Undrained

Investigating the urban spine of the Merri creek in Melbourne’s North, the studio rethinks the connections between the creek and the urban experience in order to understand and speculate on the possible futures for the city. Uncovering and mapping the lost tributaries beneath the concrete, which feed into the Merri creek, students aim to understand the city through cultures connected to, and built along, these hidden waterways.

The studio uses an iterative design methodology of combining critical walks with historical mappings to uncover, trace and understand the ecological and social fabrics of the suburbs.

Inviting students to speculate on new forms of the city which are driven by the buried heritages of the waterways, Undrained uses these linear paths as sites where multiple cultures can be understood and encountered. In groups, students design new urban corridors, combining landscapes, water knowledge and architectural interventions that respond to the social conditions of the northern suburbs. This studio is run by a multidisciplinary team, with backgrounds in: architecture, urban planning, anthropology and ecological analysis.