informal urban practices

Why am I doing the studio?

I was initially drawn to the studio for a few different reasons: the inter-school collaborative structure; the chance to investigate urban use and; an interest in cultural/social habits.

Motivations?

I came to interior design from a performance/acting background and so when I’m designing, I think I naturally tend to focus on the body and its relationship to space. How a body interacts, overlaps and connects with design. Designing for the body - user driven design.

I’m interested in the experience of space and reaction to space – mentally, physically, emotionally and culturally. How deeply does it affect our social experience, our state of mind, our choice of action? Can we influence this experience?

I also believe there is a performative aspect of life/everyday activities which is at its most heightened in public space – this could provide an ineteresting starting point when investigating urban use.

I’d like to gain…

A wider technical knowledge, quicker design visualization, a deeper understanding of social interaction in public space and a higher level of resolution in my design outcomes.

My interest lies in the importance of public display and activity to our culture on a global stage. The motivation for this is the amount of bureaucratic red tape surrounding harmless yet illegal activity. I would like to learn how to organise an event to embody my interests and motivations in informal urban practices. This event would act as a platform for council debate on the often out-dated local laws. This project would also include generating excitement in a community through a variety of channels such as blogging.

Why ‘informal urban practices’?

I was drawn to ‘informal’ as a studio because it seemed to be interesting in the way that it approached the realms of public and private space. I like the fact that there is going to be cross disciplinary talk and discussions because this can only help each person to assess there design and way of thought from many angles.

Motivation?

I’ve always been interested in how an environment can be shaped and changed into something that people can use and interact with in many ways. I like seeing shops set up in a way that it utilises all the space available archiving things that you wouldn’t have thought possible. Basically I like the idea of turning unused parts of melbourne into areas where people can gather.

What do you want out of this studio?

I’m hoping to gain an understanding of how other disciplines think during there creative process. I hope I can also gain a new way to approach how a space is used and interacted with. Also further my knowledge on how public and private space can be interwound.

The range of topics and diversity of this course appealed to me immediately. Learning about cultural practices around the world as well as the class’s cross-disciplinary collaborations will allow me to expand my awareness of different influential concepts and how they can be incorporated into my future design processes. I hope to learn how to look at design from more than an Industrial Design perspective and be motivated by the other design styles and ways of thought. I will enjoy learning and communicating with industry professionals from all over the world and with this I hope to expand my design awareness and practice. Creating designs with more than just appealing aesthetics and sound ergonomics is a goal of mine and I hope this course will help me achieve this.

What is it you are interested in in the informal urban practices studio?

Guerrilla film screenings. One-night-only warehouse galleries. Live art. Bridge parties. Skateboarding. I find the notion of owning land to be interesting as well as problematic. Can anyone truly own property if it was never anyone’s to sell in the beginning? I was drawn to this course mainly because of the broadness of the subject matter and therefor the potential to discover things I may love in the future.

What is your motivation?

I think a lot of urban space is wasted. Or at least, neglected. From roof-tops to unused industrial facilities, to uninhabited floors of buildings, to seedy alleyways. I have an interest in cinema and public domain films and think that roof-top cinemas and guerilla screenings utilising pre-existing urban spaces is something I’d like to explore. I’d rather adapt or repurpose a space than create a new structure entirely.

What are you hoping to learn in the studio?

Perhaps some insight into how far the distinction between public and private space can be blurred. How people react when given the opportunity to use public space in ways they might use private space. I’m hoping to get a different perspective on space and spatial interaction from the interior designers.