THE BRIEF

As a practicing architect, chances are that, inevitably, you will be involved in some way in residential architecture. Getting you acquainted with manifold tasks that befall the architects of future housing, the IBA Super Studio will also provide you with invaluable experience for the professional world. Upon graduation, you will have obtained a diverse library of references, knowledge and actionable experiences centric on residential architecture and global housing challenges.

IBA Super Studio focuses on two main challenges: the Melbourne Housing Context and the Global Housing Challenge. Both deal with the multi-scalar complexity of the urban condition, and our general relationship to the living environment and the individual dwelling. In IBA studios, design and research link intrinsically towards the relationship between housing and urban context. Topical issues addressed during the studios include flexibility, transformation, density, challenges for different demographies, sustainability, integration, affordability, inclusivity, patterns of inhabitation and processes of community engagement.

IBA Super Studio will engage the student body, academics, researchers, industry, institutions, and councils, to investigate and interrogate the proposed Melbourne Rail Loop and available adjacent land. IBA Super Studio will propose a connected network of IBA sites directly tied into proposed infrastructure, preparing us for the future growth of Melbourne’s housing. IBA Super Studio challenges participants to engage with pressing dwelling and urban issues in cities, as well as with the increasing cross-cultural character of contemporary architectural practice.

IBA Super Studios are laboratories for discussion, exploring new ways of reading and rethinking the challenge of accommodating a growing population: concepts, programs, and methods of working will provoke us to reimagine life in a future Melbourne. We are attempting to find new instruments, formats, and approaches to everyday societal challenges. Themes and programs carry both an educational objective and present an opportunity for the critic to develop with his or her students a specific area of work or research.