The grounded projection: A reflective examination of urban design pedagogy at Melbourne School of Design

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47818/DRArch.2025.v6si197

Keywords:

urban design, pedagogy, design thinking, Melbourne School of Design, education

Abstract

Urban design education faces unprecedented challenges as ecological emergencies, socio-political risks and technological transitions converge to reshape cities worldwide. These planetary-scale disruptions necessitate pedagogical approaches that prepare future urban designers for fundamentally different professional realities. This paper presents the Master of Urban Design program at the University of Melbourne as a response to these challenges: a grounded projective approach that systematically integrates analytical rigour with speculative imagination across three sequential design studios and a culminating thesis. The paper documents a carefully orchestrated pedagogical journey: students master rule-based design thinking through intensive engagement with urban morphology, design codes, rules and regulations, then collaborate with industry partners to address pressing questions of social equity and public health, before ultimately expanding their temporal vision to envision climate-adapted and technologically augmented urban futures spanning multiple generations. Following this three-design studio sequence, the thesis studio enables students to pursue individual research expertise. Throughout this progression, Melbourne transcends its role as a mere case study to become a genuine living laboratory and a place where students develop profound contextual knowledge. This comprehensive framework demonstrates how systematic spatial-analytical foundations enable rather than constrain imaginative speculation, how individual design expertise can flourish within collaborative frameworks, and how extended temporal thinking can be meaningfully integrated into studio-based education. The program's critical contribution lies in creating space for speculation and projective work by drawing intelligently and creatively from a grounded understanding of urban design practice and enabling students to envision transformative urban futures while maintaining disciplinary rigour.

 

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Author Biographies

  • Onur Tümtürk, Bilkent University

    Onur Tümtürk is an Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Morphology at Bilkent University and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at MIT's Senseable City Lab. His research focuses on understanding how urban form conditions shape various processes in cities, bridging novel approaches including morphometrics, machine learning and spatial analytics. He has published extensively in leading journals such as Cities, Environment and Planning B, and Urban Design International. Onur’s research has been awarded prestigious grants including the Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Grant (2025–2026) and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (2026–2028). He received his Bachelor's in City and Regional Planning (2015) and Master's in Urban Design (2018) from METU, and his PhD from the University of Melbourne (2024). His doctoral research was recognized with the Melbourne Centre for Data Science Doctoral Academy Fellowship (2022), the Bharat Dave Prize for Novel Approaches in Design Research (2023), and the Dean's Prize for Research Excellence (2023). Prior to joining Bilkent University, he taught at Melbourne School of Design (2020–2024), coordinating Master of Urban Design and Architectural Design Studios and teaching specialised courses on urban morphology and design.

  • Justyna Karakiewicz, The University of Melbourne

    Justyna Karakiewicz is a Professor of Urban Design and Architecture at the University of Melbourne's Melbourne School of Design. Trained at the Architectural Association in London, she has held academic positions at the University of Hong Kong, UCL's Bartlett School of Architecture, and the AA, where she co-founded the practice PCKO. Her expertise lies in high-density urbanism, the subject of her doctoral thesis. She has exhibited work at the Royal Academy (London), New York, Kyoto, Barcelona and some twenty other venues. Her competition successes include First Prizes for Gateway to Mecca (1979), Crystal Palace Solar Housing (1981, built), Dunkerque Waterfront (1992, partially built), and Swansea Working Men's Club (1995, built), plus awards in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2005), Central Glass International Competition (2004), and Modern Saudi House Competition (2004). She has published over 70 papers and book chapters, and three books: Making of Hong Kong: From Vertical to Volumetric, Promoting Sustainable Living: Sustainability as an Object of Desire, and Urban Galapagos: Transition to Sustainability in Complex Adaptive Systems.

  • Leire Asensio Villoria, The University of Melbourne

    Leire Asensio Villoria is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Design and Architecture at the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Design. She is a registered architect in Spain, who studied architecture at the ETSASS and received her Diploma in Architecture awarded with honours from the Architectural Association in 2001. Since 2002, Leire has been collaborating with David Syn Chee Mah as asensio_mah. She has worked at a number of international architectural practices including Zaha Hadid Architects, Torres Nadal Arquitectos as well as Allies and Morrison Architects/Arup. Prior to joining MSD, she has taught at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design (2010-2017), at London's Architectural Association School of Architecture, Graduate School Landscape Urbanism (2004-2007) and at Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art and Planning (2006-2010).

  • David Mah, The University of Melbourne

    David Mah is a Senior Lecturer in Urban Design and Architecture at the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Design. Previous to the MSD, David was a Lecturer at Harvard's Graduate School of Design (2010-2017). While at the GSD, David was Design Research Lead for the Health and Places Initiative, a research collaboration between the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health focused on studying the links between the built environment and health outcomes. Together with Leire Asensio Villoria, David is author of the book: Lifestyled: Health and Places (2016, Jovis). Previous to Harvard, he has also taught at Cornell University's Department of Architecture and at Architectural Association’s Graduate School of Landscape Urbanism. Professionally, David has worked within a number of international design practices including FOA and Zaha Hadid Architects where he was engaged in the design and delivery of a number of urban design as well as architectural projects in the United Kingdom, Singapore and Spain. David has been collaborating with Leire Asensio Villoria as asensio_mah since 2002.

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Published

2025-12-31

Issue

Vol. 6 No. Special Issue (2025)

Section

Research Articles

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Copyright (c) 2025 Onur Tümtürk, Justyna Karakiewicz, Leire Asensio Villoria, David Mah

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Tümtürk, O., Karakiewicz, J., Villoria, L. A., & Mah, D. (2025). The grounded projection: A reflective examination of urban design pedagogy at Melbourne School of Design. Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 6(Special Issue), 97-132. https://doi.org/10.47818/DRArch.2025.v6si197

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