Any Port in a Storm: Thesis Book

MSD Independent Thesis 2020

ANY PORT IN A STORM Mitchell Sack Supervisor: Alex Selenitsch

Mitchell Sack

CONTENTS Chapter One: Design Proposal Chapter Two: Oil & The Built Environment Chapter Three: Site analysis Chapter Four: Reclamation Chapter Five: Remediation Chapter Six: Speculative Futures Chapter Seven: Programmatic Development Chapter Eight: Site planning Chapter Nine: Tectonic Development Chapter Ten: Concept Design Chapter Eleven: Sketch Design Chapter Twelve: Design Development References Figures

2

8 28 40 62 78 90 100 120 144 178 204 214 234 236

Design Thesis

THESIS STATEMENT Yarraville Oil Terminal and Coode Island petrochemical storage in the Port of Melbourne present two extensively polluted locations that are symptomatic of the historical industrial development of Melbourne’s West.

How do we redesign these sites in the wake of their eventual redundancy?

built form that draws from the tectonic elements of the existing site.

The proposal will build connections with the Yarra River, immediate localities and greater Melbourne, shifting the perceived cultural value of industrial sites and questioning their role in the city’s future.

This thesis will investigate the transformation and remediation of the leftover land and infrastructure through the design of a new

3

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

ELABORATION The speculation of Coode Island and the Yarraville Oil terminal as redundant is a provocation that calls for consideration of how more unconventional sites can undergo urban renewal. While it is acknowledged that these sites serve an important role within Melbourne’s supply chain structure, simulating their redundancy and a subsequent architectural proposal serves to question how they might be treated in a future in which we no longer store oil and toxic petrochemicals in the inner city.

Speculative futures create a vision for these scenarios, providing guidance for planning activities and decision making processes in order to realize preferred futures (Dator, 2019), allowing the knowledge to be reapplied to similar sites in other predicted or real futures. For this reason, Melbourne’s own projected development will be analysed in order to embed the proposal within the city’s current plan.

Other speculative projects will be used to

4

inform the manner in which these scenarios are framed and formulate a design response.

These projects will be critically analysed in their engagement with real-world issues related to their context given that predictive futures are most effective when linked to strategic planning and administration (Dator, 2019). Of particular interest are projects featured within Geostories: Another Architecture For the Environment in which engagement with redundant infrastructure is used to position the objects as items of cultural significance, shifting perception and provoking conversation about the role of these artefacts in future cities.

It is critical to understand the complex and wide reaching implications of a societywide reliance on oil and its manifestations within the built environment. Carola Hein’s (2018) concept of Petroleumscapes outlines the the extent to which petroleum and therefor oil are deeply ingrained within the urban form of contemporary cities as well

as fiction and artistic media. The speculative redundancy of these sites allows us to question the appropriateness of petroleum and petrochemical storage within the fabric of a contemporary Melbourne.

Much of Melbourne’s historically industrial west developed in a largely informal manner.

This occurred prior to the implementation of planning controls, receding a level of appropriate environmental consideration and creating a pattern of land use that would be deemed unacceptable in today’s environment (Baird, 2010). While the industrial footprint of oil and chemical storage is typically located far from the eye of the city, this is not the case in the chosen sites.

They lie in close proximity to established settlements, placing the industrial functions in direct conflict with adjacent land uses, with the area’s fragmentation demonstrating the long term implications of industry on these sites (Baird, 2010).

Considering

the degree to which Melbourne’s west has been disconnected from the city due to these fragmented industrial landscapes, the reclamation of derelict land along the Yarra is imperative in the future amalgamation of the city.

In dealing with these post industrial sites, two primary strategies are required: reclamation and remediation. Reclamation in this instance refers to the use of existing infrastructures and their incorporation into the built environment. These obsolete artefacts should be repurposed and engaged with in order to promote not only a reduction of waste associated with demolition and reconstruction but also an engagement with the city’s industrial past. The final proposal should question how we can rebuild sites without eradicating the previous built forms and infrastructure.

Observing this practice on a monumental scale Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord by Latz

5

+ Partners is a former steel foundry in which industrial remnants from a bygone area were retained, infusing cultural meaning and the site’s history into the present (Latz, 2016).

Projects engaging with disused petroleum storage tanks have also being undertaken internationally including Heo Seogoo & RoA Architect’s, Oil Tank Culture Park, Menis Arquitectos’ El Espacio Cultural El Tanque and Open Architecture’s Tank Shanghai.

Much like Duisburg-Nord prior to its development, Coode Island and the Yarraville Oil Terminal, are likely to face stigmatization stemming from decades of perceived and real negative impacts on both the surrounding environment and adjacent community.

6

Remediation is the process of dealing with the fallout associated with years of industrial activity and the resulting effects on the landscape. Often these sites present as heavily polluted, with soil and water treatment required to restore them to a state in which they can be safely re integrated into the broader urban fabric. The effects of oil storage lingers in the landscape long after physical removal, requiring extensive and specialized clean up strategies as they disappear (Hein, 2018).

Looking to the soil remediation processes required at both the Fitzroy Gasworks and Fresh Kills Park provides two distinct ongoing examples of the involved works at greatly different scales and locations. In considering

remediation within the design process, the project’s staging is critical in establishing immediate engagement while comprehensive and time consuming environmental cleansing methods are implemented.

PROPOSAL Drawing on the site’s historic uses for storage and production, the existing facilities will be transformed into a storage facility that seeks to question what contents (tangible and intangible) will need to be stockpiled in Melbourne’s future. Much like the existing functions have left traces on the landscape, urban development and perception of Melbournians through its “spillages”, the proposed facility will produce its own externalities that allow it to create new legacy for the site.

Yarra. Thus architecture becomes a mediator between contents and context, past and future, built form and environmental assets.

This speculative proposal will be executed with respect to Melbourne’s planned development, ensuring relevance within the city’s future development and serving as a methodology for the continued reclamation of sites blighted by an industrial legacy on a global scale.

These externalities will take the form of ancillary programmatic functions and spatial conditions that seek to shape the way in which people engage with the storage contents, surrounding suburbs and the

7

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER ONE: DESIGN PROPOSAL

8

Chapter One

Design Proposal

9

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SITE PLAN The project exists as a constellation on landmasses separated by the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers. At the Yarraville ExxonMobil Petrol Terminal, a STEM teaching facility (1) and seed bank (4) will be created, with a data residing at Coode Island (2). The sites will be connected to each other and Fisherman’s Bend via a ferry, with terminals situated at each site (3) (see Chapter 10).

This will begin to better connect Malbourne’s West to the rest of the city as Fisherman’s Bend is further connected to the CBD in its future development without reliance on the West Gate Bridge or a lengthy trip North around the Port of Melbourne facilities.

The addition of ferry terminals also allows the site to be potentially included in the existing Geelong - Docklands Ferry, facilitating more water based transit within Melbourne. This is particularly important 10

given the amount of future residency and employment numbers within Fisherman’s Bend. Connection via water also promotes greater engagement with the Yarra River estuary and its habitats such as the Stony Creek Backwash which have historically been rejected since Melbourne’s colonisation.

Chapter One

Design Proposal

2

3

2

3

1

4

1

3

4

3

3

3

0

50

100

200M

11 0

50

100

200M

Mitchell Sack

The core concept of the proposal becomes that of storage and spillage, forming a tectonic experiment as to how these redundant sites might be developed in the future.

In redeveloping the site, the petrol storage infrastructure is re-appropriated to instead house ideas and knowledge critical to future urban development.

Spillage in this case refers to the ancillary programme that leaks out from the new storage facilities, providing a point of public engagement and mediator of the contents.

While the previous spillage of contents has served to contaminate the site and surrounding area, the new spillages will allow the ideas explored within to leak out into the public consciousness.

12

Design Thesis

The selected programme of a STEM high school facility, a seed bank, a data centre and transport links to the future education and technology precincts at Fisherman’s Bend position the broader site as a knowledge and innovation precinct.

The purpose of the site thus shifts from the storage of petrochemicals to the storage of ideas, laying the foundation for future energy and biodiversity innovations to develop.

Chapter One

Design Proposal

13

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

YARRAVILLE TERMINAL SITE PLAN The Yarraville site has been designed to be patched into the adjacent residential urban fabric in both its scale and connectivity.

The vertical axis of Hyde Street has been continued as a central boulevard through the site while land parcels are divided according to the surrounding urban fabric. Within the street structure, car parks / bus terminals are integrated close to the two storage facilities and the ferry terminal to facilitate public transport links within the site and to the water based transport.

Curved roads snake through the tank farm, incorporating circulation with the industrial relics themselves. East of the central axis, the roads become more rectilinear, dividing the land into parcels for future development, with built forms at the north of the site and parkland at the south. The southern parkland will transition into the existing mangrove forest of Stony Creek Backwash, expanding the park which currently exists as 14

an isolated anomaly in the area.

The addition of tidal canals through the site acts as both a way finding measure and gesture to promote increased engagement with the river. These canals culminate in pools formed between the existing circulation embankments within the tank farm.

Throughout the precinct, reclaimed segments of removed petrol tanks have been deployed as follies, patching the industrial relics into the redevelopment of the site. This allows them to serve as historical markers of the site’s function but also shift perception of the cultural value of these artefacts.

Chapter One

Design Proposal

0 10 20

0 10 20

50

100M

50

100M

15

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SEED BANK The seed bank was developed further in order to test the tectonic systems in accordance with greater programmatic and functional demands. Given the project’s intent to use architecture as a means to transform a historically damaged site, the seed bank forms an ideal base for site remediation.

The building becomes a insurance device, located within objects that are emblematic of environmental degradation.

Beginning with the two newest and largest tanks on the site, the seed bank fractures the existing forms, retaining one tank as the storage proper while the other fragments contain a series of labs, workshops, conference rooms and a visitor centre, connected by a large open-air atrium. While the seed bank itself is physically separated from public functions, the connecting bridge allows visitors to observe the sorting and storage process as well as entering a demonstration storage room within the cold 16

storage towers.

The visitor centre allows the importance of the building’s storage contents to be shared and spread, while the surrounding landscape becomes a living lab for phyto-remediation.

This forms the basis for the building’s programmatic spillage, as the internal operations and research leak out into the surrounding landscape to transform the site itself and support the facility’s educational function Within the seed bank’s display / gallery spaces, visitors are able to view the experimental planning labs below whilst learning about the importance of biodiversity conservation.

This wing contains lecture theaters, rentable labs / studios and offices to allow the facility to be used by a range of research functions and further embedding it within site as an innovation precinct. Above these functions is a large tower containing experimental

planting greenhouses, supporting the seed collection and research.

Aesthetic qualities of the existing infrastructure are retained in order to preserve and acknowledge the historical functions whilst repositioning their function. The high-tech, oil refinery aesthetic is thus repurposed from something that typically celebrates potentially harmful technological advances and is positioned as a beacon for post industrial renewal.

Chapter One

Design Proposal

Visitor Centre entrace across remediated landscape

17

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

GROUND FLOOR PLAN

2 1 1 1 2

1

3 4

5

6 4 5

3

19

B

5 5 7

17 18

6 7

12

16 13 7

14 14 15

7

11

B. Bus Terminal / Car Parking 1. Entrance / Reception 2. Learning Centre 3. Staff 4. Storage 5. Open Atrium 6. Public Lobby 7. Rentable Workshops / Studios 8. Meeting 9. Kitchenette / Breakout 10. Staff Entrance 11. Seed Bank Entrance / Deliveries 12. Open Plan Office Desks 11 9 9 13. Drying Room Lobby 10 14. Drying Rooms 8 15. 7Seed Bank Freezer Storage 12 16. Meeting 13 13 15 15 17. Offices 14 18. Management Office 19. Kitchenette / Breakout

15

7

8

10 9

18

0

5

10

20

0

5

10

20M

50M

Chapter One

Design Proposal

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

2 1 1 1

2 1 1 1

6 4

3

5 5 5 11 9

6 4

10

8

3

5

9

1. Teaching Spaces 2. Display / Gallery Area 3. Lab Change Rooms 4. Public Lobby 5. Labs + Experimental Planting 6. Seed Bank Bridge 7. Staff Seed Bank Entrance 8. Seed Cleaning 11 9 9 9. Labs 10 10. Staff Entrance 8 7 11. Dark Room 12 12. Drying Room Lobby 13 13 13.

Drying Rooms 15 15 14 14. Seed Transportation Lobby 15. Seed Bank Freezer Storage

7 12

5

13 13

5 15

14

15

0

5

10

20

0

5

10

20M

50M

0

5

10

20

0

5

10

20M

50M

19

Mitchell Sack

0 5 10 Design Thesis20

0

5

10

50M

20M

SECOND FLOOR PLAN 4

3

2 1 1 1

1 1 1

7

2

6 4

3

5 5

11 5 4

9

5

6 9

1. Teaching Spaces 2. Display / Gallery 3. Viewing Platform 4. Public Access Bridge 5.7 Seed Bank Public Viewing 11 Point 9 9 7 6. Public Access Demonstration 10 8 Freezer Room 7 7. Seed Transportation Lobby 12 13 13Freezer Storage 8. Seed Bank 15 15 14 9. Display / Gallery 10. Planting Lab Viewing Point 11. Viewing Platform

8 7

10

20

0

5

10

20

0

5

10

20M

50M

Chapter One

0M

Design Proposal

THIRD FLOOR PLAN 4 2 1 1 1

1. Teaching Spaces 21. Public Lobby / Events

7

Space 2. Conference / Lecture Theatres 3. Mezzanine Gallery (above) 11

7

6 4

9

10

8

3

5

9

7 12

5

13 13

5 15

14

15

3 1

2

2

0

5

10

20

0

5

10

20M

50M

21

Mitchell Sack

22

Design Thesis

Chapter One

Design Proposal

Access from Ferry Terminal: Tank volumes visually retained

23

Mitchell Sack

24

Design Thesis

Open-air atrium

Chapter One

Design Proposal

Tank / pipe tectonic

25

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

View into experimental planting labs

26

Chapter One

Design Proposal

Linear galleries spill out of the building with visual connections to the surrounding site + CBD

27

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER TWO: OIL & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT

28

Chapter Two

Oil & The Built Environment

Prior to exploring the remediation of Melbourne’s industrial oil footprint, it is critical to understand the complex and wide reaching implications of a society wide reliance on oil. This industry continues to shape our value systems, imaginations, and decision making. All of this makes it particularly difficult for societies to overcome oil dependency and promote new energy practices.

is unable to separated from our daily lives, with this hegemony manifesting in the built form of the city.

The first step in reimagining the future is understanding the extent of oil’s effect on our everyday landscapes and understanding the ways in which collective mindscapes shape the physical environment.

Petroleum and therefor oil are deeply ingrained within the urban form of contemporary cities as well as fiction and artistic media. As the fuel that has nearly exclusively propelled mankind through modernisation, petroleum consumption 29

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

PETROLEUMSCAPES In order to properly understand the impact of oil upon the built fabric of contemporary cities, Carola Hein’s writings on “Petroleumscapes” provide a useful conception of the complex ways in which urbanisation is intertwined with oil. In reimagining the future beyond oil, the first step is to critically understand the extent of oil’s effect in shaping our physical environments and collective mindsets (Hein, 2018).

In order to support new energy values and begin to imagine an oil free future, citizens and politicians must properly understand the scale of oil’s presence and its representation within the physical environment (Hein, 2018). This establishes the critical knowledge required to begin imagining an alternative future in which the petroleumscape is shifted. This thesis will begin an initial exploration of the postpetroleumscape by remediating a portion of 30

Melbourne’s direct industrial oil footprint and incorporating it within existing plans for the city.

The direct industrial footprint of oil comprises the first layer of spatial Petroleumscapes and consists of the storage, transformation and transportation of oil (Hein, 2018). This includes the spaces of drilling equipment, refineries, storage tanks, pipelines, road and rail infrastructure and gas stations (Hein, 2018). It is within this layer that this thesis will explore the remediation of landscapes directly associated with oil’s industrial footprint within contemporary cities. The site that forms the basis for this thesis contains a significant amount of Melbourne’s direct industrial oil footprint, playing host to key storage and transport facilities.

Conceptual collage depicting the direct industrial footprint of oil

Chapter Two

Oil & The Built Environment

31

Mitchell Sack

Moving from the primary layer of petroleumscapes, the next layer comprises the ancillary structures that are key to supporting the existence of key infrastructure but are not directly part of the production process (Hein, 2018). This consists of buildings that may be associated with the housing, leisure or education of oil workers that is provided by the employing companies.

Within the very way we relate to the city, petrol stations serve as key markers within our mental map of the city (Hein, 2014).

It is incredibly difficult to begin moving past the complex path dependencies of petroleum infrastructure, given both their complexity and the long life spans of the physical interventions (Hein, 2018). Through these dependencies and the manifestation of our own energy culture, buildings and urban forms assist in perpetuating the physical and financial 32

Design Thesis

flows associated with oil consumption into an unbroken feedback loop (Hein, 2018).

The physical manifestations of oil flows are present across a number of scales within the built environment and occur in both a direct and indirect manner.

Fig. 1 depicts the Petroleumscape within Rotterdam, a Port City similar to Melbourne in which petroleum is extensively stored and distributed from.

Chapter Two

Oil & The Built Environment

Fig. 1

33

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

OIL & IMAGINATION The existence of Petroleumscapes exists beyond spatial and political practices but is further perpetuated by aesthetic and artistic practices. Dystopian and Utopian imagery throughout twentieth century literature serves as a reminder of the inescapability of petroleum infrastructures (LeMenager, 2012).

This is particular prominent within the United States and a fascination with the petromodern city. Petrotopia is described by LeMenager as the physical reality of the US landscape of highways, strip malls, fast food and gasoline service islands, and shopping centers ringed by parking lots without consideration for violence enacted upon landscapes to actualise its reality (LeMenager, 2012).

Fig. 2 depicts Shell Oil’s “City of Tomorrow” model from the 1939 World’s Fair, serving as a predictive model of the modern American

34

city with its sprawling highways enabling the liberation of private car ownership.

LeMenager describes this petromodernity across a range of twentieth century literature and the way in which oil has successfully captured society’s desires, thrills and concerns.

This begins to demonstrate the manner in which oil is embedded within not only our physical environments but within our collective psyche and imaginations. It assists in beginning to establish the true nature of oil’s hold over society and the challenges that will be faced if the world was required to exist in a post oil setting. It further demonstrates the complexity in redesigning in former oil infrastructure sites as if involves engaging with a deep-seated component of our urban reality. This makes the project particularly important, to begin exploring how architecture can respond to this situation.

Chapter Two

Oil & The Built Environment

Fig. 2

35

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

INFRASTRUCTURE AESTHETICS It is particularly interesting to examine the perception of oil infrastructure in its physical reality and the lifestyle or aspirational realities that it enables. The industrial footprint of oil is typically located far from the eye of the city, separating its utilitarian aesthetic.

However, despite any potential negative visual perception of oil infrastructure, there remains a longstanding fascination and rich imagination in engaging with physical infrastructure aesthetics. Despite any public reservations for the impact of the oil industries, civic buildings such as Rogers and Piano’s Centre Pompidou (Fig. 3) display an architectural acceptance and celebration of the oil refinery-like “high tech” aesthetic as do the representations of Archigram’s Plug in City (Fig. 4) (Hein, 2018).

Plug in City, in particular, offers an example of how ancillary functions could be plugged in to key infrastructure, a megastructure manifestation of the Petroleumscapes proposed

by Hein. It is interesting to note that in the Netherlands, there is significant public debate

36

about the selection of oil monuments for historic preservation, demonstrating further cultural embrace of the Petroleumscape in the form of the representational layer (Hein, 2018).

This critique of society’s embrace of oil aesthetics poses interesting implications in responding to the remediation of industrial sites. Does the repurposing and inclusion of existing infrastructural elements within the design only serve to perpetuate a deep cultural fascination with processes that have such dire consequences for the planet? Is the total erasure and replacement of these physical artefacts an effective method of ceasing our Petrotopia, or is it more effective to engage with these objects and acknowledge the impact of oil upon our cities?

Chapter Two

Oil & The Built Environment

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

37

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

POST OIL REINTEGRATION Given the previously outlined extent to which oil is embedded within both the built environment and the collective imaginations of society, addressing a world in which oil infrastructure is removed is extremely complex. Even without consideration of cleaning requirements, the repurposing of refineries and other infrastructure into surrounding neighbourhoods poses a massive challenge to execute, given their intensely specialised networks that pose value to oil companies and the typically difficult to access areas in which they reside (Hein, 2018). Exacerbating these issues is the fact that the street infrastructure surrounding existing ports is also typically unprepared to handle large increases in traffic from alternative activities (Hein, 2018).

It is in this aspect that the sites around the Port of Melbourne are seemingly unique, owing largely to their perhaps inappropriate 38

proximity to functional existing neighbourhoods. The sites in question remain highly physically accessible to those currently living on the western bank of the Yarra, including the suburbs of Yarraville, Maribyrnong and Footscray while future developments planned for Fisherman’s Bend creates critical mass on the eastern bank.

Due to their proximity to existing residential and commercial zones, these areas remain or will be consolidated with significant access to public transport and road infrastructure as well as cycling paths.

Yet despite this proximity, the areas surrounding the Port and oil terminals are a wasteland of inactivity, near impossible to engage with if not for a few select anglers.

When these kind of spaces exist in the geographic centre of large metropolises as it does in Melbourne it creates a serious disconnect and prohibitive zone for the surrounding areas. While Coode Island

presents difficulty in terms of land access, it is immediately visible across the narrow Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers from the Yarraville oil refinery and Fisherman’s bend respectively. This presents an opportunity to provide integration between the 3 distinct land masses utilising a water connection and in doing so promote greater engagement with the Rivers themselves.

Perhaps the most challenging notion in generating meaningful redevelopments of oil infrastructure is the changes to land use, real estate and social structures if the global petroleum landscape were to drastically shift (Hein, 2018). Issues of transport, building materials, building services, employment, economic activity and social structures will all be severely impacted by any shortages making the imposition of any form of architectural intervention fraught with uncertainty and complex interrelationships.

Chapter Two

Oil & The Built Environment

39

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER THREE: SITE ANALYSIS

40

Chapter Three

The chosen site consists of the ExxonMobil Petrol Terminal at Yarraville (A) and the petrochemical storage at Coode Island (B). Along with an adjacent strip of land at Fisherman’s Bend (C) that is currently occupied by a private Marina, the three sites sit on separate landforms divided by both the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers.

Therein presents the opportunity to engage with the waterfront and consider the relationship between sites connected only by water, ones that typically take extensive amounts of time to travel between given the disconnection of the western suburbs around the lower Yarra.

All three sites are currently owned by the Port of Melbourne Corporation and operated by private companies.

Site Analysis

B

A

C

41

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SITE HISTORY Most of the city’s noxious industries were moved to Footscray and Yarraville in the 1870’s after their initial establishment in the swampy regions of Fishermen’s Bend and present day Port Melbourne (Baird, 2010).

The early harnessing of the waterways and wetlands of Melbourne’s west for the purpose of industry has come to define the area for decades (Sornig, 2018). Coode Island and Fisherman’s Bend were previously flood prone flats while the western bank (Footscray, Yarraville and Spotswood) lie at the edge of a massive basalt plane. The Yarra and Maribyrnong estuaries with their swamps and lagoons formed a barrier to Melbourne’s development for over a century, with the low lands near the rivers being harnessed by the city’s least desirable uses: rubbish dumps, abattoirs and noxious trades (fig. 5) (Sornig, 2018). Keeping the less palatable functions out of the public view, the west formed a perfect place in the mind of the nineteenth century European 42

to dump waste far from the city (Sornig, 2018).

Much of Melbourne’s historically industrial areas developed on a largely informal basis prior to the implementation of planning controls, receding a level of appropriate environmental control and developing a pattern of land use that would be deemed unacceptable in today’s environment (Baird, 2010). The informal development of the industrial west forms an interesting contrast to the rigorous grid structures that are observed within Melbourne’s CBD and its surrounding suburbs.

Industries requiring large river births in Yarraville and Spotswood were built along the river, establishing the industrial land use that continues in the present day. The Vacuum Oil Company established its initial terminal in 1924 (Fig. 6) and the subsequent storage facilties have come to dominate the

Chapter Three

Fig. 5

Site Analysis

Fig. 6

Fig. 10

Fig. 7

Fig. 8

43

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Yarraville and Spotswood areas (Fig. 7 + 8) (Vines, 2013). While the Oil Terminal, Gyprock and sugar refineries all remain, many of the waterfront sites are now deserted, enforcing the temporary nature of industrial functions which are a reflection of society’s present needs (Gadd, 2015).

The site remains exceptionally flat today, facilitating the multitude of storage and distribution functions in the area. This raises questions of what building typologies will continue to be suited to this landscape in the site’s future development.

Map demonstrating the flat topography of the three landmasses

44

Chapter Three

View of Coode Island and Fisherman’s Bend from Francis Pier

Site Analysis

45

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

COODE ISLAND Coode island is one of Victoria’s largest petrochemical storage facilities, now a peninsula protruding into the Yarra River.

Following the excavation of the Coode Canal in 1886, Coode Island remained an island proper for some 70 years. Isolated from human impact, the island became a sanctuary for wildlife, playing host to a a range of indigenous flora and fauna (Vines, 2013). Bill Lemarguard was born on the island in 1901 and remained there for over 40 years, and in his account of the island’s history: “The sky was ablaze with skylarks...every few yards there were nests on the ground.

Springtime was full of their music.

Sometimes there were dolphins in the river.

The most beautiful thing I have ever seen was the pigface growing on the island in spring. It was a swamp in the middle before they drained it. I will never forget that pigface.” (Vines, 2013) 46

Recounts of the site’s prior heritage serve as a stark contrast to the blighted wasteland that comprises much of the area’s more recent conditions. Following its initial isolation, Coode Island was used as a sanatorium for plague patients from 1911, a sinkhole of desolation compounding the patients’ illness with river fogs, winter winds, decrepit tin humpties and rubbish tips (Vines, 2013). Following World War 2 the site was repurposed for chemical storage.

The history of Coode Island and the surrounding industrial precinct’s development has occurred in a manner that places its industrial functions in direct conflict with adjacent land uses and demonstrate the long term implications of industry on these sites (Baird, 2010). The storage of highly hazardous petrochemicals lies less than 1km from residential areas.

In this instance, the development of

Chapter Three

Coode Island petrochemical storage

Site Analysis

47

Mitchell Sack

Melbourne’s Port infrastructure, particularly its petroleum and petrochemical facilities serve to have permanently disconnected much of Melbourne’s west and prevented engagement with much of our largest natural resource, the Yarra River.

The impacts of the risks presented by Coode Island were not properly realised until the massive chemical fire of 1991 that saw a blaze started by a St. Elmo’s Fire send plumes of smoke into surrounding residential areas.

Following a proposal to relocate the facility to a greenfield site, it was ultimately decided to allow the storage facility to remain under stricter controls (Baird, 2010). This occurred despite the economic benefits presented by relocation over a quick fix approach of re adapting the existing site, with this approach also not in favour of the interests of both local communities and the process efficiency of the industry (Baird, 2010).

48

Design Thesis

Chapter Three

Site Analysis

49

Mitchell Sack

50

Design Thesis

Chapter Three

Site Analysis

Left to Right: Yarraville petrol tanks, oil piplines to Altona, prohibitive signals and barriers near Francis Pier

51

Mitchell Sack

Holden Dock on the Yarra’s west bank is largest oil berth within the port, and with the subsequent Exxon Mobil storage facility at the Yarraville Oil Terminal, stores materials within only a few hundred metres of nearby homes (Baird, 2010). The terminal itself handles around 8 million litres of refined fuel per day day, compounding to around 3 billion litres annually (ExxonMobil, 2019). 20 operation fuel storage tanks are located at the terminal with a total storage capacity of 120 million litres and direct pipeline connections to Altona and Geelong refineries (ExxonMobil, 2019). Holden Dock forms the point at which oil products are able to be shipped in or out of the oil terminal, making it the primary oil location in Melbourne with the exception of the Altona refinery.

Amongst the west bank’s oil infrastructure lies a curious assortment of recreational and natural features. Wedged Between Holden 52

Design Thesis

dock and the terminal lies the small Francis street pier, a somewhat popular fishing spot located at the end a singular road and surrounded on all sides by prohibited private property. Below the oil terminal is the Stony Creek backwash and a flourishing endangered white mangrove forest as well as a Frisbee golf course in an expansive parkland. The existence of these spaces serves to further enforce the strange mix of land uses that comprise Melbourne’s inner west. Francis Street offers a singular point of engagement with the river, unintentionally serving as a reminder of the entire area’s disconnection with the amount of viable land occupied by the oil infrastructure.

The reach of the terminal extends further down along the Yarra’s west bank through the form of pressurised oil pipelines, which serve as a further reminder of the stranglehold that oil infrastructure has on the locality’s future development.

Chapter Three

Site Analysis

Clockwise from top left: Oil tanker unloading at the Holden Dock, Yarraville Terminal and storage tanks

53

Mitchell Sack

54

Design Thesis

Chapter Three

Site Analysis

Left to Right: Stony Creek backwash, punt ferry terminal at Fisherman’s Bend

55

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

PLANNED SITE DEVELOPMENT

This is an expressed desire for residents to be provided with greater access to the River’s edge, with this also identified as a priority of Maribyrnong Council (TPG, 2010). Future development along both the Maribyrnong and Yarra Rivers is targeting the development of attractive open space, arts and tourism activity in disused industrial sites in order to create new jobs and establish a wide range of leisure facilities along the river (TPG, 2010).

There is also an objective to establish a water based public transport system and a completion of a recreational trail system with linked activities. The broader vision for the precinct is the development of a western region tourist, arts, leisure and recreation precinct, with an expansion of the local arts community and an enhanced cultural engagement with the river environment (TPG, 2010).

56

Much of the planned development lies north of Yarraville along the Footscray waterfront, particularly focusing on Footscray wharf opposite Coode Island. Many of these sites had formerly industrial purposes and as a result are highly encouraged by the council to be remediated prior to their sale and development (TPG, 2010) The desired connection to the river and greater public amenity for Yarraville and the western suburbs in general is critical to the project’s success. Positioning the proposed interventions at the Yarraville Terminal and Coode Island allows this speculative proposal to inform the manner in which any urban regeneration along the Maribyrnong occurs. By positioning at the design at sites much more ambitious than what is currently proposed, this thesis will engage with the more extreme constraints presented by urban regeneration. While

Chapter Three

there are already redundant industrial sites along this waterfront it is of further use to speculate on the event that the Terminal and Coode Island are able to be connected to this development and its implications for the future of Melbourne.

Site Analysis

will retain its liquid bulk functions for the short to medium term, calling into question the site’s long term appearance.

Reports by both the local council and the Port of Melbourne Corporation acknowledge the difficulty of the extreme proximity of the residential community to the port operations. The needs of a working port must be balanced with the amenity entitlement of those living nearby (TPG, 2010).

However, the hazardous facilities operating at Coode Island and the Yarraville Oil Terminal have become the primary influence on planning considerations for the city of Maribyrnong. The port Development Strategy outlines that the Yarraville Precinct 57

Mitchell Sack

YARRA RIVER INITIAL COURSE

The Yarra’s initial path was replaced by the Coode Canal that subsequently created Coode Island. This marked the initial process in a history of utilitarian impositions made upon the present day port area and initialized the site’s development into what it is today. Free of any further interventions it is also interesting to note the initial conditions of flat swampy wetland that comprised the site. While the processes of diverting the Yarra is unable to be undone, future interventions at the site should promote a re-engagement with the river and an appreciation of the natural systems that have facilitated the city’s growth. Through the reclamation and remediation process, it is intended that the river’s relationship with the site will be challenged and considered in an alternative light.

Fig. 9

58

Design Thesis

Chapter Three

Site Analysis

JOHN MILLAR, PROPOSED EXTENSION OF MELBOURNE GRID

Millar’s proposed extension of Melbourne’s grid, whilst possessing significantly less dock space, provides an interesting method of linking the west to the rest of the city. The imposition of the grid at this larger scale emphasizes Melbourne’s own colonial planning strategies, providing a near symmetrical plan for the city. Given the physical attitudes of Melbourne’s development the literal translation of this plan would be inappropriate in a contemporary context however its ability to physically connect the city’s east and west is admirable. This concept of a more integrated city should begin to be explored through the architectural interventions proposed for Coode Island, Yarraville and Fisherman’s Bend, which mark the first step toward greater connection.

Fig. 10

59

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

POST-INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPES Due to pressures of rising populations and an increase in urbanisation, there is a need for cities to continue to densify and consolidate their urban fabric to accommodate future growth. The post industrial landscape should be considered as a resource, presenting an opportunity to develop multifunctional landscape through its recovery (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2010). Due to economic shifts and the forces of globalisation, industrial areas in cities around the world have been severely affected, producing a vast array of obsolete infrastructure and creating landscapes that are fragmented and incoherent (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2010).

Considering the degree to which Melbourne’s west has been disconnected from the city due to these fragmented industrial landscapes, the reclamation of derelict land along the Yarra is imperative in the future amalgamation of the city. Many 60

of these landscapes present themselves as environmentally impaired assets, with significant amounts of work required to return them to a productive and functional state able to be reintegrated into surrounding communities (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2010).

While the idea of cities and landscape have historically been separated, there is an increasing tendency in contemporary design toward a consideration of urban fields in terms of sites, territories, ecosystems, networks and infrastructures, or landscape ecologies (Corner, 2006). The inseparability and complex interrelationships of city and nature provide distinct opportunities to create unique and engaging environments.

This is evident within the site where there exists a distinct contrast between the natural landscape of the river with the utilitarian oil and chemical storage infrastructure.

Through a renewal of the site, there exists an

opportunity for a new urban condition in which the two are interwoven.

Chapter Three

Site Analysis

Views along Francis Street looking east (left) to Coode Island and west (right) to Yarraville Oil Terminal

61

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER FOUR: RECLAMATION

62

Chapter Four

Reclamation

In dealing with these post industrial sites, two primary strategies are required: reclamation and remediation. Reclamation in this instance refers to the use of existing infrastructures and their incorporation into the built environment. These obsolete artefacts should be repurposed and engaged with in order to promote not only a reduction of waste associated with demolition and reconstruction but also an engagement with the rich transformation of cities. Protecting industrial buildings is an inherently sustainable process that should be pursued as a cultural objective as it encourages positive reuse of buildings that are part

of a city’s commercial heritage (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2007). Post-industrial projects should take into consideration the spirit of a place, reinforcing the site’s character and prior uses, including its preindustrial reality (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2007). As observed within Geostories, engagement with the site’s redundant infrastructure positions the objects as items of cultural significance, shifting perception and provoking conversation about the role of redundant infrastructure in future cities.

63

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

LATZ + PARTNERS, LANDSCHAFTPARK DUISBURG NORD Latz + Partner’s Landschaftpark DuisburgNord provides an informative precedent of reclaiming a derelict site, transforming the massive Meiderich Iron Works into a parkland. Duisburg-Nord presents a case in which design was able to triumph over pollution, with the site representing a toxic sublime industrial wasteland (Latz, 2016).

The project exists as a constellation of smaller interventions engaging with various precincts and infrastructure that together form a much larger system that assists greatly in connecting formerly separated parts of the town (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2007). The park houses multiple programmes including art and abstract gardens, climbing and play facilities, an outdoor cinema, alpine club house, visitor centre, restaurant and even a gasometer that has been transformed into a diving centre (Latz, 2016). Extensive programme within the park framework assists in maintaining critical mass and positing the site as a meaningful contributor 64

to the surrounding community.

While the rusty ruins of the initial infrastructure represented symbols of mass production and environmental destruction, their retention allowed them to be reused in a way that bore no resemblance to their original use (Latz, 2016). Through the reappropriation of these remnants from a bygone area, Latz + Partners were able to infuse cultural meaning and the site’s history into the present. The promotion of both sustainable development and a valorization of the past assists Duisburg-Nord in affecting perceptions of industrial areas and their role as cultural objects within the built environment (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2007).

The negative perceptions of postindustrial sites often linger long after their decommissioning, meaning that in addition to any environmental traces that

Chapter Four

Reclamation

Fig. 12

Fig. 11

Fig. 13

65

Mitchell Sack

remain, a cultural legacy is inherently left in what remains. In the case of DuisburgNord, negative connotations of the site’s inaccessibility including noise levels, contamination, exhaust fumes and eventual social impacts of the plant’s closure and subsequent dilapidation were projected long into the project’s development (Latz, 2016). In the case of Coode Island and the Yarraville Oil Terminal, these sites are likely to face similar stigmatization stemming from decades of perceived and real negative impacts on both the surrounding environment and adjacent community.

The process of reclamation observed within Duisburg-Nord followed a sensitive design process that effectively promoted sustainability, economic prosperity and social inclusion whilst reducing negative environmental impacts (Loures & Panagopoulos, 2007).

66

Design Thesis

Chapter Four

Reclamation

Fig. 14

67

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

STUDIO V, MAKER PARK; THE TANKS Transforming the former site of the Astral Oil Works, “The Tanks” forms part of a larger proposal to revitalise a large parcel of dilapidated land along Brooklyn’s waterfront. The site bares a distinct similarity to Yarraville, with a petroleum storage facility located on the waterfront adjacent to a large inlet much like the Stony Creek Backwash. While the Brooklyn site has been left abandoned unlike Yarraville, it does offer insight into a real situation in which storage facilities are left in obsolescence and poses questions about their integration into the greater urban fabric.

In this proposal, the cylindrical tanks were proposed to be transformed into viewing platforms, performance spaces, art exhibitions and greenhouses, with maker spaces and community uses programmed into the re appropriated forms (Anderson & Zabarsky, 2015). Much of the Brooklyn waterfront has been rezoned for 68

residential development, with rapid rates of gentrification and new built fabric. It was intended that through the retention of the oil tanks, the industrial topography would serve as a reminder of the waterfront’s complex and layered history (Anderson & Zabarsky, 2015). Much like DuisburgNord, this proposes that industrial remnants should be retained in order to acknowledge and expand on an industrial past in a manner that provides contemporary amenity. While the architectural outcomes proposed for the tanks could be more ambitious, they begin to demonstrate an engagement with the inherent physical attributes of the industrial remnants, utilising the scale and spatial qualities of the tanks to facilitate appropriate functions. While the project was intended to be a realised proposal, the tanks were instead demolished by the city, paving the way for a more generic parkland lacking the connection to the site’s past that could have been.

Chapter Four

Reclamation

Fig. 16

Fig. 15

Fig. 17

69

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

MENIS ARQUITECTOS, EL ESPACIO CULTURAL EL TANQUE Menis’ design presents a realised adaptive reuse of a former 1950’s oil tank in the Port of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is interesting to note the context of both this project and the proceeding one located in Brooklyn in that they, like Melbourne, are located in port cities, typically possessing a multitude of redundant infrastructure. This lends further importance to the exploration of repurposing this typology as it is one that ubiquitous within port cities and therefore any design outcomes and findings are able to be applied globally in response to any potential redundancy.

Following the CEPSA Oil Refinery’s redundancy, the tank has been repurposed as an iconic cultural space, serving as a vestige of industrial memory while the cylindrical void is able to be freely occupied by artistic interventions (Menis, 1997). The tank’s structure has been preserved, with an entrance added 4 metres below its base to 70

create a subterranean entry sequence. As the refinery was dismantled, materials and found elements were recycled in the project to create the stairs, ramps and skylights (Menis, 1997). The project effectively engages with the sublime spatial qualities of the tank, utilising the massive height and structure to create a cathedral-like experience to house art and performance.

While both this and “The Tanks” utilise the existing structure for activities, both present a totally internal spatial experience in which tank is totally retained in its external form.

In developing the Yarraville and Coode Island sites, the proposal should be of a larger scale and explore incorporating these structures within a larger framework. This would create a methodology that seeks to explore more than just the internal qualities of disused storage tanks and better explore their potential to be incorporated into architectural interventions.

Chapter Four

Fig. 18

Reclamation

Fig. 19

71

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

HEO SEOGOO & ROA ARCHITECTS, OIL TANK CULTURE PARK This project re purposes an historic oil storage facility within Seoul which was initially constructed in preparation of bombing from the north during the civil war. The project aims to connect to a history of oil storage synonymous with South Korea’s development as a nation. Following its storage of dangerous goods, the site was neglected until 2014 (Seogoo Heo & RoA Architects , 2017).

The Mapo Oil Tank Culture Park begun its design process with a discovery of the historic traces that remained before being rehabilitated into a cultural engine (Seogoo Heo & RoA Architects , 2017). Six oil tanks have been developed within the project, each featuring a distinctly different tectonic engagement, with performance, exhibition and memorial spaces housed within the existing forms.

This presents an excellent precedent in 72

considering how the forms of the tanks can be engaged with in a multitude of ways to create distinct spatial conditions through varying materials, lighting, articulation and circulation.

While the project is highly useful in considering the tanks as discrete objects, there could be greater dialogue between the forms, with the only connection between them being a path. With this in mind, the culture park presents an excellent example of engaging with the existing structure, materiality and forms to repurpose the dilapidated infrastructure into items of cultural value.

Chapter Four

Reclamation

Fig. 20

73

Mitchell Sack

Fig. 21

74

Design Thesis

Fig. 22

Chapter Four

Fig. 23

Fig. 24

Reclamation

Fig. 25

75

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

OPEN ARCHITECTURE, TANK SHANGHAI Tank Shangahi repurpose the forgotten relics of the city’s former airport, providing new relevancy through their conversion into a contemporary art centre with galleries and public spaces housed within the tanks (OPEN Architecture, 2019). The tanks are joined via the “super surface”, a massive landscape that places tanks above and below the ground plane (OPEN Architecture, 2019). The project aims to link the past and future through the repurposing of the tanks and facilitates a reconnection to the natural landscape of the river (OPEN Architecture, 2019).

Likely due ease of ship access, the location of this project is extremely similar to to Yarraville, located adjacent to the Huangpu River with sweeping skyline views. Tank Shanghai has effectively developed a range of spaces both within the repurposed oil tanks and between, using a framework of public spaces to ensure cohesiveness within 76

the precinct. While the interiors of the tanks effectively engage with the existing forms, the shifting of ground planes in between creates interesting external spaces, framing the cylindrical forms and incorporating them within the architecture.

This results in an architecture that deals with the forms both internally and externally which was unidentified in the preceding projects. These public spaces in between the forms are highly successful and echo the techniques observed in Duisburg -Nord in which the existing infrastructure is framed in a heroic manner within the landscape, serving to shift the cultural perception of the artefacts.

Chapter Four

Reclamation

Fig. 28

Fig. 26

Fig. 27

Fig. 29

77

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER FIVE: REMEDIATION

78

Chapter Five

Remediation

Remediation is the process of dealing with the fallout associated with years of industrial activity and the resulting effects on the landscape. Often these sites present as heavily polluted, with soil and water treatment required to restore them to a state in which they can be safely re integrated into the broader urban fabric. The effects of oil storage linger in the landscape long after physical removal, requiring extensive and specialised clean up strategies as they disappear (Hein, 2018). Dealing with both Coode Island and the Yarraville Oil Terminal, there is likely to be varied environmental effects with both refined

petroleum products as well as a range of toxic petrochemicals. The storage and operation of these chemicals can result in site contamination from the waste disposal, accidental spillage and leakage that occurs during industrial operations, both past and current (Baird, 2010). Of particular concern is the infiltration of dangerous contaminants into the soil. Looking to a range of examples that deal with the remediation of sites will assist in providing a framework for the scope of works involved in revitalising highly contaminated sites, which can be particularly complex in an urban setting.

79

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

FIZTROY GASWORKS The former Fitzroy Gasworks site is currently planned by Development Victoria to be transformed into a mixed use urban village including housing, community facilities and public spaces. The site’s former use has resulted in significant contamination requiring remediation by Enviropacific to ensure the soil and groundwater quality is suitable for development as well as mitigating any residual soil vapour (Enviropacific, 2020). The remediation strategy is set to take place from June 2018 until mid 2012, being implemented in several phases.

The first phase involves the development of a draft strategy and an initial site investigation, including approval by an independent EPA auditor. Following this proposal, the remediation works begun in May 2019, including the demolition of existing buildings and concrete slabs, excavation and removal of soil and the transfer of soil to a processing facility 80

(Enviropacific, 2020). Currently, the identified soil contaminants consist of coal tar, BTEX (Toluene, Xylenes, Ethylbenzene and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons) and Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons (TPH) (Enviropacific, 2020). BTEX and TPH are also common contaminants associated with sites housing petroleum storage, so the processes associated with remediating the gasworks are highly relevant in informing the remediation required at the Port of Melbourne.

The project’s excavation works require that 50 000m3 worth of site will be removed from the site and transferred to Enviropacific’s offsite treatment plant, SOLVE, in Altona while temporary pressurised marquee structures are erected on site to ventilate and control odorous emissions (Enviropacific, 2020). The entire remediation process is estimated to take place over two years.

The significant timeframe required before

construction can even begin should be noted in the development of the Port of Melbourne site given the scale of works that would be be required. A staged strategy of development should be incorporated into the design process, considering how the site can be engaged with in the time prior to its completion and how the transformative processes occur over time.

Chapter Five

Remediation

Fig. 30

Soil excavation and ventilation tent at Fitzroy Gasworks

81

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

JAMES CORNER FIELD OPERATIONS, FRESHKILLS PARK Corner has conceptualised Fresh Kills Park as a “Lifescape”, a framework of both place and process. Formerly the Fresh Kills landfill, the site is being transformed into a massive parkland over the course of 30 years.

The ecological process of environmental reclamation and renewal is about recovering the health and biodiversity of ecosystems as well as the the spirit and imagination of its users (Corner, 2005).

The Lifescape is about staging the ecologies of the site in a way that allows the landscape to be seeded, cultivated and propagated over an extensive period of time which is essential given the scale and complexity of the site (Fig. 32) (Corner, 2005). This raises further questions of how the Port of Melbourne site could be staged in order to begin immediate engagement with the site while the comprehensive environmental remediation methods are implemented.

Fresh Kills Park seeks to emerge from both 82

past and present conditions to create a unique future, erasing the landfill’s past and re creating a long-lost environment (Corner, 2005). While Corner seeks to erase the landfill’s past it is interesting to note that the rubble transported to Fresh Killls landfill following the September 11 attack has formed a mound which will be landscaped over, providing a memorial to the victims.

This provides an excellent example of removing the undesirable functions from a site whilst maintaining important links to heritage or culture. While the Port of Melbourne site possesses more explicit physical remnants in the form of tangible infrastructure without the same cultural connotations, it is still important to remediate in a way that preserves elements of the former landscape.

Chapter Five

Fig. 31

Remediation

Fig. 32

83

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SCAPE , OYSTER-TECTURE Designed for the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, Oyster-tecture aims to increase the recreational potential of the New York Harbour and the diversity aqueous marine life through the use of an oyster reef that remediates the highly polluted waterways (Scape, 2009). By harnessing the natural filtration processes observed within oysters, mussels and eelgrass, rope like structures that create a living reef are used to begin cleaning millions of gallons of water (Scape, 2009). Through the process of remediation is hoped that the revitlased waterfront will reconnect New Yorkers to the Harbour, creating a watery park in which people are able to observe the oysters at work.

Like Melbourne, Brooklyn’s waterfront is highly polluted from decades of industrial use and contamination. This proposal effectively engages people within the remediation process, combining the recreational programme of a waterfront park 84

which observes the oyster reefs as they clean the water. The visibility of this remediation process serves to influence perceptions of the site as it is gradually decontaminated it, fostering a greater connection to the site. This process should be adapted in remediating the Port of Melbourne site, with visible, staged remediation providing an opportunity for people to begin using the site while it continues to be decontaminated.

Chapter Five

Fig. 33

Remediation

Fig. 34

Fig. 35

85

Mitchell Sack

ORICA REMEDIATION PLAN Immediately north of the Yarraville terminal, Orica have undertaken an extensive remediation process consisting of around 93,000 tonnes of contaminated soil.

Significant amounts of hydrocarbons were observed within the soil (Orica, 2020) likely due to the petrol storage at the Yarraville site.

In order to remediate the soil, directly heated thermal desorption (DTD) was undertaken on site, with temporary buildings erected to heat the soil and safely ventilate the residual fumes.

Given the extreme proximity to the chosen site, it would seem that this method is highly appropraite to be incorporated within the proposed design process.

86

Design Thesis

Chapter Five

Remediation

Fig. 36

87

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

REMEDIATION PLAN Employing similar sized DTD facilities to those observed within the Orica remediation project, the remediation at the Yarraville site should be carried out in-situ to whatever extent possible.

While the exact composition and required treatment of the soil is unknown, the project’s rough staging an implementation is able to be predicted in order to ensure that the site is usable throughout the process.

Given the extensive time frames of these processes, the two key development areas should be remediated first, with DTD facilities deployed. After the completion of the necessary remediation, construction is able to begin at these sites while the connecting areas are remediated using the same facilities. Upon completion of these critical areas and their connection, the STEM facility and seed bank will be both usable and connected while the more 88

expansive areas of the site are treated, Following this, the parkland to the south can be land farmed, which requires no additional structures, only separation of blocks to be treated. As this process continues, treated soil from the initial stages a well as that excavated in the creation of the canals can be used to fill the remainder of the site, adding variation to the currently flat landscape.

Further research should also be dedicated to alternative remediation methods and how they could be incorporated into the staged deployment of the design.

Chapter Five

Remediation

Phase 1 - Key development zones: Directly-heated thermal desorption (DTD) Phase 2 - Key connections: Directly heated thermal desorption (DTD) Phase 3 - Parkland: Land farming to take place along with cut and fill from previous canal excavation and treatment Phase 4: Remediate as required for future developments Temporary DTD Building locations 89

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER SIX: SPECULATIVE FUTURES

90

Chapter Six

Speculative Futures

The speculation of Coode Island and the Yarraville Oil terminal as being eventually redundant is a useful provocation in simulating how to deal with these sites and integrate them into the surrounding urban fabric. In the school of future studies, scenarios are not predicted, rather they are forecasted and tested as alternative futures (Dator, 2019).

While it is acknowledged that these sites serve an important role within Melbourne’s supply chain structure, simulating their redundancy and a subsequent architectural proposal serves to question how they might be treated in a future in which we no longer store oil and toxic petrochemicals in the inner city.

physical traces and remnants of infrastructure in an architectural proposal. This allows the knowledge to be re-applied to similar sites in other predicted or real futures. As we continue to consolidate our urban fabric these practices will continue to become more vital.

For these predicted futures to be most effective, they must precede and be linked to strategic planning and administration (Dator, 2019). For this reason, Melbourne’s own projected development will be analysed in order to extract opportunities to engage with the city’s current plan.

Rather than providing a final outcome, these speculative visions are used to create a guiding vision for these scenarios, providing guidance for planning activities and decision making processes in order to realize these preferred futures (Dator, 2019). Simulating this scenario allows for the consideration of soil remediation processes, re-integration of disconnected sites and dealing with the

91

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

DESIGN EARTH, GEOSTORIES Studio Earth’s anthology Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment explores aesthetic forms of environmental engagement, speculating on living with legacy technologies on a damaged planet (Ghosn & Jazairy, 2018). Speculative fiction offered within Geostories provide experiments to interrogate the consequences of emerging environmental and technological conditions, developing oddly constructive relationships with the marginalised externalities of the urban environment.

The acceptance of of urbanism’s technological creations such as landfill, mine pits and oil rigs as forms of legitimate elements of urban design is critical in addressing the urgency of environmental degradation (Ghosn & Jazairy, 2018). This contributes to previous discussions regarding the acceptance and celebration of oil aesthetics within our built and imaged environments. The production 92

of accounts that depict technology as cultural objects worthy of attention and respect is critical in establishing responsible political and ecological projects (Ghosn & Jazairy, 2018). This suggests that an approach to dealing with infrastructure that acknowledges prior land uses and patterns is essential in a meaningful regeneration project rather than erasing the traces of an industrial past.

After Oil depicts the future of the Persian Gulf in a world that has transitioned away from fossil fuels. The practice of imagining society after oil serves to refocus the past and present oil geographies (Ghosn & Jazairy, 2018), the Petroleumscapes observed within chapter one.

Das Island, Das Crude takes a major offshore Emirati oil facility and places architectural landmarks within the depleted oil reservoirs, demonstrating the scale of resource

Chapter Six

Speculative Futures

Fig. 37

93

Mitchell Sack

extraction and land exploitation. By using external landmarks constructed through wealth accumulated with oil production, the project also serves to communicate the displacement of value in oil urbanism. The excavated soil that forms the by-product of oil production is then used to create an artificial mountain which then serves as a monument to the age of oil (Ghosn & Jazairy, 2018).

The projects and methodologies offered within Geostories offer a testament to the power of speculation within architectural projects, using a future lens to question practices of the past and present. Again, it must be considered how these ideas translate into a specific architectural proposal that engages with complex contextual factors, however the ideas form a useful basis for questioning cultural value assigned to oil locations and their post-redundancy 94

Design Thesis

capabilities. Employing ideation capabilities observed within these projects and finding a means to ground this within Melbourne’s everyday functional would be an extremely powerful way of foregrounding the city’s future approach to urban renewal.

Chapter Six

Speculative Futures

Fig. 38

95

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CJ LIM, PERFECTION Lim, in his book Inhabitable Infrastructures: Science Fiction or Urban Futures, asks how Fisherman’s Bend can adapt itself to become “Perfection”. The idea of perfection is drawn from Melbourne’s repeated labelling as the world’s most liveable city, which Lim attributes to the city’s rational grid that extends into the suburbs, “coordinated system of public transport”, diverse ethnic groups and temperate oceanic climate. Until recent times these suburbs have presented the perfect habitat, however they are now a homogenised mix dominated by cars and out-of-town shopping centres. This serves as an immediate reminder of Melbourne’s own petroleumscape and its extension far beyond the infrastructure of the port, as the endless suburban sprawl is enabled by fuel consumption.

Lim’s proposal to create Perfection at Fisherman’s Bend involves a series of phased interventions that seeks to achieve a mix of 96

a dense human population, water treatment, urban agriculture and biodiversity support.

This involves a habitable infrastructure grid echoing Melbourne’s urban grain that features affordable dwellings, cultural facilities, green space and easy connectivity.

The proposal’s first step is the securing of transport infrastructure and reservoirs, followed by the establishment of a wetland zone as the city grows in order to act as a bio filter, removing sediments and pollutants from the river water.

In the creation of these wetlands, much of the landmass around the port, including the entirety of Coode island is excavated, with the material is used to create public beaches and islands. A large grid of diverse, affordable housing is extended through the bay, connecting to the CBD. Floating plug ins including churches, libraries and civic institutions are able to be connected to the floating embankments, extending

Chapter Six

Speculative Futures

Fig. 39

97

Mitchell Sack

Melbourne’s ideal mix of building typologies into Fisherman’s Bend and beyond.

This proposal a number of useful ideas and addresses two significant issues with the Port of Melbourne area, the disconnection of the west to the CBD and the environmental condition of the Yarra. Through the creation of inhabitable wetlands, Lim has proposed a methodology to incorporate the built form into the remediation of the environment that contributes to the leisure and livelihoods of those living nearby. This fails to adequately engage with the site in a number of ways as deeply speculative projects often do.

Rather than engaging with the Port’s existing infrastructure, the project simply removes it, extending the bay to Dynon Road without acknowledging the displacement of these existing functions. Furthermore, Lim takes a highly authoritarian, monumental approach to dealing with the site, imposing 98

Design Thesis

the rigid grid of Melbourne upon what is supposed to be a rejuvenation of natural processes. The use of grids responding to the existing urban conditions may prove to be a useful compositional tool in arranging design outcomes, however its literal imposition on the bay comes across as overly prescriptive and authoritarian. One of the greatest challenge of the site is also its massive scale, which is exacerbated within the conceptual images, amplifying the size of the proposal when placed on an already large and disparate site. There is also only the aspiration of extending the Melbourne CBD grid, with no acknowledgement of the communities west of the Yarra who are most disconnected by the site’s existing condition.

The proposal demonstrates only a surface level engagement with the environmental impacts of the site, addressing only the water pollution whilst proposing for the entire excavation of the deeply contaminated

Coode Island. This is without mentioning that the entire proposal seeks to fully inhabit a working port, one which greatly assists in generating the wealth that allows Melbourne to prosper in the manner described within the text. The project would be undeniably stronger had it more successfully engaged with the existing and past functions and forms of the city rather than simply treating the port area as a blank canvas with which to work.

Chapter Six

Speculative Futures

Fig. 40

99

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER SEVEN: PROGRAMMATIC DEVELOPMENT

100

Chapter Seven

Programmatic Development

101

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

HERZOG & DE MEURON, RICOLA STORAGE FACILITY The Ricola Storage Facility provides automated storage for herbal sweets and exists a unified whole that can easily be interpreted as a storage facility (Herzog & De Meuron, 1988). Utilising a cladding system of Eternit panels, the cladding is “stored” within the frame and references the planks of saw mills also stored nearby (Herzog & De Meuron, 1988). It is interesting to note the conceptual consistency in how storage is considered through to the building’s articulation, elevating a spatially uncomplicated building typology to an elegant proposal.

The storage facility possesses monumental, continuous facades that the sever the relationship between interior and exterior.

Through exquisite detailing, the facades are articulated in a manner that reduces the monumental form to a more human scale.

While glazing and views are not required 102

to facilitate the building’s function, it could be interesting to explore how the stored contents begin to relate to their external context, particular if ancillary programme is added to create opportunities for greater engagement.

In observed the large, singular building footprint that enables the expansive internal storage, it should be noted that it is well suited to expansive areas of flat topography, consistent with the Port of Melbourne sites.

Following the earlier tectonic explorations, the ideas of horizontality would be well suited to explore in how an expansive storage facility could begin to bridge the gaps between oil tanks and utilise their cavernous spaces.

Chapter Seven

Programmatic Development

Fig. 41

Fig. 42

103

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

TZANNES, DANGROVE ART STORAGE

Dangrove Arts Storage houses a collection of contemporary Chinese art as well as integrating informal exhibition and performance spaces, workshops and offices within the storage requirements (Tzannes, 2020). The “Great Hall” space forms a massive central space within the building which is able to be used for the curation and evaluation of art pieces (Tzannes, 2020).

Like the Ricola Facility, Dangrove also possesses a singular building footprint located across an expansive flat space. This again highlights the appropriateness of storage facilities on flat sites, whether if be these projects or the oil and chemicals observed at the site.

The Dangrove facility effectively incorporates ancillary functions within the building’s core programme of storing private art collections. This provides a useful 104

example in considering the functions that could be utilised to inform the proposal’s storage requirements and how the building is able to be inhabited by c to engage with its contents.

Spatially, the building utilises its massive volume to create cavernous internal spaces.

It is interesting to note that the building again possesses little visual engagement with the external context as was observed within the Ricola Facility. There is an interesting dichotomy between the two projects where one is highly internalised while the other is primarily external.

Both feature a clear distinction between external and internal space as is consistent with the primary function of storage facilities to act as little more than a container of contents.

Chapter Seven

Programmatic Development

Fig. 43

105

Mitchell Sack

Fig. 44

106

Design Thesis

Fig. 45

Fig. 46

Chapter Seven

Fig. 47

Programmatic Development

Fig. 48

107

Mitchell Sack

ALBERTO KALACH, BIBLIOTECA DE MEXICO Kalach’s library immerses the visitor within the contents of the building (the library stacks). The use of a massive, singular atrium with the suspended stacks provides visual engagement with the sheer volume of material stored within the library as the repeating modules extend along the volume’s expanse.

The spatial qualities that enable immersion within the storage contents is a quality that should be replicated within the existing tank volumes given their massive scale and singular, legible geometry. Observation of other building inhabitants navigating the overhead gantries and reading rooms further promotes engagement between inhabitants and the storage contents and should be applied within the proposed storage facilities.

108

Design Thesis

Chapter Seven

Fig. 49

Programmatic Development

Fig. 50

Fig. 51

109

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

GLOBAL SEED VAULT, SVALBARD The Svalbard Global Seed Vault serves as an extremely interesting form of storage in which humanity’s entire collection of seed species are stored for safe keeping. The underground tunnels deep within the Arctic permafrost. Given the sensitive nature of its contents, the facility is highly secure and unable to be visited by the public. In this case, the architectural gesture is a gateway for the bunker within.

In the wake of an increasingly uncertain future, it is interesting to consider the need to stockpile traces of biodiversity in facilities such as these, making it an interesting programme to explore. What is perhaps most interesting is questioning how we can begin to facilitate engagement with the contents within in order to promote awareness for the sensitivity and importance

110

of biodiversity storage. Use of architecture to mediate security requirements with the potential for visitation is critical in the development of similar future facilities.

Chapter Seven

Programmatic Development

Fig. 52

Fig. 53

111

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SNOHETTA, GLOBAL SEED VAULT VISITOR CENTRE Snohetta’s visitor centre serves as a kind of spillage architecture, with its programme leaking out from the storage requirements of the seed bank itself. Within the monolithic tower lies full scale models of the shelving units situated deep within the bank as well as information surrounding the functioning of the facility. The internal volume references a seed in its geometry, generating a consistency between the contents and its container.

It is interesting to consider this ancillary function as the mediator between the public and the contents of the seed bank itself. In creating sensitive storage within inner city area’s like the Yarraville site, these spillages become the most important part of the project, with the ancillary buildings forming the point of contact and controlling the level

112

of exposure to the contents within. While visitor centres are perhaps the most typical spillages in this instance, consideration should be given toward the development of further complementary programme that could begin to spill out of similar facilities.

Chapter Seven

Fig. 54

Programmatic Development

Fig. 55

Fig. 56

113

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

H2O ARCHITECTURE, AUSTRALIAN GRAINS GENEBANK The Australian Grains Genebank (AGG) provides secure storage for 200 000 seed samples and includes a packing and receiving area, freezers, drying facilities, administration area and educational foyer for visiting groups (H2O, 2014). While the educational foyer presents an opportunity for engagement with the contents, the building itself functions primarily with the storage and processing of the seeds themselves.

Operating as part of an international network of similar seed banks, the facility also links Australia to global plant biodiversity resilience (H2O, 2014). It is interesting to begin considering these facilities as part of a network rather than in isolation and what that could mean for ancillary functions and how the concept of spillage could be applied 114

across different storage centres.

While the building’s regional location in Horsham ensures increased security for the contents, it is interesting to consider the implications of placing a seed bank in such close proximity to the Port of Melbourne.

While the site would have greater opportunity for unwanted attention, it would bring the benefits of being able to more readily promote engagement as well as facilitating transfers and connections with international seed banks. This makes the mediation of security requirements and public accessibility requirements as perhaps the most important notion in developing a seed bank on the site.

Chapter Seven

Programmatic Development

Fig. 57

Fig. 58

115

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

STANTON WILLIAMS, MILLENNIUM SEED BANK The Millennium Seed Bank offers an interesting example of “spillages” within a storage facility, acting as a “living library”.

Despite functioning a seed bank containing 300 million seeds (Stanton Williams, 2000), the building also possesses facilities for the public to engage with the centre’s operations, including a visitor centre and educational science facilities.

A public exhibition area and winter garden allow visitors to engage with the importance of the collection within (Stanton Williams, 2000). The laboratories within the facilities are also located adjacent to public areas allowing transparency and engagement with the daily operations of the seed bank.

Despite this high level of accessibility, the seed storage itself is securely located underground with strictly controlled temperature and humidity levels. This offers 116

an excellent example of using architecture to separate critical storage contents whilst maintaining “spillage” facilities that enable engagement with the important work occurring within.

Chapter Seven

Programmatic Development

Fig. 60

Fig. 59

Fig. 61

117

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

BENTHAM CROUWEL ARCHITECTS, DATACENTRE AM4 Bentham Crouwel Architects’ Data Centre offers an interesting of the building typology within an urban context. Like the earlier Ricola and Dangrove storage facilities, this data centre exists primarily as a decorated box, with a nearly entirely internalised programme.

The building’s exterior is designed to be attractive yet not too welcoming in order to gently deter unwanted visitors. While the design intent was to not create a fortress like building (Bentham Crouwel Architects, 2017), it would seem that it is somewhat inherent in the current design of data centres. The incorporation of a moat as a visual security device is an interesting one and could be readily adapted at the Coode Island site given its proximity to the water.

While the architects have stated that aesthetics of data centres must relate to their 118

context for them to be socially accepted in cities (Bentham Crouwel Architects, 2017), it could be argued that the buildings themselves need to be designed in such a way that present as less prohibitive.

While there is a programmatic requirement for security it is interesting to begin exploring how these buildings could be better designed to allow some form of public spillage or accessibility whilst still maintaining the secure data storage within.

If these buildings were able to be better incorporated with ancillary programme, they could more readily be deployed in urban centres in closer proximity to data users.

Chapter Seven

Fig. 62

Programmatic Development

Fig. 63

Fig. 64

119

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER EIGHT: SITE PLANNING

120

Chapter Eight

Site Planning

121

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

MAPPING: DISCONNECTION

This series of maps explores the relationship between the three bisected landmasses and demonstrates how the storage facilities serve to disconnect the landscape. The first map shows the oil terminal and chemical storage and their adjacencies along the Yarra and Maribyrnong rivers. Removing the rivers and the facilities, the second map shows only publicly accessible roads, demonstrating no accessibility to Coode Island and the limited publicly accessible streets in Yarraville and Fisherman’s Bend adjacent to the River. There is also a notable disconnection to residential in the far west of the map. The third map reintroduces the storage facilities and a small stretch of water between Fisherman’s Bend

and Yarraville, demonstrating how much more connected the area becomes if the oil terminal and river could be reclaimed and made trafficable. In the fourth map, the reintroduction of Coode Island chemical storage and the reclamation of both rivers demonstrates a significant reconnection of the area, particularly the continuity between residential Yarraville and its connection to Coode Island and Fisherman’s Bend via the Yarra. This demonstrates the importance of a design intervention that spans across the oil terminal to reconnect Yarraville to river and the opportunities peresented by waterbased transport.

Oil / chemical storage facilities

122

Chapter Eight

Current publicly accessible space

Site Planning

Reconnecting Fisherman’s Bend and Yarraville

Reconnecting Fisherman’s Bend and Yarraville

123

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

MAPPING: SPATIAL CONFIGURATIONS This series abstracts the grids formed by residential Yarraville (far left), shipping containers in Coode Island and the Hoddle Grid (far right) (Map 1). The series on the facing page first depicts these grids extended and overlapped with key axis drawn from the main roads in Yarraville (Map 2). These rigid grids are then juxtaposed with the clustered fields of the oil and chemical storage tanks and the more organic curves of the rivers (Map 3). This raises questions moving forward about the spatial arrangement of the surrounding urban fabric and how it can

124

be used to divide the large sites into smaller parcels and establish new relationships with the Yarra (Map 4). In generating these relationships it will become critical consider the new edge conditions imposed by the site and how the architecture is perceived from and engages with the water.

Chapter Eight

Site Planning

MAPPING: URBAN SCALE CONNECTIONS This series explores the site’s broader disconnection to the main transit networks of Melbourne. What is most distinct is the degree to which the major arterial roads and train lines “miss” the site. This means that in formulating a proposal, new physical connections will be required to patch the site back into Melbourne’s urban fabric.

This is most prevalent at Coode Island which enables no public access, however it is likely best connected to via water given it lacks physical adjacency to any other publicly usable space. Yarraville Oil

Terminal, however, has opportunities to be connected to the nearby Yarraville station and across the river to any future public transport generated by the Fisherman’s Bend urban renewal project. The creation of water based transport routes (Map 8) also allows the site to form as a gateway to Melbourne and connect to Geelong and the CBD via a ferry system.

125

Mitchell Sack

MAPPING: SPATIAL CONFIGURATIONS

Map

126

rid on g rations

Design Thesis

Chapter Eight

Map 2: Overlapping grids

Site Planning

Map 3: Addition of tanks + river

Map 4: Grids and axis meeting the river

127

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

MAPPING: URBAN SCALE CONNECTIONS

Map 5: Train lines and stations

128

Map 6: Arterial roads and freeways

Chapter Eight

Map 7: Road networks and residential areas

Site Planning

Map 8: All networks with a proposed water-based transport route

129

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

STORAGE SPACE SCALE STUDY

Warehouse and storage buildings in the vicinity of the Yarraville site

130

Individual building footprints

Chapter Eight

Small: 236sqm average

Site Planning

Medium: 1145sqm average

Large: 3125sqm average

Size distribution of storage spaces. Average of 940sqm footprint

131

Mitchell Sack

Appropriation of residential Yarraville street grid extended and applied to the Oil Terminal site. Grid has been divided in 2 longitudinally to provide an appropriate subdivision size on the site

132

Design Thesis

Chapter Eight

Surrounding storage facilities / warehouses randomly distributed across the site. Begins to give an impression of required footprint size and intervention size

Site Planning

Use of grid system to order to the footprints. Roughly one large warehouse with several smaller ones per cell. This could be translated to a single storage facility with multiple ancillary functions or leakages within a single land parcel.

133

Mitchell Sack

Addition of existing oil tanks to warehouse grid distribution Key development areas Parkland Areas left for future development Public open spaces / squares

134

Design Thesis

Designation of land uses. Due to the size of the site, it will not be entirely designed. Key areas are selected with areas left for future development .

Chapter Eight

Key development area 1: Corner of Francis and Hyde Street. Forms the primary point of engagement with the site coming from nearby residential areas.

Site Planning

Key development area 2: Large tanks with river adjacency forms the best position for engagement with the water.

135

Mitchell Sack

Addition of canals into the site. Organic snaking forms divide the grid as is observed within suburban Yarraveille with Stony Creek Parkland Key development areas Areas left for future development Public open spaces / squares Water Car parking

136

Design Thesis

Rough building footprints generated in key development areas aligned to canals, grid and tanks

Chapter Eight

Key road axis added to the site, serving as a continuation of Hyde Street vertically and central axis horizontally. Car parks added in proximity to key development areas for visitors / staff.

Site Planning

Existing embankment paths used for access to tanks abstracted and continued across the site to form a network of pedestrian paths.

137

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

View of oil terminal from Stony Creek Backwash to the south.

An intervention engaging with these tanks could act as a strong external point of engagement and landmark for the site

138

Chapter Eight

Site Planning

Strong street presence for development area 1 along Hyde Street.

139

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Existing punt ferry facilities could be upgraded to provide the connection to Fisherman’s Bend. The current terminal is located in parkland area that is used as public open space

140

Chapter Eight

Site Planning

View of the large tanks that form key development area 2 at the Yarraville Oil terminal. Demonstrates the opportunity to create a strong waterfront presence.

141

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

URBAN SCALE TOOLKIT: RELICS + EDGE CONDITIONS

Utilising the tanks that will be removed in the site’s development, the remaining infrastructure should be deployed across the site acting as small follies within the parkland. Strips from larger tanks can form useful way finding devices while smaller tanks can be hollowed out and used in place of small rotundas. Obselete pipelines could be used to create horizontal connects, similar to those observed within DuisburgNord. The use of these pieces across the site at a large scale further explores the idea of reclamation and how it can be further explored to utilize obsolete built forms within an entirely new context.

As the site develops further, the edge conditions at water bodies, roads and internal land parcels will be critical to consider. While some small gestures 142

are suggested here, drawing from the surrounding wharves at Footscray and Stony Creek, much more extensive consideration is likely to be required.

Of particular importance is the relationship of the massive tanks at the northwest corner of the Yarraville Site to the surrounding context. Given that these sites are often highly prohibitive, exploring the edge conditions will assist in better patching them into the surrounding urban fabric

Chapter Eight

Site Planning

143

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER NINE: TECTONIC DEVELOPMENT

144

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

145

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

TECTONIC LANGUAGE These experiments look to the site’s existing infrastructure to begin abstracting a tectonic language. Combining the tanks, whose seemingly random fields are dictated by safety proximities with the ordered rectilinear geometry of the shipping containers creates an interesting interplay in the collisions between the two configurations. This evokes similar relationships to the way in which the earlier abstracted street grids collide with the river.

torage tan

146

elds o erlaid ith shipping ontainer grids

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

Combining the tanks with the patterns observed formed by the oil pipes creates a new range of relationships. The pipes begin to form an orderly grid which frame small clusters of the tanks. Most importantly, it begins to provide a system that orders and organises the tanks, serving as a framework to connect the clusters.

torage tan

elds o erlaid ith oil pipe grids

147

Mitchell Sack

148

Design Thesis

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

Isolating the components of the previous pattern further demonstrates the manner in which the pipe configurations order the tank fields. Adapting this framework to the site begins to convey long, megastructural forms that bridge the gap between the river and the urban fabric. This “Pipe and Tank” language adopts the pipes as agents of movement, while the tanks remain static, framed by the network. This evokes similarities with Archigram’s Plug in City and the expression of pipes common within high tech architecture.

It is also interesting to note the “L” shape that begins to form, suggesting a nodal point on Fisherman’s Bend is required to connect the sites and form a cohesive relationship between Coode Island and Yarraville Oil Terminal.

149

Mitchell Sack

150

Design Thesis

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

151

Mitchell Sack

TECTONIC MODELS This model series begins to explore the pipe and tank configuration as a spatial model, testing horizontal and vertical articulation. This begins to consider how the extremely flat site is dealt with.

Of the different configurations tested, the adjacent arrangement felt the most spatially appropriate. This employed the horizontal stick configuration at both Yarraville Oil Terminal and Coode Island whilst maintaining a more vertical form at Fisherman’s Bend to connect the precinct.

The storage tanks were maintained as the most vertically prominent elements at the respective sites, utilising their monumental spatial qualities and questioning the hierarchies of the proposed intervention.

152

Design Thesis

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

DIGITAL SKETCHES These drawings develop the previous language on the site in a slightly less abstract manner. The stick models are given greater volume and used to begin a framework at a smaller scale, again plugging into the tanks. It also explores the addition of some rhythmic, framed piers to the site and tests how the forms might begin to materialise.

While some element of this begin to appear successful such as the pier at Yarraville, the configurations present an end point for this initial testing. Wihtout the addition of programme or greater consideration for the context, they prove somewhat redundant architecturally. However, the formal explorations and language can be adapted and tested further as programme materialises.

153

Mitchell Sack

154

Design Thesis

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

155

Mitchell Sack

BERNARD TSCHUMI, ALESIA MUSEUM Tschumi’s plan for the Alesia Museum places circulation around central voids, with service spaces and lifts forming a ring around this central space. Key programme is then located in a second ring toward the building’s edge. This offers an interesting example of circular planning in which the building is conceived of in rings revolving around a clearly defined centre point. The positioning of circular stair cases winding around this void creates visibility within the building and provides an opportunity to be immersed within the storage contents as observed previously in Kalach’s library.

This could be readily applied to the tanks, maintaining a central circulation void while storage is located in rings organised around the centre. Particularly in the case of a data centre in which servers farms are arranged in a highly repetitive manner 156

Design Thesis

Chapter Nine

Fig. 65

Tectonic Development

Fig. 66

157

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Server stacks arranged in rings alternating hot and cold corridors around a central void.

158

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

View toward the oculus created by the existing tank structure with visibility of the scale of contents stored within the building.

159

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SIMON UNGERS, SILENT ARCHITECTURE

Ungers’ Design for a theatre offers an example of subtly altering strong, singular geometries. The cylindrical volume observed here is maintaned and able to still be read as a “whole” while moves of subtraction such as subtraction that creates the conical tapering toward the base provide formal articulation.

Further subtractive gestures result in the building’s podium and glazed lobby area, which provides the upper volume with a floating quality.

Similar gestures of subtraction could be applied to the storage tanks, maintaining large portions of the cylindrical volumes whilst creating penetrations that facilitate an interaction between the storage contents and the external context. The expression of the pure cylindrical forms should be explored with the previously developed

160

framing language in order to investigate the relationship between the singular whole of the tanks and the assemblage of the frame.

Chapter Nine

Fig. 67

Tectonic Development

Fig. 68

Fig. 69

161

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

ALBERTO KALACH, AUGEN LABS

Kalach’s cylindrical facility, whilst maintaining a purge form explores an entirely different tectonic to Ungers. In this instance, the cylinder is composed of planelike floor plates and lightweight framing that result in what could be read as the skeleton of a design like that of Ungers. It is interesting to explore a similar geometry approached with both a massive, singular tectonic and that of a framing assemblage.

What is most noteworthy is that Ungers’ design results in an internalized spatial experience, more suited to a storage facility, while Kalach facilitates a relationship to the exterior, better adapted to a spillage building.

The storage tanks provide a combination of both approaches, with a welded steel outer

162

shell giving the appearance of solidity and singularity while the interior is composed of a lightweight steel frame. In beginning to subtract volumes from the tanks, it is interesting to consider how these two languages might begin to interact with one another as well as spillage and storage requirements. and their relationship to the surrounding site.

Chapter Nine

Fig. 70

Tectonic Development

Fig. 71

Fig. 72

163

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Tectonic tests subtracting volumes from the cylindrical whole. Planning maintains a centralised, radial organisation.

164

Chapter Nine

ddition of the tan

Tectonic Development

eiling framing and steel str t ral framing to reate disting ished oor plates.

165

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

ROGERS, STIRK, HARBOUR +PARTNERS, EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS Rogers’ Court building in Strasbourg provides an interesting example of combining a “high tech: framing language with the centrality of a cylindrical volume.

In the internal spaces, attention is drawn toward the oculus, which bears a striking similarity to the structure observed within the oil tanks. A circular glass stair and platforms form a rotational series of additions that serve to frame and accentuate the ceiling.

The building’s external composition provides an example of an assemblage language interacting with singular cylindrical volumes. Circulation and building services appear to “plug in” to the central volume, with the expressed steel trusses inside serving as a continuation of this language. In further exploring the relationship between

166

the cylindrical volumes and the framing assemblages, the interior of the storage tanks should be explored as expressed frames with assemblage frames spilling out from within

Chapter Nine

Fig. 73

Tectonic Development

Fig. 74

Fig. 75

167

Mitchell Sack

Framed assemblage plugging in to the subtracted void. Maintained central organisation with tank structure forming occulus.

168

Design Thesis

Second framing structure allows the tank to begin reaching out in different directions. Opportunity to bridge between tanks to create a more continuous intervention

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

169

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SANAA, KANAZAWA MUSEUM In contrast to the centralised Alesia Museum, SANAA’s Kanazawa museum largely ignores its overarching circular plan, organising a series of orthogonal spaces and street-like circulation within a singular envelope. This is a somewhat unconventional approach circular plans typically express their centrality, while in this instance the circular is used as little more than a bounding mechanism.

In its massing, the Kanazawa museum begins to produce the box like masses from within the cylinder, fragmenting the formal singularity. This approach could be explored within the tanks to created blocks of storage rather than the previously employed radial divisions. The housing of different shaped volumes within the circle also creates interesting spaces in between, offering more

170

diverse opportunities for the building to spill out of its container.

Chapter Nine

Fig. 76

Tectonic Development

Fig. 77

171

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

DOUGLAS DARDEN, VARIOUS PROJECTS Darden’s drawings provide a useful precedent for the merging of framed structures with singular, central geometries.

The framed protrusions evoke ideas of the building spilling out from within itself whil maintaining a clear central point. Like the European Court of Human Rights, there is a notable continuation of framing structures from the penetrations or plug ins to the framing of the central volumes.

These drawings also create interesting relationship between the vertical and horizontal axis. Spillages out form the central volumes occurs largely in plan, with frames extending out from a central volume .

The sectional relationships are created by suspended platforms that create notions of

172

ascent and descent. This idea of horizontal spilllage across multiple floor levels should be explored in the further compositon of the storage and spillage spaces.

Chapter Nine

Fig. 78

Tectonic Development

Fig. 79

Fig. 80

173

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Discrete boxes within the cylindrical envelope forming storage towers. internal circulation bridges begin to link the volumes together

174

Chapter Nine

Tectonic Development

Framed structures begin to leak out of the central storage volumes, connecting one another and reaching out across the site.

175

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

PAOLO PORTOGHESI, VARIOUS PROJECTS

Portoghesi’s drawings explore the radial relationship of different circular geometries, extending their influence out from focal points and abstracting the forms generated by their interaction. Moving forward with the storage facilities, these ideas should be further explored in how the interventions physically spill across the site and relate to one another rather than existing as singular, discrete interventions.

The spaces generated through the extension of these circular forms would be particularly interesting at the western edge of the Yarraville terminal and Coode Island where there is a large number of tanks that can be fragmented to created unique spaces in between.

176

Chapter Nine

Fig. 81

Tectonic Development

Fig. 82

Fig. 83

177

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER TEN: CONCEPT DESIGN

178

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

179

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CONCEPT PARTI: STORAGE + SPILLAGE

Discrete containers, storage within

180

Fragmentation of containers results in the contents leaking out

New pieces extend from the original container, the mediators between the initial container and the spillage

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

SPATIAL TRANSLATION

Interventions overlaid: spillage from the original storage containers begins to transform the spaces between.

181

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

INTERVENTION 1: SECONDARY SCHOOL S.T.E.M. FACILITY The Yarraville, Kingsville and Seddon area is in desperate need of a public high school, with particular concern placed on the need for STEM teaching facilities.

Schools present an interesting conception of a storage facility, while they are used in a literal sense to store students, the present a gathering and sharing of knowledge that then “spills� into the world at a later point.

Creating a STEM facility serves as a first step toward the development of this required school, placed at an accessible location on the corner of Hyde and Francis Streets.

The incorporation of clean and dirty labs required by STEM facilities to be opened for community use creates it own form of ancillary programme that spills out into the public realm. This location within Yarraville Tank farm allows the precinct to be readily scaled as additional buildings are required over time

182

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

183

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

INTERVENTION 2: SEED BANK

While seed banks are often located in more remote locations, situating one within the inner city allows for greater engagement with the criticality work that occurs within. In the wake of climatic uncertainty, seed banks provide security and resilience heading into the future. Conceptual spillages at a facility of this nature allow people to engage with the importance of the contents (the seeds) and understand their importance in protecting future food security.

Whilst not tecchnically providing storage of ideas, the contents of this facility allows for greater engagement with ideas of resilience and the physical artefacts that might need to be stored in cities in the future.

The more removed location within the

184

precinct allows for a greater level of control over access to sensitive areas of the building whilst facilitating interaction with the dedicated spillage programmes that are developed.

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

185

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

INTERVENTION 3: DATA CENTRE

As increasing amounts of the world’s knowledge moves to cloud-based storage, data centres will become a more commonly observed typology within cities. Like seed banks, these buildings are often located in remote locations on the outskirt of cities or in rural sites due to the need for expansive parcels of land and high security requirements.

Coode Island presents the most appropriate part of the site for this programme due to its readily controlled accessibility which has been utilised since its creation. Like the seed bank, it is interesting to consider how buildings of this nature might begin to spill out from within their envelopes to allow public engagement with ancillary functions and the contents itself. Particularly as these facilities become more common, exploring a greater level of accessibility would provide a rethink of what this building tpology 186

typically presents.

The large number of reclaimable tanks at Coode Island also allows the design to be readily scalable as data storage requirements continue to increase exponentially. The adjacent river also provides a useful source for cooling the building, the most energy intensive requirement for data centres.

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

187

Mitchell Sack

INTERVENTION 4: FERRY TERMINALS

In proposing the connection of the constellation project by water, ferry terminals become an integral part of the design in ensuring continuity between the disparate designs. Exploring a consistent visual language developed in creating the conceptual storage and spillage models, the ferry terminal serves as a folly or a visual marker that conceptually connects the site as well as providing the framework for physical connections.

These terminals will form the gateway to Melbourne via the sea, connecting the planned residential, innovation and manufacturing precinct at Fisherman’s Bend to the constellation of innovative storage facilities at Yarraville and Coode Island.

188

Design Thesis

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

189

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

TECTONIC SPILLAGE

The approach to tectonic spillage from the reclaimed petrol and chemical tanks is adapted to suit the requirements of each programme accordingly.

The STEM school facility (left) utilises a range of large, storage tanks, each of which could provide separate functions within the overall facility, while the spillage elements serve to branch out and connect them to a central hub.

The Seed Bank (left page over) employs a more distinct example of fragmentation resulting in the release of storage contents, sprawling across both the land and the adjacent canal. This allows one of the volumes to possibly be retained for higher security requirements while the other is adapted to have greater public interface.

The Data Centre (right page over) utilises

190

the spillage element as a larger framework that envelops the smaller tanks rather than plugging into larger ones as observed in the previous interventions. This allows the design to be more readily scaled and flexible, a key criterion in the design of data centres which require constant expansion and equipment upgrades.

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

191

Mitchell Sack

192

Design Thesis

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

193

Mitchell Sack

SPILLAGE CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

194

Design Thesis

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

195

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SPILLAGE TESTING This drawing sequence further considers the translation of spillage through to tectonic form. The adjacent page explores the idea of spillage occurring from central points of critical mass in the initial storage locations (top left, top right and bottom right) prior to their merging to form a larger stain.

In terms of the programmatic influence of the proposed new site function, this represents the converging of discrete design interventions into a singular precinct.

The fourth collage (bottom right) explores spillage occurring from points of transport and circulation in the pipes rather than the central storage location.

In the following pages, the physical appearance of spillage, the pipe network and rectilinear urban grid are reconstructed and combined in order to generate new 196

relationships. These collaged forms are then abstracted in three dimensions in order to generate new forms and further guide the project’s tectonic development.

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

197

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Relation of form to urban grid and river tectonic

198

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

Incorporation into urban arteries and storage centtre (CBD)

199

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Concept Parti 2

200

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

Isolation of individual components and spillage relationships

201

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Digital pipe model V.2

202

Chapter Ten

Concept Design

3D abstractions of collage forms

203

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER ELEVEN: SKETCH DESIGN

204

Chapter Eleven

Sketch Design

205

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SEED BANK V.2 Following the three interventions presented in the Concept Design, the Seed Bank was explored further given its position as lying somewhere between the highly secure data centre and more widely accessible STEM school.

It is intended the building form 3 primary wings or zones: the primary seed storage and research wing, the knowledge wing containing exhibition, conference and learning spaces and an leisure wing containing a public greenhouse and performance and events space.

One of the two initial tanks has been retained as a higher security storage facility containing cold storage towers for the seeds with adjacent labs and office spaces.

The second tank has been split to allow the programmatic spillage to leak from the 206

existing form. The two forms are joined by a large circulation structure that connects the tanks and spillage building.

This range of functions allows the precinct to connect with the proposed STEM facility, allowing school visits and tours that emphasis the importance of global conservation and share the primary storage contents.

Through the mix of programme generated by the leisure wing, the building begins to question alternative ways of engaging with buildings of this nature, exploring a more diverse range of programmatic spillage.

Chapter Eleven

Sketch Design

207

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

SEED BANK EXPLODED AXONOMETRIC

Following the additional tectonic experimentation, the developed language was employed to inform the Seed Bank’s continued design.

the second tank is the primary gesture that enables the insertion of the publicly accessible programme, spilling out from the shattered container.

The forms generated through the pipes became the highly legible building structure while the previously developed frame structure was employed to create a central spine that forms the building’s primary circulation.

Maintaining one largely unbroken tank creates a clearly legible storage location while the division of the second tank creates two separate programmatic wings with spillage between them.

The circulation frame extends from the primary storage tank and allows for the programmtic spillage areas to “plug in”. In utilising a central circulation structure and connected programmatic spillage, the idea of spillages occurring from pipelines or transit infrastructure is further employed.

Additionally, the physical splitting of 208

Chapter Eleven

Sketch Design

Circulation structure

Abstracted pipe frame

Storage + Programmatic Spillage

Existing Tank Forms

209

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

GROUND FLOOR PLAN 1. Main entrance hall 2. Service desk / administration office 3. Primary museum / exhibition space 4. Secondary exhibition space 5. Secondary entrance 6. Teaching spaces 7. External courtyard 8. Greenhouse / events space 9. Seed bank cold storage towers 10. Seed bank labs / drying rooms 11. Deliveries / handling area

5

6 6 1 4

6

2

7 3

10

9

8

9

11

10

0 10 20

0 1

210

50

9

2

5

100M

10M

Chapter Eleven

Sketch Design

FIRST FLOOR PLAN 1. Mezzanine gallery 2. Exhibition space 3. Lecture theatre 4. Storage / cleaning room 5. Conference rooms 6. Bridging structure 7. Greenhouse / events space 8. Low security seed storage / growing 9. Seed bank cold storage towers 10. Seed bank labs / drying rooms

4 3 5

5

2

1

10 6

9 8

7 8

9

0 109 20

0 1

2

50

5

100M

10M

211

Mitchell Sack

SEED BANK SECTION This section explores the relationship between the knowledge wing (right), leisure wing (left) and circulation structure.

The leisure wing contains the initial tank ceiling frame and emphasies the scale and verticality of the initial tank structure while the knowledge wing forms the primary visual spillage from the split tank.

In developing the design further, the relationship between these two wings should be further explored to create a more dynamic spatial experience in which the idea of spillage can be read through circulating the facility.

It would also be interesting to further explore the relationship between the internal spatial qualities and the various spillage prorgammes within.

212

Design Thesis

Chapter Eleven

Sketch Design

0 1

2

5

0 1

10M

2

5

10M

213

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CHAPTER TWELVE: DESIGN DEVELOPMENT

214

Chapter Twelve

Design Development

215

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

THOM MAYNE, COMBINATORIAL FORMS Mayne’s drawings present a series of overlaid subsystems that provide an interplay between rectilinear and loose forms that evoke the tectonics of the pipe and spill language. Exploring this methodology of overlaid systems and a relinquishing of authorial control will be utilised to further explore the tectonic nature of spillage and refine the seed bank design language.

In order to relinquish control over the design language, these ink drawings explore the behaviour of liquid spills. The fluid, unpredictable forms provide a stark contrast to the tank and pipe tectonic and provide an opportunity to further develop the design language.

Simulating the behaviour of high pressure, explosive spills, these models adopt a language of fracturing where forms

216

penetrate and erupt from each break in the voluminous tanks.

High and low pressure spillage languages were then combined through the models and ink drawings to explore the relationship between the two systems. The clear fracturing and penetration of the solid forms provides a basis for developing the formal architectural system while the loose, softer ink spills should be explored to guide the clear language of remediated land spilling from the seed bank.

Chapter Twelve

Fig. 84

Fig. 85

Design Development

Fig. 86

217

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Spillage Ink Drawings

218

Chapter Twelve

Design Development

Spillage Ink Drawings

219

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Spillage Ink Drawings + Projection / Penetration Models

220

Chapter Twelve

Design Development

Spillage Ink Drawings + Projection / Penetration Models

221

Mitchell Sack

SPILLAGE TRANSLATION This secondary elevational collage draws on the principles explored within the prior tests. Spills occur from within the fractured at tanks, penetrating and projecting out over the landscape.

The pipe-frame language is continued to forms moments of order within the chaos and a distinct differentiation is made between the existing infrastructure and the formal additions.

In translating these principles through to built form, the design should incorporate a more sculptural tectonic, celebrating the geometric purity of the existing tanks in order to provide a contrast with the intricacy of the spillages.

222

Design Thesis

Chapter Twelve

Design Development

223

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

FORMAL PRECEDENTS In order to further develop the formal design system, these projects informed the translation of the prior tests into built form.

Watanabe’s Aoyama Technical College (Fig. 89) and Domenig’s Stone House (Fig. 90) consist of a series of projected geometries both horizontally and vertically, capturing the sense of high pressure spillage created in the model studies. This approach was adopted and combined with the layered, expressed circulation and balconies observed within Scarpa’s Castlevecchio Museum (Fig. 87) and Heinrich Boll Architect + OMA’s Kohlenwäsche Museum (Fig. 88).

The use of overlaid systems is consistent with the ideas explored in Thom Mayne’s concept drawings, in which a series of discrete systems are combined form a complex whole.

Emphasising points of multi-axis projection and circulation will greatly assist in the expression of spillage occurring from the tank volumes.

224

Additionally, the sculptural geometric expression observed in Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh Palace of Assembly (Fig. 91) and Bohm’s Neviges Church should be explored in order to complement the scale and purity of the tank forms. This clear sculptural expression of the tank forms should be retained in portions of the building to allow for a clear delineation between new and old, storage and spill.

Chapter Twelve

Fig. 88

Design Development

Fig. 91

Fig. 89

Fig. 87

Fig. 90

Fig. 92

225

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

TECTONIC DEVELOPMENT This iteration explores applies a series of projecting planes and frames from the penetrations in the existing tanks. As in the Sketch Design iteration, the tanks were fragmented and disconnected, with a framed language spilling from within. A clear contrast was developed between the open, spilling main entry sequence (top) and the rear entrance in which the sculptural tank volumes were retained (bottom).

The seed bank was retained as a discrete volume separated from the public functionality via the canal system, with a bridge connecting the building’s storage and spillage functions. The fractured tanks are joined by a large atrium, drawing on the sculptural forms and visible circulation observed in the previous projects.

As this version developed, a sense of vertical spillage or projection was developed through 226

the addition of a tower containing the seed bank’s greenhouses. This formed a point of high pressure spillage consistent with the penetration models. This composition was gradually refined into the final iteration of the seed bank, with the projecting planes and pipes generating the final built forms.

Chapter Twelve

Design Development

227

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

DATA CENTRE V.2

Given the homogeneous form of the tanks, the previously disconnected volumes were tested as a singular stacked form instead of the the initial sprawling composition. While this created an interesting spatial interplay, the sense of spillage across the landscape from within the fragmented tanks was lost, losing the legibility of the design.

This was instead re-purposed as an updated intervention on Coode Island, forming a second iteration of the data centre. The fortress-like solidarity of the design and vertical presence make it well suited to both the programme of the data centre as well as its siting on Coode Island.

This was consistent with the early tectonic 228

models, in which the point on Coode Island was identified as requiring a strong vertical presence in order to tie the entire site composition together.

The additional tower composition was also refined and applied to the seed bank to strengthen the sense of vertical spillage extending from the tank

Chapter Twelve

Design Development

229

Mitchell Sack

230

Design Thesis

Final Tectonic Composition + Sequence

231

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

CONCLUSION

The project’s tectonic experiments culminated in the previous sequence in which the pipe’frame language and fluid remediated landscape spilled from the fractured tank volumes into the surrounding landscape as an architectural intervention.

This final seed bank design functions as a microcosm for the entire site, translating the formal ideas and systems to one part within a significantly larger whole.

Given the significant volume of petroluem infrastructure that may one day prove rendundant and leave behind large, contaminated areas of land, this thesis forms a departure point in considering how these sites might be repurposed and developed.

232

At a local scale, the project considers Melbourne’s future in the wake of its massive Fisherman’s Bend Development, providing speculation into how the landforms disconnected by the Yarra and Maribyrnong Rivers might be connected physically and programmatically.

Further developing this system across the entire port constellation would provide a more robust testing process and allow greater insight into the design’s adaptability across both programme and site.

This would enable it to be readily scaled and adapted to global cities in the wake of a post-oil future.

Chapter Twelve

Design Development

233

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

REFERENCES •

Anderson, S. & Zabarsky, K., 2015. The Tanks. [Online] Available at: http://thetanksbk.com

•

Baird, M., 2010. Coode Island and contaminated sites: industrial planning issues in the city of melbourne. Australian Planner, pp. 215-220.

•

Bentham Crouwel Architects, 2017. Datacenter AM4. [Online] Available at: https://www.archdaily.com/889107/datacenter-am4-benthemcrouwel-architects

•

Corner, J., 2005. Lifescape: Fresh Kills Parkland. Topos: The International Review of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, Volume 51, pp. 15-21.

•

Corner, J., 2006. Terra Fluxus. In: The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 21-34.

•

Dator, J., 2019. What Future Studies Is and Is Not. In: Jim Dator: A Noticer in Time. s.l.:Springer, pp. 3-5.

•

Enviropacific, 2020. Former Fitzroy Gasworks Remediation. [Online] Available at: https://enviropacific.com.au/projects/former-fitzroygasworks-remediation/#FGW_section-1

•

ExxonMobil, 2019. Fuel Terminals. [Online] Available at: https://www.exxonmobil.com.au/-/media/Australia/Files/Company/Worldwideoperations/Yarraville-Terminal.pdf

•

Gadd, N., 2015. A Landscape of Stories. Melbourne: Griffith Review.

•

Ghosn, R. & Jazairy, E. H., 2018. Geostories: Another Architecture for the Planet. New York: Actar.

•

H2O, 2014. Australian Grains Genebank. [Online] Available at: https://www.h2oarchitects.com.au/project/australian-grains-genebank/

•

Hein, C., 2014. New York, The Architectural League.

•

Hein, C., 2018. Oil Spaces: The Global Petroleumscape in the Rotterdam/The Hague Area. Journal of Urban History, 44(5), pp. 887-929.

•

Herzog & De Meuron, 1988. 038 Ricola Storage Facility. [Online] Available at: https://www.herzogdemeuron.com/index/projects/completeworks/026-050/038-ricola-storage-building.html

•

234

Latz, P., 2016. Rust Red: Landscape Park Duisburg-Nord. Munich: Hirmer Publishing.

•

LeMenager, S., 2012. The Aesthetics of Petroleum, after Oil!. American Literature History, 24(1), pp. 59-86.

•

Lim, C., 2017. Perfection. In: Inhabitable Infrastructures: Science Fiction or Urban Futures?. New York: Routledge, pp. 237-250.

•

Loures, L. & Panagopoulos, T., 2007. Sustainable reclamation of industrial areas in urban landscapes. Sustainable Development and Planning, Volume 102, pp. 791-800.

•

Loures, L. & Panagopoulos, T., 2010. Reclamation of derelict industrial land in portugal: greening is not enough. International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning, 5(4), pp. 343-350.

•

Menis, F., 1997. El Tanque Cultural Space. [Online] Available at: https://menis.es/en/portfolio/el-tanque-santa-cruz-de-tenerife/

•

OPEN Architecture, 2019. Tank Shanghai. [Online] Available at: http://www.openarch.com/task/123

•

Scape, 2009. Oyster-tecture. [Online]Available at: https://www.scapestudio.com/projects/oyster-tecture/

•

Seogoo Heo & RoA Architects , 2017. Oil Tank Cultural Park. [Online] Available at: https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/ hccev/oil_tank_culture_park-project-pages.html

•

Sornig, D., 2018. Blue Lake: Finding Dudley Flats and the West Melbourne Swamp. Melbourne: Scribe Publications.

•

Stanton Williams, 2000. Millennium Seed Bank. [Online] Available at: https://www.stantonwilliams.com/projects/millennium-seed-bank/

•

TPG, 2010. Yarraville Port Environs Local Planning Policy 2010, Melbourne: Maribyrnong City Council.

•

Tzannes, 2020. Dangrove Art Storage Facility. [Online] Available at: http://tzannes.com.au/projects/dangrove-art-storage-facility/

•

Vines, G., 2013. Fishermans Bend Heritage Study, s.l.: Prepared for Places Victoria.

•

Vines, G., 2013. Industrial Land and Wetland: The relationship between the natural environment and industrialisation in Melbourne’s Western Region. Maribyrnong: Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West Inc.

235

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

FIGURES Fig 1: Hein, Carola., Rotterdam Petroleumscape (2018). Retrieved from Oil Spaces: The Global Petroleumscape in the Rotterdam Fig 2: Shell Oil, The City of Tomorrow Model (c1936). Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shell_Oil_City_of_Tomorrow_ model_c._1936-37.jpg Fig 3: Rogers, R. & Piano, R., Centre Pompidou Section (1977). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/64028/ad-classics-centre-georgespompidou-renzo-piano-richard-rogers Fig 4: Cook, P., Archigram, Plug in City (1964). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/399329/ad-classics-the-plug-in-city-peter-cook archigram?ad_medium=gallery Fig 5: Unknown, Coode’s Canal (c1886). Retrieved from https://poi-australia.com.au/points-of-interest/australia/victoria/docklands/coodes-yarrariver-canal-c-1886/ Fig 6: Milllar, J., Hoddle Grid Extension (c1860). Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/drawing-inspiration-from-imaginative-plannerspast-97609 Fig 7: Pratt, C., “Vacuum Oil Co. Pty Ltd Premises at Yarraville” (1933). Retrieved from State Library of Victoria at http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1652428 Fig 8: Pratt, C., Aerial View of Yarraville With Oil Tankers” (c1950). Retrieved from State Library of Victoria at http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/ permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1671897 Fig 9: Pratt, C., “Yarraville Looking Towards Port Melbourne” (1938). Retrieved from State Library of Victoria at http://search.slv.vic.gov.au/ permalink/f/1cl35st/SLV_VOYAGER1652992 Fig 10: Dept. of Lands and Survey, Melbourne and Suburbs (1910). Retrieved from https://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/such-was-life/the-erasure-ofmelbournes-wetlands/ Fig 11: Latz + Partners, Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord (1990-2002). Retrieved from http://landezine.com/index.php/2011/08/post-industriallandscape-architecture/ Fig 12: Latz + Partners, Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord (1990-2002). Retrieved from http://landezine.com/index.php/2011/08/post-industriallandscape-architecture/ Fig 13: Latz + Partners, Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord (1990-2002). Retrieved from http://landezine.com/index.php/2011/08/post-industriallandscape-architecture/

236

Fig 14: Latz + Partners, Landschaftpark Duisburg-Nord (1990-2002). Retrieved from http://landezine.com/index.php/2011/08/post-industriallandscape-architecture/ Fig 15: Studio V & Ken Smith Workshop, The Tanks (2018). Retrieved from http://thetanksbk.com Fig 16: Studio V & Ken Smith Workshop, The Tanks (2018). Retrieved from http://thetanksbk.com Fig 17: Studio V & Ken Smith Workshop, The Tanks (2018). Retrieved from http://thetanksbk.com Fig 18: Menis Aruitectos (1997), El Tanque Cultural Space. Retrieved from https://menis.es/en/portfolio/el-tanque-santa-cruz-de-tenerife/ Fig 19: Menis Aruitectos (1997), El Tanque Cultural Space. Retrieved from https://menis.es/en/portfolio/el-tanque-santa-cruz-de-tenerife/ Fig 20: Heo Segogo & Roa Architects, Oil Tank Culture Park (2017). Retrieved from https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/hccev/ oil_tank_culture_park-project-pages.html Fig 21: Heo Segogo & Roa Architects, Oil Tank Culture Park (2017). Retrieved from https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/hccev/ oil_tank_culture_park-project-pages.html Fig 22: Heo Segogo & Roa Architects, Oil Tank Culture Park (2017). Retrieved from https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/hccev/ oil_tank_culture_park-project-pages.html Fig 23: Heo Segogo & Roa Architects, Oil Tank Culture Park (2017). Retrieved from https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/hccev/ oil_tank_culture_park-project-pages.html Fig 24: Heo Segogo & Roa Architects, Oil Tank Culture Park (2017). Retrieved from https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/hccev/ oil_tank_culture_park-project-pages.html Fig 25: Heo Segogo & Roa Architects, Oil Tank Culture Park (2017). Retrieved from https://worldarchitecture.org/architecture-projects/hccev/ oil_tank_culture_park-project-pages.html Fig 26: Open Architecture, Tank Shanghai (2019). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/913922/open-architectures-art-park-opens-inshanghai-inside-old-fuel-tanks Fig 27: Open Architecture, Tank Shanghai (2019). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/913922/open-architectures-art-park-opens-inshanghai-inside-old-fuel-tanks Fig 28: Open Architecture, Tank Shanghai (2019). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/913922/open-architectures-art-park-opens-inshanghai-inside-old-fuel-tanks

237

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Fig 29: Open Architecture, Tank Shanghai (2019). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/913922/open-architectures-art-park-opens-inshanghai-inside-old-fuel-tanks Fig 30: Builtwise Constructions, SOLVE Altona (2016). Retrieved from https://www.builtwise.com.au/projects/solve-altona/ Fig 31: Corner, J., Freshkills Park (2005). Retrieved from Lifescape – Fresh Kills Parkland Fig 32: Corner, J., Freshkills Park (2005). Retrieved from Lifescape – Fresh Kills Parkland Fig 33: Scape, Oyster-tecture (2009). Retrieved from https://www.scapestudio.com Fig 34: Scape, Oyster-tecture (2009). Retrieved from https://www.scapestudio.com Fig 35: Scape, Oyster-tecture (2009). Retrieved from https://www.scapestudio.com Fig. 36: Orica, Remediation Works (2020). Retrieved from https://www.orica.com/Locations/Australia--Pacific-and-Indonesia/Australia/BotanyRemediation-Projects/Projects/Completed-Projects/Car-Park-Waste/remediation-works Fig 37: Design Earth, Das Island Das Crude (2018). Retrieved from Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment Fig 38: Design Earth, Das Island Das Crude (2018). Retrieved from Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment Fig 39: Lim, C.J., Perfection (2017). Retrieved from Inhabitable Infrastructures: Science Fiction or Urban Futures.

Fig 40: Lim, C.J., Perfection (2017). Retrieved from Inhabitable Infrastructures: Science Fiction or Urban Futures.

Fig. 41: Herzog & De Meuron, Ricola Storage Faciliity (1987). Retrieved from https://www.atlasofplaces.com/architecture/ricola-storage-building/ Fig. 42: Herzog & De Meuron, Ricola Storage Faciliity (1987). Retrieved from https://www.atlasofplaces.com/architecture/ricola-storage-building/ Fig. 43: Tzannes, Dangrove Art Facility (2020). Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/dangrove-art-storage-facility-alexandria-sydneytzannes-commercial-space/ Fig. 44: Guthrie, B. (photography), Tzannes, Dangrove Art Facility (2020). Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/dangrove-art-storagefacility-alexandria-sydney-tzannes-commercial-space/ Fig. 45: Guthrie, B. (photography), Tzannes, Dangrove Art Facility (2020). Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/dangrove-art-storagefacility-alexandria-sydney-tzannes-commercial-space/ Fig. 46: Guthrie, B. (photography), Tzannes, Dangrove Art Facility (2020). Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/dangrove-art-storagefacility-alexandria-sydney-tzannes-commercial-space/ Fig. 47: Guthrie, B. (photography), Tzannes, Dangrove Art Facility (2020). Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/dangrove-art-storage-

238

facility-alexandria-sydney-tzannes-commercial-space/ Fig. 48: Guthrie, B. (photography), Tzannes, Dangrove Art Facility (2020). Retrieved from https://www.yellowtrace.com.au/dangrove-art-storagefacility-alexandria-sydney-tzannes-commercial-space/ Fig. 49: Koitani, Y (photography), Taller de Arquitectura X / Alberto Kalach (2014). Retrieved from https://www.kalach.com/biblioteca-de-mexico Fig. 50: Koitani, Y (photography), Taller de Arquitectura X / Alberto Kalach (2014). Retrieved from https://www.kalach.com/biblioteca-de-mexico Fig. 51: Koitani, Y (photography), Taller de Arquitectura X / Alberto Kalach (2014). Retrieved from https://www.kalach.com/biblioteca-de-mexico Fig. 52: Tefre, M (photography), Peter W. Søderman, Svalbard Global Seed Vault (2008) Retrieved from http://architectuul.com/architecture/ svalbard-global-seed-vault Fig. 53 Tefre, M (photography), Peter W. Søderman, Svalbard Global Seed Vault (2008) Retrieved from http://architectuul.com/architecture/ svalbard-global-seed-vault Fig. 54: Snohetta & Plomp, Global Seed Vault Visitor Centre (2019). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/927622/snohetta-designs-arcticvisitor-center-for-svalbards-global-seed-vault Fig. 55: Snohetta & Plomp, Global Seed Vault Visitor Centre (2019). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/927622/snohetta-designs-arcticvisitor-center-for-svalbards-global-seed-vault Fig. 56: Snohetta & Plomp, Global Seed Vault Visitor Centre (2019). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/927622/snohetta-designs-arcticvisitor-center-for-svalbards-global-seed-vault Fig. 57: H2O Architects, Australian Grains Gene Bank (2014). Retrieved from https://www.h2oarchitects.com.au/project/australian-grainsgenebank/ Fig. 58: H2O Architects, Australian Grains Gene Bank (2014). Retrieved from https://www.h2oarchitects.com.au/project/australian-grainsgenebank/ Fig. 59: Stanton Williams, Millenium Seed Bank (2000). Retrieved from https://www.stantonwilliams.com/projects/millennium-seed-bank/ Fig. 60: Cook, P. & von Sternberg, M. (photography), Stanton Williams, Millenium Seed Bank (2000). Retrieved from https://www. stantonwilliams.com/projects/millennium-seed-bank/ Fig. 61: Cook, P. & von Sternberg, M. (photography), Stanton Williams, Millenium Seed Bank (2000). Retrieved from https://www. stantonwilliams.com/projects/millennium-seed-bank/

239

Mitchell Sack

Design Thesis

Fig. 62: Linders, J. (photography), Bentham Crouwel Architects, Datacentre AM4 (2017). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/889107/ datacenter-am4-benthem-crouwel-architects Fig. 63: Linders, J. (photography), Bentham Crouwel Architects, Datacentre AM4 (2017). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/889107/ datacenter-am4-benthem-crouwel-architects Fig. 64: Bentham Crouwel Architects, Datacentre AM4 (2017). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/889107/datacenter-am4-benthemcrouwel-architects Fig. 65: Bernard Tschumi Architects, Alesia Mseum (2012). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/254235/alesia-museum-bernard-tschumiarchitects Fig. 66: Richters, C. & Baan, I. (photography). Bernard Tschumi Architects, Alesia Mseum (2012). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily. com/254235/alesia-museum-bernard-tschumi-architects Fig. 67: Simon Ungers, Silent Architecture (2003). Retrieved from https://www.archilovers.com/stories/26096/silent-architecture.html Fig. 68: Simon Ungers, Silent Architecture (2003). Retrieved from https://www.archilovers.com/stories/26096/silent-architecture.html Fig. 69: Simon Ungers, Silent Architecture (2003). Retrieved from https://www.archilovers.com/stories/26096/silent-architecture.html Fig, 70: Rosenblueth, P. (photography), Taller de Arquitectura X / Alberto Kalach, Augenlabs. Retrieved from https://www.kalach.com/augenlabs Fig. 71: Rosenblueth, P. (photography), Taller de Arquitectura X / Alberto Kalach, Augenlabs. Retrieved from https://www.kalach.com/augenlabs Fig. 72: Rosenblueth, P. (photography), Taller de Arquitectura X / Alberto Kalach, Augenlabs. Retrieved from https://www.kalach.com/augenlabs Fig. 73: Rogers, Stirk, Harbour +Partners, Eorpean Court of Human Rights (1995). Retrieved from https://www.rsh-p.com/projects/europeancourt-of-human-rights/ Fig. 74: Rogers, Stirk, Harbour +Partners, Eorpean Court of Human Rights (1995). Retrieved from https://www.rsh-p.com/projects/europeancourt-of-human-rights/ Fig. 75: Rogers, Stirk, Harbour +Partners, Eorpean Court of Human Rights (1995). Retrieved from https://www.rsh-p.com/projects/europeancourt-of-human-rights/ Fig. 76: SANAA, Kanazawa Art Museum (2004). Retrieved from https://divisare.com/projects/322209-sanaa-kazuyo-sejima-ryue-nishizawarasmus-hjortshoj-coast-21st-century-museum Fig 77: Hjortshoj – Coast, K., (photography), SANAA, Kanazawa Art Museum (2004). Retrieved from https://divisare.com/projects/322209sanaa-kazuyo-sejima-ryue-nishizawa-rasmus-hjortshoj-coast-21st-century-museum Fig. 78: Douglas Darden, Oxygen House (1988). Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/164200 Fig. 79: Douglas Darden, Oxygen House (1988). Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/164200

240

Fig. 80: Douglas Darden, Museum of Imposters. Retrieved from http://www.thelab-lab.com/darden Fig. 81: Paolo Portoghesi, Sacred Family Church in Salerno, (1969)). Retrieved from https://www.arthitectural.com/paolo-portoghesi-sacredfamily-church/ Fig. 82: Paolo Portoghesi, Sacred Family Church in Salerno, (1969)). Retrieved from https://www.arthitectural.com/paolo-portoghesi-sacredfamily-church/ Fig. 83: Paolo Portoghesi, Casa Andreis (1969). Retrieved from http://www.sosbrutalism.org/cms/15963813 Fig. 84: Thom Mayne, Combinatorial Forms (2015), Retrieved from https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2015.678/ 84. Thom Mayne, Combinatorial Forms (2015), Retrieved from https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2015.678/ 85. Thom Mayne, Combinatorial Forms (2015), Retrieved from https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2015.678/ 86. Thom Mayne, Combinatorial Forms (2015), Retrieved from https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/2015.678/ 87. Scandinavian Collectors (photography), Carlo Scarpa, Castelvecchio Museum, Verona (1958-74). Retrieved from https:// scandinaviancollectors.com/post/82041547868/museo-di-castelvecchio-verona-italia-1958-1974 88. Thomas Mayer (photography), Heinrich Boll Architect, OMA, Zeche Zollverein Kohlenwäsche Museum and Visitors Centre (2007).

Retrieved from https://divisare.com/projects/147602-heinrich-boll-architekt-oma-thomas-mayer-zeche-zollverein 89. Makoto Sei Watanabe, Toyama Technical College (1990). Retrieved from https://makoto-architect.com/aoyamaTC.html 90. Margherita Spiluttini (photography), Gunther Domenig, Stone House (1981). Retrieved from http://neocribs.blogspot.com/2009/08/ steinhaus-stonehouse-lake.html 91. Laurian Ghinitoiu (photography), Le Corbusier, Palace of Assembly, Chandigarh (1951). Retrieved from https://www.archdaily.com/806115/ ad-classics-master-plan-for-chandigarh-le-corbusier 92. Gottfried Bohm, Neviges Church (1963-72). Retrieved from https://architectureofdoom.tumblr.com/post/49422726257/mpdrolet-kai-uwegundlach-pilgrimage-church

241