University of Technology Sydney

11278 Architectural Studio 6

Warning: The information on this page is indicative. The subject outline for a particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.

Subject handbook information prior to 2024 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Design, Architecture and Building: Architecture
Credit points: 12 cp
Result type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 11277 Architectural Studio 5 OR 11233 Advanced Architectural Construction OR 11231 Architectural Design: Field
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.

Description

Within the creative framework of the design studio, students explore a diverse set of performative criteria to inform the designed intervention. In architecture there is the need to balance a diverse range of parameters to arrive at a resolved outcome. Parameters such as social interactions, programmatic requirements and organisational strategies, environmental and urban conditions, material and structural systems, and the technical specifications of the project brief need to be resolved in concert with one another.

This studio, the capstone subject for the Bachelor of Design in Architecture (C10004), gives students the opportunity to demonstrate the full extent of their learning. The subject supports this opportunity by teaching students how to integrate architectural ideas and technical systems in ways that enrich the architectural experience. Students produce a coherent architectural proposal that uses a critical, disciplinary-based mode of design thinking to frame and direct an integrated systems approach to architectural design. Drawing on the techniques developed in previous design studios, students are expected to investigate the qualitative and quantitative conditions that sponsor a sustainable built environment and support integrated building services.

The summative nature of this capstone project asks students to apply, both the critical disciplinary learning developed in the 'architectural history and theory' subjects and the technical knowledge fostered throughout the degree. Students are required to demonstrate their capacity to synthesise these different knowledge sets by integrating issues such as spatial and programmatic organisation, architectural experience, formal and tectonic expression, urbanism, systems of construction, thermal comfort and environmental performance, lighting, acoustics and building services.

Valuing a practice-based learning method, the subject mirrors how a professional office might work through a consulting brief. This process follows the format of a conceptual design phase through to the final design proposal. Relying on successive design transformations, students are required to achieve a comprehensive integrated design and systems solution, that responds to a divergent and competing set of design parameters

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate an ability to respond to a design brief through strategic interventions
2. Work on a number of parallel, complex spatial and technical design issues across multiple scales
3. Produce a comprehensive design proposal by integrating knowledge from previous architecture subjects with the knowledge of Integrated Systems delivered in this subject
4. Make informed performance-based design decisions that integrate issues of safety, health and wellness, sustainability, and resilience.
5. Apply, refine and extend a foundational understanding of architectural systems (including life safety, vertical transportation, and daylighting).
6. Deliver professional quality work by working cooperatively in a team.
7. Communicate critical and strategic design ideas and assess performance through the production of clear and concise verbal and graphic modes of communication

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)

This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:

  • Establish and develop an informed and ethical position towards social, technical and environmental issues and practices (A.1)
  • Recognise and appreciate local and global cultural diversities and values (A.2)
  • Work cooperatively and professionally as part of a team (C.1)
  • Communicate ideas professionally and effectively through a variety of mediums: oral, written, visual, physical and digital (C.2)
  • Display leadership qualities throughout the production and delivery of the project (C.3)
  • Produce inspirational responses that demonstrate the successful integration of sub-disciplinary areas of knowledge: history, theory, tectonics and/or practice (I.1)
  • Creatively use architectural media, technologies and materials (I.2)
  • Understand and challenge disciplinary conventions through an engagement with emergent forms of architectural practice, technologies and modes of production (P.1)
  • Respond to a comprehensive brief within the disciplinary context (P.3)
  • Position work within an extended and critically reasoned context through the identification, evaluation and application of relevant academic references and architectural case studies (R.1)
  • Define, develop and apply an appropriate design method in the execution of an architectural project (R.2)
  • Independently analyse, synthesise and formulate complex ideas, arguments and rationales and use initiative to explore alternatives (R.3)

Contribution to the development of graduate attributes

The term CAPRI is used for the five Design, Architecture and Building faculty graduate attribute categories where:

C = communication and groupwork

A = attitudes and values

P = practical and professional

R = research and critique

I = innovation and creativity.

Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs) are linked to these categories using codes (e.g. C-1, A-3, P-4, etc.).

Teaching and learning strategies

Studio 6 occurs on a weekly basis in the form of lectures and studio-based activities. The synthetic design-based learning method promoted in this subject requires students to draw on past learning experiences in all course subject streams. The subject reinforces this synthetic approach to architecture by introducing new knowledge around integrated building systems.

The lectures specifically address the technical and conceptual content of the subject. The lecture series refer to exemplary architectural projects that align with the subject’s overarching themes, activities and learning methods.

The weekly studio sessions operate as guided feedback sessions and studio-based workshops. During these sessions, students will learn how to design and integrate building services systems within a design project The timing of the delivery of the different knowledge sets will be detailed in the subject program.

The curriculum uses project-based group learning activities to provoke participatory discussions and encourage multidisciplinary teamwork. For this reason, studios, in conjunction with the lectures, use a progressive, sequential project-based approach to design. All students are expected to attend the lectures, attend the studio sessions and follow the suggested learning patterns and activities. Students are also encouraged to participate actively in the group discussions that occur during the studio sessions.

Collaborative Learning
UTS staff believe that collaboration with peers enhances learning. You are required to work collaboratively throughout the whole semester. To facilitate this, the assessments are framed in such a way as to encourage both group-based and individual learning.

Online Coursework
There are a number of online resources and recommended readings are essential to support the learning objectives of this subject. It is also important to note that the essential readings will introduce students to the lecture content.

A detailed overview of the pedagogy and associated tasks and assessment items are included in the subject documents. Every additional documentation will be uploaded to this subject’s UTS Canvas. The location of all documents referred to in any assessment task will be detailed in such a way as to make it is easily accessible to students.

Feedback
The subject provides a range of formative feedback strategies.

  1. Students are exposed to the methodology of the production of work through a weekly tutor-led design studio review process. Each week, students are asked to complete preparatory work that revolves around the task or is a draft of the task itself. Students gain weekly verbal feedback which they then use to update their work for the following week. It is therefore crucial for the student's progression to present their advancements every session.
  2. All assessments will be graded in ReView, an online platform that will be used as a formative feedback mechanism.
  3. The subject is designed around the progressive development of a final design project. Therefore, it is vital for students to complete the work outlined in the subject documents to receive formative feedback on a weekly basis.

Content (topics)

The subject content is delivered through a series of project-based design sessions and workshops that culminate in a critically positioned and technically resolved architectural outcome. All assessments, tutorials and lectures will develop relevant design methods that help students understand how to integrate multiple design parameters. These parameters will encompass critical concepts drawn from the history of the discipline, the design of the public domain (viewed as an interior and exterior environmental condition) and the integration of multiple technical issues (including sustainable design principals, material selection and construction and structural decisions). An integrated design process, incorporating design concept and design development phases, will be used to resolve these design parameters. Students will be expected to use appropriate forms of visual and verbal communication to develop their projects and communicate the value of their final design proposals.

The systems component of the subject will provide an overview of building services systems, the historical context of building services technology, building performance assessment methods. Accordingly, the subject will review the fundamentals of:

  • access, egress and vertical transportation
  • building envelopes
  • heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems (making buildings thermally comfortable and healthy)
  • lighting systems
  • water systems
  • fire and life safety systems

Assessment

Assessment task 1: STAGE 01: Site Analysis + Kit of Parts

Intent:

This task is assessed in two parts:

  1. Site Analysis: Students are to undertake a comprehensive site analysis that will structure their urban response to site whilst also defining the specific brief for the project. Students will be assessed on the depth of their research and the resulting urban + briefed response.
  2. Kit of Parts: Using the information uncovered from precedents, students are to form a Kit of Parts document that is to be used for the remainder of the semester as a guiding reference for the architectural and urban stratgies that will be later depolyed on the selected site. The Kit of Parts will assesses the design proposal at a conceptual level, and will articulate the strategies the proposal will utilise.
Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 2, 6 and 7

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

A.2, C.1, C.2, R.1 and R.3

Type: Presentation
Groupwork: Group, individually assessed
Weight: 25%
Criteria linkages:
Criteria Weight (%) SLOs CILOs
SITE ANALYSIS - Ability to negotiate the complex spatial, formal and environmental nature of the design brief to produce a site specific urban and architectural intervention. 40 1 A.2
KIT OF PARTS [CASE STUDY ANALYSIS] Ability to analyse and synthesis complex spatial outcomes to determine their appropriateness and potential application to a design brief 20 2 R.1
KIT OF PARTS [APPLICATION] Ability to analyse and synthesis complex spatial outcomes to determine their appropriateness and potential application to a design brief 20 2 R.3
Ability to produce high level presentation outcomes that clearly articulate the proposal across multiple scales 10 7 C.2
Ability to work effectively in a group to deliver a succinct proposal 10 6 C.1
SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 2: STAGE 02: Interim Design Review

Intent:

STAGE 02: Interim Design Review

This review assesses the architectural proposal in relation to its formal and technical ideas, its design and system strategies as well as its response to the given site conditions.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

4, 5, 6 and 7

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

C.1, I.2, P.1 and P.3

Type: Design/drawing/plan/sketch
Groupwork: Group, individually assessed
Weight: 25%
Criteria linkages:
Criteria Weight (%) SLOs CILOs
Demonstrate a basic understand of building systems deployed: [1] structure and facade systems [2] HVAC systems [3] vertical transportation, circulation, and egress [4] daylight and lighting systems [5] hydraulic systems 30 4 P.3
Ability to articulate and respond to the relationships between systems, site conditions and spatial requirements in an integrated manner 30 5 I.2
Ability to integrate building systems and elements whilst retaining the overall design intent established previously 15 4 P.1
Work effectively with others 10 6 C.1
Effectively communicate systems integration graphically 15 7 P.1
SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 3: STAGE 03: Final Design Review: Competition Submission

Intent:

STAGE 03: Final Design Review

This review assesses the final stage of the design proposal fully negotiated with the site conditions. This stage requires a degree of resolution of projects from the urban to the detail scale. Projects must demonstrate the multiscalar development of a proposal from the initial stages of the project to its final technical resolution.

The final projects must demonstrate an understanding and integration of the technical aspects of the design proposal across the different scales of resolution (from 1:200 to 1:50). This includes structural systems, circulation systems, fire, and HVAC systems, electrical and plumbing systems, and clear and logical space planning and their evident integration into spatial decision making.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

3, 4, 6 and 7

This task also addresses the following course intended learning outcomes that are linked with a code to indicate one of the five CAPRI graduate attribute categories (e.g. C.1, A.3, P.4, etc.):

A.1, C.1, C.3, I.1 and R.2

Type: Design/drawing/plan/sketch
Groupwork: Group, individually assessed
Weight: 50%
Criteria linkages:
Criteria Weight (%) SLOs CILOs
Demonstrate a basic understand of building systems deployed: [1] structure and facade systems [2] HVAC systems [3] vertical transportation, circulation, and egress [4] daylight and lighting systems [5] hydraulic systems 15 3 R.2
Ability to understand and represent the relationship between systems and their consequences on building performance within the specificities of the site and programmatic brief 15 4 I.1
Critical Positioning of the project - specifically relating to the sophistication of the approach to the brief, site and Country, design/spatial explorations and the rationale to arrive at an innovative proposal 50 3 A.1
Quality of presentation materials, including drawings, models and oral presentation 10 7 C.3
Ability to work in a group to deliver a finished product 10 6 C.1
SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Minimum requirements

The DAB attendance policy requires students to attend no less than 80% of formal teaching sessions (lectures and tutorials) for each class they are enrolled in to remain eligible for assessment. Refer to general DAB attendance guidelines.

Pursuant to “UTS Rule 3.8.2”, students who do not satisfy attendance requirements may be refused permission by the Responsible Academic Officer to be considered for assessment for this subject.

Late submissions will be penalised with 10% of their grade per day.

Required texts

A list of the mandatory readings, articles etc. will be posted on Canvas in the 'Reading List' tab.

References

GAMMAGE, Bill (2012) The Biggest state on Earth. How Aborigines Made Australia. Allen & Unwin 384 pp.

LATOUR, Bruno. (2018). Politics in the New Climatic Regime. Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (UK).

LECHNER, Norbert (2009) Heating, cooling, lighting: Sustainable Design Methods for Architects.

LECHNER, Norbert (2012) Plumbing, Electricity, Acoustics: Sustainable Design Methods for Architecture.

MCGREGOR, Alisdair, C.Roberts and F.Cousins (2012) Two Degrees: The Built Environment and Our Changing Climate.

MOSTAFAVI, Mohsen; DOHERTY, Gareth (edts.). (2010). Ecological Urbanism. Baden: Lars Müller Publishers/Harvard University, Graduate School of Design. 656 pp.

SASSI, Paola. (2006). Strategies for Sustainable Architecture. Oxford/New York: Taylor & Francis.

Refer to the assessment handouts for additional bibliography of texts.