Master of Architecture Design Studio: Continuums, Data, Being 2 — City North
RMIT College of Design & Social Context— School of Architecture and Urban Design
Project Leads: Dr Patrick Macasaet and Vei Tan
Project Summary
The Continuums, Data, Being 2: City North Project responded to the need to strengthen climate resilience and civic imagination through Indigenous knowledge, emerging technologies and regenerative practice.
The urban site of RMIT’s City North Social Innovation Precinct was chosen as both a test bed and a public interface for the development of speculative architectural ideas that are in dialogue with community, culture, and Country.
The Project operated as a speculative design studio for RMIT Architecture students, using City North as a living lab for future-facing civic, infrastructural and environmental architectures. Student proposals integrated architectural design with care, regeneration, education and culture, drawing on Indigenous perspectives and narrative practices to reframe climate resilience as a civic and participatory endeavour.
A key benefit of this Project for the community, was the transformation of student work into a series of public-facing gaming and immersive events that were projected, discussed, and experienced within City North itself.
The Project was delivered through collaboration between RMIT’s School of Architecture & Urban Design (A_UD), the School’s Immersive Futures Lab, and Indigenous partner Cienan Muir (IndigiNerd).
Key Project Activities, Milestones & Deliverables
The Project delivered a sequence of interlinked academic, creative, and public-facing activities. The primary activity was the delivery of a Masters-level architectural design studio in Semester 2, 2025, that engaged students in speculative design research centred on City North.
A major activity involved the development of a shared and explorable game-based simulation of City North prepared for ongoing public and research use.
This immersive environment allowed student proposals to be assembled, tested, and communicated as a collective urban vision rather than isolated projects. Public activations were also key milestones of the Project. Throughout the semester, a series of Civic Immersive Events were staged across City North — including as part of the program’s 2025 City North Shared Futures Festival and the RMIT Architecture End of Semester 2, 2025 Exhibition; combining invited public talks, student presentations, live critique, and immersive projections.
Key project deliverables encompassed a suite of speculative civic architectural proposals embedded within the shared immersive City North gaming explorable model.
A significant outcome was the Project’s successful selection for Melbourne Design Week 2026, where the work will be presented publicly under the title ‘Gaming Futures’. This opportunity also extends the impact of City North activations beyond the initial project timeframe.
Project Impact
The Project directly responded to the City North Activation Challenge by reframing climate resilience as a cultural, civic and participatory priority, rather than solely a technical issue, and by emphasising the importance of integrating Indigenous perspectives.
Quantitatively, the Project engaged 15 Masters-level students across the semester and attracted public audiences through multiple immersive events staged within City North.
Online dissemination via social media extended the Project’s reach beyond the Precinct, generating ongoing engagement and dialogue. Qualitatively, significant learnings were gained for student participants, in addition to research and cultural outcomes for student participants.
Tangible outputs include a publicly accessible game-based model of City North, documented public events, and a growing body of speculative work now recognised through selection for Melbourne Design Week 2026.
Overall, the Project made a meaningful difference by reframing architectural education as a civic act that invites public participation and centres Indigenous perspectives, allowing for an expansion to how cities can be collectively imagined and cared for.
“The Continuums, Data 2 Project gave the opportunity for students and the greater community to interact with each other.”
RMIT Student from Continuums, Data 2 Studio class
Future Planning
The Project is positioned for continued growth over the next 12 months. The confirmed inclusion in Melbourne Design Week 2026 provides a major public platform to further showcase and expand the City North work.
Future plans include refining and expanding the immersive City North gaming environment as an ongoing engagement and research tool, supporting further public events, exhibitions, and academic dissemination. Furthermore, the gaming environment can be used as a demonstration model for future versions of this work.
Discussions are underway to integrate the Project into future studios, research initiatives, and interdisciplinary collaborations within RMIT and beyond. There is strong potential to scale the model to other precincts and cities, using gaming and immersive technologies and Indigenous-led narratives as a framework for civic engagement, architecture and climate-responsive design education. Long term, the Project aims to contribute to a sustained research agenda around infrastructure, Country, and speculative civic architecture through the leadership of the RMIT A_UD Immersive Futures Lab.
“City North was used as both a testbed and a public interface — as an urban precinct where speculative architectural ideas could be developed in dialogue with community, culture, and Country.”
Dr Patrick Macasaet, Project Lead — Master of Architecture Design Studio Continuums, Data, Being 2 — City North
Acknowledgements
RMIT Master of Architecture students: Hussain Asghar, Vanessa Batras, Callan Beaton, Ashlin Cam, Patrick Downs, Ruoxuan Jiang, Whitney Lay, Wen Kang Evan Leow, On Tung Leung, Andy Luu, Tevin McSweeney, Mandisa Sarker, Natthanan Surachartkumthornkul, Ryan Tan, and Leonardo Teller. RMIT AUD Immersive Futures Lab Student Research Assistants: Ashlin Cam, Dan Jerinel Bay, Kaitlyn Matthews, and Ishika Thakur. RMIT AUD Immersive Futures Lab. RMIT Architecture. Cienan Muir — IndigiNerd Founder (Yorta Yorta/Ngarrindjeri).