Introductory Design Studios

The Introductory Design Studios involve efforts on the part of the instructor and students to understand the generic in the particular and the particular in the generic.

The Generic City - Session 1 and 2, 2007

The main objective of the Generic City project is to learn by creating a generic design for a city based on an empiricist world view. This generic design is not to be a universal one such as those proposed by Howard and Le Corbusier or the New Urbanists but one tailored to a specific region and to a specific culture. Above all the questions being addressed is: ‘What makes a good city within the requirements of a specific climatic and specific ways of life and belief systems?’ Students cooperated with each other in groups when they were facing this challenge. Eight schemes dealing with 5 types of climate have been produced by the students from session 1 and session 2.

Penrith Project - Session 1, 2007

The Penrith project seeks to reflect upon, and apply, the urban design principles explored in the ‘Generic City’ project to the specific conditions of an urban district in Sydney. This Studio focused on a critical analysis of the 2030 Penrith City Centre Plan proposed by the State Government, and other design proposals .

Penrith is located 54km west of the Sydney CBD and lies at the eastern edge of the Blue Mountains on the Nepean River. The studio developed three master plans for a new urban district between the Penrith CBD and the Penrith Lakes Scheme on the proposition that Penrith will become a major ‘River City’ in accordance with Sydney’s Metropolitan Strategy.

Although the individual master plans are very different, they all share a similar philosophy of creating a sustainable and attractive city centred on the railway station, with good access to public transport, having sustainable density, mixed uses with well connected neighbourhoods, high quality public domain and civic functions and a major park in the flood plain of the Nepean River.

Canberra Project - Session 2, 2007

The West Basin Waterfront Studio investigated aspects of the ‘Griffin Legacy’ scheme for the redevelopment of inner Canberra prepared by the National Capital Authority [NCA], which gained approval in controversial circumstances in 2007. It reinvestigated the waterfront proposal to extend the Canberra CBD from City Hill and the campus of the Australian National University to the edge of West Basin. The studio's counter-proposals, which sought to apply the urban design principles explored in the ‘Generic City’ Studio to the specific conditions of this Canberra site, took three approaches aimed at retaining the configuration of the lakeshore at or close to its current condition, and minimising or eliminating the land bridge.