Soft Shed

sacks, boxes; envelopes, programs; composition and constraint tools for composing architectural spaces. speculating on form in a real environment

This studio will aim to test processes for generating form and composing spaces and objects, in the context of architectural constraints.

Specifically we will speculate and experiment with the slippery relationship between the envelope (the sack, or skin), and the program (the box or briefed spaces) to see what might emerge which is beautiful and unexpected.

We will work with objects and spaces, but also the environment that shapes them.

We will look closely at the forces shaping site volumes; and interrogate functional briefs to see what their manipulation can offer.

We will treat space and building skin as malleable and unexpected; we will show no bias onward to particular formal outcome. We will be open to a wide range of methods; digital and manual; scripted and scribbled.

We will work with three sets of programs: a large house, a civic library, and a medical clinic. There will be three inner suburban Melbourne sites of varying sizes.

These will be vehicles to push and pull numbers and volumes and objects and envelopes, and to make something memorable.