Transforming the Design Studio Through an Engagement with Melbourne’s Hydropshere

How does a deliberate engagement with a hydrosphere injured by climate change impact the development of new curricula for the design studio? Given the anticipation of major destabilizations to our hydrological cycles, it is vital to question whether the conventions of design practice as well as teaching still hold water? As the development of established disciplinary and practice standards in architecture have been informed by the presumption of a stabilized Holocene, when formulating new design courses, could the design fields acclimatize to a new set of contexts and practices? This paper will elaborate on this by reflecting on an ongoing series of design studios that we have initiated and directed within architecture as well as urban design programs in Melbourne, Australia that focus on cultivating design practices that respond to climate challenges associated with the hydrosphere. These threats are defined by oscillations between two extremes; its acute overabundance and an austere scarcity. Climate change is anticipated to bring an increased frequency and severity of flood events to the city’s neighborhoods while extended droughts will threaten the capacity for water as a resource to sustain Melbourne’s existing ecologies and projected populations.¹

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Teach.2021.21

Volume Editors
Jonathan A. Scelsa & Jørgen Johan Tandberg

ISBN
978-1-944214-38-8