REGENERATION Archives - Unsettling Queenstown

MAKING WITH

Ben Cottam on 16 May 2023

MAKING WITH

CONTINUING THE EXISTING THROUGH THE NEW

NMBW Architecture Studio

LOCATION
VIC
Flinders, Westernport
Warn-ma-in, Boon Wurrung

Making with is an attitude and approach to working with the existing and place. It denotes an acceptance of working with the given as a starting point to create something new. Making with brings the processes of designing and making together, and includes acts of careful taking away, rearranging, and patching. The stages typically called demolition and construction are not bounded and separate, rather they occur in a richer syncopation, not necessarily one before the other, or without detail design relationship and possible ambiguity between the two.

The original Flinders house was built by a fisherman and his daughter, later two fish shop rooms facing the street were added to the front of the house. The connection of the original house to the place through its fishing family history is drawn through the making of the new project. The outcome is a continuity of siting, materiality and colour of the original house and outbuilding in the new volumes. The blue colours come from the colours of the existing house, in their original and faded forms, the red and white colours from the fish shop blind.

nmbw.com.au

CLIENT
Mairéad McMahon

ARCHITECT
NMBW Architecture Studio

BUILDER
McMahon + UTRI

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
Phyland Consulting

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UNSETTLING GROUND

Ben Cottam on 16 May 2023

UNSETTLING GROUND

NURTURING AND INVITING IN

NMBW Architecture Studio + Openwork

LOCATION
VIC
Richmond, Melbourne
Naarm, Boon Wurrung and Woi Wurrung Country

We ask how we can relate to the ground as active and remember what lies dormant.

While much historical and contemporary urban practice is based upon an approach of ‘settling’ of ground, the Richmond factory conversion is an urban ‘unsettling’ of ground. This two-story brick building is a former factory filling the extent of its site. Taking away is a significant part of the project. A large cut-out is made in the existing continuous ground floor concrete slab, exposing the ground. A cut-out in the first level slab above and new large skylights bring natural light down to the ground.

Material taken away is rearranged and reused. Decisions around reuse consider the capacity for materials to be in relationship with and catalysts for the conditions of the wellbeing of the ground and plant growth. The holes in the concrete slabs, made through both coring and cutting of the concrete, make circular and square blocks of concrete that will be rearranged into stacks to support plants and create microclimates for the plants to erode, trespass, and grow out of the rubble and waste of the building.

nmbw.com.au

CLIENT
Tripple

ARCHITECT
NMBW Architecture Studio

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Openwork

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
FORM Engineers

BUILDER
Never Stop Group

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Subtraction

Jessie Lewis on 16 May 2023

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SUBTRACTION

CUTTING THROUGH THE COLONIAL

Nervegna Reed Architecture (Anna Nervegna + Toby Reed)

LOCATION
VIC
1 Neill Street Maryborough
Dja Dja Wurrung

Subtraction is the act of cutting through colonial architecture in order to reveal and open up space for multiple viewpoints, readings, experiences, histories and stories. Subtracting and erasing (tactics also used by colonialism to opposite ends) can be used as ways of investigating and provoking new heightened and inclusive visual and spatial experiences. The tactic of Subtraction can literally cut through the colonial architectural order, opening up dynamic ruptures in the historic order, while encouraging multiple perspectives, viewpoints and program possibilities.

In the Wartaka (coming together with purpose) we discussed this strategy (and the others) with the Djandak and Djaara Members design team. We discussed the idea of, rather than performing a ‘normal’ historic reconstruction of the building back to its 19th century state (and ideology), we would slice through the building, subtracting elements, to reveal and create spaces which connect cultures, multiple ideologies, beliefs, histories and stories: a system of design tactics which reveals new, multiple truths in the spaces (and unsettle the notion of a single dominant colonial ideology).

This process created building cuts and subtractions through the existing building and produced new horizontal spaces through the gallery to the Dja Dja Wurrung Indigenous interpretive sculpture garden and its stories of fire and water, and vertically through the truss structure towards the bell tower, opening up a perspective never before seen, and not part of the original colonial design intention.

nervegna-reed.com.au/projects/cgag

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Nervegna Reed Architecture

INDIGENOUS SCULPTURE GARDEN DESIGN
Dja Dja Wurrung Aboriginal Corporation and Three Acres Landscape Architecture

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Cutting Spatial Channels

Jessie Lewis on 16 May 2023

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CUTTING SPATIAL CHANNELS

ERODING THE COLONIAL SPATIAL SYSTEM

Nervegna Reed Architecture (Anna Nervegna + Toby Reed)

LOCATION
VIC
1 Neill Street Maryborough
Dja Dja Wurrung Country

This tactic involves cutting and overlaying spatial connections through existing architectural space, opening up the spaces to allow for multiple perspectives. The colonial system is eroded, yielding new levels of enquiry and consciousness and allowing space for multiple, alternate histories, stories and viewpoints which are permanently linked to place and Country.

The space within the channels is treated as form or ‘space-objects’ within existing built fabric. These channels collide and cross in complex ways reflecting the dual cultures of the colonial and the Indigenous. This erodes the ideology of the existing, effecting ruptures in the spatial system and thereby its attached ideology. Eroding the existing colonial architectural form encourages acknowledgement, enquiry and perception. The tactic allows for the suppressed but enduring link to place and Dja Dja Wurrung Country, via the spatial channel connections to the Indigenous Interpretive Garden, which explores the themes of fire and water.

nervegna-reed.com.au/projects/cgag

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN
Nervegna Reed Architecture

INDIGENOUS SCULPTURE GARDEN DESIGN
Dja Dja Wurrung Aboriginal Corporation and Three Acres Landscape Architecture

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MONOCULTURE

Jessie Lewis on 16 May 2023

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MONOCULTURE

REALMstudios

LOCATION
VIC
East Melbourne
Wurundjeri

The context, geographical, operational and conceptual, for this project is a series of drainage easements in Melbourne’s east. Once integral parts of the extensive and interconnected network of waterways in the Birrarung (Yarra River) Valley, these creeks were home of the Wurundjeri people of the Yulin Nation. These riparian corridors were travelling routes, settlement sites and food and water sources, especially in times of drought, when humans and animals alike would gather around clearings in the forest along creeks, where vegetation continued to flourish.

The creeks were part of a regional-scaled natural flood management system, fluctuating through drought and inundation. The Wurundjeri have co-existed with this fluid landscape for millennia, as custodians of Country and its ecosystems. The richness of the landscape for which they cared, and their deep knowledge, endure today – this project aims to recover some of this richness, and restore some of this knowledge.

Contemporary management, engineering and hydrological practices had reduced the corridors to monocultures, dedicated only to the efficient conveyance of water through the landscape.

This was our starting point.

realmstudios.com/channel-naturalisation

PROJECT TEAM
REALMstudios, Alluvium Consulting, E2DesignLab

CLIENT
Melbourne Water

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ERASURE

Jessie Lewis on 16 May 2023

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ERASURE

REALMstudios

LOCATION
VIC
East Melbourne
Wurundjeri

The primary physical act was the removal of boundaries, both physical and conceptual, that segregated the drainage easement from surrounding ecologies, both human and natural. This included the deconstruction of the trapezoidal concrete drainage channel; once this dangerous canyon was removed, fences separating the corridor from surrounding residential neighbourhoods could also be removed.

realmstudios.com/channel-naturalisation

PROJECT TEAM
REALMstudios, Alluvium Consulting, E2DesignLab

CLIENT
Melbourne Water

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RE-FRAME

Jessie Lewis on 16 May 2023

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RE-FRAME

Sibling Architecture

LOCATION
VIC
Melbourne, City of Melbourne
Eastern Kulin Country

Existing historical monuments that sit in the public realm demarcate moments in history. These monuments construct an idealised, fraught, and sometimes deeply painful representation of history.

The Re-Frame tactic uses an architectural device to enact a type of required confrontation, to reposition and re-think the histories conveyed by these structures. Re- Framing focuses attention to new details that allow us to question the narratives embedded within these objects.

Re-Framing was used in the ‘Over Obelisk’ project, where a new occupiable structure was erected around the John Batman monument, located within the Queen Victoria Market. The Re-Framing acted as an interruption to the monumentality of the structure, but also Re- Framed the inscription which stated that Melbourne was “unoccupied” prior to 1835.

The folly draws attention to the monument that needs to be reconsidered as the market precinct undergoes redevelopment. It asks passers-by in English and Woiwurrung: “Do you acknowledge that the events referred to by this monument are inaccurate?” prompting people to re-frame their own position or complicity with the histories presented.

siblingarchitecture.com/projects/over-obelisk/

CONTRIBUTORS
John Tanner
Nicholas Braun
Amelia Borg
Lauren Crocket

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RECONCILIATION AT SCALE

Jessie Lewis on 15 May 2023

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RECONCILIATION AT SCALE

COMPREHENSIVE FIRST NATIONS ENGAGEMENT

Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture, NMBW Architecture Studio, Greenaway Architects, Architects EAT, Aspect Studios and Glas Urban

LOCATION
VIC
University of Melbourne Parkville Campus
Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri) people of the Kulin Nation

The first precinct wide development of its kind at Melbourne’s Parkville campus, the Student Precinct
paves the way for physical recognition of First Nations cultures as a signature project of the University’s ‘Elevate’ Reconciliation Action Plan.

A deep commitment has been made to ensure that pre-colonial thinking, perspectives and sensibilities are infused into the DNA of the project and are expressed by the design teams, along with the careful regeneration of post-colonial (heritage) fabric, for an inclusive and porous precinct that embeds cultural connection at the heart of student experience.

As part of a comprehensive First Nations engagement strategy, over 130 Indigenous stakeholders, representing over 45 First Nations language groups were consulted to ensure design was informed by their voices.

It is in this ‘in-between’ space, resting at the intersection of engagement and design, that the team promulgated a cultural understanding between non-Indigenous and First Nations people. This ensures that the Project embraces ‘Reconciliation at Scale’, and is tangibly activated within the fabric of the built environment – a key strategy that can extend beyond the site ‘boundary’ as an exemplar for future projects.

students.unimelb.edu.au/student-precinct#Indigenous-knowledges

CULTURAL STRATEGY
Jefa Greenaway

PRECINCT DESIGN
Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture
NMBW Architecture Studio Greenaway Architects Architects EAT
Aspect Studios
Glas Urban

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REDISCOVERING THE GROUND

Jessie Lewis on 15 May 2023

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REDISCOVERING THE GROUND

REDISCOVER PHYSICAL COUNTRY TO EMBED FIRST NATIONS STORIES AND MATERIALITY

Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture, NMBW Architecture Studio, Greenaway Architects, Architects EAT, Aspect Studios and Glas Urban

LOCATION
VIC
University of Melbourne Parkville Campus
Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri) people of the Kulin Nation

Central to the landscape vision of the Student Precinct is the ‘Welcome Terrain’ and the ‘Water Story’ – both concepts ensure a strong physical connection with local Indigenous knowledge.

The primary urban design move of the Student Precinct is removal of an twentieth century elevated concrete plaza covering the central area, reinstated by a new version of ‘solid ground’, both restoring the settings of original heritage buildings and embedding them in a new Indigenous-led conception of place.

Underlying the ‘Welcome Terrain’ is a network of connective gathering spaces paved in a patchwork of Indigenous stones that signify reconnection with the ‘lost’ ground. This includes representation of a ‘Water Story’ narrative from the pre-colonial waterway through the site, encapsulating the importance of eel migration paths that have been buried beneath layers of development.

lyonsarch.com.au/project/new-student-precinct/

CONTRIBUTORS
Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture
NMBW Architecture Studio Greenaway Architects Architects EAT
Aspect Studios
Glas Urban

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LANDSCAPE-LED DESIGN

Jessie Lewis on 15 May 2023

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LANDSCAPE-LED DESIGN

BIOPHILIC CONNECTION AND INDIGENOUS CULTURE

Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture, NMBW Architecture Studio, Greenaway Architects, Architects EAT, Aspect Studios and Glas Urban

LOCATION
VIC
University of Melbourne Parkville Campus
Woi Wurrung (Wurundjeri) people of the Kulin Nation

Landscape-led design enables primary moves around and through new and existing built form within the Student Precinct to be completely transformed into a place that enables students to reconnect with nature and First Nations cultural engagement.

Key to the connection of land and student experience are cultural connections to artifacts and history – both at a student level (through politics and performing arts) and through living Indigenous culture (through embedded objects). This elevates natural and external space design interventions above built form.

Critical to architectural materiality in the precinct is the provision of resilience to student expression, with new and refurbished fabric expressed as a raw ‘student scaffold’ ready for inhabitation and re-adaptation over time. This empowers new student culture to take over living space more readily than the previously ‘fixed’ colonial exemplars on the site, and encourages ‘experience’ over physical permanence.

lyonsarch.com.au/project/new-student-precinct/

CONTRIBUTORS
Lyons with Koning Eizenberg Architecture
NMBW Architecture Studio Greenaway Architects Architects EAT
Aspect Studios
Glas Urban