Santiago Travelling Studio

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2009:

Travelling studios are working laboratories for design thought and production and involve the exploration of complex, real-life issues. They expose students to unfamiliar cultures, places and people and stimulate their ability to think creatively and problem solve. The Santiago studio will be led by different staff members each time it is run and will engage learning in more than one of the Faculty’s disciplines, thus encouraging an interdisciplinary focus.

In May of 2008 the Chaitén Volcano in southern Chile erupted and 4,000 residents of the fishing town of Chaitén had to be evacuated. Ash and debris from the eruption choked the surrounding rivers and forced water over the banks of the Río Blanco flooding the town. A new delta extending into the harbour at Bahia Chaitén was also formed. The Chilean Government has proposed the construction of a new town, Nuevo Chaiten, to be built 10 kilometers to the northeast to re-settle the residents of the old town.This cross-disciplinary design studio will focus on the design of this new settlement, for which a site has already been selected. The studio will focus on proposing sustainable urban design and landscape architectural solutions for the new settlement. The site of the new town is located in a spectacular landscape of rugged mountains, lakes and rainforests and is the gateway to Chile’s remote Palena Province and Pumalín National Parks. Design proposals for Nuevo Chaiten will be developed by students from the University of Melbourne, working hand-in-hand with landscape architecture, urban design and architecture students from Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile (http://www.puc.cl/) that will be exhibited in Santiago and later at the University of Melbourne, as well as documenting the results in printed format.

Pre-trip briefings or seminar will precede the travel component of the studio. The studio will incur travel costs, in addition to tuition fees. Faculty subsidies will, however, be available.

• To encourage students to identify and engage critically with issues of environmental sustainability and social and cultural difference in an international setting.
• To stimulate creative thinking and problem solving within students through their experience of how local issues govern planning, design and construction processes in a particular location.

• Pre-trip research Power Point presentation (20%)
• On-site design development package (30%)
• Final design package equivalent to 5000 words (40%)
• Post-trip presentation to the faculty (10%)

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

• Interdisciplinary teamwork
• Understanding and navigating social and cultural difference
• Knowledge transfer
• Organisational collaboration
• Managing risk