Exhibition: Tokyo07 Studio
Monday 14 - Friday 25 April 2008, The Atrium, 1st Floor, Architecture building
702 474 Investigation Program (Tokyo-Melbourne Studio)
Masters of Urban Design, Master of Landscape Architecture, Master of Architecture
Coordinators: Professors Catherin Bull (University of Melbourne) and Darko Radovic (the University of Tokyo)
Tutor: Nakamura Hitoshi (the University of Tokyo)
Students who had participated in the Sustainable Environments Studio (South East City Edge) in semester 2 2007, had the opportunity to travel to Tokyo and work with students of The Faculty of Engineering (which comprises architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, planning) in the Centre for Urban Regeneration at the University of Tokyo for a two-week intensive in November 2007.
The experience the Melbourne students had already gained in that studio was used as a basis for their collaborative work with local students. The focus were Nezu and Yanaka, two historic the precincts of Tokyo which have survives both the great earthquake and conflagration in 1923 and the American bombing in 1945.
Twenty-one students from seventeen nations took part in this studio, which provided a rich cross-cultural experience, as well as a cross-disciplinary. Students worked in groups, negotiating joint positions and learning to tap into each other’s skills and insights. Students participated in an introductory briefing, a guided walking tour of the neighbourhood, an international symposium on issues and current research into the complexities of Nezu and Yanaka. They presented their work in several interim presentations and on the final day to teachers and visiting critics.
The Melbourne students were asked, at completion, to produce posters that recorded their experiences, compared work processes and learning methods and demonstrated the basics of reflective practice. The Tokyo-based students then went on to develop more detailed work, developing urban design and architectural responses to the strategies that had been generated during the Melbourne-Tokyo workshop.