studios · 2025-08-01

All that is public melts into air (2025)

TITLE

All that is public melts into air (2025)

DESCRIPTION

Building on the 2024 investigation of the Atherton Gardens Estate, this expanded studio critically examined the Victorian government's plan to demolish all 44 public housing towers under the Big Housing Build. Fifteen students worked across sites in Fitzroy and Prahran with First Nations cultural advisors, integrating climate resilience, Indigenous knowledge systems, alternative housing models, and intergenerational space-making. The studio positions design research as a form of policy advocacy — contesting the erasure of public housing and the displacement of communities who have called these estates home for decades.

CONVENOR
Prof. Janet McGaw, Dr. Kelum Palipane
TUTORS
Bella Singal, Carey Landwehr
GUEST ADVISORS
Adriano Zarosinksi – TRACT Consultants
Nina Tory – Henderson
Suheri Purnomo – Blur Architects
Dr Alex Brown – MADA
Matthew Borg – OVGA
Tom Jones – ARM Architects
Julie Rabaud – Law Architects
Ripeka Walker – MSD
Mei Hesketh – ATIPMIA24 Cohort
Deanna Wu – ATIPMIA24 Cohort
Anas Basheer – ATIPMIA24 Cohort
Matthew Sandison – ATIPMIA24 Cohort