11512 Architecture Competition Project

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Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.

UTS: Design, Architecture and Building: Architecture
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level:

Postgraduate

Result type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 144 credit points of completed study in spk(s): C10413 Bachelor of Design Architecture Master of Architecture
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Description

This subject gives students the opportunity to undertake a current external architectural competition chosen by the subject coordinator for its significance and suitability for design experimentation. The requirements of the competition brief, including all parameters of registration, presentation, content and submission, are to be satisfied while adhering to a collaborative working method that approximates the professional design studio. The working method for architectural competitions used in the subject includes the formulation of strategic design directions and the generation of ideas and a process for their selection for further development towards a coherent submission. The subject is only available to students who demonstrate the capacity to work at a high level of design performance in a collaborative setting.

Subject learning objectives (SLOs)

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

1.	understand the role of architectural competitions within the profession as a vehicle for developing new ideas and for individual practices as a means for establishing a public position and profile
2.	understand the mechanisms through which architectural competitions are put forward and judged
3.	formulate a common architectural position or platform from which to make and assess the validity of various design decisions
4.	establish interim goals that enable the timely completion of an architectural brief
5.	gain experience and skills in delegation, co-ordination and the organisation of self
6.	carry out design research and production so as to answer the brief for an external architectural competition of significance.

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)
Communicate ideas professionally and effectively through a variety of mediums: oral, written, visual, physical and digital (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)
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)

Teaching and learning strategies

Studio based workshops structured around an architectural competition. Practical activities include design research, preparation and concept drawings, and development of a proposal and satisfaction of competition submission requirements through presentation in digital and physical models. The competition scenario includes planning of activities to meet submission deadline under the leadership of a design practice and an academic.

Content (topics)

The subject will consist of seminars and design workshops, typically in an intensive learning mode. Research, conceptual design and development, and presentations will be done individually. Students will be encouraged to direct discussion, formulate a process of working together and set a timetable of goals to be achieved over the course of the subject.

Assessment

Assessment task 1: Research and analysis report/drawings

Intent:

This task will introduce students to analytical thinking, formats and methodologies through a typological study. Students will select an article from the presribed reading list and prepare an in-depth typological study of Boyd House II. Students will examine Boyd's ideas on space, culture, socio-politics and technology, and demonstrate the spatial, programmatic and contextual strategies deployed in his own work(s). Drawings will be complemented with a short text that will reflect this critical analysis. The study will be formatted consistently and will be compiled into a shared document that will act as a studio resource for the remainder of semester.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 3 and 6

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

Type:

Case study

Groupwork:

Individual

Weight:

35%

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Ability to analyse Boyd's idea(s) on space, culture, socio-politics and technology from selected text(s)	30	6	R.3
Capacity to precisely analyse and communicate the spatial, programmatic and contextual strategies through the study	30	6	R.2
Develop a critical reading of the precedent through multiple mediums (architectural drawings, documents, text and verbal presentation)	20	1	C.2
A refined positioning statement that incorporates the intent of student's project in relation to the idea(s) discussed in his or her study	20	3	I.1

SLOs: subject learning objectives
CILOs: course intended learning outcomes

Assessment task 2: Drawings and/or model to comply with brief

Intent:

In this task students will resolve an architectural competition project at a range of scales, in response to the requirements of the brief. Students will develop their spatial strategies in context and apply detail to resolve the project. Technical resolution should balance conceptual and theoretical logic analysed and developed from Assessment task 1. The culmination of the project will take form through a final review and a successful submission of the competition project.

Objective(s):

This task addresses the following subject learning objectives:

1, 2, 4, 5 and 6

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.2, I.2, R.2 and R.3

Type:

Design/drawing/plan/sketch

Groupwork:

Individual

Weight:

65%

Criteria linkages:

Criteria	Weight (%)	SLOs	CILOs
Develop a design proposal that demonstrates a clear spatial, programmatic and contextual response	30	6	A.1
Depth of design resolution which reflects conceptual and theoretical logic	20	1	R.2
Formulate verbally and graphically a critical position that drives a pertinent, cohesive architectural response across multiple scales	20	5	R.3
Present a cohesive presentation in a range of media that communicates an architectural proposal anchored within an articulated position statement	20	4	C.2
Creative application and use of material(s) in line with the competition brief	10	2	I.2

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.

Required texts

G. Stanley Collyer, Competing Globally in Architecture Competitions, Wiley, 2004.

Recommended texts

Alison Page and Pual Memmott, Design: Building on Country, Thames and Hudson, 2021.

Cees de Jong and Erik Mattie, Architectural Competitions, Benedikt Taschen, 1994.

Elisabeth Tostrup, Architecture and Rhetoric: Text and Design in Architectural Competitions, Oslo 1939-1996, Papadakis, 1999.

Hilde De Haan and Ids Haagsma, Architects in Competition: International Architectural Competitions of the Last 200 Years, Thames and Hudson, 1988.

Jack Nasar, Design By Competition: Making Design Competition Work, Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Mauro Baracco and Louise Wright, Robin Boyd: Spatial Continuity, Routledge, 2018.

Naomi Stead, Tome Lee, Ewan McEoin, Megan Patty, After: The Australian Ugliness, Thames and Hudson, 2022Peter Raisbeck and Christine Phillips, Robin Boyd Late Works, Uro Publications, 2020.

Philip Goad, "A Voice from the Margins: Robin Boyd and 1960s Architecture Culture," in The Figure of Kowledge: Conditioning Architectural Theory, 1960s-1990s, Luven, 2020.

René Boer, Amay Chester, Floris Alkemade, Atelier Bow-Wow, Rewriting Architecture—10+1 Actions for and Adaptive Architecture, Valiz, 2020.

Robin Boyd, Australia’s home: why Australians built the way they did, Penguin Books, 1978.

––––––, The Australian Ugliness, Text Publishing, 2010.

References

On Comeptitions

http://www.thearchitectureroom.com/
http://www.deathbyarch.com/html/competitions.html

On Robin Boyd

Modern Melbourne: Mary Featherston Interview, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J842E6cgREg

A New Era For Melbourne’s Iconic Featherston House, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMwkzH0o3Dc

Walsh Street House 1958, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SN52Hha9f30

Robin Boyd: Australian Ugliness, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_L6bx1J48w

Sacred Spaces Robin Boyd House, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J57YgItpjQ