Heterotopia

The river, the bay, the existing fabric and a networks city of and, and, and…

Multiplicity

The built forms, spaces, orders, images and aesthetics of the contemporary city are the result of a multiplicity of economic, political and cultural forces. While some existing planning and design discourses and strategies are useful in dealing with these forces, it could be argued that others are not coping with the scale and intensity; or the dynamic, complex and pluralist character of the contemporary metropolis.

As part of a contemporary pluralist society, the city is no longer structured around a simple linear hierarchy of forms, spaces, orders, or a singular aesthetic, with a clearly defined sense of purpose or direction. It has become a multiplicity of inter-connected coexisting social systems, connected in all directions.

This studio will engage with a range of recent theory that may provide other concepts and other tools for urban designers to intervene with the contemporary (multipli) city.

The matrix, the smooth, the complex, the sublime

Of prime interest for this studio are those theories that present other ways of seeing form, space, order, and aesthetics.

Blunt urbanism

The blunt instruments of height control, land use planning, and traffic engineering have left city spaces devoid of any semblance of vision beyond a place for land speculation and profit taking.

Sharp urbanism

What strategies can be used to infuse the city with a vision of quality and the complexity of life, a vision beyond the pragmatic and the narrow definition of economics as profit making?

Site

2.5km2 Urban Renewal Fishermans Bend, Port Melbourne