To celebrate the Alumni Survey Exhibition, Denton Corker Marshall Land Art: Nine Small Buildings, we gave away two double pases to the Denton Corker Marshall Open House organised by the Robin Boyd Foundation.

One of the winners, Architect Keith Westbook, together with PhD Candidate at Monash University Alysia Bennett, wrote of their open house experience.

Cheese sticks, tubes and ribbons sonds more like a rowdy children's party than the work of a distinguished architecture firm. But as non-Victorians these formal symbols characteristic of Denton Corker Marshall's larger scale civic work, garnered from magazines and fleeting trips to Melbourne, were all that we had been exposed to. Continue reading

Flying in the face of international fear, doom and gloom about the increasing pervasiveness of international slum communities, Sheela Patel, is a three decade advocate of positive solutions to urban poverty.

Ms Patel, the Founder and Director of the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres (SPARC) in India is in Melbourne for a special lecture presented by CoDesign and Melbourne School of Design Sheela Patel on Empowered Slums, Collaborative Networks and Alternative Approaches to Urban Practice.

Ursula Kolecki from CoDesign Studio writes about Sheela Patel's visit.

15 July @ 6.30pm, The Open Stage, 757 Swanston Street

Angus Farquhar, Creative Director of NVA, Scotland, joins us for the next big event in our ABP Agenda series. NVA's work spans architecture, art, landscape, culture, politics, geography and much more. From Speed of Light to the Invisible College, Angus has been behind the some of the most thought provoking and impactful public projects of our time.

This exciting ABP Agenda will see Angus discuss NVA's key projects and elaborate on prospects for the future. Angus will also take part in Reusing Industrial Heritage.

Further Information    Register Here

15 July @ 3pm, The Open Stage, 757 Swanston Street

What are the opportunities in our industrial heritage?
How can reusing these fascinating places and spaces help to reinvigorate our cities, towns and landscapes?
What roles might they play in twenty-first century Victoria?

We debate these questions and more at Reusing Industrial Heritage, an afternoon seminar on the adaptive reuse of our industrial heritage organised in partnership with the Heritage Council Victoria.

Read more       Register

Director of Melbourne School of Design, Alan Pert, celebrated excellence and innovative in Australian Architecture with a myriad of industry professionals at the 2013 Victorian Architecture Awards.

ABP alumni were well represented among the winners, from established to emerging firms. Huge congratulations to all the winners and entrants.

Read more about the winners associated with the University of Melbourne

Images by Nic Granleese

6 August @ 7pm, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Alan Greenberger, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Director of Commerce City of Philadelphia, will present a captivating lecture entitled, Cities, Growth and Design: Perfect Together. Alan will outline the inherent interplay between place, ambition and character, and how successful cities balance these sometimes competing objectives.  The talk will also focus attention on the common major drivers of city growth - government, institutions and businesses - and explore how these drivers can best produce a better quality of life for city dwellers.

Don't miss the third in the 2013 Dean's Lecture Series. Register

Find out more

FAB LAB Potential
With the news of the miraculous first steps of Buttercup the Duck thanks to prefabrication, we thought we'd dedicate a special Design File to 3D printing, ABP's Fab Lab and some related student outcomes.

3rd year Bachelor of Environments students have just completed Studio Air, a design studio focused on creative computation in the design process with a focus on 'design to make'. The final design project is for a new Gateway to the city of Wyndham

We spoke to David Lister, one of the studio leaders, about the fabrication processes that enabled the innovative design interventions from Studio Air.

Alan March, Associate Dean (Undergraduate)

My favourite place in Melbourne is Murchison Square, Carlton.  Much smaller and less well known than nearby Carlton Gardens, it is one of five ornamental parks set out in Hoddle’s South Carlton extension to the city grid. The square suffered early neglect, including rubbish dumping and a reputation for “dubious activities”.  It was periodically fenced off and closed, narrowly missing being sold-off on a number of occasions from 1869. 

Now encircled by one and two storey dwellings, the park is a calm retreat.  It is simple, consisting only of grass, paths, some trees and two metal benches. Despite being close to the central city, busy roads and the vibrant entertainment areas of Fitzroy and Carlton, the square provides domestic and social comfort, mainly for nearby residents.  Visually and acoustically separate from the surrounding city, and with a sense of enclosure on each side, the daily, weekly and seasonal lives of users and passers-by are reflected in its ebbs and flows of activity.