The capstone project required a proposal of a university within a post work society. Centered in Barangaroo, Sydney, and informed with an archipelagic strategy, the project demanded a multiscalar response to demonstrate both the conceptual and technical logics. John Hejduk’s “Victims” (1984) operated as a catalyst to address the foundational language of the project.

The project investigates the contemporary university model as one that not only is intrinsically linked to the capitalist system but perpetuates the commercial values which currently drive society. Despite the illusion of welfare that these universities promote, human beings have never been the priority. Instead, the institution is motivated by monetary value and international status.
The Anti-Uni aims to challenge the current university model by consciously operating solely at the benefit of the people. Therefore, as people descend into more hedonistic and self-serving intentions in the post work society, the objective of the proposal is to focus on personal fulfillment to encourage individuals to contribute more broadly to the community.

The islands of the university archipelago work to refuse the current conservative canon and technocratic discourse to instead reorient the students within a more progressive learning environment. By offering this new urban pedagogy the university is able to “educate” on the necessity of a pleasure-focused future, which liberates current topics like sexual freedom and social sustainability.

The Anti-Uni investigates pleasure as a means of ‘self-investment’, one that provides and celebrates instant gratification – as opposed to the current capitalist canon where pleasure must be earned and “worked for”. Thus, the “university” facilitates less destructive modes of pleasure such as those that relate specifically to the stimulation of the senses. Pleasure will be experienced at a multiscale, beginning with the body and exploring the potential of the tangible and intangible.

The archipelagic typology allowed for violent insertions into the city fabric using the ruination of the existing commercial structures as a shift towards the immediate future rather than a loss. The deconstruction of capitalist ruins gives opportunity to recede the embodied energy involved into the construction of these new islands. As such the physicality of the university can manifest the guilt-free landscape it is trying to instill into its “students”. The use of the ruins as both a representation of the sites past capitalist framework and a tool to ‘pierce’ it into the new post work society, entropy is subverted and the engendered divisions that currently operate at a university level are questioned.

Thus, the Anti-Uni pushes for architecture to include and pursue pleasure as a program and organising principle. It intends to investigate the qualities of programs that currently synthesize pleasure, and how we understand it, to inhabit the architecture. As such the proposal becomes one that not only scrutinizes and questions the current university institution, but one that operates from pleasure itself as a plane to do so.

The project was developed at the University of Technology of Sydney.

KOOZ What prompted the project?

AH | MT | BB The aim of the studio was to design a ‘Post-Labour University’, not only intending to produce a building complex but to reconsider the way in which the university would systematically and socially operate. The design process was driven by provocative speculation around the future of university institutions and its role within a post-labour society. It was also stimulated by the iconic Sydney site, Barangaroo, and the prompt to employ John Hejduks archipelagic precedent, "Victims", as a catalyst for the project. Speculation was firstly informed by abolition of three key elements of the University as we have known it; student debt and casualisation of teaching staff, the transactional nature of current teaching/learning schemes and the very notion of work.

KOOZ What questions does the project raise and which does it address?

AH | MT | BB The Anti-Uni explores the dynamics of a university which operates in a post-labour society, therefore, it questions the necessary learning objectives of a typical education system. The project interrogates the rigid hierarchy between students, professors, and institution leaders. It aims to remove the give/take relationship between players and shifts its priorities to revolve around the individual human experience. Therefore, The Anti-Uni intends to explore the opportunity for a pleasure-driven environment, one which liberates current topics such as sexual freedom and social sustainability. Doing so, the project questions the collateral damage of capitalism in which wellbeing and pleasure is subdued, hierarchy is enforced, and archaic attitudes that pleasure must be “worked for” or earned.

KOOZ How does the project formalise its conceptual intentions?

AH | MT | BB The Anti-Uni aims to provide a fluid environment for humans to explore their own personal interests and boundaries in an act to disengage from capitalist intentions. Therefore, the university is sprawled across the city, invading capitalist monuments and repurposing the spaces to align with the pleasure-driven activity.

KOOZ How and to what extent has the current pandemic shaped and affected the educational sphere?

AH | MT | BB The current pandemic has hugely impacted the educational sphere. Firstly, it forced us to question the necessity of a physical university. In some ways it got much smaller as the buildings and classrooms were no longer being used and it evaporated to mere online spaces. However, it could also be said the university environment expanded greatly as suddenly students and teachers were sprawled across not only Sydney but globally. Despite the impressive ways universities adapted to the online world, the time spent apart allowed us to reflect on the benefits of face-to-face learning environments. Whilst it has forced universities to break down it allows them the opportunity to rebuild themselves – one that has the potential to develop updated and more progressive educational systems.

KOOZ What are for you the opportunities which arose and can be developed as a consequence of this new normal?

AH | MT | BB With the onset of the new normal, the process of production became more flexible. As the end outcome was not necessarily physically tangible, it gave room to a broad array of deliverables previously not considered. With a redefined set of deliverables, we were able to utilise the digital platform as a means of exploring aspects of our project that may have otherwise been missed. In our project, this was displayed specifically through animation, allowing us to delve into the less tangible sides of the architecture; The subtle changes in audio and lighting that occur within spaces alongside the influence of environmental factors. With our buildings not necessarily having distinct indoor/outdoor divisions, this allowed the experience of these threshold spaces to be explored in a less literal means.

Alongside this, the new normal forced the adoption of new skills or the reinterpretation of existing skills as a means to communicate across this digital platform. The faculty relied on the online format of uploading and displaying work, this meant we accumulated a database which allowed us to closely track our progress throughout the semester. It also gave us the opportunity to further analyse and learn from our peer submissions as student documents were more readily available (as opposed to print outs which get taken home each day). This created a more open environment where students were exposed to each other’s feedback, ultimately allowing for a richer learning experience for all.

KOOZ How do you imagine the institution of university developing in the coming years? How will its architecture respond?

AH | MT | BB Whilst we agree we may not be able to completely foreshadow what is next for the university institution, we believe that the current response to the COVID pandemic allows speculation on the realities of the future teaching formats of the institution. For instance, during the pandemic, we were able to outsource crit feedback and reviews from a wider audience, engaging with professionals and academics from all over the world as zoom provided a platform we all had to use and engage with. We also believe that as we adapt to the way we understand this new normal, it provides this opportunity to explore other communication methods and capacities to express concepts and ideas. The flexibility of teaching typologies and feedback processes, allowing all hours of engagement with the work and tutor. However, we did find that this change did impact us somewhat negatively, blurring the capacity to “switch off” from work or venture outside the technology we were invested in. Additionally, the pandemic has shown us how quickly students and teachers were able to adapt to changing learning environments, therefore, potentially giving us more confidence to welcoming change in the future.

In terms of the architectural response, university campuses may have to become more efficient in the ways they distribute space due to the reduced need of physical classrooms. Buildings may also become more transitional spaces as students will more frequently come and go from the university, relying heavily on the online format which can be performed anywhere outside the campus.

KOOZ What is for you the power of the architectural imagination?

AH | MT | BB Ultimately through architectural imagination we have the power to further shape and evolve society. The benefit of designing and studying theoretical architecture is that it allows us to engage with the extreme, test boundaries and then hopefully influence and infiltrate parts of architecture that’s to be built. We don’t expect The Anti-Uni to be able to operate in our current society, however, even if we were to adopt a small set of the progressive intentions of the project into real life architecture we would be able to trigger some sort of change.

Bio

Having just completed their bachelors degree of architecture at the University of Technology Sydney, the three teammates are not rushing to complete the Masters degree. Alexandra is taking the time to work full time at a Sydney based architectural practice, Maia is currently pursuing other creative outlets, and Benji has dipped his toes in both ends. Working part time at a Sydney based firm whilst getting a start on some masters subjects.