Studio leader: Virginia Mannering
The broad area of study in this studio is a section of the Murray River roughly between Albury Wodonga and Swan Hill. As the longest river on the driest occupied continent on earth, the ‘Mighty Murray’ exemplifies the paradox of Australian infrastructural systems, being both immense yet incredibly fragile. Despite its scale, or perhaps because of it, the river requires careful stewardship.
Exploring a series of nodes as case studies and then expanding to explore the length of the river, student projects will speculate on the impacts of climate change, population growth and decentralisation that might affect the area and the possible futures and public architectures that could be imagined for them.
These projects are subject to the student’s research but it is expected they could take the form of hybrid, novel versions of the following: observatories, interpretative centres, conservation areas, mini-museums, climate monitoring stations, hot weather refuges or community centres etc. Students will be encouraged to consider regional needs and to think of ‘civic’ and ‘public’ architecture in a multitude of ways: archaeological, ecological, material culture, community safety and inclusion.