Double Ground

Double Ground released the actual ground and made ‘new’ ground through architecture.

Metropolitan plans have been historically formed two dimensionally around geography that supports commerce. Double Ground imagines a reversal of the status quo of expanding built form where Melbourne’s urban plan is redefined on the terms of natural systems through the targeted removal, reimagination and accommodation of buildings and programs that hinder the repair and health of those systems. Through targeted relocation of program in the archetypal multi storey carpark – multiple, or ‘double’ grounds are regenerated: that of the natural system, and that of the concrete slab and its urban context.

Applying ecosystem regeneration principles and the Cultural Heritage Act, the rehabilitation of the waterway corridor along the Birrarung, at the bends of Yarra Flats in Melbourne is proposed. Many hectares of disturbance have been conceptually removed on the terms of the river and it’s systems, consolidating and connecting fragmented ecosystems in a reciprocal act of environmental and urban regeneration. In this imagining, planning regulations have been radically enforced and new ones that we will need to mitigate climate change are proposed. The re use of existing built form is explored to invite new forms of inhabitation, program, ‘building’ and governance.

With the anticipated decline of the private car in the wake of autonomous vehicles and raw material shortage paired with the need to slow extractive activities – we may find the flexible (and ironically) ‘Domino House’ multi storey carpark the site of architectural possibilities.