David Gan

The Shrine of Remembrance prides itself in being a memorial honouring the service and sacrifice of Australians in war and peacekeeping, and yet neglects to dignify one of the major ‘silent casualties of war’, the natural environment. Over 81% of major armed conflicts between 1950 and 2000 took place in an area of high biological value, with Australian military and peacekeeping involvement occurring in 12 biodiversity hotspots.

With public support for Australian involvement in war and conflict in decline, and the meteoric rise in support for an environmental call to action, this thesis will propose creating an armature that publicises the ecological legacies of contemporary wars, in order to support an investigation into how environmental action can be a conduit for peace.

It will be an inter-modal carrier for productive conversation, debate and protest between international, national, and local adversaries, in an effort to forge sustained environmental accountability, trust and cooperation. Titled the (de facto) Embassy of Ecological Diplomacy, the architectural proposition will balance and contrast, and ultimately seek to repair the intertwined relationship between natural systems and built form.