Places Victoria awarded the Temporary Activation of the Docklands Harbour Esplanade to ‘Utopian Folk’, a collaboration between Folk Architects, Christie Petsinis and Tim Wilson, and Melissa Loughnan of Utopian Slumps.
The project consists of a freestanding glass house pavilion named Hortus, (Latin for garden), and incorporates an edible plant installation by artist Lauren Berkowitz, a café by Seven Seeds, and a space that can be adapted for community events.
Situated on the waterfront at Docklands, adjacent to John Kelly’s ‘Cow up a Tree’ sculpture, the project creates a new dimension for the location, focusing more on smaller scale engagement. The pavilion, temporary in appearance, creates a point of interest and a refuge in a stretch of exposed waterfront.
By focusing on the finer grain, Hortus provides a communal and backyard-like environment, for residents, workers and visitors, and is a point of difference at Docklands. Collaboration was a key component for realising Hortus. Working with a limited budget, Utopian Folk engaged likeminded organisations, bringing together people who shared a common vision for activating the site and creating this community based event space. Local materials were foraged from a variety of sources. Recycled timber creates outdoor seating, while concrete pipes have been transformed into planters, filled with indigenous plants.
Hortus embodies sustainable design principles in a variety of ways. The glasshouse pavilion contains a brand new high performance glass, donated by Viridian Glass. While, cross-ventilation and a removable canopy are employed to maintain a stable internal environment and diffuse light. Passive cooling ventilation provides an effective alternative to air-conditioning, with an operable vent to expel hot air through the heat stack effect, while water tanks harvest water for the internal and outside gardens.
Recycled materials have been sourced from within the Dockland’s area and used where possible, including local timbers for outdoor seating, concrete pipes for planters filled with native plants obtained from the St Kilda Indigenous Plant Nursery, and bike rails sourced from an existing Places Victoria storage shed.
Internally the Seven Seeds café has also embraced sustainable principles, fertilising indoor plants with used coffee bean compost, maximising equipment efficiency and using a juggler bladder for milk storage instead of bottles. The edible plant installation encourages people to think actively about sustainable living, food miles and consumption.
The project has been a catalyst for urban renewal in the area. Improvements have taken place adjacent to the site by the City of Melbourne, including additional seating and planting to complement Hortus.
The structure is designed to be easily relocated and can be transported to another site, or used by local community garden groups in the future as a glasshouse.
The former underutilised pier has now become an active space, successfully bridging the residential, commercial and stadium zones. The inherent intrigue of the pavilion promotes social interaction, creating a meeting place for
the community.