Tutor: Susan Massey Tuesday Evening Friday Morning

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The Both/And Studio

What? This studio is interested in issues of social space in the public urban realm specifically, it is committed to synthesizing the Why? Urban public spaces should be inclusive. How? Because water is universal and it is as responsive to issues of need-utility as it is to materializing as amenity-art-recreation, it will

differing needs of various user groups in a shared, common outdoor space.

be a primary vehicle for how the needs and expectations of various user groups are met in a single, all-inclusive environment. How to keep water out/in, collect it, redistribute it, clean it, display it, conserve it, etc. will be fundamental considerations.

PROGRAM
Building on the proposition set forth by Hitoshi Abes Megahouse that dense, modern cities find the program of a house (excepting the bedroom, bath, and personal storage) mapped across it restaurant as kitchen/dining room, library as study, karaoke bar or sports venue as game room, cafe as lounge room... This studio will map analogous (though more universally accessible) programs in Melbourne. After locating and documenting the free resources and amenities in the CBD and close inner suburbs, including resources directed to the homeless, students will be asked to consider how the city might be navigated as a distributed house of programs and how shared, common outdoor spaces could be designed to support napping, bathing, shortterm storage of personal belongings, and the collection of drinking water. The premise of such a project supposes that the city might provide more basic accommodation in social spaces at a comparable measure to which it already provides non-essential amenities.
House : City Room : Locality Basic accommodation Non-essential amenities

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USERS

The studio DOES NOT propose to design outdoor spaces as a replacement to traditional homeless shelters, rather, to provide supplemental infrastructure for transient activities for all people, including the homeless, backpacking tourists, pedestrians seeking refuge from the heat, bicycle commuters, picnic-goers, etc. The studio is not focused specifically on the homeless but is instead concerned with designing inclusively for multiple user-groups. As such, there is already a position that accommodating the homeless in mainstream programs rather than designing solely for a targeted demographic is the preferred strategy for this semesters investigations.

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The users of Melbourne outdoor public space, be it a park or plaza or garden, are varied in demographic though there may be some specificities of population depending on its location in the city relative to the immediate context. The users have many needs in common, but also some specific expectations that may not be shared by all users. Because water is universal and is as responsive to need-utility as it is to materializing as amenity-art-recreation, it will be the primary vehicle for how the needs and expectations of various user groups are met in a single, all-inclusive environment.

Commonalities Differences Necessity-Utility Amenity-Art-Recreation

SITE
After mapping the citys free amenities and resources, targeted locations will be analysed and selected as potential sites. Whether the studio might locate small interventions across multiple sites, or, develop a comprehensive single site to serve as a model for other like-sites across the city, will be a collective decision informed by the studios preliminary, investigative research. The primary criteria for site selection will be the potential for marrying utility and beauty in shared public space with universal access to all.
Research : City Intervene : Locality Consolidation Dispersion

Design Like You Give a Damn [Architecture for Humanity] Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People [Emily Pilloton] Design For the Other 90% [Smithsonian Institute] Expanding Architecture Design As Activism [Bell/Wakeford]

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The studio schedule will coordinate its major deliverables based on the Design Research Institutes 2011 Design Challenge on Homelessness, which has a two-stage competition process employing design innovation and impact/practicality/application as criteria. At the midterm, students will submit idea-proposals to the competition which graphically communicate the supporting research and the intent for design development of an idea. Students will continue to develop the design proposal and present it at the final review as competition entry boards. On 11 Nov, the competition will announce the short-listed finalists who will be invited to submit further development of their ideas. The shortlisted finalist projects will be showcased in a curated exhibition in the Design Hub in April 2012 and the winning project will receive an award.

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CHALLENGE