STUDIO YANGON
MLA1 Spring 2014: Arch7102 Systems, Scales and Strategies in the Urban Landscape
Instructors: Ivan Valin, Melissa Cate Christ and Scott Jennings Melbourne
For more information, student blog and coursework, please see studioyangon.com
This core studio of the MLA program explores the fundamental strategies of designing and planning in urban environments and takes on the unique challenges of cities undergoing rapid urban and ecological transformations within Southeast Asia. Studio Yangon 2014 is the first studio in a multi-year commitment by the division of Landscape Architecture to explore environmental design in Myanmar’s primate city. Our focus this year is on
the Yangon River waterfront. This landscape, also known as the Strand, is a working port and logistics zone with heritage value and development potential—it is a contested site and one that deserves immediate attention. Ultimately the work done by the studio at the scale of the waterfront functions as a lens to understand the environmental, social, and infrastructural challenges impacting the city and region.
The field trip to Yangon, from the 10th to the 17th of March, will engage students in an intense exercise to gain first-hand experience in arriving and gaining orientation within unfamiliar urban and cultural contexts. Skills in fieldwork will edify theoretical and disciplinary concepts related to landscape systems, environmental planning, and urban design introduced throughout the course. During the trip, students will be introduced to individuals who are actively engaged in planning and advocating for the future city. They will meet local professionals and students to exchange experiences and knowledge. The trip follows a concentrated period of preliminary site research across a range of subjects and will be followed by an 8-week site-design exercise in which the students will synthesize their observations and analysis into visions for a new waterfront and a new Yangon.