In September 2013, Fiat Chrysler Group Australia partnered with Monash University’s Faculty of Art Design & Architecture (MADA) to provide a great opportunity for students from the fourth-year MADA interior architecture course.
All were invited to propose a new design for the entry of the Fiat Chrysler Group head office in Port Melbourne. The brief placed no conceptual limitations on students, though they were asked to work within the existing structural aspects of the space and given a realistic facilitation budget to make this a live project, not a hypothetical one.
Monash interior architecture lecturer and Studiobird director Dr Matthew Bird, tutored the eight groups of students who entered the competition. “I’m very proud of the ideas and quality of the proposals developed to date,” he says.
Winners will be announced next week. The judging panel included: Veronica Johns (president and CEO of Fiat Chrysler Group), Mitch Knight (director, Madock Group), Matthew Bird (Monash University and Studiobird), Sven Mehzoud (senior lecturer, interior architecture, Monash University) and Cameron Bruhn (editorial director, Architecture Media).
The prize will see the winning team realizing their design, by building it in collaboration with Studiobird. The winners will also fly to Turin in January 2014 to see the fabulous Fiat factory there, meet with local designers and visit famous interior architecture sites.
Fiat’s famous factory at Lingotto, Turin, is a Mecca for students, architectural photographers and devotees. Designed by the young architect Matté Trucco, it was the largest car factory in the world when it opened in 1923, set over five floors, each devoted to a specific part of the production process, and crowned by a rooftop racetrack for testing. Though the plant ceased operation in 1982 and was subsequently redeveloped, the racetrack remains and can still be visited today.
