Yours, Mine, Ours Part 2 Project 2024 Rachel Soebekti University of Melbourne | Australia This project applies strategies of commons thinking, co-design, place-based architecture, and hands-on making to imagine a new library that is built for and by the community. Located in Box Hill, a rapidly-growing centre in outer-suburban Melbourne, Australia, this project seeks to demonstrate an alternative way of building cities, one that starts with people, not investors. While towers sprout among single storey suburban streets, reclaiming all vacant land, I found myself asking, What happened to all our public space? Where is the space for people amongst all the glass facades? In response, this project proposed a participatory approach to design and construction, where local residents are given agency to have a say, make their mark and learn how to lay some bricks.The project is carefully staged through a series of on-site workshops and structures – a shed, pavilion, and building – progressively increasing in complexity and scale. The result is a library, built by its community, a collection of strangers who (may) have become friends, and an architectural response that seeks not only to represent its makers but invite a lasting custodianship over ‘commons’ space. Rachel Soebekti Tutor(s) Rory Hyde