HEIDELBERG / TEMPLESTOWE by Openwork

Manningham Road Bridge 2024–2070

In 2024, the space around and under the Manningham Road Bridge is degraded. The six lanes of the bridge overhead prevent sunlight from reaching the river below. It is a fringe space deprived of planting and all that remains is mud and the sound of traffic overhead. This project proposes that by 2070, the prevalence of autonomous vehicles has allowed the road to close and the road deck has been systematically removed, allowing sunlight to return to the riverbanks. Concrete from the deck is redeployed, along and within the river to create alcoves. These offer a place of refuge, allowing the river to nurture habitat and help stabilise the riverbanks. The truss structure of the bridge is retained and hosts new planting, habitat for fauna, and pedestrian and cycle connections.

Bulleen North Drain 2024–2070

In 2024, the space around the Bulleen North Drain has limited access. Anxiety around risk, liability and insurance has resulted in the land around the infrastructure being fenced to exclude people. This work suggests that by 2070, the mandating of precinct-based water collection and treatment has liberated the drain from its past use regulating stormwater surge and flooding. The fences have been removed and the drain itself – previously engineered for the efficient movement of water – has been redesigned to hold rather than discharge it. The drain is now an infrastructure that supports engagement between people and the Birrarung.

Project Statement

What would it be like if the Birrarung became an autonomous territory? Using the tools of landscape architecture, Openwork propose that in 2070 the river has seceded – removed itself from Victoria. The boundary of this new independent State positions the Birrarung at the centre of this new spatial and planning entity.

With a new boundary established at the edge of the river’s catchment, this project considers how public-scale design projects within this area could have a different role and outcome to those outside the zone. Focused on how existing city infrastructure could support a healthy Birrarung, this proposal is catalysed by a policy change and the establishment of the Multivalent Infrastructure Act, 2030. Three types of infrastructure that currently encroach on the river have been redesigned: the road, the transmission tower and the drain. Three models show the transition of each from its ‘before’ state in 2024 to an ‘after’ in 2070. This work communicates the designers’ ambition for infrastructure to accommodate more than just people and to host a complex ecosystem.

Transmission line easement 2024–2070

In 2024, the space around and under the electrical transmission lines that cross the Birrarung are an ecological vacuum. The forty metre exclusion zone that accompanies the alignment of the towers precludes all forms of planting that might clash with the infrastructure, complicating its maintenance which may combust in the event of a line transmission falling. It is imagined that by 2070, the cessation of coal-fired power in the La Trobe Valley and the adoption of a disaggregated supply grid has left the towers unused, permitting the introduction of planting and ecology. The collapsed towers have been redesigned as a new kind of armature for habitat, vegetation and play.

Seceding Territory

Speculative Birrarung Planning Scheme

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About Openwork

Openwork is a design studio that operates in four modes: a landscape architecture consultancy providing design and documentation of public places; an urban design studio providing input to plans and policies that enable future public realm; a research lab aligned with RMIT University School of Architecture and Urban Design; and a speculative design office, investing consulting profits into projects that need doing but don’t yet have external interest. Through these various modes of practice, they have cultivated an active studio who agitate change and public exchange.