Entanglement and Public Affairs

The contextual bound of this project resides within the suburb of Cremorne, a post-industrial suburb of inner Melbourne. Currently, we witness the scarcity of the public domain, privatized and turning inwards, lacking the notion of livability, a result of the current planning policies and new developments. Here, we have reached a tipping point, where we can continue the erasure of memory, materiality and identity of place or look to an alternative. The project seeks to define how architecture as an instrument can mediate between the existing conditions and the complexities of new developments.

Entanglement and Public Affairs seeks to define how architecture as an instrument can mediate between the as found condition, rendered as a private affair, and the complexities around the formation of new typologies. Where a point of crisis is prevalent between the old and the new, and with an act of Architecture set firmly against the orthodox. The Architecture of this project, through three stages, manifests in the in-between. Advocating for entanglements that see agency in time, boundaries as a means of opportunity, and mediation devices to bridge in-between conditions. This project celebrates the contingent and the difficult. Through the adoption and application of an alternative policy document, a response against ‘Yarra City Council Cremorne Draft Urban Design Framework, September 2023’ policy document, the design speculations serve as a guide for the promotion of self-sustaining systems of architectural developments, That see delight in acceptance of what was before, to now. Providing a re-imagining of what planning policies could advocate for, rather than limiting impact. Each of these four design speculations examine varying estranged conditions of place. Through the implementation of architectural instruments, general amenity is entangled into site. It’s effect over time, highlights an equilibrium that emerges between the existing and the new – inviting a new way of developing to emerge. Entanglement and Public Affairs argues for a city where public and private, old and new, change and stagnation are celebrated together. Serving as a tool to advocate for the necessary shifts of boundaries between private and public, developer and council, and us to others everywhere, an alternative way in the act of architecture to endeavor to, towards a public affair.