11329 Infrastructural Ecologies
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Subject level:
Undergraduate
Result type: Grade and marksRequisite(s): 72 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10004 Bachelor of Design Architecture OR 72 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10325 Bachelor of Design Architecture Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation OR 72 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10413 Bachelor of Design Architecture Master of Architecture OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C09079 Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Honours) OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10271 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10423 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture Bachelor of Languages and Cultures OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10272 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture Bachelor of International Studies OR 48 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10322 Bachelor of Design Interior Architecture Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses. See access conditions.
Description
The relentless pursuit of economic growth has historically propelled an ever-expanding reliance on natural resources, erasing, shaping, and altering cultures while transforming landscapes. This pursuit of power over resources, environments, and people has led to deforestation, drilling, mining, and extensive terraforming of the planet. As a consequence, biodiversity zones have been devastated, communities displaced, and profound racial, social, and economic disparities have emerged as issues inherently intertwined with environmental changes. This condition presents an opportunity to perceive and redefine resource grounds, atmospheres, and their infrastructures as an interconnected process that does not segregate substance from significance, or nature from culture.
The elective aims to re-narrate the British Empire Exhibition of 1924-1925 in relation to Australian resources profiled at this exhibition. It is centred on mapping as an investigative act that reveals the conflicts and productive rights of more-than-human entities and matters associated with the extractive resources and their associated landscapes from the British Empire Exhibition of 1924 to now. The objective of the elective is to critically re-narrate the enduring material flows and metabolic transformations in this region over time (from the 1900s to now), exploiting the evolving perceptions and values attributed to land and its non-human counterparts through periods of colonisation and capital growth.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
On successful completion of this subject, students should be able to:
| 1. | Demonstrate skills in research and architectural thinking |
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| 2. | Develop an informed position relative to the project |
| 3. | Establish a creative response to project brief through an engagement with sub-disciplinary areas of knowledge: history, theory, tectonics and or/practice |
| 4. | Take responsibility for the production of outcomes suitable for the project to be evaluated at undergraduate level |
| 5. | Engage in architectural discourse surrounding topic of area |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes:
- Present critical arguments about how research informs and drives design practice. (C.1)
- Innovate using emergent forms of landscape architectural practice, methods and technologies. (I.1)
- Develop advanced knowledge and skills through self-directed reflective practice. (P.1)
- Independently formulate and test complex ideas, arguments and rationales through designs. (R.2)
- Challenge design conventions through scholarly research and investigative practice. (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
Forms of subject delivery and learning activities are determined in negotiation with the academic supervisor. This may include inquiry-based studio lectures and related discussion, problem identification and analysis, experiential immersion and practice-oriented sessions. The nature of the learning activities will be determined by the subject context with a view to establishing authentic and relatable links to industry practice or research. Active learning activities will test understanding using higher order skills inherent in analysis, peer and tutor critique, empathetic discussion and artefact output. Students should be aware of the expectations for preparatory work and how this links to activities undertaken in scheduled meetings. Online resources for this subject are located on UTS Online.
Students will have several opportunities to receive feedback during the subject. The feedback provided will vary in form, purpose and in its degree of formality:
Formative feedback will be provided during the learning process, typically provided verbally by the subject's teaching staff. It will address the content of work and a student's approach to learning, both in general and more specific ‘assessment orientated’ terms. It is designed to help students improve their performance in time for the submission of an assessment item. For this to occur students need to respond constructively to the feedback provided. This involves critically reflecting on advice given and in response altering the approach taken to a given assessment. Formative feedback may also, on occasion, be provided by other students. It is delivered informally, either in conversation during a tutorial or in the course of discussion at the scale of the whole class. It is the student’s responsibility to record any feedback given during meetings or studio sessions.
Summative feedback is provided in written form with all assessed work. It is published along with indicative grades online through CANVAS. Summative feedback focuses on assessment outcomes. It is used to indicate how successfully a student has performed in terms of specific assessment criteria.
Content (topics)
The subject content will be arranged in consultation with the supervising academic. Each application of study should be required to outline the core learning objectives of the project, the topics and themes to be studied, provide a timetable for the semester’s work and the types of assessment suitable for the projects. Students will be required to attend at least two group meetings where they will present their findings to others enrolled in the special project
Assessment
Assessment task 1: FINAL REVIEW AND PARTICIPATION
| Intent: | Attendance and participation are mandatory for all classes. The course Instructor must be notified of any absences in advance of the class. Students are expected to arrive on time to class with the required work and actively participate during lectures and reviews by asking questions and making comments. Students should be present and engaged during the entire class time. | ||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1 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.): P.1 | ||||||||
| Type: | Demonstration | ||||||||
| Groupwork: | Individual | ||||||||
| Weight: | 20% | ||||||||
| Criteria: | All assessment criteria will be defined within the detailed project description provided by the supervising academic.
This subject also contributes to the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILO's): 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, initiate partnerships with others, take a leadership role when required, and constructively contribute to peer learning (C.1) Communicate ideas professionally and effectively through a variety of mediums: oral, written, visual, physical and digita (C.2) 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) Thoughtfully apply disciplinary learning in work, with a continuing commitment to personal professional development (P.2) 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) | ||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 2: PHASE ONE
| Intent: | Phase One: ‘Energy and Power’. This initial phase establishes the intellectual framework for the elective's subsequent phases. It concentrates on the act of ‘unearthing*’ - histories, narratives, events and effects. Each student whether working individually or in pairs, will start by identifying a resource as a focus for the semester. They will then contextualise this resource within the extractive landscape of the Antipodes. In this phase, you are encouraged to examine both the immediate conditions along a vast transect of the extractive landscape, focusing on its capacity to influence and shape the understanding of land in the Antipodes, from deep time to current existence. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 2 and 4 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.): P.1 and R.2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Design/drawing/plan/sketch | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 45% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Assessment task 3: PHASE TWO AND THREE
| Intent: | In Phase Two: 'Energy, Ecology and Ground, students conclude the process of ‘mapping narratives in the shifting extractive landscape of the antipodes ‘candidates will synthesise the effects on human and non-human communities in the territories under examination. At the conclusion of this phase, students are expected to present a persuasive speculative spatial interpretation of the archival narratives. The aim is to achieve this through a narrated composite drawing and an archive that meticulously indexes and maps the ‘ground’ and its encompassing territories, focusing on a specific set of systems linked to a particular resource. The project at its conclusion will address manifestations of anthropogenic influence, encapsulating political, ecological, social, and infrastructural dynamics. It seeks to illustrate the complex network of systems, both visible and invisible, and their interconnectedness with life, land, ecology, and power structures. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Objective(s): | This task addresses the following subject learning objectives: 1, 3, 4 and 5 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.1, R.2 and R.3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Type: | Design/drawing/plan/sketch | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Groupwork: | Group, group assessed | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight: | 35% | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Criteria linkages: |
SLOs: subject learning objectives CILOs: course intended learning outcomes |
Minimum requirements
The 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.