EPSILON PROJECTS

Epsilon was one of the projects I was most excited to undertake during my degree because it focused on higher-density housing in Melbourne's middle-ring suburbs. Questions of urban density, walkability, public life, and housing affordability have long interested me, and I entered the studio with a strong interest in mixed-use developments that combine housing with commercial and community functions.

The studio encouraged debate about the relationship between density and liveability, and my project evolved through an ongoing consideration of these competing priorities. While my initial ambition was to pursue a larger and more intensive urban scheme, the design gradually developed into a lower-rise proposal that placed greater emphasis on communal spaces, landscape, and residential amenity.

The final design is a mixed-use development comprising three storeys of housing above an active communal ground floor. Retail and hospitality tenancies are integrated with shared facilities for residents, including gathering spaces, bicycle storage, and communal amenities intended to encourage everyday social interaction. The residential levels draw inspiration from the "streets in the sky" concept explored in projects such as the Bijlmermeer and Robin Hood Gardens, using access galleries and shared circulation spaces to foster a sense of community while maintaining private outdoor areas for each dwelling.

Although the project ultimately differs from the scheme I originally envisaged, it remains an interesting exploration of how density, social interaction, and residential amenity can be balanced within suburban contexts. The studio reinforced my interest in housing design and prompted me to think more critically about the different ways communities can be shaped through architecture and urban form.

GAMMA PROJECTS

My Gamma explores a similar ethos to epsilon at a much smaller scale, where we were tasked with creating three distinct dwellings with communal living arrangements on the site. This was supposed to be an opportunity to explore middle density on a small scale in the inner-city suburbs. I used the subject as an opportunity to conduct my own research into the nature of Australian suburbia, becoming obsessed with Robyn Boyd and the notion of the Australian dream.

Walking around the suburb of the planned development, I hypothesised that people were fighting with the uniformly private nature of the dwellings by trying to curate outdoor spaces which were inviting and showed personality. I wanted to create a space which didn’t force openness with the street but gave users operable elements where they could dictate thresholds and lines of sight to have as much or little openness to the street as possible.

My original design was ill-fated, due to the fact that it wasn’t aesthetically suited to the context of the neighbourhood, and I was told that I had to completely start from scratch in week 10 of 14 or fail, meaning that (after spending four days crying) I only had three and a half weeks to do the entire design and drawings from scratch.

BETA PROJECTS

Beta, we were tasked with creating a Pleasure Garden which unfortunately ill-timed as I was concurrently developing an immense obsession with Yugoslav brutalism, two rather disparate styles which I attempted to merge with surprising success. For some reason I also decided that the design should be a community garden with amenities for homeless people, which I’m sure I had some very passionate reasoning behind.

I actually really like this design, and I learned a lot through the process of designing it. Yes, it probably could have adhered to the brief a bit more, but I ended up getting a really good grade and I was so happy with it at the time. I also love that I can acknowledge it as something that was proud of in 2022, and at the same time see how much I have improved as a designer since then.

ALPHA PROJECTS

Alpha is honestly a fantastic first architecture studio. For the project we were asked to create a narrative surrounding a natural disaster of any description and the ensuing events. We then had to design the site as a place of refuge for a group of people inhabiting the site.

My natural disaster was a meteor which had wreaked serious damage to the planet and atmosphere. Warring tribes existed across Melbourne fighting for resources