Mark Southcombe | Victoria University of Wellington (original) (raw)
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Papers by Mark Southcombe
Springer tracts in civil engineering, 2016
The Journal of public space, Dec 9, 2017
This paper records and reflects on two architecture design studios situated between academic and ... more This paper records and reflects on two architecture design studios situated between academic and professional practice contexts. It is motivated by the level of both student and external engagement generated by the studios, which occurred at a significantly higher level than that generated by similar studios that regularly run at VUW School of Architecture and other schools of architecture. The objective is to retrospectively understand the unique or special aspects of these studios for future reference. As a working method, the Cuba Street studios are first described in terms of the motivation, the context, the community engagement set up, their brief and their modus operandi. Outcomes of the studios are then evaluated through our observations and critical reflection on the ways engagement between University and professional practices occurred, and how these interactions affected the student learning and external engagement. Reference is made to the relevant literature, the critical intents of the studios, the immediacy of both the proximity and the seriousness of the motivating problem, the inputs of external bodies, and the detail of the student outcomes in terms of both expectations, and the nature of the outcomes. The paper argues that clarity about characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of academic practices, can augment the potential effectiveness of future architecture design teaching associated with professional engagement, and that the collective framing of student research-led design can deliver research outcomes with a significance greater than the sum of their parts.
The Journal of public space, Dec 9, 2017
In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic... more In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic researchers in design disciplines tend, however, to privilege process. 1 The same conflict is evident in the academic arena, where students often struggle to differentiate design as process from design as the end result. Design in this sense is an iterative process with a contingent endpoint. Pretty and McPherson's essay describes the conflict that results in the classroom when the word "design" is treated as both a verb and a noun. According to their essay: This morphing of the word [design] to encompass so much has led to an apparent designwashing akin to the so called green-washing / eco-sustainability washing of disciplines which has become an enormous taxonomy problem for not only the designer but also for the general populace.
The Journal of Public Space, 2017
Interstices, Mar 29, 2022
Counterfutures, 2021
Urban housing in Aotearoa New Zealand is predominantly unit-titled, individualised dwellings whet... more Urban housing in Aotearoa New Zealand is predominantly unit-titled, individualised dwellings whether the housing is owner-occupied or a rental investment. As housing increases in density, the provision and management of common space becomes necessary. In Aotearoa New Zealand, when this occurs, the extent of privately owned housing space is typically privileged, and shared common space minimised. In contrast, cooperative housing integrates housing, economic factors, and social contexts to create long-term socially and economically sustainable housing. Since the 19th century, cooperative housing has provided evidence of internationally awarded and recognised, self-help, community-generated housing that includes shared components. Cooperative housing offers a third way of achieving affordable housing security, one that lies between home ownership and renting. Legislatively mandated and protected cooperative housing is needed in Aotearoa New Zealand to augment our existing housing produ...
Biological ecologies design and regeneration 2 Introduction: a shifting paradigm in ecologically ... more Biological ecologies design and regeneration 2 Introduction: a shifting paradigm in ecologically focused design 3 Engaging with life: the developmental practice of regenerative development and design 4 Designing for living environments using regenerative development: a case study of The Paddock 5 The paradox of metrics: setting goals for regenerative design and development Contents 6 Ecological design as the biointegration of a set of 'infrastructures': the 'quatrobrid' constructed ecosystem 7 Creating and restoring urban ecologies: case studies in China 8 Towards wildlife-supportive green space design in metropolitan areas: lessons from an experimental study 9 The new design with nature 10 Biomimicry: an opportunity for buildings to relate to place 11 The emergence of biophilic design and planning: re-envisioning cities and city life PART 2 Documenting social ecologies 12 Introduction: how to document urban/landscape assemblages 13 City boids: diagramming molecular urbanism 14 Why would we spend time drawing with people doing their washing in a Chinese village? 15 Object-led interview: documenting geographical ideas 16 Mapping informal settlements: a process for action Mapping informal settlements: a process for action Mapping informal settlements: a process for Contents ix 18 A landscape anthropology of green in Bahrain 19 Valparaiso Publico: a graphic inventory of urban spaces in a Chilean city 20 Being with Hellersdorf: performative counter-mapping as a 21 The happy city: an actor-network-theory manifesto 22 The aesthetics of documenting urban and landscape assemblages PART 3 Ecologies design practices 23 Introduction: on the need for and potentials of ecological design practice 24 Indigenous ecological design 26 Design in relationship with an ecological entity 27 On the rise: a coastal planning strategy for adaptation in response to climate change
Changes in technology and the Australasian Masters in Architecture Professional degree structures... more Changes in technology and the Australasian Masters in Architecture Professional degree structures have changed the way design is taught in our architecture schools. There is increasing emphasis on research that goes with the territory of a higher degree and is evident in recent course structures and design teaching practices. There is a lack of clear demarcation of what differentiates design and research by design outcomes that can create an academic void where design and research may be confused and conflated. This paper teases out implications of emphasis on research by design for the teaching of design. The Depth of Shadow project is considered as a case study demonstrating research through the medium of design in action. Characteristics, strengths and problems associated with research undertaken through design as methodology are identified and considered. Advantages and limitations of design understood as research medium are identified and documented. Clear definition of how des...
Architectural History Aotearoa
The 1890s was a decade of remarkable progress in Whanganui. The depression of the 1880s was over.... more The 1890s was a decade of remarkable progress in Whanganui. The depression of the 1880s was over. The town became an important port and distribution centre with railway connections to Wellington and New Plymouth as well as wharves at Castlecliff and in town. Alexander Hatrick began his riverboat service on the river enabling tourists from all over the world to travel the "Rhine of New Zealand." The colonial town developed culturally. The Technical School of Design was established in 1892, the public museum opened a few years later and the library was extended. The local MP, John Ballance, was Premier until his death in 1893; his state funeral and that in 1898 of the Māori chief, Te Keepa Rangihiwinui, were defining moments in Whanganui's history. A 40-year building boom began, starting with the replacement of old town centre premises dating from the 1860s and earlier. In 1890 there were two architects in town, but only one with recognized qualifications: Alfred Atkins,...
Architectural History Aotearoa
This paper reflects on the architecture of the Wanganui Community Arts Centre 1989, and local, na... more This paper reflects on the architecture of the Wanganui Community Arts Centre 1989, and local, national and international contexts of its design and realisation. It documents and records the project and its history. It advances a reading of the project and its critical aspirations based on personal experience, documentation and the characteristics of the architecture. Finally, with reference to Jan Turnovsky's The Poetics of a Wall Projection implications of an architect writing history of architecture is reflected on.
Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering
This paper reports on a theoretical student design project to seismically upgrade buildings in a ... more This paper reports on a theoretical student design project to seismically upgrade buildings in a historic precinct of Wellington. The unique feature of the structural upgrading, heritage retention and adaptation, and new building interventions in the precinct was that all retrofitting designs were applied to pairs or clusters of buildings in order to develop new strategies for their seismic retrofit. The tying of buildings together as part of retrofitting is rarely encountered in earthquake engineering practice but this can be an important retrofitting approach as shown by the following design outcomes and case-study example. The main finding from the architectural design and seismic retrofit of 70 clusters of two to three buildings was the diversity of the retrofitting strategies that were applied. Two primary categories of retrofitting were identified; tying existing buildings together, and tying existing buildings to new buildings, with each category incorporating several variant...
Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts
The Journal of Public Space
In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic... more In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic researchers in design disciplines tend, however, to privilege process. 1 The same conflict is evident in the academic arena, where students often struggle to differentiate design as process from design as the end result. Design in this sense is an iterative process with a contingent endpoint. Pretty and McPherson's essay describes the conflict that results in the classroom when the word "design" is treated as both a verb and a noun. According to their essay:
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering, 2016
The Journal of Public Space
Springer tracts in civil engineering, 2016
The Journal of public space, Dec 9, 2017
This paper records and reflects on two architecture design studios situated between academic and ... more This paper records and reflects on two architecture design studios situated between academic and professional practice contexts. It is motivated by the level of both student and external engagement generated by the studios, which occurred at a significantly higher level than that generated by similar studios that regularly run at VUW School of Architecture and other schools of architecture. The objective is to retrospectively understand the unique or special aspects of these studios for future reference. As a working method, the Cuba Street studios are first described in terms of the motivation, the context, the community engagement set up, their brief and their modus operandi. Outcomes of the studios are then evaluated through our observations and critical reflection on the ways engagement between University and professional practices occurred, and how these interactions affected the student learning and external engagement. Reference is made to the relevant literature, the critical intents of the studios, the immediacy of both the proximity and the seriousness of the motivating problem, the inputs of external bodies, and the detail of the student outcomes in terms of both expectations, and the nature of the outcomes. The paper argues that clarity about characteristics, strengths and weaknesses of academic practices, can augment the potential effectiveness of future architecture design teaching associated with professional engagement, and that the collective framing of student research-led design can deliver research outcomes with a significance greater than the sum of their parts.
The Journal of public space, Dec 9, 2017
In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic... more In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic researchers in design disciplines tend, however, to privilege process. 1 The same conflict is evident in the academic arena, where students often struggle to differentiate design as process from design as the end result. Design in this sense is an iterative process with a contingent endpoint. Pretty and McPherson's essay describes the conflict that results in the classroom when the word "design" is treated as both a verb and a noun. According to their essay: This morphing of the word [design] to encompass so much has led to an apparent designwashing akin to the so called green-washing / eco-sustainability washing of disciplines which has become an enormous taxonomy problem for not only the designer but also for the general populace.
The Journal of Public Space, 2017
Interstices, Mar 29, 2022
Counterfutures, 2021
Urban housing in Aotearoa New Zealand is predominantly unit-titled, individualised dwellings whet... more Urban housing in Aotearoa New Zealand is predominantly unit-titled, individualised dwellings whether the housing is owner-occupied or a rental investment. As housing increases in density, the provision and management of common space becomes necessary. In Aotearoa New Zealand, when this occurs, the extent of privately owned housing space is typically privileged, and shared common space minimised. In contrast, cooperative housing integrates housing, economic factors, and social contexts to create long-term socially and economically sustainable housing. Since the 19th century, cooperative housing has provided evidence of internationally awarded and recognised, self-help, community-generated housing that includes shared components. Cooperative housing offers a third way of achieving affordable housing security, one that lies between home ownership and renting. Legislatively mandated and protected cooperative housing is needed in Aotearoa New Zealand to augment our existing housing produ...
Biological ecologies design and regeneration 2 Introduction: a shifting paradigm in ecologically ... more Biological ecologies design and regeneration 2 Introduction: a shifting paradigm in ecologically focused design 3 Engaging with life: the developmental practice of regenerative development and design 4 Designing for living environments using regenerative development: a case study of The Paddock 5 The paradox of metrics: setting goals for regenerative design and development Contents 6 Ecological design as the biointegration of a set of 'infrastructures': the 'quatrobrid' constructed ecosystem 7 Creating and restoring urban ecologies: case studies in China 8 Towards wildlife-supportive green space design in metropolitan areas: lessons from an experimental study 9 The new design with nature 10 Biomimicry: an opportunity for buildings to relate to place 11 The emergence of biophilic design and planning: re-envisioning cities and city life PART 2 Documenting social ecologies 12 Introduction: how to document urban/landscape assemblages 13 City boids: diagramming molecular urbanism 14 Why would we spend time drawing with people doing their washing in a Chinese village? 15 Object-led interview: documenting geographical ideas 16 Mapping informal settlements: a process for action Mapping informal settlements: a process for action Mapping informal settlements: a process for Contents ix 18 A landscape anthropology of green in Bahrain 19 Valparaiso Publico: a graphic inventory of urban spaces in a Chilean city 20 Being with Hellersdorf: performative counter-mapping as a 21 The happy city: an actor-network-theory manifesto 22 The aesthetics of documenting urban and landscape assemblages PART 3 Ecologies design practices 23 Introduction: on the need for and potentials of ecological design practice 24 Indigenous ecological design 26 Design in relationship with an ecological entity 27 On the rise: a coastal planning strategy for adaptation in response to climate change
Changes in technology and the Australasian Masters in Architecture Professional degree structures... more Changes in technology and the Australasian Masters in Architecture Professional degree structures have changed the way design is taught in our architecture schools. There is increasing emphasis on research that goes with the territory of a higher degree and is evident in recent course structures and design teaching practices. There is a lack of clear demarcation of what differentiates design and research by design outcomes that can create an academic void where design and research may be confused and conflated. This paper teases out implications of emphasis on research by design for the teaching of design. The Depth of Shadow project is considered as a case study demonstrating research through the medium of design in action. Characteristics, strengths and problems associated with research undertaken through design as methodology are identified and considered. Advantages and limitations of design understood as research medium are identified and documented. Clear definition of how des...
Architectural History Aotearoa
The 1890s was a decade of remarkable progress in Whanganui. The depression of the 1880s was over.... more The 1890s was a decade of remarkable progress in Whanganui. The depression of the 1880s was over. The town became an important port and distribution centre with railway connections to Wellington and New Plymouth as well as wharves at Castlecliff and in town. Alexander Hatrick began his riverboat service on the river enabling tourists from all over the world to travel the "Rhine of New Zealand." The colonial town developed culturally. The Technical School of Design was established in 1892, the public museum opened a few years later and the library was extended. The local MP, John Ballance, was Premier until his death in 1893; his state funeral and that in 1898 of the Māori chief, Te Keepa Rangihiwinui, were defining moments in Whanganui's history. A 40-year building boom began, starting with the replacement of old town centre premises dating from the 1860s and earlier. In 1890 there were two architects in town, but only one with recognized qualifications: Alfred Atkins,...
Architectural History Aotearoa
This paper reflects on the architecture of the Wanganui Community Arts Centre 1989, and local, na... more This paper reflects on the architecture of the Wanganui Community Arts Centre 1989, and local, national and international contexts of its design and realisation. It documents and records the project and its history. It advances a reading of the project and its critical aspirations based on personal experience, documentation and the characteristics of the architecture. Finally, with reference to Jan Turnovsky's The Poetics of a Wall Projection implications of an architect writing history of architecture is reflected on.
Bulletin of the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering
This paper reports on a theoretical student design project to seismically upgrade buildings in a ... more This paper reports on a theoretical student design project to seismically upgrade buildings in a historic precinct of Wellington. The unique feature of the structural upgrading, heritage retention and adaptation, and new building interventions in the precinct was that all retrofitting designs were applied to pairs or clusters of buildings in order to develop new strategies for their seismic retrofit. The tying of buildings together as part of retrofitting is rarely encountered in earthquake engineering practice but this can be an important retrofitting approach as shown by the following design outcomes and case-study example. The main finding from the architectural design and seismic retrofit of 70 clusters of two to three buildings was the diversity of the retrofitting strategies that were applied. Two primary categories of retrofitting were identified; tying existing buildings together, and tying existing buildings to new buildings, with each category incorporating several variant...
Interstices: Journal of Architecture and Related Arts
The Journal of Public Space
In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic... more In professional practice, design operates as both a research method and a final outcome. Academic researchers in design disciplines tend, however, to privilege process. 1 The same conflict is evident in the academic arena, where students often struggle to differentiate design as process from design as the end result. Design in this sense is an iterative process with a contingent endpoint. Pretty and McPherson's essay describes the conflict that results in the classroom when the word "design" is treated as both a verb and a noun. According to their essay:
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering, 2016
The Journal of Public Space
The notion of ecology has become central to contemporary design discourse. This reflects contempo... more The notion of ecology has become central to contemporary design discourse. This reflects contemporary concerns for our planet and a new understanding of the primary entanglement of the human species with the rest of the world.
The use of the term ‘ecology’ with design tends to refer to how to integrate ecologies into design and cities and be understood in a biologically-scientific and technical sense. In practice, this scientific-technical knowledge tends to be only loosely employed. The notion of ecology is also often used metaphorically in relation to the social use of space and cities. This book argues that what it calls the ‘biological’ and ‘social’ senses of ecology are both important and require distinctly different types of knowledge and practice. It proposes that science needs to be taken much more seriously in ‘biological ecologies’, and that ‘social ecologies’ can now be understood non-metaphorically as assemblages. Furthermore, this book argues that design practice itself can be understood much more rigorously, productively and relevantly if understood ecologically. The plural term ‘ecologies design’ refers to these three types of ecological design. This book is unique in bringing these three perspectives on ecological design together in one place. It is significant in proposing that a strong sense of ecologies design practice will only follow from the interconnection of these three types of practice.
Ecologies Design brings together leading international experts and relevant case studies in the form of edited research essays, case studies and project work. It provides an overarching critique of current ecologically-oriented approaches and offers evidence and exploration of emerging and effective methods, techniques and concepts. It will be of great interest to academics, professionals and students in the built environment disciplines.