Twenty-one students from Western Sydney University who participated in the 2024 Urban Transformation Summer School program are showcasing their architectural designs and drawings of Mount Druitt at a new exhibition being held at the University’s Engineering Innovation Hub in the heart of Parramatta.

Delivered by Western Sydney University in partnership with Powerhouse Parramatta, the summer school is supported by Holdmark Property Group following their transformative $10 million commitment to Powerhouse Parramatta in 2022. Now in its second year, the annual multi-disciplinary program empowers the next generation of urban designers by providing students hands-on industry experience and guidance from reputed academics and architects.

The Urban Transformation Summer School is offered to Masters students studying architecture and industrial design at the university. The two-week program engages with a different Western Sydney council to develop a real-world design challenge for students to solve, using the local urban area as a model.

For the 2024 program, the students worked with Blacktown City Council on a design challenge focused on the pedestrian path from Mount Druitt train station to Mount Druitt Hospital. The participants were tasked with assessing the pedestrian journey and designing small interventions that could improve the spatial, environmental, and practical amenity of the walking route.

“Our Masters students were given the task of developing micro-architectures that might optimise this landscape and improve its urban amenity. They were given a limit of 10sqm for the footprint, but could site their project anywhere across the CBD. As these architectures became more resolved and considered, they reinforced the power of small things to make a meaningful difference,” Western Sydney University Professor Michael Chapman explained.

Prior to the opening of the exhibition on 20 March, a symposium was organised at Western Sydney University titled ‘Becoming Blacktown’, featuring presentations from the architects behind projects across Blacktown City Council that the students visited as part of the program. Architects included McGregor Coxall, Sam Crawford, CHROFI, JMD, ARM, Architectus, Lahznimmo, Eoghan Lewis and Carter Williamson.

Holdmark founder and CEO Sarkis Nassif said, “As an intergenerational family business with a project focus in Western Sydney, Holdmark is thrilled to provide students with valuable industry exposure through initiatives such as our summer school program. Our goal is to equip students with the confidence they need as they transition into the workforce.”

Powerhouse chief executive Lisa Havilah added, “As a museum that proudly supports and enables Australian design, Powerhouse is thrilled to support the next generation of urban designers emerging from Western Sydney. We are so grateful to the Holdmark Property Group for their generous support of Powerhouse Parramatta and their contribution to industry.”

The student-designed project interventions for the Mount Druitt thoroughfare will be on exhibition and open to the public until 8 April 2024.

Image: Lawrence Nield Mt Druitt Hospital 1982; Image by Max Dupain; supplied by BVN.

Branko Miletic

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