This project unearths the intricate colonial past that stretches deep into High Country Victoria through the process of minimal intervention wine making. Tackling the concept of extractivism, the land is seen as a collaborator in this architectural intervention. Where water systems, geological fabrics and climate patterns are mapped and interwoven through the design in order to re-establish a symbiotic relationship with Country.
Collage Montage
With a deep respect for the land and its histories, in this project the earth is drawn up above ground level to resurface the past in order to heal. Wounds will be re-opened to confront the earths yielding surface that has been disturbed at human will. These wound points feed the rammed earth walls that form the core of the winery’s structure, whilst shedding a harsh light onto the effects of rearranging landforms and the ecological systems that call it home.
Concept Model
Humans have made a habit of digging below to discover, to bury, examine or extract. We often disrupt the stratum that record the earth’s time and generation. There is a strong relationship between earth that has been taken out and the void left behind which can be used to create volume and form. Shifting to see the landscape as collaborator, the process of minimal intervention wine making will express the need for living symbiotically with established water ways and existing geological fabrics.
Site Plan
The winery facilities are arranged with strategic cut and fills that work with the contours of the sloping landscape. Additionally, the location where the soil has been taken from on site is purposefully expressed, where people can examine and draw connections between the place that the earth has come from, the new form it takes and its subsequent relationship to other elements. The design intrinsically responds to the curvatures, water catchment pathways, geological layers, and colonial history of the site. Culminating in an expression to rediscover the mutually supporting relationship between humans and the landscape.
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.
