Two manufacturing programs are being relocated from the Craigieburn Industrial Estate bordering the Merri Creek and Galgi Ngark Grasslands: A timber truss manufacturer and a steel reinforcing company. By relocating them to an empty building in an industrial estate in Preston onto a site only 1⁄4 of the original ones. The repair of the original sites can be enacted on environmentally and culturally sensitive land, and less land is used overall.
Perspective Section
Rehoming into this position has allowed for a new approach to industrial program design, focusing on removal and very limited addition. Large sections of the floor plate have been removed to create courtyard light wells that allow vegetation to penetrate the building, simultaneously creating an organising principle. Temporary fixtures were utilised to create additional coverage by making use of the available space below the ground floor to accommodate large-scale machinery.
Edge of Craigieburn Industrial Estate
This created two separate manufacturing lines, along with an above-ground office area, a Tafe learning centre, and scaffolded short-term storage. This fosters a new experience within a typical industrial urban fabric inviting and incorporating the public into something previously so separate while bringing large-scale vegetation back to the area. The proposed design results in restoring the previously removed sites to their natural grassland state.
Galgi Ngark Grassland
Blair Albrecht, Street Perspective Collage
Blair Albrecht, Perspective Section
Blair Albrecht, Edge of Craigieburn Industrial Estate
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.
