86533 Design Studio: Spatial Agency

Description

Spatial Agency is a design studio that explores the potential of architecture to make positive contributions to the conditions and wellbeing of people, cultural practices and environments. It is the aim of this design studio to understand, design and interrogate the agency of space as a relational condition in the making of urban and regional environments. Contesting conventional interpretations of the built environment as immovable and passive, this studio advocates architectural design practice as dynamic, active and performative. Focusing on socio-architectural spatial dynamics within complex political environments, the studio looks for opportunities in which expanded spatial practices can make valued contributions to the communities and stakeholders in which the student's proposed architectural interventions are situated. Proposing a dynamic relation between social and architectural spatial formation, the studio investigates the complex relations between architectural and social space. Promoting provocative, expansive and contemporary potentials of architecture, Spatial Agency offers seven ‘live’ studios to introduce a variety of sites, programs, and contexts. Common to all studios is a commitment to social justice with which students are asked to situate a design scheme which provides tangible benefits for a predetermined group of stakeholders. The design studios constitute the core of teaching and learning throughout the Interior Architecture program. Design projects are framed within theoretical discourse and positioning in the studio environment. Projects aim to build spatial intelligence and innovate environments through thoughtful and rigorous individual design processes. Accompanying the design studio is a series of weekly lectures and tutorials unpacking contemporary and historical case studies, theoretical frameworks and diagramming techniques to inform design processes and outcomes.