Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Weeping
Windmill
Spider
Purple Wire
River Swamp Wallaby
Red-legs
Common Wheat
Kangaroo
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley Andrew MacKinnon 836149 Supervisor: Hélène Frichot Semester 2, 2021
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I would like to acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which my project is situated, the Braiakaulung people of the Gunaikurnai Nation, as well as the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation whose land I occupy while conducting my research and design. I recognise their continuous connection to Country and pay my respects to Braiakaulung and Wurundjeri Elders past, present and emerging.
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Contents
Maps of Entanglements 12
Research Question
Material Harvesting
6
93
Previous Studies
Situated in the Latrobe Valley
Thesis Statement 6
16
List of Figures
Bibliography
Unused References
Visualising the Rhizome
Concept Diagrams Site Analysis
148
Extended Ecologies
Creative Research
Literature Review
62
138
Thesis Proposal Elaboration
Concept Design
8
60 Support Structures Parti Diagram 4
Architectural Objects
Post-Holocene Futures
Native Grass, Beer & Bread
Rhizomatic Rejuventation 115
Resolved Design Thesis
Stage 1
112
114
Nerran Campsite & Cabins More-Than Human Companions
Project Timeline
32
90
116
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre
Sample Grass
Rhizomes and Roots
119
Why Native Grasses?
Stage 2
24
118
26
Hazelwood Community Hub 122
Australian Precedents
Rhizome Design Tools
68
Ngurran Reserach Facility
Arborescent History Grass
Sketch Design 88
129 Recreational
Design Precedents
Tourism
34 Post-Extractivist
Post-Industrial 5
Stage 3 128
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery 131
Research Question How can architecture and native grasses be used to rejuvenate the post-extractivist landscape of the Morwell Mine to enhance the local environment and allow for future change?
Thesis Statement This thesis investigates the implementation of a decentralised architecture and native grass ecosystem to rejuvenate the post-extractivist landscape of the Morwell Mine for walking, farming, brewing, baking, and camping. Deleuze and Guattari’s Rhizome conceptually frames the project’s ambitions to draw attention to the complex relationships of the site, its history, its human and non-human inhabitants.1 The project’s small ruptures of architecture within a rhizomatic grassland are dependent on their relationality, a ‘Poetics of Relation’, that looks to form an adaptive assemblage of programmes that open the land to visitors, increase habitat for endangered species, and allow communities to come together to participate in native grain agriculture.2 1 2
Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus, translated by Brian Massumi. London: The Athlone Press, 1988. Édouard Glissant, “Errantry, Exile,” in Poetics of Relation, translated by Betsy Wing (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997), 11.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
Fig 1. Andrew MacKinnon, Weeping Grass, 2021. Independent Thesis
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Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Thesis Proposal Elaboration The Latrobe Valley has been the centre of extraction in Victoria for over a century. Under unprecedented climate changes, we are seeing the phasing out of brown coal for alternative sources of energy. The communities, mostly of low socio-economic status, were founded on mining work, and will now require alternative industries of employment.3. The need for resilient agricultures, protected environments, and public access to regional land and water is as important as ever. Current plans to flood the Morwell Open Cut Mine with water pose serious unknown implications for the Latrobe River, Morwell River, ground water, and downstream Ramsar wetlands, from chemical pollution, contaminants, increased salinity, and water depletion.4 The region requires ecological repair, resilience in the face of increasing fires and floods and a place for community members to come together. This thesis investigates how native grasses and a carefully considered network of architecture support systems can breathe new life into these decommissioned mines in a way that brings ecological, social, psychological, and economic benefits.5+6 The project is composed of three stages; the remediation of the site through native grasses, public access for recreation, and the production of grains.
The introduction of native grasses to rejuvenate the mines and surrounding area will provide natural habitat for non-humans and agricultural land for indigenous grains. The current climate crisis data from the IPCC demands new approaches to agriculture that can withstand harsh weather and demand less water, pesticides, and land.7+8 There are also calls for a return to ecological farming practices that respect natural cycles, indigenous practices, biodiversity, and seasonal harvests.9+10 Native grasses such as kangaroo, weeping, windmill and wallaby grass are all native to the Gippsland area, as are their inhabitants such as quolls, bandicoots, and many insects, birds and reptiles. A healthy grassland, and its adjoining wetlands and woodlands, also supports native flowers and tubers such as the murnong, bulbine lily, warrigal greens, cumbungi, prickly lettuce, water ribbons and samphires. These grasslands are critically endangered with only 1% remaining following widespread agriculture, mining, plantations, and urbanisation since colonisation. 11+12 As calls for resilience increase with wild weather events, it is critical that we reintroduce the native plants that are naturally adapted to fires and extreme temperatures. 13 Our survival in the uncertainty of the ending Holocene (Anthropocene, Capitalocene,
3 “Socio-Economic Advantage and Disadvantage,” Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2016, https://bit.ly/3ABAc2S. 4 Jarrod Whittaker, “Water shortages, pollution mean Latrobe Valley mine lakes plan not viable, environment groups say,” ABC, December 11, 2020, https://ab.co/3mep8oF. 5 Doina Petrescu and Katherine Gibson, “Diverse economies, ecologies and practices of urban communing,” in Architecture and Feminisms, edited by Hélène Frichot, Catharina Gabrielsson, and Helen Runting (Routledge, 2017). 6 Céline Condorelli, Support Structures (Sternberg Press, 2009), 29. 7 Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu (Broome, Western Australia: Magabala Books, 2014). 8 IPCC, “AR6 Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis,” 2021, https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/#FullReport. 9 Pascoe, Dark Emu, 229. 10 Dan Saladino, “Are we eating ourselves to extinction?” The Guardian, September 17, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/17/are-we-eating-ourselves-to-extinction. 11 Bill Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011), accessed June 20, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. 12 Foreground. “‘Wild’grasses are in vogue as priceless native grasslands disappear.” Foreground, May 9, 2019. https://www.foreground.com.au/agriculture-environment/wild-grasses-are-in-vogue-as-priceless-nativegrasslands-disappear/. 13 Louise Wright, and Mauro Baracco, “Designing For Repair,” Landscape Architecture Australia, 159 (2018): 59. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
Chthulucene, Plantationocene, Wasteocene, or Rhizomocene) depends on our environment-world, our milieu and how we make sense of it, remaining habitable.14
establish design tools based on decentralisation, multiplicity, rupture, and connection. The architecture thus, becomes the lines of flight, the leakage, and the ruptures, from the violence of an extractivist past.
The project looks to establish a composition of architectural objects that complement native grass farming and native grassland for non-human habitat. It lies between landscape and architecture, and in critical distinction from precedents of amphitheatres, hotels, flooded lakes, and geodesic domes, and of greater complexity than rehabilitation or renovation projects. The proposed decentred rhizomatic architecture forms a framework for human coexistence within an ecosystem of slow repair. The architecture, as ruptures from the horizontal organisation of grasses, will look to materials that are either reused from the existing power station, locally sourced, dirty and earthen, impermanent, or strategically enduring. The buildings will look to an Australian vernacular to inform their connection to the landscape, sensitively touching the ground, expressing refuge, and maintaining a humble scale. Rhizome does not call for an architecture that mimics organic growth. It is applied to maintain a relationality to the ecosystems, and abstracted to
The programme looks to facilitate custodianship and reliance on the land though Gunaikurnai collaboration to champion food sovereignty, decolonisation, continue traditional epistemologies, and increase the environment’s health and biodiversity.15 An interpretation centre will outline the history of the region, the local flora and fauna and the potentials of native grasses. Wayfinding devices and seating will curate various walking trails throughout the site, and lead to campsites and cabins. The agrarian programme includes storage for machinery, equipment and grains, a mill, and a community hub for the exchange of grains and grasses. A research centre will facilitate ongoing investigation into the potentials of native grasses, including medicines, bioplastics, and biofuels.16 Income for the scheme will come from the wholesale of grains as well as a bakery and brewery, looking to shift from a capital-based income model to a custodial one. Consumers and chefs are beginning to use native grains for their gluten free benefits
14 15 16
Hélène Frichot, Creative Ecologies: Theorizing the Practice of Architecture. London (Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2018), 26-27, accessed August 7, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, Gunaikurnai: Whole Country Plan (Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, July 2015), Institute of Agriculture, “Native grains from paddock to plate,” (Sydney: University of Sydney, 2020).
Independent Thesis
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Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
and diverse flavour, and the implementation of the Victorian Traditional Owner Native Foods and Botanicals Strategy will only increase this demand.17
Rhizome attempts to draw the ecologies and entanglements of the site together into a synthesised concept, through architecture, programme, and landscape.21 Through an ethic of care and maintenance, governance of the site will be shared by a collective of Gunaikurnai people, local residents, Latrobe City Council, and Parks Victoria.22 Rather than neglect, this project explores the potentials of “staying with the trouble” in the recently decommissioned Morwell Mine and Hazelwood Power Station site, setting a precedent for both the Yallourn and Loy Yang mines, transforming the Latrobe Valley from a mining region to a resilient, biodiverse ecology.23
As our climate crisis intensifies, the urgency for action must be reflected in the projects we embark on. Complacency, standardised design, and techno-fixes will not suffice. Privatisation, social and economic hierarchies, and the bifurcation of scientific and indigenous knowledges are failing our environment.18 We must rethink architecture, its relationship with the ecologies it is situated in, and its ability to become an armature for repair.19 Rhizomatic Rejuvenation proposes a system of architecture that draws on the sites environmental, economic, and social ecologies to establish a grassland ecosystem that will increase bird and marsupial numbers and inject life into a post-coal community through agriculture and recreation.20 The conceptual lens of the
17 Foreground, “‘Wild’grasses are in vogue as priceless native grasslands disappear,” Foreground, May 9, 2019, https://www.foreground.com.au/agriculture-environment/wild-grasses-are-in-vogue-as-priceless-nativegrasslands-disappear/. 18 Frichot, Creative Ecologies, 24. 19 Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy, Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment (Barcelona and New York: ACTAR, 2019). 20 Renata Tyszczuk, and Stephen Walker, eds. field: Ecology 4, 1 (December 2010), http://field-journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/field-journal_Ecology.pdf. 21 Felix Guattari, The Three Ecologies, trans. by Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton (London: The Athlone Press, 2000 (1989)). 22 Mauro Baracco, Louise Wright and Linda Tegg, “Seeing and Acting,” in Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet, edited by Angelika Fitz and Elke Krasny and Wien, Architekturzentrum (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019). 65. 23 Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2016), accessed August 11, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
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Maps of Entanglements TAUNGURUNG INDI
EILDON
MURRINDINDI MANSFIELD
BRUTHEN
The river was not enough, but neither would be the dam
WURUNDJERI
LINDENOW
CASEY
BAIRNSDALE
YARRA RANGES METUNG The water springs from the ground, beginning its journey
COONGULLA
NOOJEE
LAKES ENTRANCE
PAYNESVILLE WELLINGTON Terrain unsatisfactory for habitation becomes natures final sanctuary
MAFFRA
HEYFIELD
EAST GIPPSLAND
STRATFORD
All ending in the ocean, forgotten... for now The protected lakes, exposed to upstream contaminants
LOCH SPORT
GIPPSLAND EAST
M1
BAW BAW
A confluence of political, economic, ecological and traditional boundaries
Extractivist and agrarian pollutants find their way into a vital water system
LATROBE RIVER ROSEDALE
WARRAGUL MOE TRAFALGAR
RIV
MORWELL MINE
RWE LL
MONASH
LOY YANG MINE
CHURCHILL
GUNAIKURNAI GIPPSLAND
MO
Wet and fertile lands perfect for plantations
GIPPSLAND SOUTH
SEASPRAY
BOOLARRA
BUNURONG
LONGFORD
MORWELL
ER
NARRACAN
An urban network of towns within a river catchment
TRARALGON
YALLOURN MINE
SALE
LAKE WELLINGTON RAMSAR WETLANDS
MORWELL LATROBE
BASS STRAIT Hauntings from the horrors of past massacres
LEONGATHA WOODSIDE MIRBOO
SOUTH GIPPSLAND
YARRAM
0km 2.5
12 FOSTER
Latrobe River Catchment 12.5
TY
ER
S
RI
VE
TYERS PARK
R
PETERSON’S LOOKOUT
GLENGARRY
WIRLDA ENVIRONMENT PARK LAKE NARRACAN
YALLOURN NORTH
LATROBE RIVER
NEWBOROUGH MOE
M1 TRAFALGAR
HAUNTED HILLS
YALLOURN OPEN CUT
EDWARD HUNTER HERITAGE BUSH RESERVE
TRARALGON LATROBE AIRPORT
LOY YANG OPEN CUT
MORWELL OPEN CUT
HAZELWOOD NORTH MORWELL POWER STATION & BRIQUETTE WORKS
HAZELWOOD POWER STATION
NARRACAN FALLS
TRARALGON CREEK
MORWELL
MORW
ELL R
IVER
HAZELWOOD CEMETERY
HAZELWOOD SOUTH
HAZELWOOD COOLING POND HAZELWOOD CARAVAN PARK
CHURCHILL
JEERALANG TRARALGON PLANTATION
TRARALGON SOUTH FLORA AND FAUNA RESERVE
FEDERATION UNIVERSITY
YINNAR
MORWELL NATIONAL PARK
RESERVED FOREST CALLIGNEE PLANTATION
Latrobe Valley Coal Mines 0m 600
BOOLARRA
13
MOUNT TASSIE
3600
The Reterritorialised The exhausted mine is neglected, left to the wind and water to shape the open soil as seeds take root.
The Terraces Circulation, safety and process leave a scarring of terraces on the earth.
The Dairy Their ancestors ate their way through lush grass and woodland, now they are condemned to open plains and harsh sun.
The Field Introduced grains cover much of the Valley. Demanding water, pesticides and fertiliser.
The Redirected River Anthropos was not deterred by the course of the river. Redirection was a formality.
The Plantation European pine tree plantations mark the transition from flat to sloped. A monoculture before the forest.
The Hole
The Residential
The Billabong
Freshly cut ground. Dark coal. The patterns of extractivist procedure, calculated and cold.
The banality of Australian suburbia, juxtaposed to the sublime of a 4000ha mine.
In slow time, nature too can redirect its course. Guided by the processes of rain, flows, leaks and deposits.
The Extraction
The Cooling Pond
The Irrigators
History repeats itself. One mine was not enough. Yallourn dredgers continue to delve deeper for coal.
A man made lake, made tropical by the heat of a power station, now becomes superfluous.
The introduced grasses are thirty. They demand river water, dam water and ground water
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
Fig 2. Andrew MacKinnon, Topographic Patterns, 2021. Independent Thesis
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Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Situated in the Latrobe Valley
2012 The Flood The Latrobe Valley is situated at the base of the Baw Baw and Strzelecki Ranges, with the confluence of the Latrobe and Morwell River and multiple creeks. While temperate and dry during the summer and autumn, the area experiences large amounts of rainfall during winter and spring. The landscape’s fluvial geology comprises alluvium, sand, gravel and silt, and it was once riparian habitat, adjacent to grassland and woodland, well adapted to flooding.24 To prevent the mines flooding, the Morwell River was redirected to travel around the Morwell Mine and a causeway was constructed to carry it through the Yallourn Mine in order to reach the Latrobe confluence. In 2012, after intense rainfall, the Yallourn mine wall collapsed and flood waters rushed into the mines. This was not the first flood (2007), and it wouldn’t be the last (2021). Flooding threatens the mines power supply, stalls use, and more importantly exposes the river systems to the pollutants within the mines. Masterplans to flood the Morwell Mine have been criticised for potential river and groundwater contamination from toxic coal ash.
24 A.H.M. VandenBerg, Warragul SJ 55-10 Edition 2, 1:250 000 Geological Map Series, 1:250 000 geological map (Victoria: Geological Survey of Victoria), 1997. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
2014 The Fire The township of Morwell and much of the Latrobe Valley was covered in smoke and dust following a 45 day fire in the Morwell Open Cut Mine.25 Like much of Australia, Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley are prone to bushfires. It was a bushfire near the mine that caused the hazardous mine fire.26 The toxic smoke caused nausea, vomiting, and coughing amongst local residents, and the long term effects are only now beginning to reveal themselves, such as cancers and respiratory problems. A Royal Commission into the fire led to a $2 million fine for ENGIE, and the State Inquiry announced new security bonds totalling $591 million that the government can use if mine operators fail to meet their rehabilitation targets.27 25 Tom Doig, The Coal Face (Australia: Penguin, 2015), https:// www.academia.edu/31759811/The_Coal_Face. 26 Nicole Asher and Jarrod Whittaker, “Hazelwood Power Station operators fined nearly $2 million,” ABC, published May 19, 2020, https://ab.co/3iu2lTe. 27 “Hazelwood Mine fire inquiry,” State Government of Victoria, accessed August, 2021, https://www.vic.gov.au/hazelwood-mine-fire-inquiry-victorian-government-response-and-actions. Independent Thesis
Fig. 3. Herald Sun, Hazelwood Fire, 2014. 17
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
1788 The Invasion
1840 The Massacre
The Latrobe Valley was once a rich system of native grasslands, riparian zones, and woodlands, home to many animals and the Braiakaulung people of the Gunaikurnai Nation. For 60,000 years, the Gunaikurnai coexisted with the land, with a deep understanding of its cycles and processes. Port Phillip Bay settled in 1836, 48 years after the 1788 arrival in Botany Bay. In 1840, squatting became legal and parts of the Latrobe Valley began to be settled for livestock farming. The City of Latrobe, as with many other Victorian places, was named after Charles Joseph La Trobe, First Superintendent of Port Phillip (1839-51) and the First Lieutenant-Governor of Victoria (1851-54).
The Gunaikurnai were aware of the British arrival having witnessed sightings of ships on the east coast, but the valley was not settled straight away. By 1836, squatters and settlers began to travel through what would become regional Victoria. In 1840, there was a massacre of 30 Gunaikurnai people in an opportunistic land grab.28 28 “The Killing Times,” The Guardian, accessed August, 2021, https://bit.ly/3jwcdvf.
Fig. 4. Hartmut Veit, Brown Coal Dust Footprints, 2017. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
2016 The Feral Barramundi were introduced to the Hazelwood Cooling Pond in 2016 as Fisheries Victoria saw an opportunity to utilise the warmer waters created from the Power Station.29 Recreational fishers were encouraged to fish and eat the barramundi, despite limited data on the health effects. When the Power Station closed, the barramundi were left to die in cold waters. Unfortunately, not all introduced species have had such a limited impact on the local ecosystems.30 Hooved mammals brought by colonial-settlers, including cows, horses, pigs, goats and sheep ate their way through native grassland. Dogs, cats, and rats turned feral ravaged small marsupial and bird populations, and carp and other introduced fish now dominate waterways.31 Today, the majority of native plants and animals in the valley are listed as vulnerable to critically endangered, while the monsters we have unleashed continue to thrive.32
29 “Hazelwood barramundi,” Victorian Fisheries Authority, https://bit.ly/3ywGekX. 30 Anna Tsing, Jennifer Deger, Alder Saxena Keleman, and Feifei Zhou, eds, Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene (Stanford University Press, 2020), https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/?cd=true&bdtext=what-is-the-anthropocene. 31 Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. EPBC Act Protected Matters Report. (Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2021). 32 Anna Tsing, Heather Swanston, Elaine Gan, Nils Bubandt, eds, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017).
Fig. 5. Nicole Asher, Anglers fish, 2016. Independent Thesis
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Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
1964 The Extraction Lignite or brown coal, the poorer cousin to sub-bituminous and bituminous coal and anthracite, was once plant material and peat, until transformed under immense pressure and heat. It rested in the ground, with clay, sand, humus and basalt, a benign soil enhancer, before becoming a necessary component for global industrialisation. The agriculture centre of the Morwell River flats became transformed into the site of the Morwell Mine. The agrarian territory was reterritorialised through a network of excavations, roads, and railway lines. Over time, the extraction of brown coal would see the mine grow to engulf more land, cause the river and cause the river to be redirected. Nature learnt to inhabit the liminal spaces between the active mine, the farms and the towns.
Fig. 6. CSIRO, Morwell Open Cut Mine.
Fig. 7. Weston Langford, Morwell Open Cut. 1983 Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Fig. 8. CSIRO, Coal Dredger Morwell. Andrew MacKinnon
1968 The Unsettled
2020 The Explosions
The State Electricity Commission (SEC) announced the closure of the township of Yallourn in 1968. The community relocated to Yallourn North and other Latrobe Valley towns. By 1983, the old town was completely demolished and engulfed by the expanding mine. The small township of Hazelwood was established in 1964 for workers at the Hazelwood Power Station. The town was renamed Churchill following the death of Sir Winston Churchill. Mines are generally established away from urbanised centres, however, they require dwellings for workers. On the periphery of perceived civilisation, on the ‘frontier’, the mine and the newly established urban engage in a tussle for land.33 Ultimately, the mine devours the town, or the town outlives the mine, in both circumstances, nature remains, resilient and ever present.
The death of the Hazelwood Power Plant was as destructive as the creation of the mines themselves. ENGIE, the French multinational energy company in charge of this Australian mine, began the demolition of the power plant and the mining dredgers in 2020. The iconic Hazelwood sign was removed and is in storage for future use, but the iconic chimneys, the four boiler houses and the dredgers were all demolished using explosives.34 The old yacht club and caravan park will be demolished due to vandalism. After 53 years of service, there was no attempt to retain, restore, repair or leave parts of the mine as a form of industrial cultural heritage. The very equipment that destroyed the landscape was made redundant in much the same way. ENGIE predict their legally required rehabilitation work to be complete by 2023, leaving a 1281 hectare (ha), 100 metre (m) deep hole in the ground.
33 Laura Junka-Aikio and Catalina Cortes-Severino., “Cultural studies of extraction,” Cultural Studies 31, no. 2-3 (2017): 178, doi: 10.1080/09502386.2017.1303397. Independent Thesis
34 “The ENGIE Hazelwood Rehabilitation Project,” Engie, accessed August 2021, https://www.hazelwoodrehabilitation.com.au/ 21
Fig. 9. Nearmaps, Hazelwood Power Station. 2020. Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
2019 The ENGIE Proposal Following the decommissioning and closure of Hazelwood Power Station and Morwell Mine in March, 2017, ENGIE and Arup produced a Master Plan for the mine’s afterlife.35 They proposed transforming the 4000ha site consisting of the mine, cooling pond, demolished power station, power terminals and surrounding land into a mixed-use hub for eco-tourism, agriculture and lakes. Environment groups have criticised the plans to flood the mine due to contaminants and the scale of water needed.36 The mine amounts to approximately 0.74 billion cubic metres or 740 gigalitres (GL), the equivalent of 296,000 Olympic swimming pools. It would take years to fill the mine with ground water, river water and rainwater as sources. With Yallourn Open Cut Mine to Close in 2028 and Loy Yang A and B to close in 2048, these plans appear to be short-sighted and do not consider the whole valley’s future potential.37 35 Arup, Hazelwood Concept Master Plan, (Arup and ENGIE, June, 2019), https://bit.ly/3k1OTFW. 36 Whittaker, “Water shortages, pollution mean Latrobe Valley mine lakes plan not viable, environment groups say.” 37 Jarrod Whittaker and Mim Cook, “Victorian coal plants likely to close early,” ABC Gippsland, published May 3, 2021, https://ab.co/3xu4ClS.
Fig. 11. IPCC, South Australia Max. Precipitation Projection, 2021. Green is wetter, Brown is drier Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
2047 The Loy Yang Closure Australia’s slow transition to renewable energy and inability to meet global emission reduction targets due to our dependence on coal exports and energy production is cause for national embarrassment. The future is uncertain, and our present actions are vital. The scheduled closure of Loy Yang Power Station is arguably too far away. In the context of climate change, following the 2021 IPCC Report, the potential of an Indigenous Treaty, the remediation of land, and a connection to Country are an essential move for our human survival. The Latrobe Valley can be transformed into a centre for recreation and agriculture. The site’s connection to the M1, V-line trains, its proximity to existing nature walks, its growing population and the proposed Great Victorian Bathing Trail all indicate potential.38+39 38 Matt Sykes, The Great Victorian Bathing Trail (Regeneration Projects, 2019), https://www.peninsulahotsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/The-Great-VIC-Bathing-Trail.pdf. 39 Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations, Traditional Owner Native Foods and Botanicals Strategy (Federation of Victorian Traditional Owner Corporations).
Fig. 10. IPCC, South Australia Mean Temperature Projection, 2021. 4.7 Degree increase Independent Thesis
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Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Why Native Grasses? Native grasslands once covered much of Victoria but now only 1% remain. These fields of grass were not how we picture them today, but rather a biodiverse habitat for many animals and other plants.40 Grasses, poaceae, are resilient, grow quickly and recover after bushfires. Unlike introduced grasses, native root and rhizome structures penetrate deeper into the soil and reduce water loss and runoff of sediments into river systems. The reintroduction of native ecosystems also offers an opportunity to continue traditional Indigenous cultural burning regimes. The Gunaikurnai people gained Native Title in 2010 and in line with the Victorian Traditional Owner Native Foods and Botanicals Strategy, can begin to regain agency over land use.41 Compared to introduced grains, native grasses require less irrigation and less pesticides. They are the perfect crop for Australian farms that will soon be experiencing hardship in a future of increased heat and decreased rainfall. The grains provide new unique flavours for brewers, bakers and chefs, and many are gluten free.42 The grasses can also be used for bioplastics, biofuels, medicinal uses, with research already taking place. Current remediation practices, involving covering the contaminated soils with a geomembrane and fresh soil, are expensive and require the relocation of further soil. Instead of capping, phytoremediation, the repair of soil via natural plant processes, can offer a cheap and more effective alternative.43 For the Morwell Mine, these grasses will help with phytoremediation of the contaminated grounds, stabilise the soils and create habitat for marsupials, birds, lizards, and insects. There are 1600 native bees in Australia, many of which benefit from grasslands. Other indicator species can inform the health of the Mine, as well as the EPT species such as the caddisfly in the Morwell River. When the grasses have remediated the contaminated site, public access through walking trails, campsites and cabins may begin. Traditional back burning will be used to usher in the second generation of grasses, ready for agricultural use. A bakery and brewery will showcase the potentials of the native grains. 40 Gammage, The Biggest Estate on Earth, 23. 41 “Gunaikurnai Native Title Agreement,” Victorian Government, 2010, https://bit.ly/3CPacTN 42 Bruce Pascoe and Jack Pascoe, “Bruce Pascoe and his son on farming Indigenous foods,” May 27, 2021, in Life Matters, interview by Hilary Harper, Podcast, 54:35, https://ab.co/3ANeut0. 43 “Phytoremediation Potential of Abandoned Mines,” Power Plants Phytoremediation, accessed August 14, 2021 https://bit.ly/3lZkvi5. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Fig. 12.Andrew MacKinnon, Bulbine Lily Flowers, 2021. Andrew MacKinnon
Fig. 13. Bruce Pascoe, 2020. Independent Thesis
25
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Rhizomes and Roots Kangaroo Grass
Spider Grass
River Swamp Wallaby Grass
Themeda triandra
Enteropogon acicularis
Amphibromus fluitans
Not Threatened
Not Threatened
Vulnerable
Fig. 14. Plant Hub.
Fig. 15. Gawler Environment Centre.
Fig. 16. D. Cook.
Red-leg Grass
Windmill Grass
Weeping Grass
Bothriochloa macra
Chloris truncata
Microlaena stipoides
Not Listed
Not Threatened
Least Concern
Fig. 17. Judy Allen.
Fig. 18. Harry Rose.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Fig. 19. Ian Clarke. 26
Andrew MacKinnon
Native Millet
Common Wheat Grass
Cumbungi
Panicum decompositum
Elymus scaber
Typha spp.
Endangered
Not Threatened
Endangered
Fig. 20. Wikipedia.
Fig. 21. Collen Miller.
Fig. 22. Ian Clarke.
Purple Wire Grass
Spear Grass
Peppercress
Aristida ramosa
Austrostipa spp.
Lepidium hyssopifolium
Not Threatened
Not Threatened
Endangered
Fig. 23. Grasslands.
Fig. 24. Plants and Landscapes.
Independent Thesis
Fig. 25. John Eichler. 27
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Rhizomes and Roots River Red Gum
Murnong
Gippsland Red Gum
Eucalyptus camaldulensis
Microseris sp.
Eucalyptus tereticornis
Not Threatened
Endangered
Not Listed
Fig. 26. Wikipedia.
Fig. 27. Neil Blair.
Fig. 28. Grasslands.
Strzeleckii Gum
Swamp Paper Daisy
Metallic Sun-Orchid
Eucalyptus strzeleckii
Xerochrysum palustre
Thelymitra epipactoides
Vulnerable
Vulnerable
Not Threatened
Fig. 29. Australian Seed.
Fig. 30. Russell Best.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Fig. 31. Vicflora. 28
Andrew MacKinnon
Maroon Leek-Orchid
Bulbine Lily
Matted Flax-lily
Prasophyllum frenchii
Bulbine bulbosa
Dianella amoena
Endangered
Not Listed
Threatened
Fig. 32. Marc Freeston, 2021.
Fig. 33. Loraine Jansen, 2021.
Fig. 34. Russell Best.
Grey Box
Silver Banksia
Silver Wattle
Eucalyptus microcarpa
Banksia marginata
Acacia dealbata
Endangered
Not Threatened
Not Threatened
Fig. 35. Lay Geoff, 2021.
Fig. 36. Vicflora.
Independent Thesis
Fig. 37. Wikipedia. 29
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Sample Plants Five samples of the proposed grasses were bought from the Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-Operative at Yarra Bend to be observes over the course of this thesis. Kangaroo grass, weeping grass and windmill grass were chosen, as well as the bulbine lily and the critically endangered matted flax-lily. Repotted and living next to my desk, each grasses behaviours and growth patterns are being watched and enjoyed.
Fig. 38. Andrew MacKinnon, Windmill Grass, 2021.
Fig. 39. Andrew MacKinnon, Soil, 2021.
Tough and quick growing, after two weeks, the grasses already have multiple new leaves and the bulbine lily has already begun to flower.
Fig. 40. Andrew MacKinnon, Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-Operative, 2021. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
30
Andrew MacKinnon
Fig. 41. Andrew MacKinnon, Bulbine Lily, 2021. Independent Thesis
Fig. 42. Andrew MacKinnon, Native Grasses, 2021. 31
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
More-Than-Human Companions Spot-tailed Quoll
Southern Brown Bandicoot
Large Ant Blue Butterfly
Dasyurus maculatus
Isoodon obesulus obesulus
Acrodipsas brisbanensis
Endangered
Endangered
Endangered
Fig. 43. Wikipedia.
Fig. 44. John O’Neill.
Fig. 45. Butterfly House
Eastern Quoll
Glossy Grass Skink
Caddisfly
Dasyurus viverrinus
Pseudemoia rawlinsoni
Tanjistomella verna
Regionally Extinct
Vulnerable
Critically Endangered
Fig. 46. Marc Faucher, 2016.
Fig. 47. Grasslands.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Fig. 48. Britannica. 32
Andrew MacKinnon
Growling Grass Frog
Eastern Dwarf Galaxias
Regent Honeyeater
Litoria raniformis
Galaxiella pusilla
Anthochaera phrygia
Endangered
Endangered
Critically Endangered
Fig. 49. Wikipedia.
Fig. 50. John McGuckin.
Fig. 51. Museums Victoria.
Australian Grayling
Swift Parrot
Grey Falcon
Prototroctes maraen
Lathamus discolor
Falco hypoleucos
Vulnerable
Critically Endangered
Endangered
Fig. 52. Fishes of Australia.
Fig. 53. Wikipedia.
Independent Thesis
Fig. 54. Wikipedia. 33
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Design Precedents Post-industrial and post-extractavist landscapes proliferate much of our planet following a century of immense mineral exploitation and production. Late 19th century industrialisation, a shift to intense capitalism and later neoliberalism, and our current consumption of technologies and products have now become synonymous with the degradation of natural ecosystems and the global climate. Feral Atlas, an online platform featuring a collection of ethnographic stories of diverse hybrid nature-culture milieus, invites us to embrace the complexity of these damaged sites in order to survive during an age of unprecedented geological, ecological, and climate change. Similarly, the projects featured in Geostories examine speculative futures of an earth designed in the event of climate crisis to render visible the problems and possibilities of design and engineering. Such contemporary projects follow a lineage of written and designed provocations such as Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), Stewart Brand’s Whole Earth Catalog (1968), Superstudio’s Supersurface (1972), and Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto (1985). The following design precedents have been categorised by similarity and exemplify various parts of this project’s brief. Oft cited post-industrial precedents include the New York Highline, London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and Freshkills Park on Staten Island. The Eden Project’s Geodesic Domes, Dalhalla quarry amphitheatre, and InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel are more specific post-extractivist examples. Fig. 55. Robert Smithson, Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. 1973. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
34
Andrew MacKinnon
Fig. 56. Andrew MacKinnon, Royal Park Native Grass Circle, 2021. Independent Thesis
35
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Grasses The use of plants for creating awareness of biodiversity, climate change, indigenous cultures and historic ecosystems has been exemplified by Baracco, Wright & Tegg’s Australian Pavilion.
Repair, Baracco + Wright with Linda Tegg Australian Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 2018 Fig. 57. Rory Gardiner, Repair, 2018. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
36
Andrew MacKinnon
Agnes Denes’ Wheat Field installation at the Battery Park Landfill in Manhattan, a precursor to the Freshkills project, planted two acres of wheat and harvested it to highlight the imbalance of our economic, agriculture and waste systems.
Wheatfield, Agnes Denes
Downtown Manhattan, 1982 Fig. 58. Agnes Denes, Wheatfield, 1982. Independent Thesis
37
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Grassland, Linda Tegg
Linda Tegg’s Grassland outside the State Library of Victoria, a collaborative project, showcased the native grasses of Victoria. The project aimed to create awareness of biodiversity and pre-colonial landscapes.44 The Ravensworth Mine exemplifies accidental native grass rehabilitation, acting as a precedent from the 90’s that supports the proposal.45
Melbourne, 2014
Ravensworth Mine Hunter Valley, 2003
44 Linda Tegg, “Grasslands,” accessed August 2021, http://www. lindategg.com/grasslands.html. 45 Charles Huxtable, Rehabilitation of Open Cut Coal Mines Using Native Grasses, (Department of Sustainable Natural Resources, 2003). Fig. 59. Charles Huxtable, Ravensworth Mine, 2003. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
38
Fig. 60. Linda Tegg, Grassland, 2014. Andrew MacKinnon
Through the process of phytoremediation, grasses can help transform contaminated sites into safe environments. The Bell County Mountain Top Removal project by David Ledford is an explicit example of native grass and flowers being used to rehabilitate a coal mine.46 Unfortunately, rather than a shared ecosystem, its purpose is for the hunting of wild animals, ‘game’. Field Operations, James Corner, although having to cover their site with a membrane, also implement grasses to begin the process of transforming the Freshkills Landfill into a public park.
46 Leslie Nemo, “From Defiled to Wild,” Scientific American, published July 2018, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ from-defiled-to-wild-can-a-spent-coal-mine-be-reborn-as-a-natureconservation-center/. Independent Thesis
Bell County Mountain Top Removal, David Ledford Kentucky, USA, 2018
Freshkills Park, Field Operations
Staten Island, New York, 2001-Ongoing
Fig. 61. Flickr User GSZ. Fresh Kills Park. 2013. 39
Fig. 62. David Ledford, Kentucky Grassland, 2018. Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Royal Park Native Grass Circle Parkville, Melbourne, 2002
Fig. 64. Andrew MacKinnon, Royal Park Native Grass Circle, 2021.
Fig. 63. Andrew MacKinnon, Royal Park Native Grass Circle, 2021. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
40
Fig. 65. Andrew MacKinnon, Royal Park Native Grass Circle, 2021. Andrew MacKinnon
Post-Industrial Post Industrial sites, or brownfield sites, are places where industry, production, manufacturing, logistics, and other industrial activities have taken place. When industrial sites are decommissioned, they generally need to undergo a process of remediation to prevent contaminants from harming people or the environment. Post-industrial sites have always been alluring to architecture due to their scale, forms, location, and the ability to adapt the old. Architects tend to construct additions to existing factories such as OMA’s Zollverein Kohlenwasche, or buildings that complement the industrial site such as New Architekten’s Coking Plant Monument Path.47 The Hazelwood Power Station, having been demolished cannot be repurposed in the same way. 47 “Coking Plant Monument Path,” Divisare, accessed August 2021, https://divisare.com/projects/429334-new-architekten-petko-stoevski-unesco-world-heritage-zollverein-coking-plant-monument-path. Independent Thesis
Coking Plant Monument Path, New Architekten Essen, Germany, 2020
Zollverein Kohlenwäsche, OMA + Heinrich Böll Architekt Essen, Germany, 2007
Fig. 66.OMA, Zollverein Kohlenwäsche, 2007. 41
Fig. 67. New Architekten, Coking Plant Monument Path, 2020. Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Gilles Clement’s Jardins du Tiers-Paysage utilises plants to curate a walking experience through an old submarine factory. His concepts of the Third Landscape and the Planetary Garden value plants as the designers and humans as the merely caretakers, gardeners. The Arsenal Oasis in Tbilisi exemplifies another approach where minimal landscaping and plants transform a leaking water main that once served an army base.48
Many post-industrial projects utilise robust materials that reflect the sites past. Concrete, steel, Corten, stone, and bricks are ubiquitous construction materials. At the same time, these are also projects that utilise contrasting materials such as polycarbonate, glass, and bright colours and lights, to celebrate the new use. Fig. 68. Gilles Clément, Jardins du Tiers-Paysage Plan, 2011.
48 “Arsenal Oasis,” Landezine, accessed August 2021, https:// landezine-award.com/arsenal-oasis/.
Jardins du Tiers-Paysage, Gilles Clément Saint Nazaire, France, 2011
Fig. 69. Gilles Clément, Jardins du Tiers-Paysage, 2011. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
42
Andrew MacKinnon
MFO Park, Burckhard Partner Zurich, 2002
Gas Works Park, Richard Haag Seattle, WA, 1975
Fig. 70. Nai-Hsuan Cheng, Gas Works Park, 2011. Independent Thesis
Fig. 71. René Dürr, MFO Park, 2002. 43
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Landschaftspark, Latz + Partner 1991.
Fig. 72. Latz + Partner, Landschaftspark, 1991. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
44
Andrew MacKinnon
Post-Extractivist There are many examples of post-industrial sites becoming cultural and civic hubs, as well as residential apartments. However, the scale of post-extractivist sites calls for alternative solutions. Peter Zumthor curates the visitor experience at the Old Allmannajuvet Zinc Mines in Norway through three buildings; a museum, a café and a facilities block.49 The project’s minimal architectural moves put emphasis back on the site and the process of walking between landmarks.
49 Amy Frearson, Peter Zumthor creates buildings on stilts,” Dezeen, published June 2016, https://www.dezeen.com/2016/06/10/ peter-zumthor-architecture-wooden-buildings-on-stilts-tourist-trail-norway-allamannajuvet-mine/.
Old Allmannajuvet Zinc Mine Peter Zumthor Norway, 2016
Fig. 73. Arne Espeland, Allmannajuvet Cafe, 2016. Independent Thesis
45
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Area Regeneration and Building Reuse, Enrico Sassi Architetto Arzo, Switzerland, 2017
Le Chemin Des Carrières, Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter Rosheim, Alsace, France, 2019
Fig. 74. 11H45 .Le Chemin Des Carrières, 2019. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Fig. 75. Enrico Sassi Architetto, Area Regeneration 2017. 46
Andrew MacKinnon
Brick Pit Ring, Durbach Block Jaggers
Sydney Olympic Park, NSW, Wann, 2005
Fig. 76. Kraig Carllstrom et al., Brick Pit Ring. 2005.
Burbach Block Jaggers Brick Pit Ring in Sydney Olympic Park sought to reintroduce wetland habitat for the endangered Green and Golden Bell Frog (Litoria aurea). The project kept the old pit exclusively for the frog and erected a circular gantry for visitor circumambulation.
Fig. 77. Kraig Carllstrom et al., Brick Pit Ring. 2005. Independent Thesis
47
Fig. 78. Kraig Carllstrom et al., Brick Pit Ring. 2005. Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Minas de Rioseco, Zon-e Arquitectos Spain, 2015
Fig. 79. Hervé Abbadie, Foundries Garden, 2009.
Foundries Garden, Doazan+Hirschberger Nantes, France, 2009
Fig. 80. Imagen Subliminal, Minas de Rioseco, 2015. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
48
Andrew MacKinnon
Arsenal Oasis Ruderal Tbilisi, 2020
Fig. 81. Ruderal, Arsenal Oasis, 2020. Independent Thesis
Fig. 82. Ruderal, Arsenal Oasis, 2020. 49
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
ROM- Redesign of the Roman Quarry, AllesWirdGut St. Margarethen, Austria, 2005
Fig. 83. Hertha Hurnaus, Redesign of the Roman Quarry, 2005. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Fig. 84. Hertha Hurnaus, Redesign of the Roman Quarry, 2005. 50
Andrew MacKinnon
Eggum Tourist Route, Snøhetta Lofoten, Norway, 2005
Genk C-Mine, Hosper Genk, 2012
Fig. 86 Pieter Kers, C-Mine, 2012.
Fig. 85. Snøhetta, Eggum Tourist Route, 2007. Independent Thesis
51
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Recreation In the 21st century, we are often contained within our offices and residences, glued to screens, and longing for recreation time. The desire for a reconnection to nature, and the right to access the land, suggests the need for more free access to open outdoor spaces. Camping, glamping, walking trails, and caravanning are examples of recreation possible in a rehabilitated site. Krakani Lumi exemplifies a site sensitive design that recognises its Indigenous past.
Krakani Lumi, Taylor and Hinds
Mount William National Park, Wukalina, 2017 Fig. 87. Adam Gibson, Krakani Lumi, 2017. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
52
Andrew MacKinnon
The Rolling Huts and Freycinet Lodge offer examples of cabins that are of small scale and respectful of the landscape. Tents, and Indigenous precedents suggest more temporary forms of habitation on the site, while projets such as Dômes Charlevoix, by Burgeois/Lechasseur, in Quebec mimic that aesthetic of the tent, producing high end, comfortable accommodation for glamping.50
50 Eleanor Gibson, “Eco-luxury Domes,” Dezeen, accessed August 2021, https://www.dezeen.com/2018/11/08/eco-luxury-domes-charlevoix-quebec-canada-bourgeois-lechasseur/.
Rolling Huts, Olson Kundig
Mazama, WA, USA, 2007
Fig. 88. Olson Kundig, Rolling Huts, 2007. Independent Thesis
53
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
The Park, Robin Winogrond and Studio Vulkan Zurich, 2021
Fig. 89. Robin Winogrond. The Park Seats. 2021 Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Fig. 90. Robin Winogrond. The Park. 2021 54
Andrew MacKinnon
Origma Hut, Gary Warner NSW, 2011
Fig. 91. Gary Warner. Origma Hut, 2011. Independent Thesis
55
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Tourism Tourism is a double-edged sword. It is necessary for some economies and adds a vibrancy of visitors to a place. On the other hand, it commercialises and privatises access to a place, to fit the programme within parameters of profit and growth. The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland Hotel is an example of a mine being transformed into a premium hotel.51 The Dalhalla mine amphitheatre is both open to access but closed during musical
performances. The Eden Project’s proposed Anglesea Mine Park, follows the same model as the Cornwall project, creating a ticketed space. Similarly, the Wonthaggi State Coal Mine requires paid entry, but its nature of being an underground mine prevents full open access. Following the Nordic model, the Morwell Mine site will remain open and free to access for all.
51 Stefanie Waldek, “This is how China was able to build,” Architectural Digest, published March 2019, https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/china-build-worlds-first-subterranean-hotel.
InterContinental Hotel, JADE+QA Architects
Anglesea Mine, Eden Project
Fig. 92. InterContinental Shanghai. 2019.
Fig. 93. Eden Project Anglesea. 2019.
Shanghai, China, 2018
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Anglesea, Victoria, Wathaurong and Eastern Maar, Proposed
56
Fig. 94. Eden Project Anglesea. 2019. Andrew MacKinnon
Temporality The Morwell Mine site is a palimpsest of historical events. The geological deposits of rock, the carving of the valley, the growth of plants, the coexistence with Indigenous people, the transformation into colonial agriculture, the urbanisation, and the eventual extraction of coal, are simultaneously past and present. The future of the site in many ways resurfaces the past, while also establishing a contemporary position. What does this mean for the architecture? Can use, programme, and territory shift over time?
Decentralised Project, Zamp Kelp Hanover, 2000
Fig.95. Zamp Kelp, Decentralised Project, 2000. Independent Thesis
57
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Remediation
Post-Industrial
Post-Extractivist
Ravensworth Mine
Gas Works Park, Richard Haag
Brick Pit Ring, Durbach Block Jaggers
Freshkills Park, Field Operations
Landschaftspark, Latz + Partner
ROM- Redesign of the Roman Quarry, AllesWirdGut
Bell County Mountain Top Removal, David Ledford The Park, Robin Winogrond and Studio Vulkan Arsenal Oasis Ruderal
MFO Park, Burckhard Partner
Le Chemin Des Carrières, Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter
Zollverein Kohlenwäsche, OMA + Heinrich Böll Architekt Foundries Garden, Doazan+Hirschberger Jardins du Tiers-Paysage, Gilles Clément Coking Plant Monument Path, New Architekten
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
58
Minas de Rioseco, Zon-e Arquitectos Area Regeneration and Building Reuse, Enrico Sassi Architetto Old Allmannajuvet Zinc Mine Peter Zumthor
Andrew MacKinnon
Recreation
Tourism
Culture
Origma Hut, Gary Warner
InterContinental Hotel, JADE+QA Architects
Bingham Canyon Copper Mine, Robert Smithson
Rolling Huts, Olson Kundig
Anglesea Mine, Eden Project
Krakani Lumi, Taylor and Hinds
Eggum Tourist Route, Snøhetta
Wheatfield, Agnes Denes Decentralised Project, Zamp Kelp Grasslands, Linda Tegg Repair, Baracco + Wright with Tegg
Independent Thesis
59
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Concept Design
To begin concept design, one would initially feel inclined to do a typological analysis of the silos, mills, sheds, and other architecture associate with the programme of grain farming. However, the process of categorisation and ordering implies a hierarchy. Would the Rhizome not be open to all and any? The traditional lineage of architecture cannot be followed, yet it is clearly influencing the design process. Does the architect become a bricoleur, an assembler of relationships? Does the architecture require a specific form or materiality or is it indifferent? We know that Modernism’s dogma of functionality would override relationality. While Derrida and Eisenman would suggest breaking down the typologies until you become able to assemble them how you see fit. Deconstruct and design from a tabula rasa. As a tool the Rhizome does not demand anything. It simply allows for an assemblage of things. Do those things necessarily need to be aesthetically related, or is their relationality enough? This rhizomatic architecture is not static, nor is it centralised or hierarchical.52 52
Ian Buchanan, “Assemblage Theory and Its Discontents,” Deleuze Studies 9, 3 (2015): 382-392, doi: 10.3366/dls.2015.0193.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
60
Andrew MacKinnon
Independent Thesis
61
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Visualising the Rhizome
Fig. 96. Yves Tanguy, Decalcomania, 1936.
Fig. 97. Mark Lombardi, Gerry Bull, 1999.
Sylvano Bussoti Five Piano Pieces, 1959
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Mark Lombardi Neo-conceptual artworks
62
Andrew MacKinnon
Fig. 98. Yves Tanguy, Decalcomania, 1936.
Fig. 99. Wassily Kandinsky, Circles in a Circle, 1923.
Yves Tanguy Decalcomania, 1936
Independent Thesis
Wassily Kandinsky Circles in a Circle, 1923
63
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Creative Research
Successive Singularities
Ruptures from the Horizontal
Always in the Middle
Lines of convergence establish themselves around successive singularities to form circles of convergence.
Lines of flight rupture the rhizome, but will always remain part of the rhizome.
The rhizome has no beginning, end or centre. It is constantly in an ever changing middle.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
64
Andrew MacKinnon
A Moving Assemblage
Abstract Site Plan
The Extended Ecology
Defined by relationality, proximity, and connection, the rhizome is an assemblage, always changing.
The site does not adhere to boundaries or territories. Edges shift over time and the middle remains elusive.
Adjacent ecologies, natural, agrarian, economic and societal, are no longer ruptures, but become part of the site’s multiplicitous existence.
Independent Thesis
65
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Arborescent History The history of architecture is presented to us from a Western perspective. The architect or master builder was mostly a European notion, while most other people built for themselves with traditional techniques and local materials. It has been traditionally understood that architecture has evolved from primitive, Laugier’s Primitive Hut, to Modernism. This linear progression suggests that later periods of architecture are more complex and superior to earlier architectures. Sir Bannister Fletchers Tree of Architecture (1896) exemplifies this growth from primitive cultures through Enlightenment towards a projected modern architecture. Charles Jencks’ The Century is Over, Evolutionary Tree of 20th-Century Architecture (2000) diagram suggests a greater complexity and interconnection between the 20th century’s architecture movements. However, it still suggests a linear direction, moving towards something (climate change?).
Fig. 100. Banister Fletcher, The Tree of Architecture, 1896.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
66
Andrew MacKinnon
Fig. 101. Charles Jencks, The Century is Over, Evolutionary Tree of 20th-Century Architecture, 2000.
Independent Thesis
67
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Rhizomatic Australian Architecture Australia is in a state of decolonisation and in search for a contemporary identity that is inclusive of Aboriginal Australians, migrants, and other minorities. Like other post-colonial architects searching for an identity, there will always be a conflict between the vernacular and modern. Navigating the repercussions of designing with traditional approaches, international influences, colonial hierarchies, and cultural differences is a dilemma for many architects. Is there such a thing as an authentic vernacular? Can a cultural identity be embodied in a building? In the Australian context, many architects from Robin Boyd and Glenn Murcutt to Baracco + Wright and Sean Godsell have grappled with the tensions of what Australian architecture is. The Aboriginal Australian’s architecture was temporary, comprised of natural materials and responded to environmental and cultural factors. Invasion saw an introduction of formal Colonial European styles agrarian shed. Departing the colonial-settler aesthetics of the British Empire, Australia moved through phases of styles until essentially reaching todays eclectic mix of architecture. Boyd critiques this mismatch of identity, the ‘featurism’ of Australia in The Australian Ugliness (1960). Since then, there appears to be a strain of architecture that celebrates this freedom and one that returns to an essentialism and functionalism. Melbourne, through Peter Corrigan and ARM plays with these architectural objects and eclecticism, while Sydney pursues a more refrained aesthetic, with the likes of Richard Leplastrier and Glenn Murcutt. Greg Burgess and Murcutt have also attempted to appropriate the Aboriginal vernacular, to varying success. The Uluru Kata Tjuta Centre by Burgess represents a good consultation process, and a great piece of architecture, yet a failure to resonate with the local Traditional Owners. In contemporary Melbourne, Baracco + Wright have been searching for an appropriate architecture for the context of decolonisation, climate change and repair. Their work shows hints of Murcutt and Lacaton + Vassal simplicity and austerity, while also focusing heavily on the garden, the ground, and the grasses. Rhizome offers a design approach that can be open to a greater network of influences and connections. It offers a new way to consider how we put together an array of architectures that not only follow aesthetics, but also material flows, energy, waste, and labour. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
68
Andrew MacKinnon
Independent Thesis
69
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Designing in the Landscape
Arnhem Land Shelters, Yolgnu People
Dome Structures, Yidindji People
Gunditjmara Houses, Gunditjmara People
Featherston House, Robin Boyd
Walsh Street House, Robin Boyd
Kempsey House Glenn Murcutt
Marika-Alderton, Glenn Murcutt
Simpson Lee House, Glenn Murcutt
Rosebery House, Brit Anderson
Pittwater House, Richard Leplastrier
Public Ablutions, Richard Leplastrier
Rainforest House, Richard Leplastrier
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
70
Andrew MacKinnon
Green Can, Troppo
Uluru Kata-Tjuta, Greg Burgess
Phillip Island House, DCM
Deepwater Woolshed, Peter Stutchbury
Permanent Camping, Casey Brown
Krakani Lumi, Taylor + Hinds
Longhouse, Partners Hill
Garden House, Baracco + Wright
House at Hanging Rock, Kerstin Thompson
Shearers Quarters, John Wardle Architects
House in the Hills, Sean Godsell
Shack in the Rocks, Sean Godsell
Independent Thesis
71
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Rhizome Design Tools
Decentralised
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Multiplicity
Rupture
72
Connection
Andrew MacKinnon
Rhizome in Precedents
Arnhem Land Shelters, Yolgnu People
Dome Structures, Yidindji People
Gunditjmara Houses, Gunditjmara People
Green Can, Troppo
Uluru Kata-Tjuta, Greg Burgess
Phillip Island House, DCM
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Rupture
Decentralised Multiplicity Connection
Decentralised Connection
Featherston House, Robin Boyd
Walsh Street House, Robin Boyd
Kempsey House, Glenn Murcutt
Deepwater Woolshed, Peter Stutchbury
Permanent Camping, Casey Brown
Krakani Lumi, Taylor + Hinds
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Rupture
Rupture Connection
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Marika-Alderton, Glenn Murcutt
Simpson Lee House, Glenn Murcutt
Rosebery House, Brit Anderson
Longhouse, Partners Hill
Garden House, Baracco + Wright
House at Hanging Rock, Kerstin Thompson
Rupture Connection
Rupture Connection
Rupture Connection
Rupture Connection
Rupture Connection
Multiplicity Connection
Pittwater House, Richard Leplastrier
Public Ablutions, Richard Leplastrier
Rainforest House, Richard Leplastrier
Shearers Quarters, John Wardle Architects
House in the Hills, Sean Godsell
Shack in the Rocks, Sean Godsell
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Rupture
Decentralised Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Rupture Connection
Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Multiplicity Rupture Connection
Independent Thesis
73
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Parti Diagram
Elevation
Architectural Objects Support Structures Assemblage
Plan
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
74
Andrew MacKinnon
Clients
Brief
Objectives
Gunaikurnai People
Use native grasses to rejuvenate the Morwell Mine
Remediate soil
Latrobe City Council Parks Victoria Morwell township Churchill township Ex-coal industry workers Regional tourists
Bring people together to learn to care for the land
Increase biodiversity Allow public access for walking
Build native grain infrastructure, circulation, a community hub, a research centre, a mill, a brewery, a bakery and cabins.
Construct support structure infrastructure
Allow for future changes from climate change, fire and flood
Construct medium scale architecture
Construct small scale architecture
Allow for shifting of architecture over time Set precedent for other mines
Independent Thesis
75
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Post-Holocene Futures Western Rationalisation
Post-Holocene
Western Epistemology
Indigenous Epistemologies
Diversity
Climate Crisis
Natural Ecologies
Anthropocene
Deep Time
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Present
76
Futures
Andrew MacKinnon
Extended Ecologies Location Open Cut Mine
Programme
Activity
Ecology
Walking Trail
Walking
Economic
Interpretation Centre
Camping
River Morwell River
Sleeping
Decked Platform Wetland
Baking Social
Grassland Eating
Mill Cooling Pond
Mudbrick Works
Brewing
Toilets
Building
Dispatch Flat Plain
Community Hub
Drinking
Brewery
Farming
Agrarian Storage Roads
Nesting
Grain Silo Research Facility
Thinking Cultural
Visitor Parking Briquette Factory
Railway
Swimming
Bakery
Growing
Campsites
Resting
Cabins Remnant Powerplant
Independent Thesis
Psychological
Caravan Park
Watching
77
Environmental
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Ruptures from the Horizontal
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
78
Andrew MacKinnon
TO MELBOURNE
LATROBE REGIONAL AIRPORT
YALLOURN OPEN CUT
TO LAKES ENTRANCE
AGRICULTURE LATROBE REGIONAL HOSPITAL
Y
W
M1
PRIN
CES
C
IN
PR
FWY
H ES
RESIDENTIAL GROWTH
MORWELL AGRICULTURE MORWELL STATION INDUSTRIAL
HAUNTED HILLS
RIV LL RW E MO
STR
ZEL
EKI
ER
HIG HW AY
INDUSTRIAL
MORWELL POWER STATION AND BRIQUETTE WORKS
MORWELL OPEN CUT
MORWELL TERMINAL STATION
HAZELWOOD NORTH
HAZELWOOD POWER PLANT
JEERALANG POWER STATION
HAZELWOOD CEMETERY
ELL R
IVER
HAZELWOOD TERMINAL STATION
MORW
HAZELWOOD COOLING POND
HAZELWOOD CARAVAN PARK
AGRICULTURE
AGRICULTURE
HAZELWOOD
Morwell Plan JEERALANG 0m 200
AGRICULTURE YINNAR
HAZELWOOD SOUTH
CHURCHILL FEDERATION UNIVERSITY
1000
TRARALGON PLANTATION
Site Analysis
Circulation
Depth
-100m
0
Flood + Fire
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage
GRZ1 IN3Z MUZ C1Z PPRZ NRZ4
Town
PUZ2 IN1Z
Recreation Recreation Solar Power
SUZ1
IN2Z
Aquaculture
PUZ5 PPRZ Agriculture PUZ1
ENGIE Plan
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Site Access
Colonial-Settler Heritage
80
FZ1
Planning Zones
Andrew MacKinnon
Concept Diagrams
Circumambulate
Pass
Through
Shade
Ventilation
Changeable
Operable
Circulation
Wind break
Architecure changing on supports
Climatic Responses
Flood
Fire
Reclaimed by nature
Shifting and Growing
Resist, endure or perish Independent Thesis
Adaptive Principles 81
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Support Structures
0mm 200 Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
82
1000 Andrew MacKinnon
Architectural Objects
Deck
Neon Sign
Tool Shelter
Enclosed Shed
Pergola
Brick Steps
Brick Silo
Small Shelter
Sheltered Deck
Rammed Earth Wall
Steel Stairs
Steel Silo
Covered Brick Space
Sheltered Space
Enclosed Building with Chimney
0m 2 Independent Thesis
83
10
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
1. Mine Plan 0m 2
10
Independent Thesis
85
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
2. Grassland Plan 0m 2
10
Independent Thesis
87
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Sketch Design
The architecture of this project draws on its context within the Latrobe Valley to create a series of humble and functional buildings that enable the community to come together to grow native grasses, make beer, bread, and bricks, or simply enjoy the landscape of a post-extractivist site. Although the site is expansive and seemingly disconnected from the township of Morwell, it is its relationality and imbrication with ecological and social fields that informs the various design decisions. Rather than erecting autonomous monuments in a vacuum, the architecture is critical of its existence. It serves the purpose of providing shelter from the sun, wind, rain, and fire, and allows for the various programmes to occur. While the process of mining has made the site unrecognisable from its previous state, the reintroduction of native plants and land practices such as cultural burning aim to reconnect to Country.53 Two temporalities have emerged from the design process. The first indicates a sense of impermanence. The ability to perish in fire, decay over time, or become overrun by vegetation. The second demands a sense of permanence to protect occupants in fires, store seeds, archive research, and protect expensive equipment. The architecture’s materiality is defined by its site. The air-dried mud bricks are made at the old Briquette Works from the mines discarded overburden and dried grass. This process embeds the sites past and present, demanding a connection to the soil, the muddy and dirty, to connect labour and material to product. The decomposition of the bricks allows the sites soil to return to the ground from where it came. The timber is sourced from the neighbouring Jeeralang Plantation, however, will eventually transition to onsite timber. The steel is all recycled from the demolished Hazelwood and Morwell Power Stations. Standard steel members will be used as they are, and the rest will become bespoke galvanised steel sheeting for fireproof cladding. For longevity and to reference the vernacular of the historical cottages and nearby agrarian sheds, corrugated iron roof sheeting will be used. The grasses on site allow for the creation of weaved temporary shading and screening. The concrete used for the permanent footings will also utilise aggregates removed from the overburden, sands from the redirected Morwell River and fly ash from the Yallourn Power Station as cement.54 The footings remain as a mnemonic device for perished buildings and as an opportunity to rebuild when required. Standard timber dowel and steel bolted connections allow for simple assembly and disassembly by the community. As a staged project, the construction of the architecture coincides with the stages of rehabilitation of the mine. 53 Danièle Hromek, “Reading Country: Seeing deep into the bush,” Architecture AU, May 27, 2021, https://architectureau.com/articles/ reading-country-seeing-deep-into-the-bush/#. 54 Kate Stephens, “Hopes a new eco-friendly concrete can rise from the ashes of coal power,” ABC News, September 21, 2021, https://www. abc.net.au/news/2021-09-18/geopolymer-concrete-coal-mining-town/100464518. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
88
Andrew MacKinnon
Fig 102. Andrew MacKinnon, Kangaroo Grass, 2021. Independent Thesis
89
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Project Timeline
Indigenous Epistemologies Biomedicine
Bushfires
Hazelwood Community Hub
Research
Morwell Power Station Heritage Museum
Bioplastics
Mining
Remediation Overburden
Jeeralang Plantation
Employment
Cultural Burning Aggregates
Materials
Recycle Steel
Fly ash
Briquette Factory
Carbon Sequestration
Residents
Woodands
Air-Dried Mud Bricks
Agriculture Kangaroo
Native Grass Agriculture Weeping
Spider
Purple Wire
Common Wheat
Native Millet
Grasslands
Windmill
Native Grasses Red-Leg
River Swamp Wallaby
Coalification
Trees
Spear
Plant Biodiversity Tubers
Shrubs
Morwell River
Re-Peat
Wetlands
Floods
Amphibians
Marsupials
Insects
Animal Biodiversity Birds Rail
Ngurran Research Facility Storage
Roads
Circulation
Cabins
Support Structures
Bakery
Fire Shelter
Climate Crisis Shelter
Warehouse
Architecture Lookouts
Brewery
Walking Trails Camping
Visitors
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre
Storytelling
Public Access
Great Latrobe Park Great Victorian Bathing Trail
Pre-Project
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
90
Future(s)
Andrew MacKinnon
Project Diagrams
Architecture
Trails
Grassland
Wetland
Stage 1
Stage 2
91
Rail
Stage 3
M1
Wetlands
Pri
nce
sF
wy
Morwell Station
Wetlands Underpass Nerran Campsite & Cabins
p m Loo
22k
Morwell
Underpass
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre
Native Grasses
Industrial Estate
rail
T 2km
1
Morwell Power Station & Briquette Works
Native Grasses
rwel l
Rive
r
Wetlands Native Grasses
Mo
Strz
elek i
Hig
hwa y
Hazelwood Community Hub
Mine Lookout
Morwell Open Cut Mine
Wetlands Lookout Remnant Coal
Native Grasses Solar Panels Ngurran Research Facility
ay
ilw
Ra
t
ll
we
or
oM
Native Grasses
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery
1
Grain Silos & Equipment Storage
Native Grasses
3
2
0
-
Nature Reserve
Wetlands
-
Hazelwood Sign Remnant Hazelwood Power Station Hazelwood Cemetery
92 Hazelwood Caravan Park
Waterfront
-
Site Plan 0m 100
Hazelwood Cooling Pond
500
Onsite Timber
Jeeralang Plantation Timber
Glass Recycled Bottles
Recycled Steel
Grass Screen
Concrete
Air-dried mud bricks
Dried Grass
Yallourn Fly Ash
Overburden
Nerran Campsite & Cabins
Woodland
Wetland
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre
Hazelwood Community Hub
Wetland
Grassland
Loy Yang Fly Ash
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery
Ngurran Research Facility
Grassland
Morwell
Yallourn Morwell River Power Station 300
Demolished Steel
Heritage Museum
Morwell Open Cut Mine
Brick Works
Morwell Power Station
Wetland
Grassland
Loy Yang Power Station
Hazelwood Power Station
200
100 0 Meters AHD -100 -200 -300 Loam & Clay
Aquifer
Coal Seam 4km
7km
Coal Seam
Coal & Clay
Aquifer Mine Width Site Width
Coal Seam 1hr
93
Aquifer
0m 150
Loam & Clay
Site Section 750
1.75hr
Stage 1 (Early Iteration) Stage 1 is the initial rehabilitation of the mine using native grasses to phytoremediate the soils and cultural burning to clear out the first wave of grasses. The surface around the mine will be the first area accessible to the public while the mine itself becomes remediated enough for safe access. Increased native plants and grasses will establish habitat for animals along the river, where walking trails will begin to be added. The initial architectures on the site are small in scale and have an impermanence. Timber based community built rest areas, cabins and toilets will for
Nerran Campsite & Cabins Depth: 20 AHD visitors to enjoy the site and stay overnight. Campsites will also be scattered across the site. The Nerran (Moon) Campsite and Cabins are located on the longest trail that takes visitors on a 22km loop around the perimeter of the mine site. Yarram (river) Trail along the redirected Morwell River meanders through grassland, wetland and woodland. The other end of the loop takes visitors past the Hazelwood Cemetery, Cooling Pond and towards the Five Clans Bakery
Morwell Air Dried Mud Brick Works Depth: 30 AHD and Brewery. The entire loop takes approximately 4.5hrs. The heritage Morwell Briquette Factory will be repurposed during Stage 1 to allow for a museum one the interior and an air dried mud brick works on the exterior. The existing mine railway that once connected the V-Line tracks, Morwell Power Station and Yallourn Power Station will be reinstated easing movement of grains, equipment, materials and people between the sites main buildings. This fun was of moving across the site also aims to create some joy for visiting children. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
94
Andrew MacKinnon
2
Mo rw ell
Riv er
1
3
5 6
7
1. Shelter 2. Toilets 3. Double bed cabin 4. Single bed cabin 5. Hand operated stone mill 6. Grain silo 7. Campsite
Nerran Campsite & Cabins 4 Plan
0m 2 95
10
Stage 2 (Early Iteration) Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Depth: -100m AHD The Jiddelek (frog) Interpretation Centre is located within the mine at the base of the terraces near the soon-to-be wetlands. It is an open building with an enclosed shelter in the middle. It serves to orient visitors on the site, explaining the application of the native grasses, the rejuvenation process, the animal companions, and the entangled history of the site. Information boards and a smartphone audio tour will explain this information, supplemented by views across the mine towards the site of the old Hazelwood Sign. The building is supported by hydraulic piers that allow the building to move up and down with the water level of the wetlands. Raising the building allows marsupials, amphibians, and plants to easily access the water of the emergent wetland. The open structure is made of durable recycled steel sourced from the demolished Power Station. Walking trails spread across the rest of the site to connect the cabins, campsites, viewing platforms, and shelters that complement the Morwell River, wetlands, and grasslands. The Centre is a place for humans and animals to coexist, sharing land and water. It is also a place where cultural practices such as stringy bark canoe and boomerang making can continue.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
96
Andrew MacKinnon
1
2 4
1. Railway stop 2. Interpretation Centre 3. Pontoon 4. Wetland boardwalk
3
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Plan
0m 2 97
10
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Section
0m 2 98
10
CAMBRIAN
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Detail
GONDWANA
TERTIARY
ICE AGES
0mm 200 99
GUNAIKURNAI
1000
Stage 2 (Early Iteration) Hazelwood Community Hub Depth: 0m AHD The Hazelwood Community Hub is the centre of the local communities’ activities on the site. It is the meeting place, the event space, and the leisure space. A simple post and beam structure supports an operable facade that allows for seasonal change in sun and wind. The community hub is composed of a series of buildings that are activated by their proximity. Rather than one large building with internal divisions, the Hub seeks to establish connections to the grasslands and ground to allow for a reconnection to Country through storytelling and gardening. The programme includes a shared event space, a meeting room, a shared deck, a community garden, a book swap, a seed and plant swap, and a creative space. The existing mine railway network connects this Hub to the rest of the buildings. The impermanence of the timber construction acknowledges the potential of destructive fires but also celebrates the ongoing process of construction, gardening and community building.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
100
Andrew MacKinnon
Hazelwood Community Hub 101
5 2
3 1 6
4
1. Railway stop 2. Meeting pavilion 3. Seed & plant swap 4. Community garden 5. Leisure pavilion 6. Pavilion 7. Event & education space 8. Toilets
7
8
Hazelwood Community Hub Plan
0m 2 102
10
Hazelwood Community Hub Section
0m 1 103
5
Stage 3 (Early Iteration) Five Clans Bakery & Brewery Depth: 25 AHD While there are many spaces across the site for hand milling grains and baking on open fires, the Bakery and Brewery serve as a more practical and accessible way to interact with the native grains. Located at the site of the Hazelwood Power Station, employees and Gunaikurnai people use these spaces to transform the milled grasses into bread and beer. Locals and visitors can learn to appreciate the process of production and enjoy the produce. A large stone mill, a bakery, and a microbrewery are housed in three connected buildings that join onto a space for eating and drinking. While solar powered electric lighting and equipment is used, there is also a supplementary oven and boiler that uses coal or wood to preserve old knowledge and tell stories of past practices. The architecture is expressed through the thick and the thin, the permanent and impermanent. The building’s impermanent spaces open to the grassland and views across the mine, but the planning of the space controls the focus on shifting central spaces of programme. Thick masonry walls provide a backbone for programmed activities that open onto outdoor spaces for community events, a cafe and a bar. A central fire and gathering circle face out across the mine. The Power Stations existing carpark is retained for visitors and will be used for future growth if grains, beer and bread are to be transported and sold offsite.
Agrarian Support Structures The necessary agrarian shed and silos proliferate the site, based on their proximity to grassland. The silos are all positioned away from flood prone areas.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
104
Andrew MacKinnon
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery 105
7
6
4
3
1. Railway stop 2. Mill 3. Toilets 4. Bakery 5. Microbrewery 6. Cafe 7. Bar
1
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery Plan Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
5
2 0m 2 106
10 Andrew MacKinnon
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery Section
0m 2 107
10
Stage 3 (Early Iteration) Ngurran Research Facility Depth: -40m AHD The Ngurran (Emu, Southern Cross) Research Facility is a protected underground complex that houses an office, laboratory, archive, seed bank and fire shelter. It is one of the few buildings on the site that is built with permanence in mind. It is the inverse of the surface ruptures, delving into the mine wall and interacting with the remaining coal. It protects endangered seeds, expensive equipment, archives research, and protects human life in the unlikely event of an uncontrolled fire or severe climate change induced weather. The facility, although underground, is oriented to take in the vistas of the mine. Changes in ceiling level and the tactility of the sprayed fly ash concrete create a dynamic interior space and vertical light wells allow for comfortable spaces and internal gardens. A geothermal heating and cooling system regulates the facilities temperature and is complemented by traditional air conditioning that is powered by the sites solar panels. The facility, in collaboration with Gunaikurnai people, Latrobe City Council, Parks Victoria, and Federation University, researches the potentials of the native grasses for agriculture, biomedicine, and bioplastics.
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
108
Andrew MacKinnon
9
8
7
5 4
6 3
2
Ngurran Research Facility Plan
1 109
1. Railway stop 2. Raised deck 3. Office 4. Staff lounge 5. Laboratory 6. Toilets 7. Internal courtyard 8. Archive 9. Grass seed bank
0m 2
10
Ngurran Research Facility Section
0m 2 110
10
2021 Tenuous Heritage The Morwell Power Station and Briquette Works heritage site is adjacent to the demolished Hazelwood Power Station. It was decommissioned immediately after the 2014 fire but has remained standing due to tenuous heritage protection.55 In April 2021, the final chimney stacks and power station buildings were finally demolished due to high levels of asbestos. However, the briquette works have remained intact, being left for future use. A total of 40,500m3 of asbestos was removed from the site and 18,000 tonnes of steel was recycled.56 This project seeks to use the recycled steel and establish an air-dried mudbrick works on the same site. The bricks will be made from the sites overburden and used as the masonry in the project’s buildings.
2030 Marsupials Phytoremediation and cultural burning are the two methods of rehabilitation for the mines site. The reintroduction of native grasses and trees will bring animals back to the mine. The foraging and burrowing habits of the bandicoot is vital for ongoing soil health. They turn over large amounts of soil, reducing hydrophobia and fire risk, and disperse seeds. The combined faeces from bandicoots, wallabies, kangaroos, quolls, and bird species will fertilise the soil and spread the grass seeds across the mine site.57
55 “Morwell Power Station and Briquette Factory,” Heritage Council Victoria, 2021, https://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/200429. 56 “Media Release,” Energy Brix Australia, April 2021, https://ebacdemolition.com.au/demolition-stages/. 57 Adrian Marshall, Nicholas S.G. Williams and John W. Morgan, eds., Land of Sweeping Plains: Managing and Restoring the Native Grasslands of South-Eastern Australia (Victoria: CSIRO Publishing, 2015), 94, accessed June 13, 2021, ProQuest Ebook Central. Independent Thesis
111
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Resolved Design Thesis
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation proposed five buildings that exemplify a humble architecture that demonstrates the concept of Rhizome and explores ideas from an Australian vernacular. Each architectural object sits on support structures, ruptures from the horizontal, and are activated by their connection to each other, the landscape, the varying programmes, and the community. Influenced by Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble, the mine and any remaining equipment is left as it was when extraction ceased. The past is not forgotten but becomes a reminder of past material realities. The proposed buildings are located adjacent to landmarks and industrial remnants. The site not only hosts the new architecture but provides a large amount of material for recycling. The overburden, demolished steel, dried grass, and fly ash from the neighbouring power station are all harvested and transformed into air dried mud bricks, concrete, and recycled steel informing, in an embodied way, the materiality of the architecture. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
112
Andrew MacKinnon
Nerran Campsite & Cabins Jiddelek Interpretation Centre
22km Loop
op 12km Lo
Morwell Station Hazelwood Community Hub
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery l
Mine Trai
Ngurran Research Facility
113
2022-2027 Nerran (Moon) Campsite & Cabins Mud Brick Briquette Factory Stage One commences the phytoremediation of the mine and the introduction of walking trails and light rail around the site circumference. The rehabilitation process involves the backburning of invasive species, the broadcasting of native grass seeds, and the repetition of regular cultural burning to destroy contaminated plants and activate the soil. The Nerran Campsite and Cabins are an example of the simple architectural structures and campsites that will be scattered around the 22km trail around the site.
Rehabiliated Area Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Architecture
Trails & Rail 114
Phytoremediation Zone Andrew MacKinnon
Broadcast native grasses
Burn invasive species
Spear Grass
Regular cultural burning
Windmill Grass
Rehabilitation 115
Nerran Campsite 116
WC
Riv er
Shelter
Mo rw ell
Hand Operated Stone Mill
Double Bed Cabin Grain Silo
Campsite
Nerran Campsite and Cabins Plan
0m 2
Single Bed Cabin 117
10
2027-2032 Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Hazelwood Community Hub
Broadcast native grasses
Spear Grass
Regular cultural burning
Stage Two introduces the Jiddelek Interpretation Centre and Hazelwood Community Hub as a large overgrown portion of the mine is rehabilitated. This stage sees the emergence of wetland areas where water collects and new trails give visitors views down and across the mine. The Hazelwood Community Hub is the heart of the project. Simple peg and key joint timber construction allows community members to assemble the structures and the same tectonic language is used to create dried grass sliding screens. The buildings accept the temporality of architecture in an era of unprecedented climate change, particularly bushfires. The sacrificial timber structure Windmill Grass allows the architecture to remain an ongoing material process that can be adjusted, changed, expanded or reduced as the community sees fit.
Rehabiliated Area Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Trails
Architecture 118
Emergent Wetland Andrew MacKinnon
Pontoon
Interpretation Centre
Lookout
Railway Stop
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Plan
0m 2 119
10
Dredger Truss
Dredger Truss
5m Flood
2m Wet season
1
Dry season
5m Flood
2m Wet season
1
Dry season
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Section
0m 2 120
10
JIDDELEK INTERPRETATIO CAMBRIAN
Oil Drum
Southern Brown Bandicoot River Swamp Wallaby Grass
Eastern Quoll Cumbungi
Dredger Truss
Large Ant Blue Butterfly
Growling Grass Frog
Eastern Dwarf Galaxias
Jiddelek Interpretation Centre Detail
0mm 200 121
1000
lio n Me eti ng
Pav i
Playground
Ra
See d
&
ay
lion
i Pav
mm
Pla n
Co
tS wa
ilw
ty uni
p
Sto p Co
mm
un
ity
Ga rd
en
de Sha
Hazelwood Community Hub
nt & Eve
Plan
122
ion cat
lion
i Pav
e
c Spa
WC
u Ed
0m 2
10
6. Batten
5. Rafter
2. Beam
4. Key 3. Peg 1. Timber Column
5. Key 1. Groove frame 6. Connect to other screen 2. Dried grass 3. Tongue frame
Hazelwood Community Hub 123
Spider Grass
Hazelwood Community Hub Section
0m 1 124
5
4. Key
lion
avi eP
3. Peg
d Sha
1. Timber Column 6. Batten
5. Key 1. Groove frame
5. Rafter
6. Connect to other screen
WC
2. Dried grass 3. Tongue frame
2. Beam
4. Key
4. Peg
3. Peg 5. Key 1. Timber Column
Peg and key joints for community assembly
Bound, woven or placed grass in interlocking screen
5. Key 1. Groove frame 6. Connect to other screen 2. Dried grass
Grass Screen 125
4. Peg
5. Key
Grass Screen
Hazelwood Community Hub Section
0m 0.5 126
2.5
Hazelwood Community Hub Post Fire 127
5. Key 1. Groove frame 6. Connect to other screen
2032-2050
2. Dried grass 3. Tongue frame
Ngurran (Emu, Southern Cross) Research Facility Five Clans Bakery & Brewery
4. Peg
Stage Three is the final stage. It completes the rehabilitation of the mine and introduces the harvesting of native grains to produce beer and bread. Ngurran Research Facility supports research 5. Key into the potentials of native grasses for biomedicine, bioplastics, and agriculture. It acts as an archive, grass seed bank and fire shelter. In the spirit of Pascoe, Shiva and Fukuoka, a biodiverse, chemical free agriculture is established with weeping, kangaroo, and common wheat grass, and native millet. The Five Clans Bakery & Brewery showcases the potentials of these grains. Dredger
Grass Screen
Rehabiliated Area Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Trails
Architecture 128
Grassland Andrew MacKinnon
Ngurran (Emu, Southern Cross) Research Facility Section
0m 2 129
10
Gacrux
Deck
Sewage down to compost chamber
Diprotodon
Office
Laboratory Staff Lounge
Becrux
Decrux
Fire Shelter WC Archive
Epcrux
Coalsack Nebula
Ngurran (Emu, Southern Cross) Research Facility Plan
0m 2
130
Grass Seed Bank
10
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery 131
Sewage down to
Diprotodon
Becrux
22km Loop Decrux
Common Wheat Grass
WC
Kangaroo Grass
Fire Shelter Native Millet
Archive
Growing Grass
Weeping Grass
Harvesting
Malting
Coalsack Nebula
Additional Ingredients
Epcrux
Mashing
Mixing
12km Loop
Sticky Hop Bush
Boiling Milling
4km Trail Baking
Yeast
Fermenting
Grass Seed Bank
Bread
Sourdough
Maturing Acrux
Bottle
Bakery
Dispatch
Filtering
Beer Keg
Barrel
Bar
Native Grass, Beer & Bread Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
132
Andrew MacKinnon
ney Foundatio n Chim
Bar
Cafe
WC
Bakery
Microbrewery
Mill Railway Stop
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery Plan
0m 2
133
10
veyor
Demolished Belt Con
Overburden air-dried mud bricks Grass Fly ash mortar Dried grass Aggregates Coal
Demolished Chimney
Lichen
Grey Falcon
Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby
Weeping Grass
Kangaroo Grass
Five Clans Bakery & Brewery
0m 2
Section
134
ney Found
10
Demolished Hazelwood Power Station
Grassland 135
2100 The Future(s) The rejuvenation of the Morwell Mine aims to set a precedent for how we can live with and repair the damage landscapes that we have created. The composition of programme and architectures offers an insight into the possibilities offered through allowing for complexity of use. Mixing human and non-human, recreation and agriculture, ecosystem and architecture has revealed an assemblage of onsite activities. The project hopes to set a precedent for both the Yallourn and Loy Yang mines, one day connecting the Latrobe Valley through walking trails, community activities, employment, nature corridors and native grasses. With the uncertainty of a climate crisis there is hope that returning to native ecosystems, cultural land care practices, and localised agriculture can provide ways to reduce our impact on the planet, and even in to repair our damage.
Conclusion Rhizomatic Rejuvenation introduces native grasses and architecture into a post-extractivist landscape and encourages activities such as walking, camping, baking, eating, swimming, and drinking. Expanding on Guattari, Bateson and Glissant’s ecological and decolonial thinking, this project establishes an economic, social, psychological, cultural, and environmental extended ecology. The ambition is that a similar framework could be used for the impending closure of the Yallourn and Loy Yang Mine to establish an ecosystem of native plants that connect the towns, rivers, creeks, and reserves of the Latrobe Valley and increase the health of all downstream systems. The humble architecture facilitates native grain agriculture and the restoration of native habitat. It calls for a return to traditional land care practices, a celebration of native foods, and a push to ecological farming that will be resilient in our climate crisis. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Andrew MacKinnon
TYRES TRAIL
RIVERSIDE CAMPSITE
PETERSON’S LOOKOUT
TYERS PARK
TY
NATIVE GRASSLAND
ER
S
LATROBE TRACK
RI
VE
NATIVE WOODLAND
R WIRLDA ENVIRONMENT PARK
GLENGARRY
LAKE SIDE PARK WETLAND CAMPSITE
LAKE NARRACAN
LATROBE RIVER
YALLOURN NORTH
WETLANDS
HAUNTED HILLS CAMPSITE
MOE
NEWBOROUGH
WETLANDS
YALLOURN
WETLANDS
HAUNTED HILLS CAMPSITE
HAUNTED HILLS M1
TRAFALGAR
NATIVE GRASSLAND
TRARALGON
EDWARD HUNTER HERITAGE BUSH RESERVE
TRARALGON LOOP
NATIVE GRASSLAND
ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE TRAIL
LATROBE AIRPORT
AMPHITHEATRE
NATIVE WOODLAND
NARRACAN CAMPSITE & CABINS
MORWELL
JIDDELEK INTERPRETATION CENTRE
WETLANDS NGURRAN RESEARCH FACILITY
MORWELL POWER STATION & BRIQUETTE WORKS
HAZELWOOD NORTH
FIVE CLANS BAKERY & BREWERY
NATIVE GRASSLAND
GRAIN SILOS & EQUIPMENT STORAGE
MORW EL
NATIVE GRASSLAND
NATIVE GRASSLAND SHEEPWASH CAMPSITE
HAZELWOOD CEMETERY
WETLANDS
HAZELWOOD SOUTH
L RIV
ER
NARRACAN FALLS
WETLANDS
NATIVE GRASSLAND
HAZELWOOD COMMUNITY HUB
NERRAN CAMPSITE & CABINS
TRARALGON CREEK
NATIVE WOODLAND
ANIMAL WILDLIFE HOSPITAL
RECREATION LAKE HAZELWOOD CARAVAN PARK
NATIVE WOODLAND NATIVE GRASSLAND
TRARALGON SOUTH FLORA AND FAUNA RESERVE
CHURCHILL
NATIVE WOODLAND
YINNAR MORWELL CAMPSITE
NATIVE WOODLAND
MORWELL WAY
RESERVED FOREST
MORWELL NATIONAL PARK
Latrobe Valley Ecosystem 0m 600
MORWELL NATIONAL PARK CENTRE
MT TASSIE CAMPSITE
MT TASSIE LOOKOUT
3600
BOOLARRA
NATIVE WOODLAND
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Literature Review Baracco, Mauro, Louise Wright and Linda Tegg. “Seeing and Acting.” In Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet, edited by Angelika Fitz and Elke Krasny and Wien, Architekturzentrum, 64-77. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019. Baracco, Wright and Tegg curated the 2018 Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale under the theme of Repair. Their project brought 10,000 grassland plants to Italy, showcasing the diversity of grasslands, their endangered status and projects across Australia that embody repair and care. They describe Repair as “not defined as restoring to an original or pre-existing (pre-European) condition (which was dynamic and managed anyway)”, but as the ability to “adapt, among other things.”58 Counter to this, they highlight the commonplace neglect of Australian sites, generally following destructive acts; farming, mining, draining, flooding, building. Buchanan, Ian. “Assemblage Theory and Its Discontents.” Deleuze Studies 9, 3 (2015): 382-392. doi: 10.3366/dls.2015.0193. Assemblage is a term that has become used by many theorists in social science, notably by Manuel DeLanda and Actor Network theorists. However, these applications of assemblage can often lose sight of the terms original meaning established by Deleuze and Guattari. Assemblage, closely linked to Foucault and Freud, agencement in French, describes an arrangement of parts that are in relation. These parts can be physical or psychological and are known as well as necessary for the assemblage. For the concept to remain a powerful analytical tool, it must not simply be used as a term to explain the obvious by supplementing complex, ensemble, or entangled. Assemblage (Agencement)- “to arrange, to dispose, to fit up, to combine, to order.” “An ongoing process rather than static situation.”
58 Wright and Baracco, “Designing For Repair,” 59. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Condorelli, Céline. Support Structures. Sternberg Press, 2009. Support is about giving support, providing support and being in support. The support structures form a framework for organisation, purpose, and function. They are a tool, a system, capable of transformations. Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus. Translated by Brian Massumi. London: The Athlone Press, 1988. The first plateau, Rhizome, from Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, has been applied as a conceptual lens for this thesis. Grasses, as a literal rhizome, inhabited the landscape that was Gunaikunai land before settlement, and they will become the seeds for repair of a now post extractavist wasteland. More conceptually, rhizome has been explored for its six principals, each acting as a departure point for inquiring into the potentials of a new architecture that does not adhere to a centralised or hierarchical structure and has the ability to embed itself within the landscape. The six principles follow: Principal of Connection; Principal of Heterogeneity; Principal of Multiplicity; Principal of Asignifying Rupture; Principal of Cartography; Principal of Decalcomania Rhizomatic architecture does not necessarily have to mimic organic growth. This thesis approaches rhizome as an assemblage of multiplicities inhabiting the horizontal. The assemblage, past and present, comprises ecological, infrastructural, cultural, social and economic components. The horizontal is the plane of landscape, but also the equity in access and transparency in governance. The architecture thus, becomes the lines of flight, the leakage, and the ruptures, from the horizontal. “There are no points or positions in a rhizome… only lines.” Independent Thesis
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Doig, Tom. The Coal Face. Australia: Penguin, 2015. https://www.academia.edu/31759811/ The_Coal_Face. The Coal Face elaborates on the disaster that was the 2014 Hazelwood Mine fire. Burning for 45 days following a bushfire, the burn left the towns of the Latrobe valley with short term and long term health conditions. In the end, were the financial reparations enough for the devastation caused by complacent operations. Fukuoka, Masanobu. The One-Straw Revolution. Translated by Chris Pearce, Tsune Kurosawa and Larry Korn. Emmaus: Rodale Press, 1978. Masanobu Fukuoka’s book is a manifesto calling for an agricultural revolution. After realising our knowledge systems cannot explain anything and becoming depressed after suffering pneumonia, Fukuoka decided to quit his job and return to his family farm. He adopted a natural farming method, “do-nothing”, to care for the land and return the soil to good health. After 25 years, his farm was yielding equal amounts per quarter acre than the large chemical farms. He sowed rice, rye, barley, and vegetables and makes his own tofu and miso. There were no machines, no chemicals, and no monocultures. Fukuoka was happy, the visiting students were happy, and the local ecosystem was thriving. Gammage, Bill. The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011. Accessed June 20, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Through settler journals, artworks and Indigenous knowledge, Gammage paints a picture of an unrecognisable Australia. Land we see today as dry and burnt, or forested and dense, was once part of a complex mosaic of well-manicured and maintained systems of clear grasslands, open woodlands and lush habitat. The Aboriginal people did not own the land, nor did they ‘farm’, but as custodians, they established powerful systems of care that enabled them to thrive with the landscape. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Ghosn, Rania and El Hadi Jazairy. Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment. Barcelona and New York: ACTAR, 2019. Geostories proposes speculative futures of engineered landscapes that are generated in response to the Anthropocene. From local to global in scale, these projects highlight the hubris of human infrastructural projects and also the potentials. The drawings and text are broken into three main themes: ‘terrarium’, ‘aquarium’ and ‘planetarium’. Questions of how to address trash, pollution, energy, water, and food problems are illustrated, as are ideas of escaping to space. Guattari, Felix. The Three Ecologies. Translated by Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton. London: The Athlone Press, 2000 (1989). Felix Guattari’s The Three Ecologies’ extention of the traditional notion of ecology as a natural environment to encompass subjectivity, society and environment draws attention to architecture’s connection to its surroundings. The editors of field journal summarise Guattari’s ‘ecosophy’ as “an ecological framework which understands the interactions and interdependencies of mind, society and environment but is careful to resist calls for holism, preferring to emphasise heterogeneity and difference.”59 It can be understood that architecture, as part of an ecology, cannot be holistic or simple, but through its heterogeneity, can find resilience and sustainability. The Morwell Mine site, considered through ‘ecosophy’, is dependent on a multitude of ecologies and its repair must explore relationships and celebrate differences. The psychological effects of industrial landscapes, the economic stress of low-socioeconomic life, the pressures of a landscape prone to fire and flood, and the many non-humans who rely on the various biomes around the valley exemplify just a few. These, in addition to the conventional parameters of siting, aspect, materiality, spatiality, construction, form, and programme, highlight the complexity of situated designing.
59 Renata Tyszczuk, and Stephen Walker, eds.”Editorial,” field: Ecology, 4, 1 (December 2010), 2, http://field-journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/field-journal_Ecology.pdf. Independent Thesis
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Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2016. Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble is a call for humanity to not give into nihilism, but rather accept our predicament, try our best to overcome the problems of climate change, to live our best lives. As part of an ecology of immense entanglement, to temporal and environmental registers, Haraway explains that we must be present and concentrate our efforts to repair, maintain, care and make kin with our non-human companions and environment. Ingleton, Sally, dir. Seed Hunter. ABC: 16 Mar 2010. Streaming Documentary, 52:10. Accessed September 29, 2021, https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/edutv.26791. The spread of GMO grains across the world has reduced the biodiversity of indigenous grains. Seed Hunter follows Dr Ken Street’s search for indigenous grains in Tajikistan where he discovers how pervasive the West’s spread of monoculture grains has been across this poorer country. The documentary explains how indigenous wild grains have adapted to be more suitable for their environments and will lend themselves to more resilient agriculture as our climate heats up. Junka-Aikio, Laura, and Catalina Cortes-Severino. “Cultural studies of extraction.” Cultural Studies 31, no. 2-3 (2017): 175-184. doi: 10.1080/09502386.2017.1303397 Our demand for energy, technology, materials and progress requires the extraction of coal, oil, gas, soil, silicas and rare earth metals. Cultural studies of extraction look to uncover new epistemologies around extraction. In these discussions of exploitation, destruction, indigenous struggles, and politics, it is the “ultimate centrality of the war between climate and capital” that becomes apparent in our globalised neoliberal world. As politics and capital appear to be ignoring the demands of people, it becomes essential to defend our rights to water, land and clean air. If we cannot find sustainable alternatives to extraction, ways to recycle properly, or systems to keep the private sector in check, we must find ways to protect and remediate land and oceans effectively. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Marshall, Adrian, Nicholas S.G. Williams and John W. Morgan, eds. Land of Sweeping Plains: Managing and Restoring the Native Grasslands of South-Eastern Australia. Victoria: CSIRO Publishing, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Native temperate grasslands, such as those of Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley, are endangered due to Western agricultural practices, weeds, and urban expansion. Native grasslands can be beautiful, but their tendency to also look bland in comparison to forests, woodlands, wetlands and coastal scrub, often becomes their downfall when it comes to efforts to protect them. This book explores how we can conserve, restore, and manage native grasslands to preserve an essential Australian ecosystem. It looks at the deep history of South-East Victoria, the arrival of humans, the demise of mega fauna, and the continued resilience of native grasses. Page, Alison and Paul Memmott. Design: Building on Country (First Knowledges). Edited by Margo Neale. Port Melbourne: Thames and Hudson, 2021. Country is a continuum, also understood as the Dreaming, that connects plants, animals, rocks, water and the ancestors, the creation stories, and the Songlines. There is no difference between animate and inanimate, there is no hierarchy between human and nature, and there is no separation between spiritual and physical worlds. Alison Page explains that architecture needs to connect to Country, tell stories, and be given life so that it can become part of Country, a new Australian architectural identity. Paul Memmott’s summary of the Dreaming articulates three forms of travel on Country. One that is through the landscape, one that rises up in place and moves around, and another that rises in place and remains there. There are similarities here with Deleuze and Guattari’s Rhizome, the horizontal plane and the ruptures from it. Designing on Country should reflect these physical and spiritual way of travel. Architecture can tell stories through the process of construction, the programme, the siting, and its connection to the landscape. It can be a tool for retaining Indigenous knowledge, a mnemonic device like the landmarks on the Songlines, and a living object that is part of an extended ecology. Independent Thesis
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Pascoe, Bruce. Dark Emu. Broome, Western Australia: Magabala Books, 2014. Dark Emu was a key influence for this project, shedding light on the untold history of Australia, and providing the main inspiration for the use of native grass in agriculture. Pascoe’s subsequent projects such as Black Duck Foods and a study on grasses with the University of Sydney, have moved agrarian native grasses from history to reality. Pascoe’s farm employs Indigenous people from nearby communities to farm dancing grass (mamadyang ngalluk) and weeping grass (burru ngalluk). The grains are used for baking bread and brewing Dark Emu Larger. Controversail, Sutton, challenge to his aboriginal heritage, but even if Pascoe’s not followed academic convention, the potential of native grasses has been rendered visible Petrescu, Doina, and Katherine Gibson. “Diverse economies, ecologies and practices of urban commoning.” In Architecture and Feminisms, edited by Hélène Frichot, Catharina Gabrielsson, and Helen Runting. Routledge, 2017. The conversation between Petrescu and Gibson in this chapter unpacks the aaa’s project R-Urban to highlight the resilience and adaptability of community driven projects. The project transformed an urban piece of land in Colombes, France, into a community garden, cafe, recycling centre and education spaces. Being an economist, Gibson stressed the importance of a communal pot, commercial ventures and exchange programmes. A relationship between the locals, the project team, the municipality and the non-humans allowed the project to flourish in its diversity. While a conservative government ended the Colombes R-Urban, the concept and its core values are placeless, and new projects have been established across Europe. Shiva, Vandana. The Vandana Shiva Reader. University Press of Kentucky, 2014. http://www. jstor.org/stable/j.ctt12880j6. The Vandana Shiva Reader is a compilation of Shiva’s most influential writings on monocultures, biotechnology, ecology, gender and poverty. It includes parts of her book Monocultures Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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of the Mind: Perspectives on Biodiversity and Biotechnology (1993) and criticises the misguided practices of Western agriculture. Shiva believes that the agricultural monopolies that control our globalised food networks are causing severe damage to our world through monocultures, pesticides, poor labour practices and dependence of technology and fossil fuels. She recalls the merits of traditional farming and natural systems, calling for a holistic agricultural approach that champions biodiversity, resilience and indigenous seeds. Sutton, Peter, and Walshe, Keryn. Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers?: The Dark Emu Debate. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2021. Sutton and Walshe critique Pascoe’s Dark Emu for its lack of scholarly referencing, incorrect quoting of colonial-settler journals and attempt to reframe Indigenous Australian in a European way. Sutton and Walshe’s argument that Australian Aboriginal people became the longest surviving hunter-gathering society through their understanding of the land. They did not need to farm it, because it provided what they needed anyway. The argument highlights the shortfalls of Western farming and that perhaps reframing Indigenous people as farmers takes away the true complexity of their lifestyle. Ultimately it comes down to semantics, and both books contribute to the discourse on indigenous knowledge admirably. Tsing, Anna, Heather Swanston, Elaine Gan, Nils Bubandt, eds. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. A beautiful book, with two fronts, delves into how we move forward in these unprecedented times. ‘Ghosts’ explores the hauntings, shimmerings, spectres, and remnants of human destruction and environmental effects. ‘Monsters’ follows the species that we have enabled to become feral, pests, widespread and successful through our environmental disruption.
Independent Thesis
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Tsing, Anna, Jennifer Deger, Alder Saxena Keleman, and Feifei Zhou, eds. Feral Atlas: The MoreThan-Human Anthropocene. Stanford University Press, 2020. Feral Atlas investigates the complex entanglement of humans, infrastructure and more-than-human species. Challenging the conventions of a published book, or the conventions of Eurocentric mapping, Feral Atlas created a website attempting to draw attention to the relationships between invasion, empire, capital, acceleration and the many feral case studies. Tyszczuk, Renata, and Stephen Walker, eds. field: Ecology, 4, 1 (December 2010), http:// field-journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/field-journal_Ecology.pdf, The field journal on Ecology examines what ecology is, how it relates to architecture and what it means to rethink our relationships with nature. Looking at Guatarri’s Ecosophy, the editors explain that the only way forward is through holistic, multidisciplinary, systems thinking. Ecology does not only encompass environments, but also forms of governance, economies, societies, culture and the built environment. Watson, Gaala and Rob Pekin. “A Native Grains & Native Mills Resurgence Pt 1: Gaala Watson & Rob Pekin on custodial enterprise.” July 19, 2021. In The RegenNarration. Interview by Anthony James. Spotify. 41:37. Rob Pekin and Gaala Watson, having recently completed a Black Card Course in Brisbane, are now about to start their own natural grains farm. With input from Bruce Pascoe, and a relationship with the --- people, the look to native grains as a way to find food sovereignty and highlight the Indigenous intellectual property of working with indigenous plants. They criticise the growth in native food projects that do not recognise Indigenous people, simply growing native plants on stolen land to grow their wealth. Similarly to Pascoe, they see government backed native grain agriculture as a method of repayment, not that a value can be estimated for such things, for the last 200 years of trauma. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Independent Thesis
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Bibliography Arup. Hazelwood Concept Master Plan. Arup and ENGIE, June, 2019. https://bit.ly/3k1OTFW. Baracco, Mauro, Louise Wright and Linda Tegg. “Seeing and Acting.” In Critical Care: Architecture and Urbanism for a Broken Planet, edited by Angelika Fitz and Elke Krasny and Wien, Architekturzentrum, 64-77. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2019. Accessed July 30, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New Jersey: Jason Arson Inc., 1987 (1972). Buchanan, Ian. “Assemblage Theory and Its Discontents.” Deleuze Studies 9, 3 (2015): 382-392. doi: 10.3366/dls.2015.0193. Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. Ringwood, Australia: Penguin Books, 1966 (1962). Condorelli, Céline. Support Structures. Sternberg Press, 2009. Davies, Peter, and Susan Lawrence. “Engineered landscapes of the southern Murray–Darling Basin: Anthropocene archaeology in Australia.” The Anthropocene Review, 6, 3(2019): 179–206. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053019619872826. Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus. Translated by Brian Massumi. London: The Athlone Press, 1988. Del Puglia, Serena. “Re-Build Landscape: Design for the Reuse of Abandoned Quarries.” In Digital Draw Connections. Lecture Notes in Civil Engineering, vol 107. Edited by Fabio Bianconi and Marco Filippucci. Cham: Springer, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59743-6_50. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. EPBC Act Protected Matters Report. Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, 2021. Doig, Tom. The Coal Face. Australia: Penguin, 2015. https://www.academia.edu/31759811/The_Coal_Face Foreground. “‘Wild’grasses are in vogue as priceless native grasslands disappear.” Foreground, May 9, 2019. https://www.foreground.com.au/agriculture-environment/wild-grasses-are-in-vogue-as-priceless-native-grasslands-disappear/ Frichot, Hélène. Creative Ecologies: Theorizing the Practice of Architecture. London: Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2018. Accessed August 7, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Frichot, Hélène, and Loo Stephen, eds. Deleuze and Architecture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013. Accessed August 7, 2021. http:// www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b45k Fukuoka, Masanobu. The One-Straw Revolution. Translated by Chris Pearce, Tsune Kurosawa and Larry Korn. Emmaus: Rodale Press, 1978. Gammage, Bill. The Biggest Estate on Earth: How Aborigines Made Australia. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2011. Accessed June 20, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Ghosn, Rania and El Hadi Jazairy. Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment. Barcelona and New York: ACTAR, 2019. Glissant, Édouard. “Errantry, Exile.” In Poetics of Relation, translated by Betsy Wing. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997. Glowczewski, Barbara. Indigenising Anthropology with Guattari and Deleuze. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020. Accessed August 19, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctvss400j. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Guattari, Felix. The Three Ecologies. Translated by Ian Pindar and Paul Sutton. London: The Athlone Press, 2000 (1989). Haraway, Donna. “Tentacular Thinking: Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene.” eflux Journal, no. 75 (2016). https://www.e-flux.com/journal/75/67125/tentacular-thinking-anthropocene-capitalocene-chthulucene/ Haraway, Donna. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. North Carolina: Duke University Press, 2016. Accessed August 11, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Hubert, Alain. “CONTROL: the extractive ecology of corn monoculture.” Cultural Studies, 31, 2-3 (2017): 232-252, doi: 10.1080/09502386.2017.1303427. Ingleton, Sally, dir. Seed Hunter. ABC: 16 Mar 2010. Streaming Documentary, 52:10. Accessed September 29, 2021, https://search.informit.org/ doi/10.3316/edutv.26791. Instone, Lesley. “Encountering Native Grasslands: Matters of Concern in an Urban Park.” Australian Humanities Review, 49 (November 2010), 91-117. http://doi.org/10.22459/AHR.49.2010. Junka-Aikio, Laura, and Catalina Cortes-Severino. “Cultural studies of extraction.” Cultural Studies 31, no. 2-3 (2017): 175-184. doi: 10.1080/09502386.2017.1303397 Kanouse, Sarah. “Roots and Stems: grassland political ecologies, past and future.” Drain: Ecology of Bad Ideas, 16, 1 (2020), http://drainmag.com/ roots-and-stems-grassland-political-ecologies-past-and-future/. Kinchin, Ian M., and Karen Gravett. “Concept Mapping in the Age of Deleuze: Fresh Perspectives and New Challenges.” Education Sciences 10, 3 (2020): 82. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci10030082 Latrobe City Council. Indigenous Plants of Latrobe City. Morwell, Victoria. https://www.latrobe.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/Indigenous_Plants_ of_Latrobe_City.pdf le Roux, Hannah and Gabrielle Hecht. “Bad Earth.” e-flux (2020). https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/accumulation/345106/bad-earth/ Lunt, Ian D. “The Distribution and Environmental Relationships of Native Grasslands on the Lowland Gippsland Plain, Victoria: an Historical Study.” Australian Geographical Studies 35 (1997): 140-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8470.00015 Marshall, Adrian. Start with the grasslands: Design guidelines to support native grasslands in urban areas. Melbourne: Victorian National Parks Association, 2013. http://vnpa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Start-with-the-Grasslands.pdf Marshall, Adrian, Nicholas S.G. Williams and John W. Morgan, eds. Land of Sweeping Plains: Managing and Restoring the Native Grasslands of South-Eastern Australia. Victoria: CSIRO Publishing, 2015. Accessed June 13, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Page, Alison and Paul Memmott. Design: Building on Country (First Knowledges). Edited by Margo Neale. Port Melbourne: Thames and Hudson, 2021. Pascoe, Bruce. Dark Emu. Broome, Western Australia: Magabala Books, 2014. Independent Thesis
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Pascoe, Bruce and Jack Pascoe. “Bruce Pascoe and his son on farming Indigenous foods.” May 27, 2021. In Life Matters. Interview by Hilary Harper. Podcast. 54:35. https://ab.co/3ANeut0. Petrescu, Doina, and Katherine Gibson. “Diverse economies, ecologies and practices of urban commoning.” In Architecture and Feminisms, edited by Hélène Frichot, Catharina Gabrielsson, and Helen Runting. Routledge, 2017. Rawes, Peg, ed. “Architectural Ecologies of Care.” In Relational Architectural Ecologies: Architecture, Nature and Subjectivity. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2013. Accessed July 31, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Rendell, Jane and Hélène Frichot. “Selvedges: Practices of Architecture or Site-Writing.” Presented by MSD at Home, September 14, 2021. 1:28:10. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK4zV44mGCk. Rose, Deborah Bird. Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation. Sydney: UNSW Press, 2004. Shiva, Vandana. The Vandana Shiva Reader. University Press of Kentucky, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt12880j6. Sutton, Peter, and Walshe, Keryn. Farmers or Hunter-Gatherers?: The Dark Emu Debate. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing, 2021. Accessed August 19, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central. Sykes, Matt. The Great Victorian Bathing Trail. Regeneration Projects, 2019. https://www.peninsulahotsprings.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/ The-Great-VIC-Bathing-Trail.pdf Talento, Katia, Miguel Amado, and José C. Kullberg. “Quarries: From Abandoned to Renewed Places,” Land 9, 5(2020): 136. https://doi. org/10.3390/land9050136 Tsing, Anna, Heather Swanston, Elaine Gan, Nils Bubandt, eds. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. Tsing, Anna, Jennifer Deger, Alder Saxena Keleman, and Feifei Zhou, eds. Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene. Stanford University Press, 2020. https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/?cd=true&bdtext=what-is-the-anthropocene Tyszczuk, Renata, and Stephen Walker, eds. field: Ecology 4, 1 (December 2010), http://field-journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/field-journal_Ecology.pdf VandenBerg, A.H.M. Warragul SJ 55-10 Edition 2, 1:250 000 Geological Map Series. 1:250 000 geological map. Victoria: Geological Survey of Victoria, 1997. Watson, Gaala and Rob Pekin. “A Native Grains & Native Mills Resurgence Pt 1: Gaala Watson & Rob Pekin on custodial enterprise.” July 19, 2021. In The RegenNarration. Interview by Anthony James. Spotify. 41:37. Wright, Louise, and Mauro Baracco. “Designing For Repair.” Landscape Architecture Australia 159 (2018): 59-74. Accessed July 30, 2021. https:// www.jstor.org/stable/48513667 Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Fig 103. Andrew MacKinnon, Bulbine Lily, 2021. Independent Thesis
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List of Figures Fig. 1. MacKinnon, Andrew. Weeping Grass. 2021. Photograph. Fig. 2. MacKinnon, Andrew. Topographic Patterns, 2021. Collage using Nearmaps satellite images. Fig. 3. Hazelwood Fire. Herald Sun. 2014. https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/doubt-cast-on-effects-of-hazelwood-mine-fire/news-story/ b417525941cba6e76354b749d9b2f042. Fig. 4. Veit, Hartmut. Brown Coal Dust Footprints. 2017. Photograph. ABC. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-13/coal-art-exhibit-openshartmut-veit/8234210 Fig. 5. Asher Nicole. Anglers fish barramundi. 2016. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-17/the-costly-fight-for-the-hazelwood-power-stationbarramundi/9279762?nw=0. Fig. 6. Morwell Open Cut Mine. Photograph. n.d. CSIRO. https://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/tag/mining/i/2945/morwell-open-cut-mine//large. Fig. 7. Weston Langford. Morwell Open Cut. 1983. https://www.westonlangford.com/images/photo/400469/. Fig. 8. Coal Dredge Morwell. CSIRO. https://www.scienceimage.csiro.au/tag/mining/i/2647/coal-dredge/. Fig. 9. Hazelwood Power Station. Satellite Image. Nearmaps. Fig. 10. South Australian Mean Temperature Projection. 2021. IPCC. https://bit.ly/37WpesJ. Fig. 11. South Australia Total Precipitation Projection. 2021. IPCC. https://bit.ly/3jUfTaf. Fig. 12. MacKinnon, Andrew. Bulbine Lily Flowers. 2021. Fig. 13. Bruce Pascoe. 2020. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2020/may/13/its-time-to-embrace-the-history-of-thecountry-first-harvest-of-dancing-grass-in-200-years. Fig. 14. Kangaroo Grass. https://theplanthub.com.au/native-grasses/kangaroo-grass.php. Fig. 15. Spider Grass. https://www.gawlerenvironmentcentre.org.au/product/enteropogon-acicularis/. Fig. 16. Cook, D. River Swamp Wallaby Grass. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gbcma/12962335205. Fig. 17. Allen Judy. Red-leg Grass. https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au/fieldguide/flora/red-leg-grass#details. Fig. 18. Rose, Harry. Windmill Grass. https://www.oznativeplants.com/plantdetail/Windmill-Grass/Chloris/truncata/zz.html. Fig. 19. Clarke, Ian C. Weeping Grass. 2021. https://bit.ly/3y3mwfi. Fig. 20. Native Millet. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panicum_decompositum#/media/File:Panicum_decompositum_habitus.jpg. Fig. 21. Miller, Collen. Common Wheat Grass. https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au/fieldguide/flora/common-wheat-grass#details. Fig. 22. Clarke, Ian C. Cumbungi. 2021. https://bit.ly/3D5g4s8. Fig. 23. Purple Wire Grass. https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au/fieldguide/flora/purple-wire-grass#details. Fig. 24 Spear Grass. https://plantsandlandscapes.com.au/plant/austrostipa-bigeniculata/. Fig. 25. Eichler, John. Peppercress. https://bit.ly/3j2nl3X. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Fig. 26. River Red Gum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_camaldulensis. Fig. 27. Blair, Neil. Murnong. https://bit.ly/2W1RpEd. Fig. 28. Gippsland River Red Gum. https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au/fieldguide/flora/forest-red-gum#details. Fig. 29. Strzeleckii Gum. https://www.australianseed.com/shop/item/eucalyptus-strzeleckii Fig. 30. Best, Russell. Swamp Paper Daisy. https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au/fieldguide/flora/swamp-everlasting#details Fig. 31. Metallic Sun Orchid. https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/86e59362-194c-49ec-9273-5c4b2247b166 Fig. 32. Freeston, Marc. Maroon Leek Orchid. 2021. https://bit.ly/3D0YRjn. Fig. 33. Jansen, Loraine. Bulbine Lily. 2021. https://bit.ly/3AOy7Ro. Fig. 34. Best, Russell. Matted Flax Lily. https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au/fieldguide/flora/matted-flax-lily#details. Fig. 35. Geoff, Lay. Grey Box. 2021. https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/e5427742-1a80-43b7-bef8-d41745ac0f3f#&gid=1&pid=3. Fig. 36. Silver Banksia. https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/d53901b2-4f12-47e6-a8ad-7f57b8d32c42#&gid=1&pid=3. Fig. 37. Silver Wattle. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acacia_dealbata#/media/File:Acacia_dealbata-1.jpg Fig. 38-42. MacKinnon, Andrew. Sample Grasses. 2021. Fig. 43. Spot-tailed Quoll. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_quoll#/media/File:Dasyurus_maculatus_-Healesville_Sanctuary,_Australia-8a.jpg Fig. 44. O’Neill, John. Southern Brown Bandicoot. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_brown_bandicoot. Fig. 45. Large Ant-Blue Butterfly. Butterfly House. http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/lyca/brisbanensis.html. Fig. 46. Faucher, Marc. Eastern Quoll. 2016. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/mar/02/eastern-quolls-return-to-australian-mainland-after-50-years. Fig. 47. Glossy Grass Skink. Grasslands. https://grasslands.ecolinc.vic.edu.au/fieldguide/fauna/glossy-grass-skink#details. Fig. 48. Caddisfly. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/animal/caddisfly. Fig. 49. Growling Grass Frog. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Growling_grass_frog. Fig. 50. McGuckin, John. Eastern Dwarf Galaxias. Fishes of Australia. Photograph. https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/3393#summary. Fig. 51. Regent Honeyeater. Museums Victoria. https://museumsvictoria.com.au/melbournemuseum/resources/wild/dry-forest/regent-honeyeater/. Fig. 52. Australian Grayling. Fishes of Australia. https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/3634. Fig. 53. Swift Parrot. Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lathamus_discolor_Bruny_2.jpg. Fig. 54. Grey Falcon. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_falcon. Fig. 55. Smithson, Robert. 1973 Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. Holt/Smithson Foundation. https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/bingham-copper-mining-pit-utah-reclamation-project. Fig. 56. MacKinnon, Andrew. Royal Park Native Grass Circle. 2021. Independent Thesis
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Fig. 57. Gardiner, Rory. Repair. 2018. Baracco + Wright. http://www.baraccowright.com/work#/repair/. Fig. 58. Denes, Agnes. Wheatfield. 1982. Photograph. http://www.agnesdenesstudio.com/works7-WFStatue.html. Fig. 59. Huxtable, Charles. Ravensworth Mine. 2003. In Charles Huxtable. Rehabilitation of Open Cut Coal Mines Using Native Grasses. Department of Sustainable Natural Resources, 2003. Fig. 60. Tegg, Linda. Grassland. 2014. Photograph. http://www.lindategg.com/grasslands.html Fig. 61. Flickr User GSZ. Fresh Kills Park. 2013. https://www.archdaily.com/339133/landfill-reclamation-fresh-kills-park-develops-as-a-naturalcoastal-buffer-and-parkland-for-staten-island Fig. 62. Ledford, David. Kentucky Grassland. 2018. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/from-defiled-to-wild-can-aspent-coal-mine-be-reborn-as-a-nature-conservation-center/. Fig. 63-65. MacKinnon, Andrew. Royal Park Native Grass Circle. 2021. Fig. 66. OMA. Zollverein Kohlenwäsche. https://www.oma.com/projects/zollverein-kohlenwaesche. Fig. 67. New Architekten. Coking Plant Monument Path. 2020. https://divisare.com/projects/429334-new-architekten-petko-stoevski-unesco-world-heritage-zollverein-coking-plant-monument-path Fig. 68-69. Clément, Gilles. Jardins du Tiers-Paysage. 2011. Photograph. https://www.area-arch.it/en/jardins-du-tiers-paysage/ Fig. 70. Cheng, Nai-Hsuan. Gas Works Park. 2011. https://tclf.org/landscapes/gas-works-park. Fig. 71. Dürr, René, Markus Fischer, Michael Freisager. MFO Park. 2002. https://www.burckhardtpartner.com/en/projects/detail/projekte/show/ Projekte/new-mfo-park-zurich/ Fig. 72. Latz + Partner. Landschaftspark. 1991. https://www.latzundpartner.de/en/projekte/postindustrielle-landschaften/landschaftspark-duisburg-nord-de/. Fig. 73. Espeland, Arne. Allmannajuvet Cafe. 2016. Photograph. https://www.dezeen.com/2016/06/10/peter-zumthor-architecture-wooden-buildings-on-stilts-tourist-trail-norway-allamannajuvet-mine/ Fig. 74. 11h45. Le Chemin Des Carrieres. 2019. https://divisare.com/projects/418125-reiulf-ramstad-arkitekter-parenthese-paysage-11h45-portesbonheur-le-chemin-des-carrieres. Fig. 75. Enrico Sassi Architetto. Area Regeneration and Buildings Reuse. 2017. https://divisare.com/projects/365554-enrico-sassi-architetto-gian-paolo-minelli-marcelo-villada-ortiz-filippo-simonetti-luca-ferrario-alberto-canepa-area-regeneration-and-buildings-reuse Fig. 76-78. Carlstrom, Kraig, Guy Wilkinson, Brett Boardman, Peter Hyatt, Roger de Souza and Erieta Attali. Brick Pit Ring. 2005. Photograph. https://durbachblockjaggers.com/projects/commercial/brick-pit-ring Fig. 79. Abbadie, Hervé. Foundries Garden. 2009. http://landezine.com/index.php/2009/09/foundries-garden/. Fig. 80. Imagen Subliminal. Minas de Rioseco. 2015. https://www.archdaily.com/956288/viewpoint-in-minas-de-rioseco-zon-e-arquitectos. Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
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Fig. 81-82. Ruderal. Arsenal Oasis. 2020. https://landezine-award.com/arsenal-oasis/. Fig. 83-84. Hurnaus, Hertha. Redesign of the Roman Quarry. 2005. http://landezine.com/index.php/2009/11/roman-quarry-redesign/. Fig. 85. Snøhetta. Eggum Tourist Route. 2007. https://divisare.com/projects/304190-snohetta-steinar-skaar-jarle-waehler-eggum-tourist-route. Fig. 86. Kers, Pieter. C-Mine. 2012. https://www.archdaily.com/253647/genk-c-mine-hosper. Fig. 87. Gibson, Adam. Krakani Lumi. 2017. https://divisare.com/projects/375737-taylor-and-hinds-architects-adam-gibson-krakani-lumi. Fig. 88. Kundig, Olson. Rolling Huts, 2007. https://divisare.com/projects/131273-olson-kundig-rolling-huts. Fig. 89-90. Winogrond, Robin and Studio Vulkan. The Park, recreational area Butzenbüel at Zurich Airport. 2021. https://landezine-award.com/ the-park-recreational-area-butzenbuel-at-zurich-airport/ Fig. 91. Warner, Gary. Origma Hut. 2011. https://architizer.com/projects/origma-hut/. Fig. 92. The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland. 2019. https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/china-build-worlds-first-subterranean-hotel. Fig. 93-94. Eden Project Anglesea. 2019. https://www.edenprojectanglesea.com.au/. Fig. 95. Zamp Kelp. Millenium View, Decentralised project for EXPO Hannover 2000. https://www.zamp-kelp.com/jahrtausendblick/. Fig. 96. Bussoti, Sylvano. Five Piano Pieces. 1959. In Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus. London: The Athlone Press, 1988. Fig. 97. Mark Lombardi. Gerry Bull. 1972-80. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/96557. Fig. 98. Tanguy, Yves. Untitled. 1936. Decalcomania. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/33159?artist_id=5804&page=1&sov_referrer=artist. Fig. 99. Kandinsky, Wassily. Circles within Circles. https://www.wassilykandinsky.net/work-247.php. Fig. 100. Fletcher, Banister. The Tree of Architecture. In Places Journal. 2013 (1896). https://placesjournal.org/article/building-data-field-notes-onthe-future-of-the-past/. Fig. 101. Jencks, Charles. The Century is Over, Evolutionary Tree of 20th-Century Architecture. In Places Journal. 2013 (2000). https://placesjournal. org/article/building-data-field-notes-on-the-future-of-the-past/. Fig 102. MacKinnon, Andrew. Kangaroo Grass. 2021. Fig 103. MacKinnon, Andrew. Bulbine Lily. 2021.
Independent Thesis
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Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley
Rhizomatic Rejuvenation
Architecture and Native Grasses in the Latrobe Valley Andrew MacKinnon
Kangaroo Grass