Studio C/07
Wrackline: The Littoral and Other Edge-Commons
Alessandro Zambelli
Studio Description
In this studio we will ask; (how) should we build in the edge – of the land, of Country, of the continent, of the city?
In the English language alone, this terrain has many names; littoral, shore, surf zone, seashore, wrack zone, backshore, coast, foreshore, intertidal zone, dune. Folk singer and academic Fay Hield tells of the ‘wrackline’, that thin zone of beach where the receding tide leaves things and beings from other worlds.
For some this edge is profoundly blurred, perhaps even immaterial, “indigenous people still relate to land that was inundated by sea during the last ice age and regard it as their own … [they] make no distinction between land and sea.” (Sea Country, 2002)
In our studio we will think of this shifting, blurred threshold as an edge-common or commons. More than this, at the continental scale for us the city is the wrackline; a place things ‘end up’.
Studio Outcomes
This tension between things that have arrived and things that have always been here will be played out in proposals for a ‘seed bank for Country’. A building or buildings and a landscape which responds to its edge situation and to the humans and non-humans of Port Melbourne, past, present and future.
Our common is that part of Port Melbourne on Bunurong Country where the ancient beaches of Sandridge meet the highly constructed edge of the Webb Dock, where automated container terminal infrastructure meets beach-front dwelling.
The studio themes emerge from current thinking about the commons and practices of commoning – practices which question accepted hierarchies of ownership and embrace care. Our twin touchstones will be the work emerging from this year’s AHRA Conference Situated Ecologies of Care and the ‘National Standard of Competency for Architects’ which now actively promotes “care for Country”.
Studio Leader/s
Dr Alessandro (Alex) Zambelli is an architect who ran a small practice in London between 2000 and 2013, and an academic whose funded and published research into the commons and architectural interdisciplinarity directly informs the studio theme. He is co-convener of the upcoming AHRA 2023 Conference, Situated Ecologies of Care.
Readings & References
R-Urban: practices and networks of urban resilience
https://www.kew.org/wakehurst/whats-at-wakehurst/millennium-seed-bank
https://www.anbg.gov.au/gardens/living/seedbank/
Bollier, David. "Commoning as a Transformative Social Paradigm." In The Next System Project [Blog], edited by David Bollier. Washington D.C.: The Democracy Collaborative, 2016.
Delsante, Ioanni, and Alessandro Zambelli. "Architectural Agency and the Commons." The Journal of Architecture 28, no. 1 (2023/01/02 2023): 1-6.
Dovey, Kim, and Leonie Sandercock. Fluid City: Transforming Melbourne's Urban Waterfront. Sydney, N.S.W., Australia Abingdon, Oxfordshire New York: University of New South Wales Press
Quirk, Mo A. "From Banib to Bunyip: Tracking Bricolage and Knowledge Systems in Colonized Aboriginal Spirituality." Folklore 134, no. 1 (2023/01/02 2023): 111-29
Sea Country – an Indigenous Perspective: The South-East Regional Marine Plan Assessment Reports. Hobart, TAS: National Oceans Office, 2002.
Thom, Bruce. "Who Owns the Beach When the Sea Is Rising?" The Conversation (Online), 2014.
Zambelli, Alessandro. "The Undisciplined Drawing." Buildings 3, no. 2 (2013): 357-79.
Schedule Tuesday 12pm - 3pm, MSD Room 139 and Thursday 12pm - 3pm, MSD Room 139
Need enrolment assistance?
Stop 1 provides enrolment and other support to Bachelor of Design, Bachelor of Environments and Melbourne School of Design students.