How do the formal and informal systems of our cities define how we live, work, move, consume and negotiate public space? How do shifting political, economic, technological and sociological climates affect the discourses about our cities? As a generation facing out-of-reach house prices, population growth, lock-out laws, political conservatism, and bloody expensive avocados(!), imagining alternative ways of occupying the city is a necessity for future architects.
The Future Utopias studio unpacked the current macro policies and legislation that frame Sydney and the micro human behaviours that result. Layering this with technological advancements and sociological shifts, this studio prompted students to conceive a different vision for a 2050 Sydney. Students interrogated the current negotiation between urban systems and human behaviour to formulate new methods. Through illustrated manifestos and architectural speculations, students provoked new ways, formal and informal, to inhabit the city.
This studio demonstrated that architecture is not merely about built form, but also an instrument with the impetus to cultivate conditions through our built environment that sit in reciprocity with social change.
