The Glen Waverley Library, built on Wurundjeri land, holds a rich and intricate geological, cultural and colonial history within. To serve as a gesture of remediation to Country, the existing library is extracted, leaving a wound in its place. Replaced with a form that curves into the ground, the library is submerged into the site, acting as a place of community for human and more-than-human kin, as well as allowing the displaced soil and greenery to climb back into the cavity, welcoming its return as less of a secondary inhabitant of the site and more of an active participant.
Perspective Section
This library is home to people, books, vegetation, wildlife, and the earth. They all take ownership of the space, interacting with each other through the mediation of the library. Several rooms form as offshoots from a central courtyard and a spiraled core.
Perspective Ground Plan
Surrounded by the undulating landscape, the library has many openings - birds fly in through the roof and windows, people stream in through the ramps and doorways, dirt creeps in through gaps in the brickwork. All are welcome and may enter.
The Narrative
The narrative is as follows - 1. The existing building. 2. The existing building is excavated from the land, leaving a wound. 3. The land is massaged to fit the new structure. 4. The new structure is constructed within the wound, beginning a remediation of the land. 5. The displaced land is shifted back in, and the wound is filled.
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.
