Subtle Asian Traits: A Suburban Handbook

Kimberly Pakshong

Supervisor: Vicky Lam

Who am I and how do I exist within the constructs of the Australian identity?

Situated in the heart of Springvale, this project is a response to the Springvale Boulevard Rejuvenation Project, a public offering, and a projection of the future density of the suburb.

The project addresses a desire for recognition and representation of Asian migrants within Australia’s national identity. To represent and to recognise involves a willingness to understand and to empathise, looking at the same thing with different eyes.

The Hills Hoist adapts into a food dryer, shoes lined up on the front steps, a symbol of occupation within.

The project takes an anthropological approach towards the migrant home. The ethnographer observes these adaptations of the traditional Australian suburban home through object and ritual and in turn uses these adaptations to inform a new vernacular. The architect is the outsider, the Asian migrant the local.

This project isn’t about creating a new typology of living or about distinguishing foreignness in the local context, but about an architecture concepted from a desire to give acknowledgement and recognition, celebrating acceptance and belonging.

Copyright © 2021 RMIT University Terms Privacy Accessibility Website feedback Complaints ABN 49 781 030 034 CRICOS provider number: 00122A RTO Code: 3046