It is easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to seek permission.
This is ever so true with how Melbourne acts upon this territory.
What once were a series of interconnected marsh ponds
became a rigid stormwater drain to prevent flooding and allow
ever creeping development to edge closer. The creek bears the
truth of the city, the true underside attempted to be concealed
below the citylink that it found the perfect excuse for. Like a
hopeless romantic, its intertwined exchange of infrastructural
purism justified the relationship. Described as the most abused
tributary of the Yarra River, indifferent to Melbourne’s gold
rush development, using marshland as receptacles.
To truly claim the place as its own and evoke identity,
individual to its subservient creation, it must not attempt
to rewrite an alternative. The proposal seeks to amplify its
unique conditions, thus intensifying its identity to breach
the forefront. The mode to achieve this is gestural, promoting
contribution and embrace.
