Mechanisms of Property

When Robert Hoddle laid out the Melbourne city grid, he was advised by the government to not include any public space within the city. The grid was spoken of as a commercial instrument of property that should act without provision of civic or public spaces.

Bridge Road, the proposed site, is a connecting artery to the grid both south of Victoria Street and connected to Flinders Street through Wellington Parade and is the first mediation in understanding how the periphery may be influenced by these commercial instruments of property.

Richmond Town Hall and the home of the Yarra City Council, the governing body of planning within the city of Yarra, acts as the anchor for the project whilst also simultaneously investigating its boundaries, in an attempt to open them up to reveal peculiar intricacies and idiosyncrasies. The town hall exists as the monument of authority and rule of law within its surroundings. Starkly isolated, it becomes the corporeal body of the formless ‘market’ in which property thus becomes official record, capturing the very essence of regulatory and civic governance over the area.

If the Town Hall is a monument to the market of property, it is recognised in Alois Riegl’s understanding that “a monument is a work of man erected for the specific purpose of keeping particular human deeds or destinies (or a complex accumulation thereof) alive and present in the consciousness of future generations”.

Other monuments also sit on the edge of the site, that of the memorial of C.H Bennet, apparently striking an astonishing resemblance to the councilman and a memorial erected by “good friends”. The side reads, “Formed on the good old plan, a true and brave and downright honest man.” Bennett sits as an idle figure watching over both the street and the town hall, despite being apart of a family dynasty that rule the council and monopolised council seats, awarding friends and relatives council jobs before an enquiry into election rigging took place. The memorial is thus a monument for the manifestation of the power that sits within the walls of the town hall.

Investigations for the project began by speculating on the mechanisms that over time have allowed for both the physical and immaterial manifestation of transforming property ownership into something of power and value. The conditions of ownership are regulated and maintained by multiple parties, at local, state, and federal government levels, and through that of private entities.

Land Titles Office on block in big spending

They include but are not limited to, the land surveyors and lawyers’ office, where property is documented and legalised and moves into the tangible realm of paper. Parliament house, where these things are both regulated and enforced but also are protested and resisted. The land titles office, or land registry services where it is stored and preserved, and the public records office where it is archived.