ARCT5201 DETAILED DESIGN STUDIO Unit coordinator: Dr Nigel Westbrook Studio coordinator: Gemma Hohnen ‘Crisis Studio 2’
BILLY HAYNES
‘South Street Residences’ The West Australian Re-Constructivist (WARC) involves the application of constructivist design principles for the revival of ‘lost heritage’. With fated ever-growing urbanisation it is necessary to re-adapt and re-use pre-existing buildings to counter the waste generation that is today’s society. The climate crisis is at our door, the time to act is now. The WARC movement aims to reconstruct and re-use buildings (that are slowly vanishing to decay), designing in potential for future adaptation and change. This project, a test case for WARC, focuses on the Fremantle Power Station as a source of materials and design language. Closely linked to the heart of the public, the deconstruction and re-siting of such a project would likely receive negative comments, however, the role of the WARC is to provide a revival of heritage in dialogue with an urgent need for a zero-carbon built environment, a controversial topic on anyone’s agenda. Through understanding the current climate crisis and the ability to re-construct and re-use existing buildings this project hopes to create a building that is permanent yet stagnant, mobile yet stationary, historic and also relevant to current and future needs. To counter excessive amounts of embodied carbon this project heavily focuses on the recycling elements of the Fremantle Power Station, in particular the steel framework, and brickwork. New materials are used in the construction of prefabricated apartments placed into the steel framework providing the option of removal or addition according to the economic climate. Each apartment is wrapped in a plastic skin recycled from high-density polyethylene (HDPE – the most common recyclable plastic). The resulting effect is a translucent hazy skin that slows diffuse sunlight and silhouettes to seep into the interior. This project can be permanent until needed elsewhere. Two ideals are embodied in this project: a new-found connection encompassing past, present, and future as one; and comment on the somewhat stagnant nature of architecture that goes unnoticed in such a fast-paced rapid society.
Image: Sectional perspective. 121
