The Latrobe Valley is typically defined by its coal mining and electricity generation, but this simplification obscures the complex histories and socio-ecologies that underpin it. A century of actively sponsored electricity generation has resulted in the region’s reliance on fossil fuels, but the recent closure of the Morwell Power Station casts the question of what to do with the remaining, ceased architecture and infrastructure beyond the provision of energy.
Underpinned by a personal passion for climate change and cultural history, this studio has driven a curiosity for the preservation and transformation of historic industrial architecture and urban forms.
Morwell Museum
The recent closure of the Morwell Power Station marks the cusp of a major regional transformation. The question of what to do with the defunct factory buildings, mining infrastructure and technical artefacts remains unanswered. It is proposed that the Morwell Briquetting Factory is re-adapted into a cultural and industrial history museum that co-defines and re-defines the region’s energy transformation.
Project Formulation
Tackling the issue of contested water use within post-mining landscapes, the project aims to challenge current water extraction practices, energy production, and community engagement. As a response to the current rehabilitation strategy, the project intends to re-purpose the existing power stations into wastewater treatment and energy production plants which effectively double as Museum exhibition spaces for public use.
Spatial Narrative
The former factory production flowline is translated into a spatial narrative. Visitors follow the former path of the brown coal through the factory from top-to-bottom. Exhibition spaces complement this flow transitioning from past-to-present-to-future collection spaces. Over 100m wide, visitors experience the natural and industrial history of the region from a rural landscape to a centre for brown coal energy production, and its consequential impacts on present-day and future climates.
Past Exhibition
‘Past’ exhibition spaces portray the identity, memory and transformation of the Morwell region from a rural landscape into an industrialized nerve centre for coal fired electricity.
Present Exhibition
Top floor introductory ‘Present’ exhibition spaces weave stories of climate change and the looming hazards of burning coal.
Future Exhibition
Modular ‘Future’ workshop spaces provide children a voice in shaping the future relationship between coal and climate.
In the spirit of reconciliation Monash University acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
