Brett Andrews

Master of Architecture, 2021

My name is Brett Andrews, I’m a graduating student of the Master of Architecture program. My time at the University of Canberra has dramatically helped hone my growing interest and focus on the practical applications and study of architectural history and theory. Simultaneously, through the practical industry experience I received at my workplace, I was able to elevate my capabilities dramatically over the course of my study.

My graduating project, in collaboration with Marko Torbarina and Matthew Prestipino, was in exploring the status quo of zoning principles established in CIAM 4, and the notion of ‘city within the city.’ Unlike the typical planimetric approach offered by the city of Canberra, our autonomous gesture explores the potential present in the third dimension that results in a layering of buildings within a volume constrained by the site and wider grid system.

My component of the overall group project is highly centred on a re-coding of architecture explored in John Hejduk’s wall house series into a multi-residential courtyard housing typology – where circulatory elements are distinct and expressed externally from the overall form, distinguished through a unity between core-form and art-form not seen elsewhere. The consistent material use between the various stepped levels of paving, units and courtyards as they conform in scale and geometry to the rest of the project creates a disorientating effect, enabling the design to be perceived as the ground plane of the larger project, rather than being built upon the ground plane.