Sarah Skillington
Bachelor of Environments – Architecture

I chose the Bachelor of Environments because although I mainly wished to pursue Architecture, I wanted to make sure that I didn’t dismiss engineering as a career option.

I decided to major in Architecture because I love science and art. The perfect medium for me between these is something that required knowledge and theory, yet with an element of flexibility and flare. I suppose out of this you get architecture.

My favourite subject was Construction Design because it was a vocational and practical based subject that blended technical knowledge with design.

To me, studying at the University of Melbourne meant studying in the heart of Melbourne, with the best architecture library, best coffee and best student community.

My advice to new students is make contacts in your field.

I am looking forward to becoming a registered architect during the period after finishing my masters degree. My long term my goal is to establish my own business, either by myself or with a partner who shares a similar design ethos and work ethic.

The BEnvs helped prepare me for my current student job at an architecture office.

Five words that sum me up are curious, enthusiastic, hardworking, stubborn and motivated.

My personal motto is when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

SARAH IS NOW WORKING IN THE INDUSTRY

What do you do? I am an architecture student intern at Alison Dodds Architect.

How did you find your job? Personal connections.

Recently I have been working on everything from contract administration to presentation drawings to show potential clients. What inspires you at work? Working in a team of professional and skilled people who are also very willing to share their knowledge with me.

The future of the industry seems that it will respond innovatively to the increasing regulation on building design, namely as a result of recent natural disasters and the increasing significance of energy efficient design.

DESIGN STATEMENT

The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll is a domestic tale set around the unconventional living arrangement of two MelbourneNwomen and their cane-cutting men. While Ray Lawler may notNhave intended his 1955 play to symbolize the raunch surrounding such living arrangement, the 1959 Hollywood re-make entitled ‘Season of Passion’ exposes the evocativeness of a story about unmarried women and their seasonal lovers.

The Horizontal Mullion Theatre has the functional capacity for 254 theatre goers to immerse themselves in Lawler’s 1955 saga. Approaching the theatre’s foyer, one is affronted with familiar domestic forms that are disassembled in a garish show of raunch and plush. These forms enclose the spill space and also the offices for the touring company, theatre management and the director. Theatre goers are lead to make their way to the auditorium up the central staircase that is framed by the pitched roof entrance. Disabled access is allowed through a lift shaft that continues to thrust out the building in an outward statement of domestic controversy.

Inside the auditorium the theme is continued with an overhead window, conventional truss and plush cushion walls for acoustics. The overhead curtains of the window retract as the stage curtain is drawn ready for the play to begin.

There is a different expression used for the back of house to signify the seasonality of the character’s living arrangements, where the 7 months of the year the women are faced with the daily grind of working . Brick, corrugated iron and timber cladding enclose the fly tower and functional spaces of the theatre workspaces, and help to soften the materials of the front of house against the neighbouring residences. A glazed stairwell allows access from street level to any back of house space, whereby visiting consultants may find a direct route to their destination (ie. technician’s office). Truck access for set design is allowed through the loading dock set at 1.2m above street level and is at the same level as the stage. The rehearsal and dressing rooms are located below the stage and light is let in through northern glazing which is set at 1.2m above floor level.

The concept that forms the Horizontal Mullion Theatre has allowed its scale to be relative however not merely an imitation of the surrounding residential buildings. The aim was to step the building up to the fly tower and leave the height of the main entrance comparable to a double storey building. In contrast, the theatre stands as an independent representation of Lawler’s domestic tale and the evocativeness of his characters’ unconventional living arrangements.