CLIENT Monash University
PROJECT Public
DATE May 2019
LOCATION Footscray, Victoria
SCOPE Public Art Installation & Speculative Design
BUILD Ellen Chick
From Field To Footscray
The aim of my Cultural Infrastructure proposal is to provide an urban agricultural educational outreach centre in the middle of Footscray. After analysing food preparation and selling in Footscray, I drew a focus on having positive regenerative impacts on the earth and specifically on the reduction of waste. My intervention aims to reduce wastage from the Footscray market and other businesses in central Footscray, and educate the community on how to be sustainable, reuse and recycle waste.
To do this, I designed a three part infrastructure consisting of a mushroom growing pavillion, a compost garden and a greenhouse. Throughout the year I found myself analysing timelines and constantly drawing comparisons between them all. From my research I extracted the timeline of how Mycelium can be used to break down waste materials, such as coffee grinds, to produce mushrooms and how the left over filling can be used as rich compost. The I analysed the timeline of composting and how that can be used to grow vegetablesl and finally the timeline of a greenhouse and how vegetables can be recycled back into the compost. I also proposed to use a variety of recycled and recyclable materials in the construction of my project to further enhance the sustainability of my infrastructure.
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Overall, the intent of my infrastucture is to aid in the production and selling culture of food in Footscray, but also to highlight how half of the food we produce in Australia each year does not need to be going to waste. I attempted to parallel the interconnected relations of culture within Footscray with the reticular sub-structures within each of the phases of my design.
