Before Building
location: Melbourne, Victoria
size: N/A
for:
Melbourne Design Week
with:
Architecture Associates
creative direction:
Samson Ossedryver
date: 2026
Before Building is an ongoing design research project examining the role of dialogue in architectural design. The project launches at Melbourne Design Week 2026 through the presentation of a short film — a visual essay that traces three projects currently underway within the practices of Waters Architects and Architecture Associates, following the conversations, objects, drawings, and small acts of exchange through which architecture slowly takes shape.
The work asks some honest questions. Can collective approaches to design — co-design, collaboration, shared authorship — ever really produce something greater than the sum of their parts? And when they do, how does an architect locate and describe their own role within that process?
Before Building forms part of extended research being undertaken by Danielle Peck, Industry Fellow at Monash Art, Design and Architecture, and Ben Waters, Creative Practitioner and Educational Fellow at the Melbourne School of Design, in collaboration with their respective practices.
This work was made possible with the generous support of the Melbourne School of Design and Monash Art, Design and Architecture.
Stay tuned for future screenings of the film.
{FILM STILL 05} -
COMMUNITY CENTRE - MODEL 1:50
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The film traces three projects currently underway within the
practices of Ben Waters Architects and Architecture Associates,
following the conversations, objects, drawings, and small acts
of exchange through which architecture slowly takes shape. ....