Index
Sustainable Architecture Postgraduate
About the Sustainable Architecture stream
Sustainable Architecture staff
Architecture gallery: Sustainable Architecture Projects
Postgraduate programs
Master of Architectural Research (by project or thesis) - Sustainable Architecture
Post-professional research degree
Senior Supervisor:
Graham
PhD in Architectural Research (by project or thesis) - Sustainable Architecture
Post-professional research degree
Senior and Co-Supervisors:
Nigel Bertram, Professor of Architectural Design, RMIT Urban Architecture Laboratory Director
Graham Crist
Brian Eckersley
Research and Postgraduate Administration Coordinator
RMIT School of Architecture and Design
Building 8, level 12, room 07
Phone +61 3 99253505
A cohort of students are addressing questions of architectural sustainability through individual research projects, and in doing so, forming a bridge between the RMIT Centre for Design (CFD) and the Urban Architecture Laboratory (UAL). Their questions can not be divorced from the large questions of the contemporary city, and the UAL's well articulated methods for scrutinising it.
Questions of sustainability are instantly recognised as global, just as they are discovered to be culturally specific. One student, researching green building in Japan, opens up the comparison with her own building culture in Melbourne. Another, examining the emergence of mega-cities in Vietnam questions their sustainability, while another views the explosion of high-rise in his own context of Hi Chi Minh city as inevitable. Here the question is how design can render the situation socially, culturally and environmentally viable. A German student is examining the Australian suburb from a particularly global perspective. The project for prefabricated sustainable housing spans from building technique to urban form. As ESD in architecture uncouples itself from a technically determined locus, a very engaging field of knowledge is emerging.
Current postgraduate candidates include:
Enza Angelucci
Master of Architecture - Sustainable Architecture, current candidate
Senior Supervisor: Graham Crist
Abstract:
Flurry of a city
This project is based on research that investigates the phenomenological development of the twenty-first century urban cities on the edge or in the midst of intense urban expansion, the Mega City, specifically the current and proposed urban expansion of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. A theoretical framework, as established by Jonathan Roffe, will be analysed. The framework breaks down the complexities of the city into manageable parts, allowing a reading for the city, that does not “treat the city by way of the problematic subject/built-object dualism”, but discusses the city through a fundamental series of movements: flows, codes and strata. The premises of this research is to create a framework that will assist developing cities that are experiencing significant economic urban growth (“neo-liberal urbanism”) and becoming economic centres realised as joint ventures between governments and developers whose interests are fundamentally economically sustainable rather than socially or environmentally driven.
Stefan Naumann
Master of Architecture - Sustainable Architecture, current candidate
Senior Supervisor: Graham Crist
Abstract:
The factory made green castle - A vision for the future suburban home At 70%, Australia has the highest proportion of owner occupation in the world and most of these houses are in the suburbs. To own a home is still a dream for most people but “only 3% of Australian houses are designed by an architect” (Fairleight, 2006). How can an architect make a contribution to this market and how to improve the sustainability and efficiency of the house and also its broader urban context? Is the low density detached house still an appropriate option? There is a projected housing demand in the major Australian cities due to immigration and changes in household size and the small scale, on site building practise, that is common in the Australian housing industry can probably not cope with the demand. The aim of this research project is firstly to investigate the current situation regarding design and sustainability of detached houses in Australia. Secondly to offer some suggestions of what a design oriented, sustainable, affordable and flexible home for the Australian suburb could be. This research will examine the possibilities of architect’s involvement in this impersonal market sector and if prefabrication and mass customisation are ways to achieve these goals.
Hung Nguyen
Master of Architecture - Sustainable Architecture, current candidate
Senior Supervisor: Graham Crist
Abstract:
This research will look for the possibilities of good models for high-rise buildings and demonstrate some appropriate examples as guides to future high-rise in Vietnam. It will contain three design projects at three different sites and examine to find out the appropriate model for each of them. By comparison the projects in three places I can figure out what are the differences and what drive to the dissimilarity of the building in each site. The first project is in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This project, the second one, is a high-rise housing in Richmond, a suburb of Melbourne. This focuses on the new housing prototype: a lager household size for blended family, extended family (migrants) and new family types (blinded family, three generation family) or for shareholder, corporation housing and co-housing (owner and tenants). The standard flat is three level household, 150 square meter and available for up to six tenants. Building section is a variety of Unite d'Habitation so the spaces are tidy and efficient. Natural ventilation, solar protection in summer, orientation and thermal mass are the other issues.