Architectural practice examines the way we engage and interact with the world around us.

For Master of Architecture student Jake Kellow, this has meant challenging the relationship between people and animals in an urban environment.

Jake’s major project ‘The Stock Market’ interrogates western processes of production and consumption to help demystify the role animals play within our food systems.

“I sought to interrogate how people engage with systems of production and consumption, to relink consumers with the foods that sustain them.”

Growing up in a rural area, Jake was drawn to the notion of inserting a meat processing facility into an urban context, to address society’s moral and physical disengagement with systems of food production.

“The project reclaims the butcher as a skilled artisan, responsible for linking the once familiar encounter of death with the quotidian visit to the market. The animal is celebrated in its disassembly through the processes of chilling, drying, rendering, steaming and smoking – expressed as architectural forms within a sunken garden.”

While Jake’s major project may be centred in his home of Newcastle, his architectural studies have taken him around the world. As part of his degree, Jake teamed up with organisation HealthHabitat – travelling to Nepal with to help design sanitation facilities for earthquake-stricken communities and schools.

“I was given the opportunity to use the skills I had learnt at university in a real-world application, meeting with local villagers and school students to workshop, design and document sanitation facilities.

“The experience was stimulating and enlightening, providing an insight into the potential career pathways of architecture and bolstering my personal ethos - that architecture is for all people.”

He says he was initially drawn to the University of Newcastle’s Master of Architecture program “due to the size of the city, the bush campus, and the quality of the architecture program on offer.

“However, during my studies, it was the access to 24-hour studio facilities and mentorship from acclaimed architectural professors that motivated me the most.

“The architecture program at the University provides real world, project-based learning. Similar to an architectural office, the courses follow a project from site analysis, concept and schematic design through to design development and working drawings.

“The program provided me the right skills, knowledge and practical experience to secure a job straight after graduating and commence my professional career.”

Learn more about the work of our Master of Architecture students at the 2018 graduate exhibition.

Master of Architecture 2018 graduate exhibition

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Jake Kellow

Jake’s major project ‘The Stock Market’ interrogates western processes of production and consumption to help demystify the role animals play within our food systems.

The architecture program at the University provides real world, project-based learning. Similar to an architectural office, the courses follow a project from site analysis, concept and schematic design through to design development and working drawings.

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