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Landscape as a Platform

Part 2 Project 2004
Michael Frazzetto
University of Melbourne | Australia
The principle strategy for the redevelopment of Richmond Station was to reconstruct the site, developing a condition that blurred the division between architecture and landscape. This creates an innovative landscape space mediating with urban areas to the east of the station and contrasting with sporting fields to the west. The conventional definition of ground as a stable, and homogenous platform on which to locate architectural objects is thus challenged. The architecture initiates a dialogue withe the ground plane, relinquishing its conventional identity as an autonomous figure, no longer privileging the isolated, perspectivally viewed object; instead, favouring a more topographic approach.


This thesis project returned to the very origin of architecture. Rather than considering platform, or the ground plane, as a neutral field on which to locate objects, the aim was to explore the expressive potential of the ground itself, considered as an active volume from which to carve spaces from and merge the architecture with. The intention was the blurring of the object/field dichotomy and fusion of building and landscape.
Two pedestrian walkways, on the north and south side of the station, reconnect the local community with the landscape precinct giving a face to the otherwise faceless station complex.

2004
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