The Wild Dog Creek Visitor Centre capitalises on the opportunities presented by moving the great ocean road whilst restoring the lost connection to the Apollo Bay Museum, the unique ecology of the Wild Dog Creek and the implications of climate change. This intervention extends the educational program of the museum to the foreshore and acts as a marker to read, regenerate and understand the surrounding landscape. A nursery, workshop and lecture room provides a platform for the volunteers that run the existing museum and indigenous leaders to provide an actionable educational experience in conjunction with the boardwalk and lookout that acts as a permanent marker for observing climate change.
External Renders
The visitor centre features an observation deck and boardwalk that seeks to help people observe and the enduring implications of climate change. The boardwalk has a red line that is indicative of the telecommunications line that reached out from the Apollo Bay Museum, into the bay, and across to Launceston Tasmania. It also presents a set of plaques that mark the projected sea-level rise at key intervals that will be inevitably submerged for the foreseeable future. The timber posts that hold up the boardwalk also have red footings that mark where the erosion began at the building's conception and will act as a living reminder of the ongoing battle to preserve the foreshore.
Key Perspectives
The Observation deck offers an accessible platform to view the town of Apollo Bay with a tinted glass panel that highlights key points of interest. I will also remain accessible as the sea-level rises and submerges the boardwalk. The walkway descends from the Apollo Bay Museum and onto the old Great Ocean Road, featuring views of the new Wild Dog Creek Visitor Centre and its walkway that draws visitors onto the foreshore. The garden beds and workshop will act as a nursery to replenish the foreshore to best equip it with the natural resilience to erosion. Furthermore, it would help engage the local community and act as a catalyst to help people learn about the process of regeneration.
Axonometric
The new car park behind the museum and the path that links it to the visitor centre restores the connection to the foreshore, whilst the light, honest timber framing forms much of the ornamentation of the centre responds to local vernacular. A nursery, workshop and lecture room provides a platform for the volunteers that run the existing museum and indigenous leaders to provide an actionable educational experience in conjunction with the boardwalk and lookout that acts as a permanent marker for observing climate change.
Perspective Section
The centre includes a small lecture room, kitchen, garden, and workshop. The centre responds to the materiality of the existing museum with dynamic brick facades and corrugated roofing in addition to a lightweight timber structure that is aimed at deconstructing an existing simple vernacular form. The space would be used to host school trips, camp briefings for the great ocean road walk or university groups that have a focus on recording/observing the effects of sea-level rise in addition to studying the importance of ecological regeneration and resilience.
Perspective Section
Elevations
The Apollo Bay Museum is housed in the historic Cable Station built in 1936 as the mainland terminal to the first undersea telephone link to Tasmania. The museum is run by volunteers and collects, collates, and disseminates written, pictorial and physical material relating to the life and surrounding environment of Apollo Bay. This museum has therefore informed some key thematic elements surrounding my project including the idea of connection and education.
Andrew Gregory, External Renders
Andrew Gregory, Key Perspectives
Andrew Gregory, Axonometric
Andrew Gregory, Perspective Section
Andrew Gregory, Perspective Section
Andrew Gregory, Elevations
