Waterwork

This studio is the second of a series of Design Make projects being undertaken with These Are The Projects We Do Together (The Projects) at The Quarry, a post-industrial site being rehabilitated on the outskirts of the Victorian township of Beech Forest in the Otway Ranges on the traditional lands of the Gadubanud (refer www.theprojects-quarry.com). These design make studios involve students engaging with this complex topography and context across a studio semester - and then living and working on site across the summer to realise their proposal in the quarry landscape. These projects are developed in consultation with Joe and Millie of The Projects who act as both design collaborators and clients. This semester, the studio focused on an area of the site around an existing waterhole; a natural spring located on the floor of the former quarry. The studio explored a number of aspects related to the theme of water including studying the broader water catchment, understanding water flow across the site, and carefully considering the use of water on site for drinking, bathing and swimming. The studio worked within tight material constraints, using primarily reclaimed materials including those currently in storage at The Quarry including bricks, blocks and timber as well as other materials sourced from site including quarried stone, fallen logs and waste materials. Progressing from individual work, students transitioned into small groups to develop a range of design approaches, before combining to work on a common project that was developed and prototyped ready for execution in the 2026 summer making intensive at The Quarry.