Ayoola Sholola

Toxic Legacies is a project that reimagines the Maribyrnong Defence Site as a 25-year living laboratory for slow remediation. Through cyclical processes of phytoremediation using Phragmites australis, the project transforms a restricted industrial landscape into a regenerative public ground. Architectural interventions such as electrokinetic extraction stations, performative artefacts that make the invisible processes of healing visible.

The masterplan situates key remediation artefacts across the floodplain and river corridor, integrating ecological processes with public access. It visualises how interventions—spanning observation, extraction and material production interweave with the existing hydrology to regenerate the landscape and make contamination visible as a shared civic process.

Remediation is often concealed behind fences, but this project positions it as a cultural and educational practice led by design research collectives. Parcels of land are allocated through a ballot process based on expertise, transforming the site into an active testing ground for remediation experiments and public-facing exhibitions that invite community engagement.

The Circular Reed Material Processing Centre functions as both a production hub and learning space, transforming harvested Phragmites australis into building materials for reuse across the site. Powered by seasonal and low-energy systems, it demonstrates circularity through visible cycles of renewal. The Observation Tower, with its perforated skin that opens as it rises, offers shifting views of river, remediation fields and ruins, symbolising collective reflection on time, recovery and coexistence.

Two complementary artefacts drive the site’s soil recovery. The first injects neutralising agents through a subsurface borehole system, paired with hydroponic reeds. The second uses low-voltage electrokinetic currents and phragmite-supported phytodegradation to draw heavy metals through the soil. A woven geotextile surface above that invites people to sit and observe the process as it unfolds without disturbing the ground conditions. At night, both artefacts illuminate, signaling active remediation and guiding visitors across the landscape.