SLAB-ALOGUE 3 by RMIT SLAB

The SLAB team acknowledge the people of the Woi Wurrung and Boon Wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nations on whose unceded lands students have done this work and we have compiled this work. We acknowledge their ancestors and elders, past and present. We also acknowledge the traditional custodians and their ancestors of the land and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.

SLABalogue is an annual publication compiled by the RMIT Student Landscape Architecture Body (SLAB). SLABalogue celebrates exceptional work produced by RMIT landscape architecture students. SLAbalogue can also help you in developing an understanding of how the kinds of projects undertaking RMIT throughout the Bachelor of Landscape Architectural Design, and the Masters of Landscape courses. SLABalogue 3 was compiled by RMIT SLAB & edited by Peter Grant, SLAB President. Based on an idea developed by Gordon Goh, former SLAB Treasurer. Student work was nominated by studio leaders and individual students. The work in this booklet belongs to the students who did it. SLAB thanks them for sharing it with us but not here that the right to reproduce this work is not extended to the purchaser of this document with the permission of the credited author. First Edition - Printed around 20/03/2021. SLAB 2021 Team: Peter Grant - President Cosimo Russo - Vice President Lex Segal - Treasurer Esther Honybun - Secretary

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KART (Kyoto Arachnic Rapid Transit) By Gerard Snowdon

KART (Kyoto Arachnid Rapid Transit) is a design concept for the Anthropocene that usurps the Holocene narratives enshrining where certain plants and animals belong in the world. Without mincing words, this proposal addresses some of the most taboo values we hold towards national fauna identities, and geographically appropriate ecologies. Under an imagined setting, Australia’s peri-urban dry sclerophyll forests are harvested, and replanted with new plant species that reduce bushfire risk. In this process, the timber by-products are exported around the world, along with Australian animal species sent to new homes as climate refugees. KART models a habitat for one of these climate refugees, the redback spider (Latrodectus hasseltii) in the urban environment of Kyoto, Japan. This particular creature finds its ideal conditions in the microclimates of cities across wide geographic zones. The redback spider is associated with a mythology of terror, but its harm is small - this venomous spider has not caused a fatality since we started exploring space. Through redesigning and adapting human infrastructures, KART accepts that the redback spider finds homes in urban places, particularly public toilets, and introduces an openly recognisable system to support them. By making space for the redback spider within our human environments, next to our toilets and in our parks, we will develop new ways of living with this creature. Arriving spiders can make their way from ports and rail-yards into the KART, and be introduced manually through system inlets when people find them in places they don’t ‘belong’ The design idea is drawn in a graphic style developed from a wide study, including plans where spatial reality is abstracted for clarity of concept (Tauber-Arp’s Scheme for Cafe L’Aubette, Vignelli’s NYC System Map), and a range of pastoral landscape art (woodblock prints of Hiroshige, digital landscapes of Opie).

Gerard Snowdon

Invisible Huaniao By Wang Xiang

Huaniao island is an emerging tourist destination developed in recent years located in the East China sea. For the potential tourism routes, one is to explore the attractions on the island, another is to explore the primitive scenery of the island. It’s a good way to propose a tourist route that will create an enchanting experience and its contributions to the village. My design intention was to present ecological and does not damage the scenery as well as the primitive feature on the island. I intended to use different sort of design interventions to distinguish each area while in a customized tour.

Confluence

By Esther Honybun My studio linked up with the community-led Australian Inland Botanic Garden in Mildura to design a ‘Heritage Foods Garden’, with a key focus on ‘Heritage’ and ‘Display’. Heritage means different things to both Colonial settler Australians and First Nations people, and this was evident in the site’s regional context. Heritage in terms of botany also means very different things. In proposing a design, we looked back beyond the 200 years of colonisation to acknowledge the plants that have been a part of local Barkandji culture for thousands of years. Display, too, means different things. The Sunraysia ‘setting’ is characterised by an agricultural grid form, optimising yield, profit and efficiency. Food production for the Barkandji people, however, takes on a very different appearance. Hence I proposed a new configuration of the agricultural grid. This grid acknowledged a diverse interpretation of “heritage”, of Colonial settler citrus varieties, aswell as narratives that have been ignored in the process of colonising the Sunraysia region, like that of the Barkandji people. In doing so, I proposed a confluence of both settler and Barkandji food production, whereupon ‘heritage’ extends further back than 200 years ago. The design acknowledged two intrinsically different knowledge systems and proposed ways that these ideas can meet and exchange ideas on common ground (realised in the form of ‘Knots + Tangles.’).

MILDURA

Esther Honybun

Homo Parasitus By Talia Fitzgerald

Homo sapiens are the main cause for environmental destruction/ manipulation/ and degradation throughout history. We are a selfish and greedy species which ultimately “lives in or on an organism of another species (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the other’s expense.” This is the definition of a parasite. This is us; HOMO PARASITUS For this design ideas competition, I have chosen Earth to be my creature. Earth is a living and breathing organism which is on the verge of extinction due to the Homo Parasitus leeching it of its own nutrients. By designing directly for earths benefit, how can these parasites become benign to earth, allowing these two species to co-exist into the future? I plan on redesigning the system in which the Homo parasitus currently exist on earth, in order to help better protect my chosen creature, and all its inhabitants. How can this be done? How will this alter how we use space, allocate resources and ultimately live and live within an ecosystem? Being inately selfish creatures, Homo parasitus need to be altered in order to co-exist with earth. By reestablishing human connection to the world, and dramatically minimizing human movement, nature will be able to reclaim highly disturbed spaces and win the war against humans. By altering human thought, we will be able to reconnect humans back to earth, grounding them within an ecosystem. Restricting humans to a 5km radius bubble surrounding their homes, everything they may need needs to exist within this bubble; village life is reborn. With a combination of strict law enforcement, mentally produced boundaries, and the removal of human selfishness and greed, earth will be able to flourish. How will humans begin to interact with their immediate surroundings? How will space be reallocated? How will existing built environments shift into more wholesome and dynamic ecosystems?

OUR FUTURE WORLD IF NOTHING IS DONE TO STOP THE HOMO PARASITUS

Syrum triggers extreme, stress, anxiety and panic attackswhen encroaching on dwelling bubble border, and fills people with joy and contentment around their homes, programming them to remain within their bubbles. Injecting a serum containing the perfect amount of serotonin, Oxytocin and norepinephrine

LEGEND MEGA CITIES // 2030 PLASTICS POLLUTION WASTE DEPOSITS INTO OCEAN

2086 LAND MASS

CURRENT LAND MASS FOREST LOSS

The removal of greed and selfishness, and the enhancement of joy enduced by the natural world. Will become more harmonious creatures, and benign parasites to earth

Tapping directly into the parasitic brain of Homo Sapiens could be the way in which behavior can be dramatically altered. This reconditioning of human behavior will create a more sustainable world. People wont feel trapped within their dwelling bubbles, for it is a safe and joyous space.

HUMAN DESTRUCTION // HOW TO CHANGE IT 14

New; but wasted space now. Converting unused / abandoned office levels to urban farming precincts Reestablishing recreational activities within the city center

Indoor / outdoor public space

Streets will become redundant, for cars are no longer useful. Cars are not needed due to movement being restricted. Streets become re-purposed. Laneways and main roads are no longer used for cars, becoming the new parks within the city.

Current parks and gardens are now used as pasture lands for grazing and crop growth to provide for the people within its 5km radius. All produce and resources must be provided within the dwelling bubble.

Treasury Gardens AA

RETHINKING SPACE WITHIN THE CITY

‘41X’, a new purpose built office building on the corner of Exhibition st and Flinders lane.

Fitzroy Gardens

Birrarung Marr Yarra River MCG

Botanical Gardens

Parkland/ recreational open space CBD buildings Railway lines

SCALE :

100m

1: 1000

Extreme weather High pollution levels

Currently underutilizing potential ecological growth space for the selfish needs of homoparasitus. Removal of streets and cars will reduce global pollution and salvage earth.

SCALE :

STREETS // THE NEW PLAYGROUNDS

1: 500

Temporate changes Fourth natures thriving in urban environments

Reprogramming existing spatial surroundings to cater for the people living within each dwelling bubble. Shifting how people use space in order to rekindle the natural world

Reclamation of ecological space

SCALE :

1: 500

Pasture lands in the city

AA The repositioning of programs demonstrated along this section line. From park to farm, and street to park.

SCALE :

1: 500

PAST // PRESENT // FUTURES OF MELBOURNE 15

How Good?

By Danielle Gibbs This project is a revolt against private capital on infrastructure and the linear systems that create social and economic imbalance with negative environmental consequences. it aims to provide relief through subtraction and redistribution. the region’s existing man-made infrastructures are restrictive in function and program. They work against landscape systems rather than with them. The aim is to adapt to the environmental conditions of the region, not change them, by integrating existing infrastructures with landscape systems to balance wealth distribution. the future adaptation should be capable of transition (re-programming) into the future as social, economic, and environmental conditions continue to shift. Infrastructure exists to meet societal demands. While this intent is linear, infrastructures do not need to be restrictive in program or function. They do not need to come at the cost of the environment nor the empowerment of one group of people over another. Lake Narracan exists almost exclusively for the purpose of mining operations. By subtracting the privatisation of Yallourn mine and power station, Lake Narracan regains 80% of its water for redistribution throughout the region. This is already enough water to supply downstream farmers with their required 8ML of water per year. lowering some of the levee banks and excavating a series of contour drains along Lake Narracan and Latrobe River (upstream and adjacent to the Yallourn mine voids) creates the potential for future floodplains–a meaningful investment in Gunaikurnai interests. Groundwater levels are able to be replenished over time and high-velocity floodwaters are able to inundate these new floodplains before reaching the artificial levee banks downstream that are susceptible to failure. This subtraction doesn’t enrich private foreign investors or work against the landscape without care. it gives back to Country a portion of what has been taken. The European-oriented lens of the old world has been thrown away with the hope of renewing a symbiotic relationship with Country that was lost long ago through greed.

infrastructure

subtraction summary

124

Danielle Gibbs 18

site mapping + second subtraction

Danielle Gibbs 19

The Butterfly Corridor By Tom Hastie

The creature which I have selected as the client of my design is the Eltham Copper Butterfly (ECB), Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida. The Butterfly lives in small isolated colonies across Victoria, Australia, where it forms a mutualistic relationship with the Nonctus genus of ants and Bursaria spinosa, a small evergreen shrub. Due to the small size of the remnant butterfly colonies and the settled nature of the insects the risk of genetic stochasticity is incredibly high amongst other threats such as habitat loss and degradation and the use of pesticides in an agricultural and urban setting. The site of my design is the narrow strip of interconnected parks and reserves which link the Eastern Eltham Copper Butterfly Reserve with Pauline Toner Butterfly Reserve in Eltham, a suburb 30km NE of Melbourne’s CBD. These two colonies of butterflies are genetically isolated from each other and by creating an opportunity for interbreeding between the two colonies, the likelihood of their survival will be increased. One study undertaken in Bendigo Botanic Gardens noted that despite the static nature of the colony, it was observed to gradually move from one side of the garden to another following the availability of B. spinosa shrubs within the landscape. It is to be noted that B. spinosa is a coloniser species and hence is capable of bouncing back from disturbances to an ecosystem such as fire or slashing. My proposition is to re-vegetate the corridor with B. spinosa shrubs and use fire as a tool to push the butterflies through the corridor and manage the availability of food plants to the colony. If successfully implemented my design would increase the genetic pool available to the ECB colonies located in Melbourne, increasing their ability to adapt to environmental changes and also re-vegetate a large area of habitat, in a crowded urban environment.

Lifecycle Diagram

c u o g t a s B t s t t c

U •

•

The creature which I have selected as the client of my design is the Eltham 20 Copper Butterﬂy (ECB), Paralucia pyrodiscus lucida. The Butterﬂy lives in small isolated colonies across Victoria, Australia, where it forms

Eltham Copper Butterﬂy.

Eastern ECB Reserve

Section A:A

colonies, the likelihood of their survival willMovement be increased [4]. of Butterfl iesOne study undertaken in Bendigo Botanic Gardens noted that despite the static nature of the colony, it was observed to gradually move from one side of the garden to another following the availability of B. spinosa shrubs within KEY: the landscape[2]. It is to be noted that B. spinosa is a coloniser species and hence is capable of bouncing back from disturbances to an ecosystem such as fire or slashing. My proposition is to re-vegetate the corridor with B. spinosa shrubsToner and use fire as a tool to push the butterflies through Pauline the corridor andy manage the availability of food plants to the colony. If Butterfl Reserve successfully implemented my design would increase the genetic pool available to the ECB colonies located in Melbourne, increasing their ability to adapt to environmental changes and also re-vegetate a large area of habitat, in a crowded urban environment. Opportunities for Maintenance

Section A:A

UNREGULATED: • Allows for dangerous fuel loads to build up increasing bushﬁre risk • ECB has preference for dwarfed B. spinosa shrubs • susceptible to disruption by introduced species.[3]

COPPICING • Maintains dwarfed form of B. spinosa • promotes bushy growth of fresh leaves • requires extra maintenance to remove invasive species.[1]

BURNING • Traditional landscape management approach used by Indigenous Australians • maintains dwarfed form of B. spinosa • sterilizes seeds of invasive species • returns carbon to the soil,improving soil quality. [3]

Scales of Exchange By Peter Grant

The rise in population of sea urchins in Port Phillip Bay speaks to changing conditions as a result of large scale exchange systems - climate change. At the other end of the scale, there is an exchange occurring directly between a sea urchin and a piece of kelp. Scales of Exchange considers Port Phillip Bay as a broad network of exchanges which occur through living and non-living agents, at a range of scales which are interrelated across all levels. Considering this, the project intervenes from within systems utilising processes of exchange to stabilise fluctuations and build resilience in systems.

The interventions are typically responding to a biological outcome, and through the mechanisms of exchange are able to alter conditions to stabilise systems. The project understands a system as being dynamic and constantly in motion, the interventions then are flexible and respond to this. Rather than being fixed interventions with a concrete outcome they move with the system. The machines are able to use exchange as a means of gently pushing the system in a desired direction from within, rather than imposing the desired outcome on to the system. This method instills a level of biological resilience. Working with resilience is a significant part of this project. In the case of the bay, building a kind of biologically or ecologically resilient system is simply not enough. Systems need to link into broader networks of exchange such as social or economic networks, in order to bring another tier of resilience. Integrating biological systems into economic and social transactions, creates a broader sense of awareness around them. This awareness is powerful as a means of garnering support for these systems, and in the face a changing global conditions can build in another layer of resilience. Considering scales of exchange allows resilience to be built in to systems at a range of scale, allowing for a strong establishment of the initial intervention and also a wider strength as the project strategically taps into broader exchange networks. Understanding how these biological systems relate to humans is fundamental to of the proposed their long term‘Kelp persistence.

living a non-living confloats in the ocean at h, allowing the flow of water from permeable ore stable temporal enonger periods of time. s for the growth of kelp ate on the surface. The rom sea urchins, while ution of kelp spores in

Kelp spores from mature plants distributed into currents, allowing kelp to re-colonise in more suitable conditions

Permeable organic membrane which releases fresh water and nutrients creating a stable temporal ocean environment Porous , organic surface which allows algae to take hold and grow

Mature Kelp growing on the surface of the kelp mine where it is unable to be eaten by sea urchins

Connection to pipe network which allows materials to be pushed through the kelp mines from land

‘Kelp-Mine’ final form

In the high density In theofhigh density In theof high density of sea Urchins biological sea Urchins biological sea Urchins biological deterrent is released deterrent is released deterrent is released

Sea Urchins crease in sizecrea due decreased graz d competi

Benthic Crawler Benthic Crawler Benthic Crawler introduced to introduced to introduced to landscape landscape landscape

Sea Urchin in Sea highUrchin inSea highUrchin in high 2 2 density 10p/mdensity 10p/mdensity 10p/m2

Installed Kelp-mines stabilise distribute fresh water and nutrients

Large numbers of Sea Urchins decimating Kelp Forests

Kelp is allowed to colonise mines where it is safe from urchins

Temporal zones are able to be managed in extreme weather conditions like drought

Year 0

Sea Urchin density Sea Urchin density Sea Urchin density reduced to much reduced lowerto much reduced lowerto much lower 2 2 levels, 2-3p/mlevels, 2-3p/mlevels, 2-3p/m2

Kelp spores are are able to recolonise sea floor in favourable conditions

Kelp matures on seamines and is able to spread spores to increase kelp distribution

Year 1

Year 3

1:75 @ A3

Year 4

Areas of Kelp forest beginning to regenerate on reef Crawlers in place maintaining sustainable density of Sea Urchins

Peter Grant 24

Urchin numbers fluctuate but are overall maintained around 2-3 p/sqm

By considering how humans interact with these systems directly, it is possible to broaden an understanding of exchange networks to take in social and econmic aspects

Kelp Mine improving conditions for Kelp regeneration

Areas of Kelp generate and re-generate at different speeds as in the nature of a system in motion

Finding a Landscape Architectural Tectonic Practice at the Former Maribyrnong Migrant Hostel By Matt Calder Design research question: How can a tectonic approach to landscape architecture cultivate awareness of the immaterial forces that migrate into the materials in the act of practice? 2020 RMIT Landscape Architecture Design Research Prize (Semester 2)

Matt Calder

Huaniao Island Masterplan By Yuxin Zhang

Huaniao island, an island of birds and flowers, is located in the Zhoushan archipelago, Zhejiang Province, China. The rapid urban development has led to greater undervalue of rural landscapes. It leads to the investigation of the “hidden identity” of Huaniao island. The experience creation within zones highlight Huaniao as an ““Holistic image” and highlight on different aspect of sustain tourism. where every element, the local people, the wave, the features are all intimately interconnected and valued. This shows that the young people best scenery is not just the lighthouse, but it’s self as whole.

Huaniao island master plan

Zone 2: The Tourism Leisure zone, plan

Zone 3: The Heritage zone, plan

Zone 4: The Fishermans culture zone, plan

Zone 1: The Feature Folk zone, Low tide condition

Yuxin Zhang

The Passage

By Kim Bounds A single pathway through site, initially began with water surface flows to inform grading considerations for water to be harvested within the circular site at Royal Park and provide opportunity for a diversity of habitats and human experience. The Passage is an elongated pathway stretching from the southernmost point and lowest part of the site to the top situated at the northern end of the site. The topography is varied in elevation and slope, enhancing the opportunity to use a planting palette suited to several divergent conditions. The relational experience, as with the habitat, changes with elevation.

How Good? By Lex Segal

Reading Diagrams of Power whilst considering my LV Proposal, I have become excited about the prospect of what my mappings could mean. How do I make appear concretely graphically, invisible aspects of my site that are part of political exonomic and social systems? How do I appropriately represent dynamic and evoliving phenomena? A map is a way of seeing that assume a political prerequisite. Jane Tsong Makes visible, ecological and infrastructural processes through diagramatic, hand drawn maps. This imaginative style allows for movement across scale which I may be able to appropriate in my own maps. Whilst looking to show the smaller grass roots projects in Traralgon and Morwell, I also want to show the towns relationship to Melbourne. A mapping of a circulation of materials, and of communities involved. Jane Tsong’s map, An Architektur, Geography of the Furth Departure Centre, moves between different scales stake holders and site in a dynamic way i’d also like to attempt. I am looking to find a language that delineates the ‘hardware’ of physical site properties and the ‘software’ of community/political relationships that influence the site.

+ Hardware

Site

Waterways

Land (ab)use

Vic Forests Land AMCOR plantations

LVRRS THEME: Collective: Sp. of subtraction

Education services & Training 03 Release of Information

LONG ROAD AHEAD Gippsland Context map

Lex Segal

software

Gunai Kurnai territory

PPAPER PA

D ND N AN A SAN SAND SSA

BEERR MBBE MBE M IIM TIM TTI

WELL RW ORW MOR

Lex Segal

TRARALGON

Industrial zoning

software

Agricultural zoning Crown ownership

Land (ab)use

International ownerhsip

Land exploitation value (based on Industry profits)

Extraction Noise

Public Road network

Access

Hardware

Land as product

Speed

Hydrology

Indigenous Heritage Flood extents Waterways

TIMBER LVRRS THEME: Collective: Sp. of subtraction

Education services & Training 03 Release of Information

LONG ROAD AHEAD DEMOLITION PLAN

1:10 000 @ A0

Parametric Bench and Enclosure By Isabelle David

Underground utility access requires this area to be free from planting or permanent structures. In response, this utilises light-weight timber and parametric design in a transportable installation to activate the underutilised space. Functioning as a bench and bike stand, it offers a shaded, intimate space for users whilst reducing exposure to surrounding main roads.

Life in Decay The Mycelium Core

Outer Mycelium Core

Inner Mycelium Core 4m 1:10

Life in Decay - Mycelium Core By Benjamin Roe

An unknown duration of time has passed. Much of the earth is barren and radioactive clouds litter the horizon, whilst the air is thick with toxic particles. A small village balances on the cusp of survival. Their ancestors were once great herbalists and agriculturalists and passed down to them the traditions of cultivation, yet the landscape remains resistant to farming. One day a villager in search of supplies stumbles across a small group of fungi. These fungi are not what you or I might recognise today, but they display some resemblance to their ancestors we might be more acquainted with. With new hope, the villager remembers what her grandmother told her, how a simple mushroom can bring about profound and positive change. The villagers have developed a system in which they rely on the abilities of the fungi and in return, cultivate and care for the mushrooms they depend upon. The central component of the system is the mycelium core. Inside the core exists a central column in which mycelium networks thrive. Contaminated, watersaturated, organic material are fed into the outer compartment of the plant. Overtime the mycelium extends into the new debris and utilises its evolved abilities of bio-accumulation, radiotrophic consumption, possession and mycorrhizal exchange networks to filter the soil and expand its existence. Valuable inoculated soil and debris is removed from the base of the core and is allocated to various other functions throughout the village. Not only does the core support the villagers by providing clean usable soil, it supplies the mycelium with a constant avenue to expand and grow.

Mycelium Bags At every river crossing the villagers have hung in the flow, bags filled with mycelium inoculated soil. Bio accumulating mushrooms feed on the nutrients in the water, absorbing a plethora of heavy metals and other pollutants into their tissue. The villagers also use this technique in their wells and drinking reservoirs. The more bags the villagers hang, the cleaner the water becomes and many more mushrooms sprout and thrive. One day the river might be clean enough for the villages to harvest the mushrooms for eating but for now, they must find food elsewhere.

River crossing Plan 2m 1:50

10m 1:250 Village Plan

Mycelium Village An unknown duration of time has passed. Much of the earth is barren and radioactive clouds litter the horizon, whilst the air is thick with toxic particles. A small village balances on the cusp of survival. Their ancestors were once great herbalists and agriculturalists and passed down to them the traditions of cultivation, yet the landscape remains resistant to farming. One day a villager in search of supplies stumbles across a small group of fungi. These fungi are not

what you or I might recognise today, but they display some resemblance to their ancestors we might be more acquainted with. With new hope, the villager remembers what her grandmother told her, how a simple mushroom can bring about profound and positive change. The villagers have developed a system in which they rely on the abilities of the fungi and in return, cultivate and care for the mushrooms they depend upon. The

Benjamin Roe 44

Valuable inoculated soil and debris is removed from the base of the core and is allocated to various other functions throughout the village. Not only does the core support the villagers by providing clean usable soil, it supplies the mycelium with a constant avenue to expand and grow.

central component of the system is the mycelium core. Inside the core exists a central column in which mycelium networks thrive. Contaminated, watersaturated, organic material are fed into the outer compartment of the plant. Overtime the mycelium extends into the new debris and utilises its evolved abilities of bio-accumulation, radiotrophic consumption, possession and mycorrhizal exchange networks to filter the soil and expand its existence.