RMIT Architecture & Urban Design is an architecture school based in Melbourne, Australia. We are interested in ideas-led, venturous design experimentation and exploration that aspires to contribute to the future of the discipline and an increasingly complex world. The school is primarily focused on design with an international reputation for design excellence. We focus on research through design practice which is at the centre of our activities. The RMIT Architecture program sees architectural design as a tool for speculating on new ideas about the built environment. The term venturous practice is a summation of its objectives; characterised by the nexus between the experimental or speculative, and the realisable in practice. Its intent is on nurturing a relationship between these two that is both symbiotic and critical; that promotes a culture of practice-based learning, teaching and research. This program aims to engage strongly with architectural practice and with a culture of differentiation within the spectrum of practice. There is a strong emphasis on architectural practitioners forming our teaching staff, and on the notion of the practitioner-academic as a model for carrying out research in the medium of design. We aim to use Melbourne and Australia as the first laboratories for architectural inquiry and to extend this with our global sites and our international partners and collaborators to focus on architectural principles applicable to a wide range of contexts by creating an environment for learning through projects, critical debate and rigorous inquiry. We aim to produce graduates prepared to take responsibility for the constructed environment, and to speculate on it in a venturous manner. Graduates are expected to possess advanced technical and intellectual capabilities, as well as independent and critical positions which enable them to become leaders in the profession.
