Land Jettison | The Other Creatures Studio (MLA, RMIT)

LAND JETTISON The Other Creatures Designing for Coexistence and Biodiversity in Melbourne’s Lowlands RMIT Landscape Architecture | Design Research Upper Pool Studio | Semester 02, 2020

Sebastian Cocks | s3870711

Tutors | Dan Nyandega and Erich Wolf

Contents 6. LA+ Creature Competition

31. Mid-Semester Design Proposal

7. Design Theory Framework

38. Esquisse Five | Lenses of the Other Creatures

8. Esquisse One |World of Crisis

44. Design Development

10. Animals in Contemporary Architecture and Design | Wolch & Owens

46. Esquisse 6 | Empathy

12. Esquisse Two | Mapping the Non-Human Client

52. Esquisse Seven | Strategic Zoom-In

17. Esquisse Three | Site Matters

54. Final Design Proposal

21. Preliminary Design Concept

65. Video Link & Acknowledgements

22. We Are Designing the Earth, Whether You Like It or Not | Weller 23. Esquisse Four | Non-Human Territories 25. Land Reclamation in the Yellow Sea 27. Site Analysis

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Beggining to plan out how to form a design for the LA+ Creature Competition

LA+ Creature Competition Our studio began by introducing the competition which would be the main focus of the semester; LA+ Journal’s ‘Creature’ competition.

The competition asks entrants to assume the position of a non-human client and, based on the client’s needs, design a place, structure, thing or process to aid them. The project should also increase empathy and awareness towards the chosen non-human client.

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ECO-MODERNISM Not returning to the ‘natural’ state. Creating a new environment benefited by human design.

BEAUTY VS BENEFIT As Sarah Bekessy’s lecture highlighted, beauty and biodiversity are not the same.

Celebrate the ugly.

MITIGATION This project will mitigate in the longterm by adapting in the short-term.

LA+ CREATURE COMPETITION

NARRATIVE

THE OTHER CREATURES STUDIO 7

IMPORTANCE TO HUMAN LIFE

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

COEXISTENCE/ VISUAL IMPACT

GENERATE EMPATHY

GEOGRAPHIC SCALE

DESIGN FOR A NON-HUMAN CLIENT Escape the “modernist metaphor of alienation from nature” (pg. 15 Animals in Contemporary Architecture and Design, Wolch & Owens).

DESIGN A MUDFLAT FOR THE CURLEW SANDPIPER

SCALE

EXTINCTION THREAT

TEMPORAL SCALE

A mind-map of the design theory used to generate Land Jettison

Design Theory Framework Particularly important to Land Jettison was the need to consider geographic and temporal scale. This was achieved by looking at a client with an international migration and addressing an international human action such as land reclamation. Any consideration of beach environments must always consider temporal scale due to the rapid rate of rising sea levels.

The idea of prioritising mitigation over adaptation was also a powerful driver. This was a key reason for choosing the Curlew Sandpiper as my client given the scale of the threats it faces.

I wanted to develop a project that could address a large-scale human action and explore the subjectivity of the ‘natural’ through an eco-modernist lens.

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Ground-plane conditions

Esquisse One | World of Crisis Exponential population growth and the deterioration of the natural world has led to a socio-economic and physical split of life into two levels: the ground dwellers and the floating city-state above.

In the floating post-natural city of Melbourne all structures are now steel and synthetic hard-plastic structures that plug into a floating platform beneath. Humans absorb nutrients and oxygen through feeding tubes plugged into the back of their heads. Almost all waking hours are spent within a person’s living quarters, where work, social interactions and all forms of entertainment can be completed through virtual reality headsets – you can even simulate one of earth’s many ancient parklands.

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The removal of all things natural has eliminated cultural differences because food and natural landscapes have all become identical, all clothing has become identical to meet the health requirements of a world without natural oxygen and the desire for international travel has been destroyed.

This has led to an immense global population that is divided into citystates. Some ground-relics, such as the Pantheon, have been rescued from the dust. As all humans now speak one language The Tower of Babel was able to be completed in the hopes of finding a heaven-like world above ours that may contain natural things – to no avail.

Above ground conditions

Living conditions on the ground plane have become almost unbearable for most. The extinction of all plant-life and ground-dwelling animals has seen the earth’s crust began to erode and crumble into a highly acidic dust. Almost all inhabitants of the ground are workers employed at meat laboratories, pollination plants or nutrient and oxygen factories. These workers are incredibly impoverished and forced to fight over the scraps of food that can be absorbed through the government-supplied incubation stations. Many of the ground-dwellers battle oxygen addiction.

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Which animals are desirable in design?

Animals in Contemporary Architecture and Design | Wolch & Owens Some animals are seen as undesireable or unnecessary in design.

Livestock are fuel for human life and it may be too emotionally straining to view them as animals that can have their quality of life bettered by design. In particular, the slaughterhouse/slaughter process, which is essential to everyday life, is something that humans are reluctant to think about and beautify. Arthropods are too aesthetically undesirable and do not generate a sense of empathy or connection to the human being.

Why are apes undesirable as design clients?

Desirable animal design clients are ones that can more readily conform to human desires and lifestyles - that do no challenge our actions at a larger scale but rather support them (e.g. cats & dogs). Other desirable design clients are those that can be easily catered for by designing 10

housing (e.g. beehives and birdhouses) to improve an animals living quarters without addressing their lifecycle and living conditions within a larger system. Designers often do not want to adrress the human processes that are harming these nonhuman animal clients, but rather try to put a bandaid on a much deeper wound.

Many of the designs that claim to have animals at their centre are ignorant of the animal’s perspective (desires, emotional state, likes/dislikes).

These designs are often marketed/packaged to convince human clients they are benefitial to the animal in question rather than genuinely trying to assume the perspective of the animal itself. They “operate within the modernist metaphor of alienation from nature”.

Amphibious Architecture | Natalie Jeremijenko & Chris Woebken

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Esquisse Two | Mapping the Non-Human Client Esquisse Two asked us to begin investigating potential non-human clients by answering the following questions: 1. Where can this species be found (historically and now)?

2. How is its habitat?

3. What does it eat and what eats it?

4. What are its habits (mating, breeding, hunting)?

5. How is its life cycle?

6. What are their movement/migration patterns?

7. What are the threats to its conservation?

8. How do humans interact with it?

9. Are there any projects already working with this species?

10. Are they endangered, extinct or of significant value to humans/city?

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The three potential clients I investigated were the Growling Grass Frog, Australian Grayling and Far Eastern Curlew. I decided that the Far Eastern Curlew had the greatest narrative and reason for design intervention due to its global migration pattern and struggle against land reclamation.

However, the Far Eastern Curlew was potentially problematic because of its dislike of human disturbance and unlikeliness to visit urban areas.

CONSERVATION A national Recovery Team (under the name ‘Growling Grass Frog National Recovery Team’) has been established to coordinate recovery actions. Guidelines for the management of the species in urbanised landscapes throughout Melbourne have been prepared. The Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has even released the ‘Growling Grass Frog Habitat Design Standards’ document.

MOVEMENT & POTENTIAL SITES OF INTEREST A highly mobile frog that can move 1km per 24hrs or beyond. Its persistence in many areas is dependent upon the movement of adults between particular waterbodies, and between breeding and non-breeding habitats. Human-induced changes to landscapes have created barriers - e.g. fences, roads, and unsuitable, impermeable habitat.

Favoured sites frequently have a large proportion of emergent, submerged and floating vegetation, and slow-flowing or still water. The large metapopulation occurring in the Merri Creek catchment north of Melbourne is particularly important for the understanding of habitat use and population dynamics. This population is the subject of a large research project that has extended over a decade. Threatened grasslands around Melbourne that are home to metapopulations of this frog also provide habitat for threatened fauna such as the Striped Legless Lizard and the Fat-tailed Dunnart and so might provide exciting design opportunities.

Could I use the natural flood-prone Elizabeth St in the CBD as a ‘wet highway’ to transport the frog? Could I implement ‘raingardens’ which filter water and retard stormwater runoff to provide shelter/pathways for the frog to move? Or use these raingardens to clean water that THEN runs into the frog’s habitat(s)?

These frogs like to shelter in soil cracks, can I create grooves in the bluestone paving of Melbourne that will shelter the frogs?

Create a system that monitors toxicity levels and indicates the health of the habitat based on this. Maybe making a large growling sound like the frog’s when the habitat is unhealthy?

RANGE

HABITATS

THREATS

GROWLING GRASS FROG HABITAT DESIGN STANDARDS

Growling Grass Frog | Litoria Raniformis Reasons to choose: 1. It’s a bioindicator species - the frog is indicative of the health of the larger environmental system.

2. Amphibious species that coincides with other endangered species, giving more power to a desgin solution.

5. They have the potential to highlight errant human action at a larger scale as they are threatened by water catchment mistreatment, urbanisation, increased UV due to ozone damage, increased salinity in water due to evaporation and extreme weather from climate change.

6. It is a mobile creature that would benefit from intervention at various points at various scales.

3. Well-researched populations surrounding Melbourne, as well as community groups supporting the species and a State Gov. habitat design guideline.

4. Large and physically attractive.

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MOVEMENT & BEHAVIOUR The Australian Grayling is a diadromous species - migrating between rivers, their estuaries and coastal seas - and so relies on free access to a range of freshwater, estuarine and marine habitats for its survival. Recent acoustic telemetry studies demonstrate the existence of a rapid, long-distance migration (<40km) from freshwater reaches to spawning grounds in the lower reaches immediately upstream of the estuary. These migrations occur in autumn and are initiated in response to increases in river flow. Following downstream migration, most individuals return upstream to the area they previously occupied, suggesting homing behaviour and an attachment to a precise locality during the non-migratory phase.

Australian Grayling appear to be dependent upon flooding to spawn, requiring a rise in water levels, possibly coupled with a decrease in water temperatures, to initiate spawning. When flooding does not occur during the spawning season, females resorb their ovaries and do not spawn.

CONSERVATION/PRECEDENTS The species seems to be able to recolonise rivers from which it has been removed. For example, installation of a fishway to provide passage above the weir at Dights Falls in the Yarra River has enabled grayling to move upstream into areas from which the species had been absent for many decades.

SITE CONSIDERATIONS Important populations are those at the limits of the species range, and those known to contain large breeding populations or occur in areas with extensive spawning habitat. Such populations are likely to act as ‘source’ populations for other areas containing less suitable habitat for the species.

Habitats such as spawning, refuge and juvenile habitats are likely to be limited in distribution, yet crucial to the grayling’s life cycle. Proposed recovery actions include identification of habitats used at critical stages of the grayling’s life cycle.

RANGE

HABITATS

THREATS

EXAMPLE OF A FISHWAY SIMILAR TO THAT INSTALLED AT DIGHTS FALLS

Australian Grayling | Prototroctes maraena Reasons to choose: 1. Travels through the heart of Melbourne (Yarra River).

2. Fish kills have received publicity over the last few years.

3. Large-scale migratory nature = opportunity to work at multiple scales.

4. Threatened fish have the potential to act as ‘flagship’ species for highlighting broader nature conservation issues in aquatic habitats, such as habitat degradation, barriers to migration and invasive species.

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5. Would aid in the restoration of ecological processes in major Australian waterways (e.g. Snowy River).

THREATS Loss of habitat at critical stopover sites in the Yellow Sea is suspected to be the key threat to this species. Given that it is restricted to the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, the declines viewed in the non-breeding population are thought to represent the global population. The population is in decline across Australia, and at more alarming rates elsewhere on the migration path. The population at Saemangeum (South Korea) has decreased by 32.6% between 2006 and 2008 due to the reclamation of tidal flats. Given that more reclamation is proposed within the Yellow Sea, with widespread threats elsewhere on the flyway, it is assumed that the declines will continue.

Threats in Australia include ongoing human disturbance, habitat loss and degradation from pollution, changes to the water regime and invasive plants. Eastern curlews take flight when humans approach to within 30–100 metres, or even up to 250 metres away. Human interference tires tires birds out, threatening their migration potential, and disturbs feeding and mating behvaiour. Pollution, coastal development, land reclamation, construction of barrages and stabilisation of water levels can destroy feeding habitat.

CONSERVATION/PRECEDENTS The East Asian - Australasian Flyway Partnership Far Eastern Curlew Task Force is developing an International Single Species Action Plan for the species. Research should identify key stopover areas and work with governments along the East Asian- Australasian Flyway to prevent destruction/reclamation of important staging sites.

Continue to monitor population trends. Restore reclaimed wetland sites. Campaign to stop shorebird hunting in Asian countries. Manage shellfisheries at key sites to benefit the species – could the inclusion of molluscs in the design benefit both the curlew and the larger ecosystem (by filtering the water and providing buffer against harsh sea conditions – see Oystertecture precedent)?

Several research projects exist trying to help the Far Eastern Curlew as well as improve the condition of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway in general.

MIGRATION

HABITATS

THREATS

YELLOW SEA

MANY MIGRATORY BIRDS TRAVEL THE EAAF AND ALL ARE THREATENED

Far Eastern Curlew | Numenius madagascariensis Reasons to choose: 1. Large-scale migration pattern – provides opportunity to work at many scales and interact with many varied and interesting stakeholders.

3. Potential to bridge many different cultures at a time of increased tension with China and Russia through collaborative environmental design.

5. Has the potential to address the mismanagement of tidal wetlands at large – in many countries.

Addresses the need for better coastal development with human-ecosystem interfaces being more sensitive (stay off the dunes!).

A CHALLENGE is finding a site as humans need to be invisible to the birds.

4. Potential to include molluscs as a feeding source, which will double up as a filter for the chosen waterway and potential sea buffer.

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Reflecting on the non-human clients investigated in Esquisse Two

Esquisse Two | Decisions I decided that the best course of action was to choose another migratory shorebird species that also flies the East-Asian-Australasian Flyway but is more likely to visit an urban site than the Far Eastern Curlew.

After looking at several options, I decided on the Curlew Sandpiper as it has recently been declared critically endangered at a federal level in Australia and it has been sighted within Melbourne’s city limits; as close to the CBD as Albert Park.

The Curlew Sandpiper’s client profile is shown in Esquisse Four (pg. 24).

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Cu

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Client decision is made

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Beginning to think about the site for Land Jettison

Esquisse Three | Site Matters Esquisse Three moved onto site investigations. Bearing in mind the restrictions of COVID lockdown we sought to choose three sites to analyse using the following questions: 1. What is the context of this site?

2. Who visits this site?

3. What is the landscape typology of the site?

4. What is the climate and microclimate condition of the site?

5. What is the site ecosystem?

6. Is this site connected to wider ecological systems or isolated?

7. What are the water bodies found locally?

8. What species/communities are commonly seen on this site?

9. What disturbances exist on this site - are they temporal, seasonal?

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10. What other species could this site accommodate?

11. Are there points of conflict between humans and wildlife on this site?

12. What are the potential spaces for coexistence on this site?

13. Other relevant information.

I looked at the Moonee Ponds Creek, the Elwood Canal & Beach and Port Phillip Bay as my three potential sites. I ended up going with Elwood because I am familiar with the site and it has a history of land reclamation, which is the greatest threat to the Curlew Sandpiper. The site is also intensely urban, giving great potential for human attachment to the project and client.

Client

Other Species on Site

Brunswick West Moonee Ponds Brunswick

Parkville Ascot Vale

Storage Wetland Park

Flemington

Royal Park

Flemington Racecourse

Carlton

Maribyrnong River Kensington

North Melbourne

Moonee Ponds Creek Moonee Ponds Creek is one of the major tributaries of the Yarra River running through Melbourne’s north-west. The creek is rural at its origin near Greenvale, but by the time it passes Melbourne Airport and reaches Essendon it is channeled into a concrete stormwater drain. The stretch of the creek I am focused on is the section between Kensington up to Brunswick West.

This site is popular with cyclists, joggers, walkers, and dogs as both a transit route and for recreation. It is important to note that this entire section sits either underneath or next to the very busy Citylink freeway.

The noise and business of the freeway, coupled with the densely urban surrounding areas would be a possible constraint for certain clients such as migratory birds that dislike human interaction.

However, this site has the benefit of being close to several of inner-Melbourne’s biodiversity hotspots, such as Royal Park, Storage Wetland Park, the Maribyrnong River and the Newells Paddock Wetlands Reserve.

The spot I am particularly interested in is the concrete basin that sits at the bottom of the big red ‘matchstick/French fry’ sculpture that is visible from the freeway. This massive, flat concrete dish has already started collecting sediment that seagulls and ducks use as a sort of synthetic mudflat. The issue is that the drain is freshwater and intensely urban so it may not be possible to create a design here that caters to the Curlew Sandpiper or any other coastal, migratory bird that flies the EAAF.

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Client

Other Species on Site St Kilda Botanical Gardens

Balaclava

St Kilda Marina

Ripponlea Estate

Ripponlea

Elwood

Elsternwick Nature Reserve

Flood Map Elsternwick Park

Brighton

Elwood Canal + St Kilda Beach Elwood Canal is a human-made channel that runs through the heart of Elwood and empties into St Kilda Beach. The site on which Elwood was built used to be a swamp and so the canal acts as an important way of collecting stormwater runoff and overflow from Elsternwick drains and keeping it away from the residential housing. This said, the area is still prone to occasional flooding This site is interesting as it joins the shoreline to the newly created Elsternwick Nature Reserve further inland. The variation in water level and salinity means there are many different plants and animals that have acclimatized to the area. The canal is used by ducks, cormorants, seagulls, rakali (water rats), small freshwater fish such as galaxias and other marine life such as dolphins, flathead, and stingrays. The nearby gardens at Ripponlea 20

Estate and St Kilda Botanical Gardens provide further terrestrial ecological complexity The area is very tightly knit with the local community and residential developments which may be a constraint for a migratory bird species that is flighty around humans. The site is very busy with pedestrians and several busy roads cross over the canal. However, one opportunity is the beach foreshore itself – where the canal opens into the ocean the banks on either side are inaccessible to humans and so could present a more protected area to construct a mudflat or other project

Client

Rocky Reefs

Other Species on Site

Seafloor Sediment Types

Bathymetric Map Seafloor Vegetation

Coastline Typologies

Port Phillip Bay I think Port Phillip Bay is the most logical site for this in terms of available space, calm and saline water conditions and being close enough to the city to interest the citizens Specifically, I’m interested in the point where Kororoit Creek opens into the bay – between Altona Coastal Park and Jawbone Marine Reserve.

This spot doesn’t have an existing reef, is naturally quite flat, and has an established seagrass field. The creek washing out here will also provide a good opportunity to collect sediment and detoxify water entering the bay.

Most importantly, it sits between the closest reported sightings of Curlew Sandpipers in inner-Melbourne.

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SITE

Curlew sandpiper sightings (Birdata) are a reason for the site location

Mangrove propagules grown inbetween artificial oyster reefs

Plants in fiber beds floating on plastic bottles are used to create salt-marshes in Louisiana

The artificial wetland created at Western Treatment Plant show a succesful artificial wetland

This diagram illustrates the errosion of sandy coastlines that I hope might be stopped by this project as the footings trap sediment in place

Preliminary Design Concept I like the idea of creating a modular mudflat/saltmarsh/mangrove for the Curlew Sandpiper that could be assembled and disassembled or moved depending on changing environmental conditions in the future.

Mobility means it can be transported elsewhere around the world/on the EAAF, can counteract rising sea levels and eliminates some forms of predation.The platform should be able to move around in the water to allow sunlight to the seafloor underneath. I also need to consider how humans would interact with it - maybe a live-stream camera? Molluscs should be held within the platform to filter water, provide food for the Curlew Sandpipers and provide a source of aquaculture for local communities when the birds are not at the site.

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The Sand Motor is a novel approach to coastline protection in which sand is mined offshore and added to the beach at a strategic location so that the littoral drift steadily redistributes the material further along the coast, thus reinforcing Holland’s coast against the sea.

This could only be done through predictive modelling of the coastal system. Not only could the Sand Motor’s behaviour be accurately predicted before it was built, it is also continually monitored, establishing a feedback loop between the digital and the real.

De Zandmotor | Rijkswaterstaat

We Are Designing the Earth, Whether You Like It or Not | Weller Humans “are as Gods and should get good at it” – Stewart Brand. We have reached a point where we are designing the Earth.

The three stages of the Anthropocene: industrial revolution, great acceleration (post-industrial consumerism accelerated by capitalism since 1950), now entering the third phase when we become ‘stewards of the earth’.

Alienation from nature has been destroyed as a concept – nature is completely designed and depends upon human action as much as it influences it. “The old idea of nature as something stable and inviolable, history’s backdrop, has literally just evaporated into the carbon-saturated atmosphere of our own making” Weller.

Mitigation: means taking on the causes of climate change, not only the fossil fuel industry, but also the economics of capitalism and the the philosophy of liberal humanism.

Adaptation: adjusting to the conditions of a changed climate but not necessarily changing its causation.

Eco-socialists: at a point where we must focus on damage control, reverting to sustainable population sizes and avoiding large-scale technological interference with the natural world Eco-modernist: humanity is an incomplete project and further development is needed to move us towards environmental sustainability.

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Esquisse Four | Non-Human Territories For Esquisse Four I committed to my decision to use the Curlew Sandpiper as my client. There were three main reasons for this choice: 1. The bird’s large-scale international migration, which provides a powerful narrative for international relations – important in a post-COVID and post-Western world.

2. Secondly, the most powerful threat to the species is land reclamation which provides an opportunity to create a design that addresses this large-scale human action.

3. Lastly, the potential to change people’s perception of mud as barren, and highlight the process of decay/erosion in a post-human world.

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Following on from this, it became clear that the main threat to my non-human client is land reclamation. This justified my site choice as Elwood Canal + Foreshore because this site is steeped in history to do with artificial infill.

This meant that I had a client and a site to investigate in further detail for Esquisse Four before moving to a design concept for the mid-semester review.

THREATS

CRITICALLY ENDANGERED (AUS) Pollution

Water abstraction

Human disturbance

Land reclamation

FOOD Crustaceans

Worms

ROOSTNIG

FORAGING

Open Beach

Mudflat

Molluscs

OCEAN The ocean crucially sustains foraging and roosting environments.

Curlew sandpipers roost in open bare shingle, shell or sand beaches.

Intertidal mudflats provide the perfect foraging grounds for marine invertebrates.

Curlew Sandpiper | Calidris ferruginea

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East-Asian-Australasian Flyway

Land Reclamation in the Yellow Sea Like many migratory shorebirds, the Curlew Sandpiper breeds in the tundras of northern Siberia and travels south to summer in Australia via the East-Asian-Australasian Flyway – stopping only once on this journey, in the Yellow Sea. This is a major issue as the Yellow Sea coastline is undergoing rapid transformation due to land reclamation projects.

Land reclamation at Bohai Bay, China is the biggest threat to the Curlew Sandpiper as 20% of the bird’s migratory population stages here. The main driver of land reclamation at Bohai Bay is the Chinese Government’s strict regulations on developing arable areas inland, which forces development into the sea.

70% of wetlands have been lost on the Chinese coast since the 1950s.

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Yellow Sea Habitable Wetlands Lost Since the 1950s & Critical Sites

Sites critical to the Curlew Sandpiper (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) Sites of general importance to migratory shorebirds (Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

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Site Analysis | City-Wide Context I chose the Elwood Canal & Foreshore because it is an area steeped in history specific to land reclamation, as it used to be a swamp which was infilled in the 1890s.

The site is intensely urban, which makes for more potential for human attachment and interest in the project and Curlew Sandpipers have been sighted at areas of similar levels of urban development

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St Kilda Marina

View north from Point Ormond

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Marine Parad

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Mo Moran Reserve

Looking west at the footbridge that crosses the canal

Point Ormond

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Elwood Canal + Foreshore | Movement A result of filling in the former swamp artificially is that the site is very flat good for the sandpiper’s foraging and roosting conditions.

Potential project borders

Pedestrian movement

Dominant drift

Bike movement

Former swamp area

Vehicle movement

The dominant drift pattern is seasonal in the eastern part of Port Phillip Bay, running north up the coast in summer – when our Curlew Sandpipers will be here.

There is an extensive network of human movement on and around the site, as well as large amounts of noise and visual pollution from the nearby St Kilda Marina and busy Marine Parade.

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FLORA INVENTORY

FAUNA ON SITE

St Kilda Marina

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Thackeray Stre

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION et

Meredith Stre Karkalla

Austral Seablite

Common Purslane

Coastal Galenia

Coast Daisybush

Cudweed

Sweet Bursaria

Chestnut Teal

Willie Wagtail

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Hairy Spinifex

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Coast Banksia

Australian Salt Grass

Point Ormond

Northern Pacific Seastar

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Hoary Headed Grebe

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Little Black Cormorant

Elwood Canal + Foreshore | Materiality The landscapes on site are predominantly Coastal Dune Scrub and Coastal Banksia Woodland. All species of flora found at the Point Ormond Reserve are indigenous to the site.

iNaturalist sightings

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Basalt rock groin

Coastal banksia woodland

Sand

Significant landscape

Non-native grass

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Particularly important are the sea box, coast wattle, common boobialla and coastal daisy bush, all of which are eaten by coastal birds such as the Curlew Sandpiper.

Glen Hunt

Coastal dune scrub

The significance of these landscape typologies means we should try to maintain them in the design. However, there are vast expanses of non-native unoccupied grass with very little fauna further inland, meaning an alteration to the ecosystem here will not be overly destructive.

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Kokihi

Prickly Spear Grass

Berry Saltbush

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Grey Saltbush

Coast Wattle

Shelley St

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

* All flora listed are indigenous to the area and possess culinary or medicinal benefits

Glinus

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Fleabane

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Common Boobialla

Lawson Street

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White Correa

Mo Moran Reserve

Rakali

Barkly St reet

Drooping Sheoak

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Sea Box

St Kilda Marina

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Alluvial mud deposits

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Basalt rock groin

Elwood Canal + Foreshore | Geology The geology of the site shows three main material types: medium-grain sand, alluvial mud deposits and marine sands & clays. This is encouraging as it shows a history of marine material on the site, which suggests the soil will have roughly the desired conditions to support a marine ecosystem once again

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Flooding area

Alluvial mud deposits Marine sand & clay Medium grain sand

The sections of the site also highlight how flat it is, particularly entering Port Phillip Bay. Presumably, this is because the site was infilled by humans and will be flatter than a ‘natural’ topography.

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An initial sketch of my concept to ‘return’ Elwood to a mudflat

Mid-Semester Design Proposal My plan is to convert the site into a mudflat extending into the Bay. Roosting dunes will accommodate the Curlew Sandpipers at the inland part of the site. The rock groynes on site will be moved to protect the areas shown in pink – which have been decided based on the necessary flow of water for sediment collection and surge protection. The site will be excavated from the red area to infill the blue area. The bike & walking paths will be moved inland.

The mudflat will be created by excavating lozenges from the flattened site, which will allow water to permeate the entire site through the excavated channels. The roosting dunes will be buffered from the pedestrian movement by the transplanted flora. Incubator modules consisting of molluscs, worms and crustaceans will be spread throughout the mudflat. These are 32

intended to kickstart the ecosystem’s biodiversity and act as nails to anchor the mud and catch sediment flowing through the water on the site. In winter when the Curlew Sandpipers have returned to Siberia, the site will be used agriculturally by local communities for shellfish and indigenous cooking ingredients.

The design will settle into the site, with the lozenges eroding to form a more organic environment based on the flow of water, as shown in the Georges Descombes precedent, where similar lozenges have almost completely eroded after just one year. The breakwaters will help retain the mudflat’s structure and prevent it being washed into the bay more quickly than the flow of sediment from the Yarra River to the north and Canal to the east regenerates it.

St Kilda Marina

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Thackeray Str

3 Meredith Street

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Barkly St

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Shelley St

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3. RELOCATE VEGETATION & HUMAN MOVEMENT

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Marine Parad

The site is excavated and the material generated is used to infill the bay so that the combined area is flattened to sea level.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

2. EXCAVATION

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t Lytton Stree

The existing rock groins are dismantled and relocated to create breakwaters in the highlighted areas.

Lawson Street

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

1. BREAKWATERS

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The indigenous vegetation on the site is saved to be transplanted. The bike and walking paths area to be relocated further inland.

1 Point Ormond

Glen Hunt

ly Rd

4. MUDFLAT CREATION Once the site has been flattened post-excavation the mudflat will be created. It will take into account the predominant flows of water on the site.

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PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Mid-Semester Design Proposal | Key Changes The rock groynes will be moved to protect the areas shown in pink – which have been decided based on the necessary flow of water for sediment collection and surge protection.

Excavation area

Water movement

Infill area

New breakwater Relocate human traffic

Our site has a terrestrial volume of 325,000 cubic metres of material that can be excavated, which would fill the bay to the extents shown in blue.

The majority of the vegetation on site will be transplanted and the bike & walking paths will be moved inland.

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St Kilda Marina

AA. BREAKWATERS

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Thackeray Str

High Tide

Meredith Street

Low Tide

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Pedestrians

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25m

RO O DU STIN NE G S

MUDFLAT

Marine Parad

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Barkly St

Coastal Dune Scrub

MUDFLAT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Roosting Dunes

Mudflat

MUDFLAT

t Lytton Stree

BB. ROOSTING DUNES

Lawson Street

NG ROOSTI DUNES

5m

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

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INCUBATOR MODULES Point Ormond

Glen Hunt

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Polychaete worm

Amphipod

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Port Phillip Bay Oyster

Bivalve Mollusc

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Little Shore Crab PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Mid-Semester Design Proposal The mudflat will be created by excavating lozenges from the flattened site, which will allow water to permeate the entire site through the excavated channels. The roosting dunes will be buffered from the pedestrian movement by the transplanted flora.

Incubator modules consisting of molluscs, worms and crustaceans will be spread throughout the mudflat. These are intended to kickstart the ecosystem’s biodiversity and act as nails to anchor the mud and catch sediment flowing through the water on the site.

In winter when the Curlew Sandpipers have returned to Siberia, the site will be used agriculturally by local communities for shellfish and indigenous cooking ingredients.

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Incubator module on mudflat ‘lozenge’

RENATURATION OF THE RIVER AIRE Georges Descombes

St Kilda Marina

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Thackeray Str

Meredith Street

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Marine Parad

Shelley St

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The excavated ‘lozenges’ are distinct in the early stages of the design.

Barkly St reet

t Lytton Stree

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Lawson Street

Point Ormond

Glen Hunt

ly Rd

Elw

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Be

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After one year the ‘lozenges’ have begun to erode and give way to the river flow.

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK STUDENT VERSION

Mid-Semester Design Proposal | Future The design will settle into the site, with the lozenges eroding to form a more organic environment based on the flow of water, as shown in this Georges Descombes precedent, where similar lozenges have almost completely eroded after just one year.

The breakwaters will help retain the mudflat’s structure and prevent it being washed into the bay more quickly than the flow of sediment from the Yarra River to the north and canal to the east regenerates it.

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Summer Perspective A perspective of what the mudflat will look like in summer when the curlew sandpipers are in town between October and March.

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Mid-Semester Feedback How will I promote the mudflat to the human users?

How will I ensure the shorebirds don’t fly away after seeing the disturbance on site? Visually block the local urbanity and human actions Consider the current grassland environment in finer detail: is it important? keep intact? Or is the fact it was formerly a swamp justification enough to remove it? Or compromise and recreate the grassland I destroy in some way?

Comment on the site decision’s relation to rising sea levels – it pre-empts this/accelerates this process.

Must more precisely address the levels of the site: o Incorporate bathymetry and topography in finer detail for my

design proposal over time o Could take photos of a prototype model in the bath o Test multiple layouts for the mudflat excavations o More interesting form than the lozenges?

Prototype models to map the erosion of different excavation patterns to justify the best one.

Assume the viewpoint of the client!! Use this to review my reasons for doing what I’m doing and the way in which I’m doing it.

How I will tackle the pollution of the water coming out of the canal?

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Esquisse Five | Lenses of the Other Creatures Esquisse Five involved investigating the sensory traits of our client in order to assume their perspective to assess our designs.

The first sensory trait of note is their vision. They see UV light, have little to binocular vision because they need to see predators while foraging the mud and rely heavily on relative motion or ‘motion parallax’.

Their foraging technique is one of the most unique traits – they feel around for inanimate objects/food by sensing changes in pressure. They can also taste chemicals and pollutants. They are highly gregarious and socialise with other species, meaning a way to attract them to the site could be to first entice a different animal.

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Eye

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Curlew Sandpiper vision is monocular and senses UV light

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Mudflat foraging

Perspectives As part of Esquisse Five I generated three perspectives from the Curlew Sandpiper’s point of view. The three perspectives involve three of the key environments I am working with in this design; the mudflat, the roosting area, and the air space above the site.

The perspectives show the Sandpiper’s sensitivity to UV light, monocular vision and gregarious nature, as well as giving a sense of scale to the bird.

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Roosting

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Flying to the site

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1. Minimum 100m buffer from human disturbance - Do not excavate grassland, retain as buffer - Relocate foot/bike path - Ask passing foot, boat and car traffic to slow down in summer?

- Create an SMS or other alert system for passers by

2. Incredibly sensitive bill for foraging - feels presure changes in the mud & pollutants - Need to filter nitrogen from canal water - use planting - Provide insulation against vibrations of passing boats and cars

3. See UV light - Use UV reflective coating to highlight aspects of the design (artificial roosting pods, give UV reflective collars to local residents to address predation) - Non-reflective coating to hide human infrastructure on site

4. Highly gregarious - Make the design appealing to other species that will help attract the Curlew Sandpiper (Red Knot, Red-Necked Stint)

5. Use relative motion to assess distance

6. Little/no binocular vision - better vision sideways and backwards

Design Impact How some of the key sensory traits have been translated into design decisions and considerations.

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Visual disturbance

Aural disturbance

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Design Development We can see that there are subtle sandbars formed on the site already which gives a good indication of the sediment displacement patterns.

The project should harness this existing water movement and slow it down/displace it in a way to start generating a pristine, organically developed mudflat.

Is there an infrastructure that can do this? Breakwaters?

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A sunken fence prevents human disturbance

Oyster bags acting as artificial roosting pods

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Creating a Mudflat Do NOT excavate the site – use the grassland space between the rock groynes and Marine Pde as visual and aural buffer against human disturbance instead.

Sediment from annual bay dredging projects in Port Phillip Bay could also be dumped at the spots circled in red which will feed the mudflat – how long will this take?

The rock groynes will be dismantled to allow the site to more slowly erode, ‘feeding’ the mudflat infrastructure. The Curlew Sandpipers’ roosting space will be where the rock groynes are now.

A mesh of artificial roosting pods and oyster bags will sit ontop of the rocks for the sandpipers to roost and to further trap sediment, as well as provide aquacultural benefits in winter.

Placement of barriers/breakwaters will slow the flow of water out of the canal and the tidal flow onto the shoreline, allowing sediment to settle to the ground. The barriers will also aim to change the direction of the sediment flow that has created the sand bars so that the sediment settles on the rockbeds.

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Esquisse Six | Empathy One of the key criteria for the LA+ Creature Competition was to generate human empathy for the non-human client.

For the Curlew Sandpiper I decided on three key drivers of empathy, each with a practical design translation.

Firstly, the project aims to change people’s negative perception of mud by introducing a winter agriculture program for locals to harvest shellfish and indigenous plants from the mudflat.

Secondly, Land Jettison will highlight the feat of the Curlew Sandpiper’s global migration by creating a rest stop for exercisers passing the site, where, like the Curlew Sandpiper, they can refuel and rest.

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Lastly, empathy will be generated by bolstering the cultural significance of the Curlew Sandpiper by tying it to the Kulin season in which it arrives in Australia.

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MUD IS BEAUTIFUL & BOUNTIFUL To promote a more positive perception of mudflats the project will support a winter agriculture/aquaculture program while the birds are in their Siberian breeding grounds. The local community will farm shellfish and coastal indigenous cooking ingredients.

The ‘rest stop’ will also provide a cross section view into the mudflat, as well as highlight the process of sediment deposition with a metal perforated floor that will sit just below the water level of the canal. There should also be educational insight into the former conditions of Elwood, before it was infilled.

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MIGRATION AS A LIFE PURPOSE To generate empathy for the bird’s global migration efforts a ‘rest stop’ will be built for the passing walkers, cyclists and joggers. This will emulate the refueling and resting the birds themselves are doing before returning to Siberia. The ‘rest stop’ will have a view onto the mudflat, hidden in a bunker diguised with planting and non-UV-reflective glass. There will be edible indigenous plants and part of the floor will sit below water level to collect sediment and hilight the quality of the water.

CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE The footpath between St Kilda Marina and Pt Ormond will be transformed into a walkthrough of the seven indigenous seasons. The season in which the Curlew Sandpipers arrive in Australia will be highlighted at the ‘rest stop’. All signage will be written in English, Russian, Korean and Mandarin.

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Kulin Seasons Footpath To generate empathy for the Curlew Sandpiper I want to turn it into a symbol of the time of year in which it arrives in Australia. Some indigenous nations celebrate migratory shorebirds arriving in the country as a sign of the arrival of the season in which the landscape bursts into life. In the Kulin Nation this season is called Poorneet.

I will represent this season by planting coastal indigenous berries and saltbushes that can be eaten by oth Curlew Sandpipers and humans. The rest of the footpath between the St Kilda Marina and Point Ormond will then be planted in a way to provide a representative journey through the rest of the Kulin seasons.

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The canal will be planted with seagrass and larger wetland flora to filter pollutants

Rest Stop & Canal Planting The rest stop is a sunken concrete platform that sits just above the canal water level. It is hidden from the Curlew Sandpipers with planting and non-UV reflective construction materials. Beneath the concrete is a perforated metal sheet that gathers sediment as the mudflat grows, giving users tactile insight into the developing mudflat.

Exercisers can stop here, look onto the mudflat and relate to the Curlew Sandpipers’ migratory physical exertion by resting and refueling with the same edible indigenous plants that the Sandpipers are eating.

Seagrass will be planted at the mouth of the canal to filter nitrogen out of the canal water, with larger wetland planting further inland to catch robust pollutants such as microplastics 50

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Birds using the oyster bags at the Hunter Estuary (BirdLife Australia)

Esquisse Seven | Strategic Zoom-In For Esquisse Seven I ‘zoomed-in’ on the breakwater-roosting pod configuration. The roosting pods are made from commercially available long-line oyster bags which have been filled with empty shells and marine debris from the shoreline around Elwood. The bags float within the parameters set by their anchoring wires. They are easy to set up, remove the risk of predation by cats, dogs and foxes and provide a reliable roosting area while the mudflat is generated by the breakwater configuration.

The breakwaters will not only protect the roosting pods from harsh sea conditiosn but will be responsible for directing sediment and slowing water movement to create a pristine mudflat for the hyper-sensitive Curlew Sandpiper. Within a matter of years the mudflat should be substantial enough to support a thriving ecosystem of shorebirds.

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Site Photos

View north from Point Ormond

Final Design Proposal | Before Satellite images of the site show that sand bars have formed as a result of the underlying currents on the site.

Land Jettison will harness this movement of water and sediment to create an inner-city mudflat for the Curlew Sandpiper in five key steps: 1. Firstly, dismantling the existing rock groynes 2. Creating breakwaters to slow water and trap sediment with these rocks 3. Allowing the subsequent erosion of the site to generate a mudflat 4. Planting in the canal to clean the water 5. Relocating human traffic on the site

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Looking west at the footbridge that crosses the canal

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Key Changes | Creating a Mudflat

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Dismantle rock groynes

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Breakwaters slow water and trap sediment

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Erosion on site will feed the breakwater mudflat

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Planting in the canal filters drain runoff

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Relocate human traffic on site

Elwood Canal + Foreshore Melbourne, Australia (2020)

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Final Design Proposal | After This plan is immediately after construction is completed. The breakwaters have been built from the dismantled rock groynes.

The roosting pods are anchored and the canal has been planted with seagrass seedlings and wetland grasses.

The rest stop viewing platform is ready for curious exercisers to stop and rest for a moment.

Curlew Sandpipers should arrive to this part of Australia around October and will investigate the new territory as they travel between established foraging grounds in Western Port Bay and the Western Treatment Plant.

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Elwood Canal + Foreshore Melbourne, Australia (2021)

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St Kilda Pier, 1955 (St Kilda Sea Baths)

St Kilda Pier with Sediment Build-Up, 2020 (Google)

Final Design Proposal | St Kilda Pier Breakwater Precedent The St Kilda Pier shows substantial sediment build-up since its construction in 1955, highlighted in red.

Land Jettison is located very nearby and would underdgo a similar sediment deposition rate. The more extensive breakwater network of our project will accelarate this deposition rate and the mudflat should take shape in less tim than the sand bar formed at St Kilda Pier.

The other key difference is that our mudflat will be generated by the deliberate erosion of our site after removal of the rock groynes. This means, unlike the sandy foreshore of St Kilda, our mudflat will be silty - ideal for the Curlew Sandpiper.

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Canal Flow

Tidal Flow

Final Design Proposal | Predicting Sediment Build-Up

Combined

Sediment build-up

If we assume that water and sediment are essentially interchangable in terms of sediment deposition then modelling fluid dynamics around this breakwater configuration gives an idea of the hotspots for potential sediment build-up.

A sediment deposition rate of 70kg/m2/yr in this part of Port Phillip Bay should see the mudflat take shape within 30 - 50 years at a rate of 6 10cm in height per year (CSIRO, 1996).

This aligns with the rate of sediment build-up observed at St Kilda Pier.

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Final Design Proposal | Future The predicted mudflat in 2050 based on the sediment flow modelling.

Canal water flows freely around three flats within the larger mudflat.

Where the rock groynes used to be has eroded heavily and now provides the ideal open, damp environment for the Curlew Sandpipers’ roosting area.

The plants that were once constrained to planting beds between concrete footpaths have spread on the site.

The mudflat will continue to change and grow but as long as the breakwaters are in place the structure will remain.

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Elwood Canal + Foreshore Melbourne, Australia (2050)

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Final Design Proposal | Summer Perspective The summer perspective, through the eyes of the Curlew Sandpiper, shows a pristine mudflat, well-separated from human disturbance, ready to provide ample foraging and roosting areas.

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Final Design Proposal | Winter Perspective In winter the Curlew Sandpipers begin to vacate the site and humans are becoming more involved with harvesting shellfish and indigenous plants.

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Video Link & Acknowledgements The final five-minute video presentation of Land Jettison is publicly accessible here: https://rmit-arc.instructuremedia.com/embed/007aa5ef-1af5-4526-aa1c65e73a5ae8a6 Thank you to Dan, Erich, my Other Creatures classmates, Will, Isaac and all readers.

Thank you and good luck to the Curlew Sandpiper!

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