Design Studio Gamma (ARCH20002)

Intended learning outcomes

Students who have successfully completed this subject should be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of materials, structures and construction technologies used in buildings, and integrate this knowledge into design propositions
• Design to the specifics of the brief, and to understand and incorporate site and landscape interface
• Understand the physical, social, cultural, historical aspects of site context, and the importance of incorporating context into design outputs
• Grasp scale and space as they relate to people, location and utilisation
• Design a complex or series of interconnected buildings  that integrate and interface with urban or inner suburban landscapes
• Negotiate individual design aspirations within the context of a team project
• Communicate and test ideas and design propositions through iterative use of orthographic drawing, 3D-modelling (digital or physical), photomontage, renderings, and animations
• Integrate historical and theoretical concepts and processes into design propositions
• Recognise and demonstrate awareness of the disciplinary frameworks and attributes of architecture
• Present, substantiate and advocate for design proposals in a public setting, and accept critique in a constructive manner
• Engage with and contribution to studio culture.

Generic skills

Students completing this subject will have developed the following generic skills:

• Ability to generate and iteratively test design ideas
• Ability to work with design precedents
• Ability to work with different design methodologies
• Physical and digital model-making and its translation process
• Ability to integrate digital tools into the design generation and design development processes
• Graphic communication (including orthographic projections: plans, sections, elevations, axonometric and other projections)
• Verbal presentation and appropriate use of design terminology
• Time management and project management
• Constructive acceptance of feedback and criticism.

Complementary to the general skill developments and intended learning outcomes , this studio will focus on the development of the following set of specific design skills: 

• Understanding of spatial thinking underlying the creation of a compact, flexible and adaptable residential building (at least 2 levels) and its translation in floor plan, section, and spatial configuration;
  • Understanding of spatial hierarchy (private-public; main-auxiliary; living-service) and programmatic composition of a residential building (sleeping/living/ablution/eating/cooking/storing/working);
  • understanding of and ability to evaluate spatial experiences associated with dwelling, house and residential building as well as awareness of architectural and landscape elements that shape and affect these experiences;
  • Understanding of compositional syntaxes, materiality, landscape features and their effects in a constrained and built-up inner urban context;
  • Understanding and awareness of design standards associated with residential typology (e.g. stairs, bathroom, kitchen, courtyard/backyard, roof system, storage system, parking requirements, disability standard, design requirement for ageing population);
  • Understanding of environmental performances of residential building and the environmental impact of housing densification through consideration of the sustainability of non-human living systems of their sites, urban heat island effect
  • Understanding and applications of passive design principles, rainwater harvesting system, vertical garden, productive landscape in residential building;
  • Understanding of the relationship between architectural forms, urban morphology and site conditions in an inner urban context and their considerations in a design process.