Architecture

Underlying the undergraduate design course is the development of both design thinking and dexterity with tools and techniques. The focus of this design subject will be on generating design ideas, translating them into architectural forms, spaces, materials and programs. Students will learn how to refine architecture through consideration of spatial organisation, environmental context and structural necessity. Students will also learn how to communicate comprehensive architectural propositions through 2D- and 3D-modelling (physical and digital), visual and written media and oral presentations.

The focus in the design studio shifts to technologies and techniques in architectural practice. The studio assignments create an accretive conceptual investigation of fundamental principles into the making of buildings, including structure, enclosure, circulation, program, site, and light. An essential aspect of the design process is the incorporation of abstract thinking and abstraction within architectural production.

Critical use of diagramming, conceptual mapping, narratives, animations and performative expositions join with conventional techniques (plan, section, elevation, axonometric projections and perspectives) to generate and document design ideas.

The design studio focuses on singular, medium-scale programs on prototypical sites, with the development scope of up to 1000m2.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject builds on the knowledge and skills learnt through its prerequisite “Foundations of Design: Representation” by introducing students to contemporary design-enabling approaches and techniques.

Students will be exposed to various architectural design processes and workflows through a set of exercises focused on the diagramming, computing and prototyping of design precedents. Such exercises will require the students to apply an iterative design thinking approach based on the abstraction, formulation, evaluation and transformation of ideas, which is an essential component of any design studio activity. Students will learn how to communicate design ideas, processes and outcomes using architectural drawings, and a variety of visual media and techniques.

The lectures will present and discuss a range of processes and techniques in both the analogue and digital domains, with particular attention given to the most recent development in performance-oriented computational design and fabrication. The lectures will support the students in developing a critical awareness of the relationship between design tools and outcomes. Such an understanding of how parametric modelling and fabrication strategies affect the design process will be developed and tested through reflective writing.

Costs to Students:

Students will be required to purchase modelling and drawing materials to complete this subject, including costs to purchase 3D modelling software and cover laser cutting and 3d printing activities; the overall cost is estimated to be approx. $300 to $400 per person.

Prescribed software programs with a cost
McNeel Rhino

Prescribed software tools
Image editing software (e.g. Affinity Photo)
Vector editing software (e.g. Affinity Designer)
Layout software (e.g. Affinity Publisher)

Details of software availability and pricing are captured at https://msd.unimelb.edu.au/graduate-research/resources/it-support#software

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will survey the history of architecture and urbanism from the beginnings of shelter to the Enlightenment and mid-nineteenth century in the context of social, cultural, political, technical and environmental settings. It will include architecture, designed landscapes and design traditions from early civilisations to colonial sites in Oceania and the Pacific, the Middle East, Europe, South Asia, East Asia and South America. It will survey and analyse values reflected in vernacular buildings, urban landscapes, and institutions of power and belief, and address innovations in spatial organisation, construction technology and design composition, and the importance of theory and ideas in representations of architecture, landscape and urbanism.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Studio Gamma focuses on urban density, designing a habitable environment, dwelling space and green infrastructure. The designated site is located within the urban or inner urban area of Melbourne. The studio unfolds as an exploration of design responses to the interrelated dynamics of 21st century models of urban cohabitation, urban density, and integration of human and non-human living system in an urban setting.
Underlying the undergraduate design course is the development of both design thinking and dexterity with tools and techniques. The focus of this design subject will be on generating design ideas, translating them into architectural and urban landscape forms, spaces, materials and programs. Students will learn how to refine architecture and its interaction with landscape architecture through consideration of spatial organisation, environmental context and structural necessity. Students will also learn how to communicate comprehensive architectural propositions through 2D- and 3D-modelling (physical and digital), visual and written media and oral presentations.
The studio develops familiarity with, and critical awareness of, processes and modes of production that are specific to architecture and the design of urban or inner suburban landscapes. Group work comprises part of the early phases of the studio as team work is a fundamental aspect of architectural practice. Students learn to negotiate individual aspirations and design propositions with multiple partners and associates.

Prescribed software programs with no cost
Autodesk AutoCAD
or Autodesk Revit
Prescribed software programs with a cost
McNeel Rhino
Prescribed software tools
Image editing software (e.g. Affinity Photo)
Vector editing software (e.g. Affinity Designer)
Layout software (e.g. Affinity Publisher)

Details of software availability and pricing are captured at https://edsc.unimelb.edu.au/student-experience/it-support

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject was formerly known as Construction Analysis.

This subject explores the idea of construction as a process that strategically links structural principles to building elements, systems, materials, and techniques. The subject also covers key elements of building services and sustainability, including strategies to achieve internal comfort (related to building orientation, envelope, heating and cooling, air quality, acoustics, water and waste). Using a set of given case studies, students are asked to review and describe the physical anatomy of Australian residential buildings, emphasising how architectural ideas are conventionally translated into sustainable technological solutions. Students are asked to calculate how buildings perform, therefore understanding their impact on the environment.

Prescribed software tools
Drafting software (e.g. McNeel Rhino, Autodesk AutoCAD)
Image editing software (e.g. Affinity Photo)
Vector editing software (e.g. Affinity Designer)

Details of software availability and pricing are captured at https://edsc.unimelb.edu.au/student-experience/it-support

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject will explore the development of modern architecture and urbanism during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It will include the sources and development of the modern movement as well as reactions to it encompassing post modernism, deconstruction and critical regionalism. It will explore changes in politics and society reflected in the theorising, design and experience of cities and buildings, including their planning, spatial organisation, aesthetics and new building types as well as materials, technologies and modes of production. Particular attention will be paid to the dynamic relationships between modernity, modernism and globalisation, and varied means and media for researching and communicating architectural history and theory knowledge.

View detailed information in the Handbook

This subject was formerly known as Architectural Tectonics

This subject articulates and tests the idea of construction as a process requiring cultural and technical choices. While Architectural Technologies 2: Analyse focuses on the internal mechanics of building systems, Architectural Technologies 3: Implement moves from the analysis of specific architectural ideas to arrive at the evaluation and selection of implementation alternatives. Mixing built examples and project proposals, students will be shown how to identify, evaluate and engage with the technological underpinnings of architecture.

View detailed information in the Handbook

Underlying the undergraduate design course is the development of both design thinking and dexterity with tools and techniques. The focus of this design subject will be on generating design ideas, translating them into architectural forms, spaces, materials and programs. Students will learn how to refine architecture through consideration of spatial organisation, environmental context and structural necessity. Students will also learn how to communicate comprehensive architectural propositions through 2D- and 3D-modelling (physical and digital), visual and written media and oral presentations. The focus in the design studio will be on issues of organisational sophistication and the consequence of planning. A critical understanding of how architectural design, planning and spatial order deal with the social, political and civic relationships that define a community, and how architecture transforms or assists (or resists) the transformations of these communities. Particular emphasis will be placed on awareness and critical appreciation of the consequential nature of architectural production, that is, how the control and use of architectural effects are a means of architectural production. The design studio focuses on complex buildings on sites with a development scope of up to 3,000m2. The designated site will be located within the urban or inner suburban area of Melbourne. The emphasis is on speculative undertakings.

Prescribed software programs with a cost
McNeel Rhino
Prescribed software tools
Image editing software (e.g. Affinity Photo)
Vector editing software (e.g. Affinity Designer)
Layout software (e.g. Affinity Publisher)

Details of software availability and pricing are captured at https://edsc.unimelb.edu.au/student-experience/it-support

View detailed information in the Handbook

Underlying the undergraduate design course is the development of both design thinking and dexterity with tools and techniques. The focus of this design subject will be on generating design ideas, translating them into architectural forms, spaces, materials and programs. Students will learn how to refine architecture through consideration of spatial organisation, environmental context and structural necessity. Students will also learn how to communicate comprehensive architectural propositions through 2D- and 3D-modelling (physical and digital), visual and written media and oral presentations.

This is the capstone subject for the Architecture major in the Bachelor of Design, integrating previous coursework in the major.

The focus of this subject is architecture that deals with design issues at the urban scale. The site and accompanying projects deal with a development of up to 100,000m2, or a combination of sites at this scale. The project will see the design within the context of an urban morphology and will examine and explore the consequences of individual projects to their surrounding context. The project will engage with historical, theoretical, structural, and environmental ideas relevant to the specific project through the lectures and various design exercises.

In this capstone subject a high degree of design resolution and comprehensive presentation of the project is expected. The completed project and design journal forms the centrepiece of an undergraduate portfolio.

View detailed information in the Handbook