13.12.10 by Daniel Marshall

2010 Glenn Murcutt Masterclass

Australian masters…

Working in groups…

Sustainable design…

These are all things that scare me, architecturally speaking. So it was with some trepidation that I attended the 2010 Glenn Murcutt Master Class, a course running over two weeks lead by Priktzer Prize winning architect, Glenn Murcutt.

He was joined by Richard Leplastrier, Brit Andresen, Peter Stutchbury and for a few evenings and some of the critiques, Rick Joy from the USA.

Boyd Centre

What an arrival. The pedestrian navigates between the cottages that were the artist’s house and studio, rounds a corner draped in jasmine and then bang. A pure geometry that addresses our arrival, the landscape down to the river below and the ethereal transparency of the forest above.

The Approach

The idea of the course was to rediscover the essential qualities of architecture. The media of architectural production was deliberately limited. Butter paper, pencils, T-squares and corrugated cardboard were the materials provided.

Site was analysed within the  broader landscape context

What I learned:

I think this can be best surmised in the list that fellow student, Alberto J. Zavala Aquirre, from Yucatan Mexico, hand wrote and gave as a personalised copy to each of the other students on our final day.

  1. Relax
  2. Adjust
  3. Listen to what is around
  4. Try and piece it together
  5. Don’t rush
  6. Think about courage
  7. Smell
  8. Now look carefully
  9. Find the reasons
  10. Weave it together
  11. Trust your judgement

3 Comments to “2010 Glenn Murcutt Masterclass”

  • Brian Lockyear says:
    14.12.10 at 07:07

    You and your group did a great project, Daniel. I very much enjoyed meeting you there, and know that I learned the most from working with so many fine people from so many different places.

    – Brian -

  • Alberto Zavala says:
    18.12.10 at 12:41

    By the way Peter Stutchbury,is the author of the list that you mention,after I made him a question… he just started writing down these fabulous concepts of how to aproach an architectural design,…Daniel,who let the dogs out??-Alberto

  • Daniel Marshall says:
    18.12.10 at 23:05

    Hola Alberto!…the dogs were always out…we just didn’t realise.


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