le folio: November 2009

The Yarra, for a very long time had no longer existed in the public consciousness of Melburnians - until an extensive urban intervention was undertaken by the council - reimagining Melbourne as a waterfront city.

"Waterfronts have become places of urban transformation with potential to attract investment and reverse patterns of decline ... it is also the new battleground over conflict between public and private interests"
- Kim Dovey, Fluid Cities

The redevelopment of Yarra's western precinct commenced with the construction of the World Trade Centre in the 1970s. Widely considered an "economic, architectural and urban design failure from the start"(Dovey), the bulky concrete block has effectively limited the public connection to the Western precinct and blocked views towards the river. Its extension, the World Congress Centre and the 'Eden on Yarra Hotel' further worsens the public interface along north bank by projecting literally on to Yarra to afford its patrons panoramic views along the Yarra, at the expense of overshadowing the river and its public pathways.

The World Trade Centre has long superseded its original function to the two Convention Centres on Southbank. It served as a temporary casino since June 1994 until the completion the Crown Casino. It now serves as a museum for the Victorian Police. It is also interesting to note that the Crown Plaza remains the only building in the CBD still built over the Yarra, considering Melbourne’s considerable efforts to return the river for the enjoyment of its citizens - for example, with the demolition of the Gas and Fuel Building, and the reclamation of the turning basin, the train yard, and an elevated freeway along Flinder’s street.

Further commercial developments on the west of the World Trade Centre developments have expectedly not been a runaway success, due to the lack in visual and perceivable physical connections. Currently, a group of five separate buildings along the north bank is being rebranded as the WTC Wharf (http://wtcmelbourne.com.au/). The rebranding excludes, interestingly, the World Trade Centre itself and the Crowne Plaza, two buildings that these newer developments would have certainly benefited from without.

Urbanity is inevitably linked to the idea of people, inhabiting and encountering within a public domain. The urban is currently (unfortunately) experiencing a gradual polarization and a blurring between what is public (and collective) and what is private (and institutional). Regardless, let us make it clear that in the grand scheme of things, we are ultimately (proto-) architects, and not urban designers or planners. To think that architecture could change the world or actively change the way people think is a naïve sensibility that fails to grasp the simple concept that the field has for a very long time been subservient to power and capitalism. There are things that architecture simply cannot achieve. Therefore we do not endeavour to produce an urban agenda, but rather an architectural gesture – an architecture that embraces ideas of urbanism without the determinism of the authoritarian. An architectural education feeds on the brave pursuit of idealism and allows us the opportunities to initiate multiple dimensions of discourse: it is a speculative activity.

We therefore propose a demolition.

Demolitions, from such key developments that have positively shaped the city’s urbanity, for instance Federation Square and Birrarung Marr, would not have existed without.

Demolition, as an alternative to further ‘institutionalizing’ the Yarra’s public open spaces, in what would have been a backward move - a regression of what the city has achieved as far.

Manifesto:

Demolish the World Trade Centre.

Reclaim the visual connections.

Demolish the ‘Eden On Yarra.

Reclaim the Yarra from Eden.

Re-invigorate neighbouring commercial developments.

Design a fashion school.

Introduce retail opportunities.

Re-establish urban and private interfaces.