RMIT Architecture Design Thesis Major Project Catalogue, Semester 1, 2009

Se-mes-ter 1, 2009

Design Thesis Major Projects,

RMIT Archi-tecture

Welcome to the Major Project Catalogue for first semester 2009, a publication from the rmit Architecture Program. This catalogue represents the work of students undertaking their final design project as part of the Masters of Architecture, and is the culmination of five years of study leading to eventual qualification as an architect. This catalogue is published twice a year to coincide with the final Exhibition of major project student work each semester. All students submitting material for examination are published and students themselves have self-selected and arranged their images and text in their final week prior to final examination. The catalogue is then printed in time to coincide with the Exhibition opening during the same week as completion. In this way we hope to present a rapid but rich snapshot of the diverse themes and ambitious design outcomes that characterise the architecture program at rmit and to celebrate the achievement of each and every student directly as they complete the program. The catalogue offers an open-ended and direct curation of the work exhibited. We will let the multiplicity and divergence of architectural agendas speak for themselves. Projects range from complex and strategic urban and suburban propositions, to ambitious formal, spatial and material architectural resolution, to socially and politically driven experimentation through design. All of the projects look forward to a future focused in architectural design, and architectural design practice. In turn we hope the catalogue becomes a measure of past achievements, and forms an essential series for your bookshelf. Congratulations to all exhibitors and we look forward to your design futures.Melanie Dodd and Nigel Bertram

rmit architecture major projects semester 1, 2009

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Corrigans Road

This project is concerned with the phenomena of the new community; new roads, houses, neighbours and school mates. It provides a new school which locates itself in its suburban culture by playing upon the architec-tural and urban language of the locality and by encoding the project with planning and

materiality in a familiar and enriching way. School design proposes a number of learning settings that can occur across a variety of clustered spaces, each with their own spatial characteris-tics. These spaces have been affiliated with the functions of the urban plan via the development of a code. Thus

allowing a rich interpretation of the brief, providing a place with its own identity and yet a sense of community.

Sara McCunnieCranbourne East P-12 School

major project supervisor stasinos mantzis page 3


This project investigates the co-existence of industrial warehouse buildings and residential housing. Sure, ones loud, insensitive and b-double friendly, the other; subdued, private and more relative to human scale. But Melbournes south eastern suburb of Clayton is over-flowing from the suburban

block with increasing popula-tion. As a result, industrial warehouses are relocated deep into the outer urban growth boundaries. This project looks at creating a domestic sanctuary within an industrial business park by integrating itself with the immediate context, nego-tiating, activating, linking and

extending different aspects of the site. By taking a direct sample of what already exists in the area it investigates the point of connection where these two situations meet, its the coalition that sets up how this project starts to architec-turally address the front and back nature.

Prue MillerClayton Coalition

major project supervisor simone koch page 5


Located in Jogyakarta, Indo-nesia, this project intends to build upon collective facility to aid the sustainability of a rural village. The area is fac-ing a change from agricultural subsistence to commercial sand mining, which increases the likelihood of landslides. This project examines the infrastructures that lead to a

renewed landscape within the degraded mining pits, with so-cial and economic support for the village. The new facilities include a bamboo workshop, an agriculture study center, an amphitheatre and tourist residency. The project looks at the social spaces of infor-mal activity within the village, called Gotong Royong

space, and how it informs the design of this new level of co-operative space which springs from the collective program between neighbourhood groups and between village and city people.

Lily Lim To Keep and to Share

major project supervisor simon whibley page 7


This project seeks to promote connectivity across Sydney Road and its eastern neigh-bourhood. The site which is buffered by a stretch of car park is a popular passageway for joggers, cyclers and pe-destrians crossing through to laneways of Sydney Road to avoid the dwarfing experience of walking alongside trucks

on the busy Bell St. This proposal extends the experience of Sydney Road towards the residential blocks by emulating its linearity and porosity. It is achieved by magnifying mapped user trails, cloning the street pro-file and extending the built form to the edge of the site boundary.Apart from having

the Coburg Leisure Centre, the proposal aims to include flexible spaces that are open for appropriation by the com-munity.

Zeti Maria OmarInstant City

major project supervisor simon shiel page 9


The site is a post-industrial pocket of warehouses near Richmond train station. The proposal is for a library that sits alongside the station and connects the city with the local neighbourhood. By strategically inserting a series of related spaces into the existing warehouses, the project curates the future use

of the site and generates an alternative mode of urban development. This project references contemporary collage and assemblage, finding its archi-tectural language through an engagement with differences, collisions and uneasy junc-tions. Our time demands the

anti-masterpiece, things that are cobbled together. Stubby, brutish forms that know something of the world in which they are made tell the contemporary story. Works that appear hurled into uncomfortable, anxious rela-tionships run parallel to life. Massimiliano Gioni, Curator, New Museum, New York.

Millie CattlinComing To Pieces

major project supervisor sand helsel page 11


This project investigates the use of a prototypical system in the production of adaptive housing. The system estab-lishes a generic framework for variation and adaptabil-ity, which is made specific through interaction with spe-cific site constraints and development requirements. In this instance the prototype

is tested against three varied sites in a proposal for the re-distribution of public housing in Collingwood. Future inhabitants negoti-ate with each other, forming communities with compatible or overlapping requirements. As inhabitants needs change, the dwellings can be recon-figured by adapting, dividing,

consolidating or expand-ing. The lightweight skin is marked for alteration, its unfinished nature indicating the potential for occupant customisation.

Felicity RoakeThe Unit and the Whole

major project supervisor pia ednie-brown + tim schork page 13


Participation in athletics has steadily declined in Australia since the Sydney Olympics. The proposed Centre for Athletics uses the existing infrastructure and physical traces of the Victoria Park site to reintroduce the sport to the community at a grass roots level. Using a design method that draws

together existing heritage and infrastructure with new programmatic constraints and connections required for the future, the Centre offers both access to the world of elite athletic performance and provides a venue for all levels of competition. This project reinvigorates community interest by draw-

ing upon the sites rich history and collective memory and presents athletics with an opportunity to connect with the wider community and foster future athletes. A new identity is drawn.

Scott CroweDrawn Together

ESTABLISHING ORDER ALTERING ORDERSET UP PARAMETERS2D SPIROGRAPH 3D INTERPRETATION

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major project supervisor pia ednie-brown + tim schork page 15


Memory of the World is an archival vault preserving documentary heritage such as books, films, music recordings and digital media from all over the world. In this spirit, the project celebrates the many diversities of our world and aspires to be a destina-tion for those who seek The Truth.

The language of tree branches was used to repre-sent a confluence of cultures and the different diversities in our society. The circle is a basic shape that expresses a unity of the universe of books and knowledge and the eye is used metaphorically. The eye peers through the clouds staring straight

into the universe trying to comprehend the unknown (preserving knowledge) as it observes the passing of day from dawn to dusk (preserv-ing history).

Wei Liat TanMemory of the World

major project supervisor peter corrigan page 17


Melbourne has the highest concentration of bookshops and publishers in Australia and a proliferation of writers and readers. In September 2008, the city succeeded in its bid to be recognized as only the second City of Litera-ture by the United Nations cultural arm, unesco. Australian Centre for Lit-

erature will be a new, highly productive literary hub, part of a burgeoning cultural pre-cinct, dedicated to literature and ideas activity including lectures, book and magazine launches, poetry recitals, book readings, seminars, symposia, debates, and awards. This project explores and establish a hub for Victorias

literary and publishing com-munity, promoting reading and ideas, and a one-stop centre for the public focus-sing Victorias widespread literary activity in a single central location. Thus, this project aims to celebrate the art of the written words of knowledge.

Tatchee, TungAustralian Centre for Literature

major project supervisor peter corrigan page 19


I treated the site like its the tail end of the city grid, as the ground level rises to the northern end, the tail dimin-ishes .It forms a precinct, a new type of city fringe, a non Victorian way of looking at the city. Not imposed upon the city as a consistent formula, the forms swell out of the

low wall to become a theatre, music school, offices and apartments. Their boundaries are blurred as they bleed into one another. The market pushes into the northern block with the towers form at ground level mimicking the finger like sheds. Through changes in the

road condition the building assumes a position that af-fects the city.

Marcello DonatiA Skyscraper Lying Down

major project supervisor peter bickle + jonothan cowle page 21


Plan - Democratic Datum

Awelye is an Aboriginal ceremony affirming womans role as community nurturer. My project combines junior school with aged care and is a response to an aging population and our increased reliance on before/after school care. The architecture cel-ebrates the moments of

interaction between these two juxtaposing user groups. Their relationship is one of opposition and comple-mentarity that may occur as planned activity, alternate depending on time of day or at whim. Together they estab-lish an equilibrium leading the architecture to indulge in coupled phenomena open/

closed large/small loud/quiet. Located within the south-eastern suburbs the project both assimilates into the surrounding urban fabric and endeavours to create intimate wonderlands for the local community. Total wheelchair access underpins a ground-up and place-making approach.

Monique BradyAwelye Care


Junior School & Aged Care in Berwick

front elevation - intimate wonderlands

back elevation - suburban pride


This project examines the introduction of an Open-Range addition to the Royal Melbourne Zoo situated within the existing boundaries of Royal Park. Through addressing the need for a greater roam-ing capacity for the growing herd of Indian Elephant the interest lies in the contextual

opportunities that arise on the threshold of inner-city urban meets Game Reserve and the ever changing role of the Zoological garden and its role in the contemporary city.

Nicholas AgiusWhere the Wild Things Are


The Geelong Medical School Project provides an institu-tion in collaboration with Geelong Hospital in Victo-ria. In association with the Medical Faculty in Deakin University, it also provides an accommodation block for their interns. The intention of this proj-ect is to show the connection

between a residential block and an institution can these two co-exist with each other? Is there an unwritten rule with regards to how these two should look like? How would these two entities communi-cate with each other? This project aims to explore the possibility of enhancing the students life

through architecture inter-ventions. On top of that, it will address the issue of build-ing enveloping and how this affects the perception of the function within the building.

Leon Cheah Yee NingInformal Greetings

major project supervisor paul minifie page 27


This scheme hinges off one of the four triangle sites on Vic-toria Street which occur when the cbd grid cranks to meet the suburbs. It is a collection of programs; The Centre for Australian Weather and Cli-mate Research, a Discovery Centre, rmits Postgraduate Atmospheric Science Faculty, several Auditoriums, Offices,

Residential, and an Exhibi-tion Pavilion. The expression of the project is a composition of al-lusions to both digital process and historical precedent. The intention was to create an almost surreal urban condi-tion that conjures ideas of invisible forces an idea abstracted from the recogni-

tion that the city is not just about its buildings, but how it is activated by patterns of temporal appropriation.

Jen WoodUnhinged Conditions

major project supervisor paul minifie page 29


The design aims to inflict life into an abandoned but crucial site wedged between Melbournes cbd and the Docklands. Being aware of the buildings already on site and the impact of their presence, two other buildings are introduced onto the site to test the possible dialogue and the inevitable tensions

between the new and the old. With the belief that a good urban space is one which con-tains these spatial tensions, the projects main ambition is to create a precinct and a community in a gesture that is not so contemporary.

Jelena KnezevicPrecinct

major project supervisor nigel bertram & kim halik page 31


The thesis of this project proposes an alternative model for designing richness in the suburban public realm. The current model involves aggregating activities into singular hubs. However, the hub is usually surrounded by a vast area of default space that is very dull (i.e. carpark). The effect is that richness

generated from the hub is dwarfed. The alternative model proposes a loose fit aggre-gation where activities are given autonomy separate pavilions and fields each with their own spatial experience. The differences between them build richness, yet the informal nature of their ar-

rangement groups them into a collective experience. The thesis is tested through the design/upgrading of a recre-ation and community centre in Nunawading, a suburb located in Melbournes outer east.

Jack TuInformal Difference

major project supervisor nigel bertram & graham crist page 33


The Haymarket roundabout site is an important arrival and departure point to Mel-bourne cbd that marks for an important redevelopment of the precinct. Because of the increasing urban sprawl from the city and future remodi-fication of urban strategies from the suburbs surround-ing it (Parkville, Carlton and

North Melbourne), it presents an opportunity to increase its density from its currently low density profile. The rede-velopment proposal is of a 5 mixed-use buildings with towers that surrounds the roundabout the island. With this proposal, the project aims to explore the architectural experience of

moving through this urban space that is coming from many different streets. The project also explores the con-versational value between the 5 buildings while maintaining the integrity of its individual-istic constraints.

Choon How GanHaymarket Redevelopment

major project supervisor nigel bertram & graham crist page 35


La loba is a low security womens refuge to host 12 women victims of domestic violence located in Colling-wood. The refuge sits next to the train line; on vacant land; separated by a sound wall which holds the womens self contained units and shared housing. Currently, womens refuges operate as single

houses in Victoria. The refuge, which spreads along the narrow site, lends itself to work as a thor-oughfare which opens up to the community around the area. Across the road sits the womens circus 8 meters above the train tracks. Here the women from the refuge and other members of the

community will find and heal themselves, will gain trust and share an empowering activity beneficial to its participants.

Carolyn WongWomens refuge/Womens Circus

major project supervisor mel dodd page 37


My major project investigates and challenges the orthogonal diagrammatic quality of the Melbourne cbd. If the city is read as layers of orthogonal patterns stacked on top of each other, what happens if this pattern is disrupted? What if it is skewed? The site is set at the corner of Swanston and La

Trobe, where Melbourne Central, the State Library and rmit are located. This is considered a good site for disruption as the three institutions possess strong architectural and orthogonal presence which leaves the chosen site unaddressed. Design is generated from graphic patterns found in

representations of the site. These orthogonal patterns are skewed, distorted to give new reading and interpreta-tion of the city.

Daria Hoi Tung, FuSkewed Orthogonal

major project supervisor mel dodd page 39


Numazu is located in the Shizuoka prefecture of Japan. The idyllic sea side town, with its renowned fishing industry, is an hours travel by bullet train from Tokyo. Over time, Numazu is declining econom-ically and gradually losing its appeal. The Living Wall will breathe life into Numazu.

Meandering intelligently along the river bank, the Wall will add increased safety against flooding for the residents and simultaneously bridge the isolated port with the city centre. Four moments will strategically offer much needed green spaces, recre-ational facilities, cafeteria and museum.

The Wall is alive with human interaction along its entire length; cycling paths, art medium, a sport-ing ground and an open air cultural podium will provide colour to a dying town. The Living Wall is more than just a structural element.

Maasa YamashitaLiving Wall

major project supervisor mauro baracco page 41


This project investigates alternative ways of densify-ing the urban environment by having a strong emphasis on restoring and preserving the local eco system. The site is located in Dandenong, south of the city centre along the creek. Existing industry and housing are relocated to provide a wider creek corri-

dor. Housing is placed above industry in order to reduce the built footprint allowing more land to be released to nature to be re-established and revegetated. Existing residential blocks are also redesigned to provide more open spaces through subdivisions. Spatial and programmatic densifica-

tion allows more green spaces for public use and community activity preventing the public invasion of native habitat cor-ridors along the creek.

Maheshinee SuraweeraNature sprawl in Dandenong

major project supervisor mauro baracco page 43


Kuching Library Park is de-signed to encourage reading habits among students in the city. The idea of this library is to bring the landscape into the site and due to the natural formation of the ground; the library has different levels of spaces that follow the topography. Ramps and stairs connect these levels into an

open plan library setting. Two types of space ex-ist in the library defined as loose space and tight space. Loose spaces are those that provide a very relaxed and fun atmosphere influenced by the layout of the space and light that illustrates both natural and artificial, whereas the tight spaces are of a rigid

layout and studious atmo-sphere. The glazed faade demonstrates the nature of the interiors spatial quality on the street level.

Pan Ling Hsu, CharlotteLibrary Park

major project supervisor martyn hook page 45


Over 22,000 Victorians are diagnosed with cancer every year and for many people this diagnosis will have enormous physical, psychological and social ramifications. The treatment and course of the disease, particularly for those with advanced cancer will pervade all aspects of their daily lives.

The program I am explor-ing teaches people how to approach life with cancer di-rectly after diagnosis. People will come for support and counseling and to be taught new skills and practices that keep wellness at the forefront of their existence. Open to people with cancer, their family members and carers,

the building will fall under the umbrella of a Maggies Centre. Built in the Wandong district, an area prone to fire. Design principles have been carefully adopted that re-spond contextually to the site considering the ever impend-ing threat of fire.

Peter KnightsMaggies Centre

major project supervisor martyn hook page 47


In a world where we are constantly mobile as a default modus operandi, yet expected to perform tasks previously associated with the home or the office, this new public space addresses these pressures and proffers a solution. Consisting of facilities found in the state library;

tables, chairs, couches, work spaces etc., as well as the social furniture found in a common home, all with the informality and ease of access associated with the street. A space with no clear threshold, as easily left as it is entered, non closable, this new typology of public space offers us facilities without

submission to the rules nor-mally associated with shelter.

Mattathias L. DravichNew Informalities

major project supervisor gretchen wilkins page 49

S W A N S T O N S T R E E T

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a p a t t e r n e d a n d c o b b l e d i n t e r i o r s w i r l s w i t h p o d s r a n g i n g f r o m o p e n t o f u l l y i n c l o s e d , t h e i n f o r m a l i t y a c l e a r b r e a k f r o m t h e r i g i d g r i d a b o v e .


Local/Express aspires to a denser, and thus more sustainable city. Its aim is to empower architects in the de-sign of residential and mixed use projects on undeveloped land alongside suburban train lines by posing the question: How can the constraints of noise, speed, aspect, aesthet-ics, accessibility and oddly

shaped sites be re-interpreted as opportunities for new architecture? The project is proscribed by a design hand-book, and a project to which its tenets are applied. The tenets of the handbook define a series of design strategies in isolation. The project is test and example for how these could be integrally applied to

meet the expectations of the medium/high density residen-tial property market.

Paul Williamson Local Express

major project supervisor jan van schaik page 51


This project explores the physical and programmatic integration of a convent into Melbournes cbd. Where plan becomes section and section a plan, a dialectic relationship between ground and soffit is established. The cloister is freed from its landlocked tradition, it becomes a central point of gravity around which

everything else is ordered a cavern into which you a drawn. The buildings surfaces respond to both its context and internal program, creat-ing a layering of poche space through plan and section, which shroud the spaces with-in. From this cavernous space the outsider can act only as

an unsatisfied voyeur into the delicate layers enclosed. Such views are restrained by imperceptible barriers, a for-est of reflections.

Cimone McIntoshConvent

major project supervisor gretchen wilkins page 53


This project is part of the egate precinct- a brownfield land area joining Docklands to North Melbourne. The site includes the north edge and covers North Melbourne station. It proposes a series of uses under a landscape net. These include urban agriculture and orchards, related retail and a transport

and entertainment hub. The two elements are platforms hovering over the ground and surrounding the sta-tion platforms, and a fabric net which forms a roof over the platform and ground. The platform holds shops, a flexi car hub and a series of bridge links to transport and orchards below. The design is

an alternative to the towers of Docklands and the 19th century city terraces, and is an extension to both. This project is about an ecological landscape net that connects ebd (proposed Ecological Business District at North Melbourne station.) and West Melbournes industrial area.

Yuan Yuan (Effie)Ecological Landscape Net

major project supervisor graham crist page 55


Urban transitional project is the notion of architecture accommodating cultural exchange through transpor-tation architectural hubs. Transportation and move-ment have informed a very particular social agenda, exploring how architecture can accommodate these conditions, and the notion of

a transient population within our society. This population is built up of commuters transgressing from two nodal points such as home and work. This thesis investigates the way architecture may facilitate this community in social and active exchange, using the redevelopment of Richmond train station. This

project challenges and deals with ideas of what transi-tion is. It contributes to the immediate community by the provision of the sports and community based facilities, but also the way in which it might start to be evocative of its contribution to the tran-sient experience.

Waseem KhanUrban Transistional Project

major project supervisor enza angelucci page 57


The current economic climate has seen a rise in the gentri-fication of inner suburban Melbourne, rendering hous-ing affordability in crisis. Urban Interruption, through the introduction of housing and civic agendas attempts to reverse this trend. It becomes a precedent combination of housing stock

and multi-use program occu-pying unrealised space within the existing urban context, in this case a five meter stretch of land between a railway cor-ridor and light industrial area. The narrow site creates narrow floor plates holding cross ventilated apartments with full access to natural light. Access hallways occur

every second floor becoming spaces of social interaction. Internal walls are negotiable and living space can expand and contract. Residents and the public utilise the projects expansive multi-function and student operated spaces. The combination injects vibrant scenarios into the fading urban situation.

Patrick BrewinUrban Interruption

major project supervisor enza angelucci page 59


My major project investigates the insertion and editing the design of a new built form for the new urban area, the extension of Van Khe in Vietnam. There are four sections in this master plan. Firstly, the square is the heart of the site, used as a public space for ceremonies, market, art dis-

play etc. Secondly, laneways and numerous buildings of various height and level are surrounding the square. Thirdly, the courtyard and laneways to create a commu-nity space to reflect the 36 old streets. Finally, the form of the building will be reflected from the old time game Keo Co.

The planned development will look at ways to improve the new site with a rich Vietnamese cultural history instead of the western design predominantly influenced by France and Russia.

Oanh Phuoc Hoang DangThe extension of Van Khe

major project supervisor anna johnson page 61

Art / Culture / Entertainment + Leisure Zone Residential ZoneResidential Zone Commercial Zone Residential Zone

Retail and Park Zone

Residential Zone Commercial Zone

Level 7_Office

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link to Ha Dong village




link to 1A Highway

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Extending Van Khe new urbanMajor travel rout

Site

Rice farm

River/lake

ORGINAL SITE _ EXTENDING VAN KHE NEW URBANHA NOI CAPITALS MAP_VIETNAM ZONE SITE LINK TO CDB

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link to Ha Dong village link to 1A Highway

link to 1A Highway

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Ha Dong Village

New Area on 2030

River / Lake

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EXTENDING VAN KHE NEW URBAN 2030

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Hanoi C

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Area Journey

TAY HO DISTRICT

BA DINH DISTRICTHA TAY DISTRICT

CAU GIAY DISTRICT

CAU GIAY DISTRICT

VAN DIEN DISTRICT

HOAN KIEM DISTRICT

CBDNEW CBD

EXTENDINGNEW CBD

Diagram of space Diagram of laneway and building surrounding

link to Ha Dong village link to 1A Highway

link to 1A Highway

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Rmit Architecture ProgramMajor ProjectsSemester 1, 2009Catalogue

Program DirectorMelanie Dodd

Major Project CoordinatorNigel Bertram

Catalogue DesignChase & Galley

Production & CoordinationStuart Harrison

www.architecture.rmit.edu.au

The Architecture Program wishes to thank Thomas and Eva Butler for their continuing support of the Anne Butler Memorial Medal, an annual award for outstanding Major Projects in design.

www. architecture. rmit.edu.au

Documents

RMIT Architecture Design Thesis Major Project Catalogue, Semester 1, 2009