Lyons Practice Studio - CITY CHANGE - by Joel Polychronopoulos

CITY CHANGE

LYONS PRACTICE STUDIO

Tutors: Adam Pustola, Vicky Li, Nina Wyatt

Semester 1 2021

Joel Polychronopoulos - s3542682

CONTENTS

Gippsland

Waterways

Major towns Traralgon Australian Paper, Maryvale Paper Mill Brown coal mine

Coal-fired power stations

Latrobe Valley

Traralgon

Proposed Traralgon Bypass Route

TRARALGON POST OFFICE & COURTHOUSE (LAST REMAINING CIVIC BUILDING)

INDUSTRIAL ARM OF COMMERCIAL STRIP (NEW INDUSTRY AS CIVIC RE-ESTABLISHMENT)

OLD TRARALGON

TRARALGON NOW GOING... GONE... GONE!

TRARALGON Week 1 Group Task Qianqian Chen & CaraHumphrey

Traditional Owners of Latrobe City

The Gunaikurnai nation are the Traditional Owners of Latrobe City. Today there are approximately 3000 Gunaikurnai people across the region, and their traditional lands cover the coastal and inland areas of Gippsland to the southern slopes of the Victorian Alps.

The Gunaikurnai nation is made up of five major clans. These are the Brabralung Clan in Central Gippsland, Brataulung Clan in South Gippsland, Krauatungalung Clan near the Snowy River, Tatungalung Clan near Lakes Entrance and the Brayakaulung (Braiakaulung) Clan whose traditional territory covers the Latrobe City municipality.

Latrobe City Council acknowledges and respects the special contributions made to our community by our Traditional Owners.

Gunaikurnai Creation Story

Latrobe City Council appreciates Traditional Owner representation on Council’s committees and groups.

Latrobe City Council respects the role of the Traditional Owners and its’ corporation in matters related to country, culture and Native Title.

Latrobe City Council understands the history of dispossession and movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across Gippsland and the impact this has had to the cultural lores of the Traditional Owners.

Phillip Pepper explained that his grandmother’s people, who were based near the coast at Seaspray, had a wide territory that extended west into the Latrobe Valley20

Other ancestral stories also refer to the inundation of the land in ages past. Howitt retold the Gunaikurnai account of the supernatural figure of Mungan, who responded to the bad behaviour of humans by punitive actions, including sending a vast fire that ‘filled the whole space between the earth and the sky’ so that ‘men went mad with fear’. After this ‘the sea rushed over the land and nearly all mankind was drowned’ and those who survived became the ancestors of the Kurnai 21

Two of the Gunaikurnai clans, the Brayakaulung and Brataualung, identified with the Latrobe Valley — the Brayaks on the north of the river and the Bratau on the south side 22 . However, these clans were most likely not constrained by definitive boundaries and there was some movement of these clans into neighbouring territories as well as the periodic incursion of neighbouring clans into the Latrobe Valley.

The first Gunaikurnai came down from the mountains in Victoria’s north-west carrying his canoe on his head. He was Borun, the pelican. He crossed over a deep river at what is now known as Sale, and walked on alone to Tarra Warackel (Port Albert) in the west. As he walked, he heard a constant tapping sound, but could not identify it. When he reached the deep water of the inlets, Borun put down his canoe and much to his surprise, there was a woman in it. She was Tuk, the musk duck. He was happy to see her and she became his wife and the mother of the Gunaikurnai people. They are the parents of the five Gunaikurnai clans.

The Gunaikurnai clans moved regularly through their country according to the seasons, living lightly on the land and returning periodically to familiar camping places. Their movements relied on the availability of different foods and resources, and the need to fulfil their cultural obligations. They constructed shelters using sheets of bark, boughs and stringybark rope. They established camps along the rivers and swamps where food and water were plentiful. Some of the Gunaikurnai were fearful of the alpine region to the north and avoided this area. However, others trekked annually to the mountains during high summer to feast on the Bogong Moth ( Agrotis infusa), which were nutritious, with a high fat content, and easy to catch 23 . Howitt noted that a large area of land lying between the Latrobe and the Yarra rivers, and extending from the sources of the rivers to the coast — and part of the territory of the Brayataulung — was known by the Kurnai as Wea-wuk or the ‘Bad Country’, but Howitt gives no reason why this was so-named 24

The Latrobe River and other waterways were critical to the Gunaikurnai. They provided a wide range of reliable food sources through most of the year, and also enabled trade and transport opportunities. The rivers, creeks, lagoons and swamp areas, such as Sheepwash Creek and its tributaries, supported various types of fish, eels, freshwater mussels and other shellfish, frogs, tortoises, waterbirds, and lizards, while various birds as well as kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, possums and emus inhabited the plains and woodland. The rivers and creeks supported water rushes and marsh vegetation as well as a number of plant foods that were important to Aboriginal people. Swamps and wetlands also attracted a range of waterfowl, including ducks and black swans, which provided meat and eggs.

Image: Borun and Tuk by Ronald Edwards-Pepper

Commonwealth of Australia 2000, National Estate Identification and Assessment in the Gippsland Region of Victoria, Commonwealth and Victorian Regional Forest Agreement (RFA) Steering Committee, Canberra, p. 8.

Scarred tree, Gippsland (source: Alexander Sutherland 1888, Victoria and Its Metropolis: vol. 2)

APM promotional image of children in a young pine plantation, captioned ‘APM plants trees for tomorrow’, 1974. (Source: Victoria’s Resources, 1974, vol. 16, no. 2)

A.J. McIntyre and J.J. McIntyre 1944, Country Towns of Victoria: A social survey. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, p. 75. Julie Constable 2015, ‘Reams and Reams of Paper: The Strzelecki Forest campaigns’ in Eklund and Fenley 2015, p. 221. 2015,

A pair of timber-cutters at work, 1950s (source: Under Southern Skies [1955])

A steel cannon ball for clearing forest 1950s (source: Under Southern Skies [1955])

Plantation of Gum and Pine Trees

Log Truck through Traralgon to Maryvale

Exisitng lumber and timber production yard along the proposed site for our new TEDS - Timber Engineering & Design School

1950s timber industry for Maryvale

Motel Library

Education & Training

New Industry & Showcase

Art & Culture Centre

Current Tensions

Supermarket

Concept

Elements & Reference

Paper

Reference

Replacement Timber Industry

Engineered

Timber Products

TRARALGON MOTEL

Tensions

Where does Traralgon begin? Visual Dominance of drive-and-go chains shadowing any long-term interactions.

Compete with BP as the current Gateway. Use the ‘familiar’ awning to reach out to the highway and demand

THE “TACC”

Tensions

Which is the main road? Where exactly is the CBD? I don’t have long.

Repurposing the disconnected and unutilised Victory Park to reestablish the original main roads. Use the familiar Highway techniques of roundabout and pause to redirect attention.

PROPOSED LOCATIONS

Elements

Elements

Elements & Space

Engineered Timber Products the FamiliarSilhouette in CLT

the FamiliarHighway and Roundabout

Pleated Roof

Scarred Gum Tree as Sculpture and Structure

Engineered Timber Products

Engineered Timber Hexmesh

the Familiar

Post Office & Courthouse TEDS

Established Civic Presence

Elements

Pleated Roof

Elements & Space

Roof - back

Roof - front

Engineer Timber Structure

Timber Structure

Entry 2

Social & Flexible Space

Component 2

Teaching Space & Lecture Rooms

Component 1

Hex Mesh from paper wrapping material

Radial Cuts from timber manufature

Workshops & Self-learning Areas

Entry 1

Diagram : Forming the Roof

Diagram of the Roof & General Planning Referenced from contexts

MID-SEMESTER

Design strategy: using the turntable to splinter the shopping centre into a new Railway Precinct and Gippsland Emergency Congregation Point

Traralgon building stock, silhouettes, and mixed use typologies

P.O.W. Proposed Siting

Open up street presence to juxtaposing grids of Traralgon’s CBD and South Traralgon

Promote and engage with South Traralgon through it’s low socio and industrial building stock

Hearth, platform & congregation/emergency assembly

Wings established for emergency housing and courtyard congregation

Accessible connection to the Grand Junction Hotel and Terminal Precinct

Opening up to the adjacent VRI community venue who already assist in upskilling/retraining

Sliding weatherboard shutters and variability of function/housing

Grand Junction Hotel as Dining Room

Railway Precinct as Central Plaza

Emergency Shelter as Living/Bedroom

WEEK 4

Ballarat is a rural city famous for history but also presently for its tree-lined avenues, view lines and vistas, wayfinding, undulating topography, and nearby volcanoes. The proposed site is at the epicentre of these systems.

Our chosen site is located on the edge of the Woowookarung Regional Park which divides Ballarat’s urban sprawl from the eastern farmland. The site is a clearing in the park, which overlooks Ballarat, and is subject to potential unprohibited development where roads have already started traversing the park as the city tries to develop around it. As with the City of Ballarat’s intervention in the Ballarat West Development Plan to better manage the sprawling estates, we propose to intervene and prevent further clearing, poor density, development, and self-sufficiency, and for the protection of Woowookarung’s stringybark trees and their koala inhabitants. This development will also promote alternative and more considerate methods for designing the expanding urban environment.

Investigation into the contours revealed interesting detail and a natural system of creek run-off. Instead of disrupting the topography with excavated development, we propose a softer, stilted assemblage where mixed-use buildings are terraced and follow the contours of the site as walkable interconnected corridors. Instead of simply extruding the contours and dividing

program, or arraying rectangular blocks, major site shifts were traced and buildings developed from tangrams to allow variation in arrangement and potential interlocking. The tangrams are oriented around the contour planes and form a dense, interlaced community framework.

Major site lines to and from the CBD, creek markers, Mount Buninyong, and Mount Warrenheip bulldoze through the terraces, making a statement for the consideration of place first while also continuing Ballarat’s heritage of tree-lined avenues and site lines to the volcanoes as a method of wayfinding. This also provides green corridors for local flora and fauna to propagate through the development. The proposal presents a medium density, mixed-use arrangement of buildings where no program is clustered and promotes community entanglement and self-sufficiency. Water damming and collection is proposed, where the creeks currently run off into low-density suburban sprawl. Urban farming is also an opportunity to promote self-sufficiency, re-vegetation of the site, conservation of the Regional Park, and a reduction in food travel.

The park had already introduced mountain bike trails and hiking tracks, which has contributed to the increased road access. These features are integrated into the holistic view of the development where a cable car is in place of primary car access.

WEEK 3

COLES AND MYER

We take a site that underutilises its corner prominence and contains the first ever Myer department store, currently falling apart at the seams. The site is central along popular and historical Pall Mall and requires drastic repair and revitilsation. Teaming up with Coles Myer Group, we propose an intervention with a new civic corner that will revitalise the existing Myer store, and introduce a new market style grocer to the CBD. This will better engage with the abandoned connections to Hargreaves Mall, and reinstate Pall Mall as a Parade, Market, and Retail Strip. Awakening the Dragon ceremony used to commonly occur as a celebration of the harvest season. The celebration now pairs with the famous Bendigo Easter Parade showcasing heritage and culture. Sun Loong, once the longest dragon in the world at 100m, chases a spherical ball down

Pall Mall, resembling the Pearl of Wisdom, forever in pursuit. The sinous form disrupts the current urban problems which exist in poor continuity through the context during past expansions. The sectional line does not assume Wall, Floor, or Roof, but all in dividing space and combining program. It will intervene and establish a new plaza corner to taker in the street and open up the side walk. The addition of wrapping verandah-like balconies connects to its context of the Shamrock Hotel, and offers more to the limited viewpoints of Pall Mall, its Civic assemblage, and the Parade. The carpark is made available for peak times of the year, while being able to expand the Ground Floor offerings into a flexible market square. Grandeur of retail is reestablished, with Coles Supermarket and Myer Department Store blending its offerings in a building tied to cultural identity.

WEEK 2

The original packing facade that was proposed for redevelopment is already divided into two program entries of training and retail. We cut through the middle combining a shared lobby and lounge for both tourists and workforce. The carpark is disconnected from the factory sites with no safe crossings. A valet is provided for the public and worker alike, where upon entrering the administration building, they mutually rise in the building before workers seperate to a safer connected skybridge to the manufacturing plant. This raises and showcases the importance of the labour force and their inherit value to Shepparton.