The River Factory

The systems that manage Melbournes urban growth such as, stormwater drainage, industrial zoning and flood infastructure have treated the Maribyrnong River as engineering rather than ecology, removing the communities ability to engage, learn and feel responsible for the water system the live beside. Contemporary redevelopments promise to restore this relationship but only offer a view of the river, not a connection to it as a living system. This project proposes a civic stromwater treatment facility, at the now abandoned Kensington Glue Factory, that makes the communities role in the river system actively present. The community doesn’t reconnect with the Maribyrnong but form a relationship with it for the first time since colonial arrival.