England. This was the boom of the plant hunter, a potentially dangerous occupation, travelling through war zones and unexplored (from a Western sense) territory. Exotic plants became a precious commodity. The Royal Botanical Garden in Kew was established around this time and became a depository for these new plants.2

The invention of Wardian Cases3 ensured newly discovered exotic plants from warmer and tropical regions survived the journey back to England. Technological innovations in steel and glass making led to the design and building of enormous glasshouses (Kew and Chatsworth) and ensured these new arrivals could successfully be grown in the northern hemisphere. When the palm house at Kew Royal Botanic Gardens opened to the public it created much wonder and interest in exotic plants.4

The Philosophy of Aesthetics

Loudon’s new landscape aesthetic was prompted, in part, by French philosopher AntoineChrystotome Quatremere de Quincy, who wrote “What pretends to be an image of nature is nothing more or less than nature herself.”5 This was contrary to the landscape design movement of the 18th century, where much effort went into ensuring gardens looked natural. This inclined Loudon towards his “principle of recognition”6; gardens should not look natural. They should look intentionally created. Exotic plants were an easy way to confirm a garden was consciously created.7

Therefore, the characteristics of this new design aesthetic, became –

• Use of many new exotic species;

• Curvilinear or rectilinear paths that lead through a garden displaying the exotic plants;

• Extensive use of lawns;

• Exotic species either displayed as specimen or, collections (for example, rhododendrons);

• The introduction of flower beds and carpet bedding techniques; and

• Conservatories.

The following two pictures drawn by Loudon illustrates the difference between the new gardenesque style and the more natural style of landscape gardening that preceded it. It demonstrates Loudon’s new way of planting exotic specimen plants.

In Image 1, the trees are planted in groups, mimicking nature, as per the 18th century landscape design style. In Image 2, the same curvilinear paths remain, but each tree is planted as an individual specimen; like a “public museum of trees.”8

Loudon had the opportunity to fully display his new gardenesque style in 1840, when a new

park was opened to the public in Derby, England. The Derby Arboretum had been designed by JC Loudon and was financed by the philanthropist Joseph Strutt. In this park, he planted exotic trees as single specimens on berms. This was a deliberate strategy so visitors to the park could admire the beauty of the whole tree, including the roots growing into the mounded soil. Trees were spaced to allow for maximum growth. His tree specimens included exotics such as flowering cherries, maples and magnolias. Loudon also planted 100 varieties of roses, individually labelled for the public’s education.9 Science had overtaken nature. Unlike the picturesque style, the vista in this park was less important than the plants botanical credentials. For example, the introverted nature of this park cocooned its visitors from the less aesthetically appealing appearance of an industrial town, whilst providing “public instruction.”10

Flower beds, in both rectilinear and circular forms became fashionable, using carpet bedding techniques. Many new exotic plants had colourful flowers and these were used to fill the geometric beds cut into lawns. Many of these new colourful

Image 1: The trees are planted in groups, mimicking nature, as per the 18th century landscape design style. Loudon, J.C. The Suburban Gardener (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1838), http://archive. org/details/suburbangardene001loudgoog/page/164/ mode/2up?view=theater, 165.

Image 2: The same curvilinear paths remain, but each tree is planted as an individual specimen; like a “public museum of trees”. Loudon, J.C. The Suburban Gardener (London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1838), http:// archive.org/details/suburbangardene001loudgoog/page/164/ mode/2up?view=theater, 165.

exotic plants were annuals, and so required the constant presence of gardeners to plant, deadhead, remove and repeat to keep these new garden beds looking at their peak.

Parks and Botanic Gardens around the World

Many parks and gardens, particularly in the British Colonies, were being established, critically, at the peak of the gardenesque style. No settlement in the British Colony was considered civilised without a park or botanic garden, modelled on the Derby Arboretum and Kew Royal Botanical Gardens.11 Where parks had already been established earlier, such as Sydney Botanical Gardens,12 these were remodelled in the Gardenesque style. Parks and botanical gardens were established in Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth in Australia. In New Zealand the same occurred in Dunedin, Wellington, Napier and Christchurch.13 Exotic trees (mostly European) were planted as single specimens and garden beds, within lawns, were laid out with exotic plants in carpet bedding arrangements.

In Australia, the establishment of gardenesque style parks persisted well into the 19th century. For example, the Pennington Gardens East, in Adelaide, were developed in 1905 more than 60 years after the term ‘gardenesque’ was coined. Associate Professor David Jones, notes “…the design for this park was an intricate gardenesque design with circuitous gravelled pathways, specimen ornamental trees, the use of display flowering shrub beds, a rockery….”14

Further afield, the gardenesque style influenced the design of many parks around the world. A.J. Downing relied upon gardenesque principles when designing the National Mall in Washington DC. Trees from all over the United States were to be collected and planted as specimens to showcase the particularities of each tree.15

Gardenesque style in Australian private gardens

Jane Loudon, as prolific an author as her husband, did much to perpetuate the positives of the gardenesque style to the growing middle class, particularly women. This style was not reliant on large estates, vistas or lakes, so it could be adapted to either large or small gardens. It was taken up particularly well by the middle class, who now had access to quality nurseries with exotic plants.16 Gardens were no longer being maintained entirely for food production. They could be planted for their aesthetic and leisure appeal. Women were inspired to create gardens.17

There is a large volume of documented evidence of Loudon communicating with his contemporaries in Australia during this time. The gardening magazines published by himself and Jane Loudon, advocating this style, were available in Australia. There is evidence their magazines were purchased by the rising middle class in Australia.18 New suburbs in Sydney, Melbourne and Hobart were being established to provide homes for the new middle class, who in turn, were using these new properties to create gardens for leisure and social status. As Aitken states, these gardens were “…. symbols of success, displaying fashionable planting schemes and manicured spaces for conspicuous leisure…”19 The gardenesque style has influenced garden aesthetics well into the 1970’s, in Australia. It was represented by the quarter acre block with the ubiquitous circular rose bed cut into the front lawn.

Floral Clocks – A Gardenesque Anomaly?

A floral clock is a flower bed, with a clock mechanism installed. The first floral clock was commissioned in 1903 in Edinburgh.20 Floral clocks can now be found in many countries around the world and were particularly popular between 1910 and 1930.21 In 1962 a floral clock was planted at Kings

Park Botanical Gardens in Perth.22 In my mind, they epitomise the gardenesque style. The clocks are clearly a designed element in the garden, the flowers planted are introduced species arranged using carpet bedding techniques. They are generally located in a large park or botanic garden. They certainly cannot be mistaken for a natural phenomenon.

Conclusion

The gardenesque style was a response to the upheavals in Victorian society brought about by the industrial revolution, rapid technological changes and the beginnings of globalisation. Scientific discoveries were now venerated. Plant collecting became a British national pastime, which eventually spread to the British Colonies. This led to garden design changing from imitating nature to manipulating and controlling nature: an intentionally designed garden. The treating of plants as specimens showcased these new exotic plants but also played an educational role, instructing members of the public about exciting discoveries. The gardenesque style influenced garden design in both the public and private spheres in the British Colonies and around the world. In Australia, particularly, this style persisted well into the late 20th century.

7. Turner, “Loudon’s Stylistic Development,” 181; Colleen Morris, “The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge: John Claudius Loudon and His Influence in the Australian Colonies,” Garden History 32, no. 1 (2004): 116

8. Therese O’Malley, “Gardenesque,” National Gallery of Art, accessed 24 April 2023, https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/ index.php/Gardenesquega.gov

9. Rogers, Landscape Design, 318-319.; Derby City Council, A Catalogue of Trees in Derby Arboretum (Derby, UK: Derby City Council).; “Derby Arboretum” filmed 2020, YouTube Video, posted by Derby Parks, 2020, https://www.inderby.org.uk/ parks/derbys-parks-and-open-spaces/derby-arboretum/

10. Aitken, Planting Dreams, 68.

11. Franklin Ginn, “Colonial Transformations: Nature, Progress and Science in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens,” New Zealand Geographer 65, (2009), https://doi.org/10.1111/j.17457939.2009.01146.x.

12. Morris, “The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,” 117.

13. Ginn, “Colonial Transformations,” 37.

14. David Jones “The Foundations of Adelaide’s Gardenesque Parks and Gardens: The Role of August Wilhelm Pelzer,” in Studies in Australian Garden History, Vol 2, ed. Max Burke and Collen Morris (Melbourne: Australian Garden History Society, 2006), 90.

15. O’Malley, “Gardenesque.”

16. Rogers, Landscape Design, 313.

17. Michelle Sipe, “Bringing Home Beauty to the Poor: Women, the Gardenesque, and the Domestication of Landscape in Nineteenth-Century British Culture” (Ph.D., University of Florida, 2004), 4-12.

18. Morris, “The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,” 101-102.

19. Aitken, Planting Dreams, 90.

20. “Floral Clock,” Edinburgh Guide, accessed 24 April 2023, https://edinburghguide.com/venues/visitor-attractions/floralclockurghGuide.com

Endnotes

1. Rogers, Elizabeth Barlow, Landscape Design: A Cultural and Architectural History (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001),

2. Maria Ignatieva “Design and Future of Urban Biodiversity” in Urban Biodiversity and Design, ed Norbet Muller, P. Werner and J.G. Kelcey (Oxford: Wley-Blackwell, 2010), 124.; Rogers, Landscape Design, 315.

3. Richard Aitken, Planting Dreams: Shaping Australian Gardens (Sydney: NewSouth Publishing, 2016), 84.

4. Ignatieva, “Design and Future of Urban Biodiversity,” 125.

5. T.H.D Turner, “Loudons’s Stylistic Development,” The Journal of Garden History 2, no. 2 (April 1982): 181.

6. Turner, “Loudon’s Stylistic Development,” 182.

21. Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe and Susan Jellicoe, The Oxford Companion to Gardens, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 189.

22. “Floral clock ticking along,” Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, last modified 19 May 2016, https://www.bgpa. wa.gov.au/about-us/information/news/2158-floral-clockticking-along.gov.au

Urban Design

Image: UWA School of Design, Design HUB, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023. Photography by Samantha Dye.

URBD5804 Urban Design Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Dr Julian Bolleter

Studio Coordinator: Dr Rob Cameron

‘Future Proof Urbanism Studio’

SHANE BRADDOCK

‘Street Life’

The mid-1950s defined Perth’s urbanity. In 1953, Walt Disney opened his first theme park in Anaheim, California. In 1956, Victor Gruen opened the first enclosed, regional shopping mall, in Southdale, Minnesota; a Disneyland for the suburban consumer. In 1955, Gordon Stephenson et al.’s plan encouraged Perth’s Disneyfication. It advocated the distillation of the metropolitan area into its constituent elements – residential (the suburbs), retail (large, private shopping centres) and commercial (CBDs) – linked by the automobile. The old mixed-use city was considered primitive, dirty, and chaotic. The city’s remaining urban areas have been divided into precincts (heritage, government, nightlife, …), mimicking Disneyland (with its Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, Adventureland, …).

Result – spaces devoid of community, encouraging a way of life detrimental to the environment, easy for planners to regulate – boring!

Solution – like infants, let us get out the coloured pencils and have at it, happily colouring outside the lines!

Streets are to be crammed with as many activities as possible to encourage local residents (not day trippers) to inhabit them; the creation of engaging social heterotopias. The slush fund created by WA’s mining boom has been wasted building higher and wider walls behind which to hide in our suburbs – front lawns are boat and SUV storage; front window blinds are usually drawn; children play in their rooms. The only sign of life in the evening is the glow of the TV from the rear living room, reflected down the side of the house. We have turned our backs (literally) to the excitement of the street. Time to embrace Street Life.

Image: Street life 1.

Image: (Left) Urban plan; (Right) Street life 2.

URBD5804 Urban Design Studio 1

Unit Coordinator: Dr Julian Bolleter

Studio Coordinator: Dr Rob Cameron

‘Future Proof Urbanism Studio’

LISA LIU

‘Green Dream Neighbourhood’

I’d like to acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people as the traditional custodians of the land where this design has been conducted.

Green Dream Neighbourhood is a ‘future-proofed’ Transit Oriented Development (TOD) neighbourhood in the context of Western Australia developed to live up to the possible future climate change and technological change scenarios. A key objective of the neighbourhood is the enhancement of biodiversity. This is achieved through connecting green patches (the heart park), green corridors (verges), and stepping stones (small native vegetation and agriculture plots, green walls, and green roofs). These elements are interconnected by linking diverse ecosystems and promoting ecological balance.

The Neighbourhood integrates Voronoi and grid patterns for efficient traffic and land-use functionality, embodying the principles of Green Urbanism and City Beautiful. The heart park acts as a vibrant bridge between nature and urban life. At the centre of the heart park lies the trackless tram station that connects green boulevards, dense and high-rise mixed-use buildings, and water-sensitive landscapes. This central area represents the vibrant essence of the neighbourhood, radiating with business and community vibrancy and a variety of activities which is relatively expensive.

The TOD is featured with mixed-use podium-built forms along the trackless tram line that encircles the bustling and lively heart island. While the neighbourhood embraces a car-free ethos, provisions are made for emergency and contemporary vehicles to enter. Car parking facilities are discreetly located near the north and south entrances in 3-6 story car parks, catering to the needs of residents and visitors.

Overall, this neighbourhood fosters a caring and sustainable environment, where biodiversity, culture, agriculture, and economy coexist and thrive. It exemplifies a place where both human and non-human stakeholders harmoniously live, and where the integration of nature and urban design creates a liveable and resilient neighbourhood.

Image: Masterplan.

Image: (Top) Section through the business centre; (Bottom Left) Section through urban mini-blocks to the biodiversity patch; (Bottom Right) Perspectives.

Image: UWA School of Design, G22, Winter Collective 2023 Exhibition opening night, 14 June 2023. Photography by Samantha Dye.

Official Sponsor:

The University of Western Australia, School of Design

M433, 35 Stirling Hwy, Crawley WA 6009

T +61 8 6488 2582

F +61 8 6488 1082

https://www.uwa.edu.au/schools/Design

CRICOS Provider Code: 00126G