SUBJECT OVERVIEW

The focus of this studio is on the production of an urban design vision at the scale of an sustainable urban district or new settlement.

Students develop principles and practices for urban design at this scale: morphological and typological analysis, urban design frameworks, functional mix, spatial practices, pedestrian networks, density, place identity and iconography. This studio has an emphasis on relating the fields of urban design and urban planning. This is the capstone subject for the Urban Design and Planning Major of the Bachelor of Environments and the subject concludes with an exhibition.

OBEJCTIVES

For students to be able to:

• demonstrate an ability to interrogate a brief;
• demonstrate an ability to generate a variety of design possibilities for a given situation;
• develop basic skills in various two, three and four-dimensional media;
• demonstrate an understanding of relationships between architecture and urban design through the application of the above;
• develop the ability to make a case for proposals.

GENERIC SKILLS

• Both verbal and graphic communication skills for urban design.
• Generation of design ideas.
• Appropriate use of design terminology.
• Time management and meeting deadlines.
• Relation of presentations to designs.
• Data collection and interpretation.

STUDIO OUTLINE
Associate Professor Barrie Shelton

Precincts do not make cities, cities make precincts.

The city’s raison d’être is exchange – of goods, services, ideas, information, friendship, etc. The city’s movement and transportation networks enable these exchanges to take place, thus the structure and nature of these networks play a prominent role in determining the effectiveness and convenience of a city’s operation. Bill Hillier’s statement: “places do not make cities, cities make places” reflects this condition: the design for any precinct must arise from a deep understanding of its place in the city’s wider structure. This is the point of departure for the studio.

While the later part of the semester will focus on the shaping of a precinct, the earlier weeks will be an investigation of the city’s urban structure, followed by the insertion of a new public transport line into the existing network. The resulting points of interchange will form the focus of new precincts, and the shaping of these precincts will be the primary studio task.

The first tasks will be investigations of Melbourne’s tram and rail networks – their structure, physical characteristics, relationships to each other, and to the street structure and associated patterns of built form and activity. It will be to recognise different patterns across the system and the implications of these for the operation of the city. Investigation of these key components (spatial structure, modes of transportation and their physical interfaces) is central to our understanding of urbanism.

Next will be the superimposition a new public transport line onto the existing system: this will cut across the predominantly centreto- periphery radial system that now exists. The studio is premised on the fact that cities, which are occupied at higher density levels, are able to make better use of public transport (with multidirectional multi-modal systems and effective interfaces between systems) are most energy efficient.

Note that Australian urban densities are amongst the world’s lowest, Melbourne included, with districts approaching even 50 persons per hectare a rarity. Cities of low densities rely heavily private motor vehicles for transportation and are heavy consumers of energy. In Hong Kong, whose built-up areas are occupied at over 600 persons per hectare, only 10% of journeys are made by private motor vehicle. In low density Melbourne, at 16 persons per hectare, it is the other way round, with 10% of metro trips on public transport. Densities must be increased in many locations, and public transport must be both intensified and diversified, if the city is to be responsive to emerging environmental, economic and social circumstances.

At present there are effectively three public transport conditions in Melbourne. There is an inner city area with a network of tram tracks – covering 245km and incorporating 1,813 tram stops over 28 routes. Beyond this area, several tram-lines radiate further out. Within and far beyond the tram network, there are 16 railway lines that extend out also in a tree structure. Between and beyond is a more ad hoc series of many but usually infrequent bus routes.

The particular aims of the semester project are to develop:

• a knowledge of the nature and role of connection within cities, and of the relationship between urban density, urban structure, and movement.
• a deeper understanding of Melbourne’s urban structure and public transport systems with special reference to interfaces between scales and modes
• abilities to investigate and interpret these structures as a basis for design interventions, and
• abilities to envisage urban design models and concepts for urban precincts that embrace multiple transport modes and address issues of interface between them.

Studio activities will be supported by a series of lectures that cover relevant aspects of urban structure and pattern, movement, urban morphology and urban design, with some special references to East Asia since it is in that region that some of the best examples of urban infrastructure and public transport can be experienced.