Lizzy Wang

The Museum of Lost Waterways and Hidden Wetlands

The urbanization of landscapes occurring through the development of cities has created an emotional and physical disconnect between people and nature[1]. This thesis aims to address the value of reintegrating ecological systems within urban settings and explore the importance of water and wetlands within the context of Melbourne by revisiting the condition in which the city began [2]. Early colonial urban strategies, driven by the view that these landscapes were dirty and diseased, resulted in the drying out and sterilisation of water and land[3]. Framed as a kind of urban experiment, this project unpacks these historical attitudes in a post-colonial context to reveal the waterway and wetlands along Elizabeth St as a gesture against the generic and universal principles of the modernist city. Instead, the project embraces these lost landscapes through architecture which responds to locality and seasonality, while also confronting the artificial nature of these recreated landscapes. This will also allow the project to challenge the traditional museum typology which creates distance and barriers between the user and the exhibition[4], the museum used as the focal point of this exploration.

The museum will therefore be presented as a simulated testing ground which expresses the intricate and intertwined relationship between built form and natural systems and the lifecycle of growth and decay, known as The Museum of Lost Waterways and Hidden Wetlands.

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[1]Will R. Turner, Toshihiko Nakamura, and Marco Dinetti, "Global Urbanization and the Separation of Humans from Nature," BioScience 54, no. 6 (2004), https://doi.org/10.1641/0006-3568(2004)054[0585:GUATSO]2.0.CO;2; Turner, Nakamura, and Dinetti, "Global Urbanization and the Separation of Humans from Nature."

[1]Gary Presland, "A boggy question: Differing views of wetlands in 19th century Melbourne," The Victorian Naturalist, 131 (Melbourne, 2014), Article text. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=edsbhl&AN=edsbhl.part.245828&site=eds-live&scope=site&custid=s2775460.

[1]Zach Hope, "'It's a bit Pompeii-like': The unexpected 'buried blocks' of Melbourne," (2019). https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/it-s-a-bit-pompeii-like-the-unexpected-buried-blocks-of-melbourne-20190905-p52oa6.html.

[1]Hannah Mason-Macklin, Museum in Progress: Decolonizing Museums, TEDx Talks (TEDx Talks, 2019).

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