Previous work
Activate through height and proximity
Activate through reflection and framing
Activate through spatial instruction
Intention | Agenda | Motivation
The city leftovers are unsuccessful for functioning to the realm of public and environment which keep emerging around us. However, those spaces are valued for their history, vacancy and possibility of future.The city keeps developing regularly, leftover spaces exist everywhere which leads to the lost of the memory of the city. The agenda of the project is to preserve the history of Melbourne city and to bring awareness and recognition to those spaces along with the urban evolution, without transforming it into entire different substance or repairing it to its exact original look. To rearrange the vanishing point in order to give a new perspective of the leftover heritages to Melbourne citizen. To explore the question of why the city comes up with these kinds of residual space. Also to deal with the duality of leftoverness: When having people involve in, the activated leftover space acts as a story teller. When no one presents, the leftover space still maintains its substantial quality. Besides, the better way to sustain the cultural heritage is to really share appreciation with the others in the community, knowing the history of places is a good way to generate connectivity through communicating our knowledge and insight of the identity of the heritage. Also, it’s a way to understand the social conditions in the past and present which affect our future life.
Context
- Form a dialogue between leftover space and urban society
- Bring in attention, inclusivity, sociability and interaction to the multiple sites
- Preserve the heritage by protecting them, attracting public and exchanging ideas with others
- Challenge the social and urban situation of leftover conditions happened within the city through revitalization
Site / Situation
Numerous leftover spaces (about 20 spots) within Melbourne city with heritage or symbolic historical background.
(3-4 of them will be mainly focus to work on in order to develop the techniques of activation)
1. A history apparatus (with a capped decommissioned underground public toilet underneath)
2. The deactivated WCTU (Women Christian Temperance Union) drinking fountain and a capped underground public toilet
3. Tramway signal cabin, waiting shelter
4. Old Melbourne Goal
5. Capped underground public toilet
6. General post office
7. Warburton alley
8. Flinders street rail viaduct
Duration
Interventions will be set up one by one and reveal monthly at different locations within the network. Each spot will be reactivated after one cycle ends (so that the changes can be observed during each period of time)
Leftover network within the Melbourne city
Audience | Occupants | Demographic | User group
- Passengers
- Tourism
- Citizen in CBD
Stackholders
- Government
- Heritage councils
* National Trust (the largest community based heritage advocacy organisation in Victoria that works to maintain the
heritage)
- Cultural organisations
* The Lost Melbourne Community ( a Facebook page assembles the photos of past Melbourne which allows everyone to add comments, share opinions, knowledge and stories)
* Royal Historical Society of Victoria (aim to promote interest and understanding of Australian history within Victoria)
- Community
- City of Melbourne
Practice | Professionalism
- Victorian heritage council (Heritage listed in Melbourne CBD)
- City of Melbourne (Public space, land used, pedestrian conditions..)
- Melbourne heritage (the Melbourne city heritages which is unlisted in heritage Victoria database)
Design approach
In the first semester, a series of ways of activation have been tested on those deserted historical sites. By using the technique of reframing to bring attention to the traces and stories happened on them. For the next couple of weeks, I will continue to focus on activating the leftover network within Melbourne CBD and to extend my collective language of scaffolding and material between those sites. Take deeper site analysis and work out the active language to achieve the method of archiving across the network in order to contribute value to the past of those spaces. Reframing the traces as my main technique to tell the stories of things are lost or existing. This practice aims at generating social mobility and awareness to space, also interests, gathers and welcomes people in the city. This project acts as a memory curator of Melbourne’s history and culture that brings the community together.
- How can the program still run through due to the current situation? (Share encounter images through digital space?)
New research question
How can the ways of activation preserve the memory and history of Melbourne city, also produce appreciation to the historical leftover sites within the city network?
Technologies
- The encounter and site conditions will be presented through diagrams, collages and drawings
- The ways of activation may be tested through some model makings and presented through diagrams
- To test out a digital intervention through webpage which allows people to share their knowledge and opinion during the
lockdown time (cooperate with The Lost Melbourne Community)
Timeline
Week 2: Progress presentation
Week 3: Site analysis of site one + keep finding sites within city network + develop the ways of activation from the previous work
Week 4 - 9: Continually develop the ways of activation (intervening in three key sites)
Week 10: Apply those techniques to the other sites
Week 11: Progress presentation