This project inquires upon ecological models of architecture within a rural Victorian context. Using a minimalist lens, the project challenges colonial perceptions of property and landscape. Through a series of interventions, the following questions are speculated: Can architecture extend beyond its property boundary? Can we see pathways and their relationship with buildings as an interconnected whole rather than means and ends? Pathways are intrinsic to our understanding of the world. First Nations Australians used song lines to record pathways connecting important sites; to them, the pathways and journeys taken across Country are something spiritual. However, in today’s post-colonial settlement, pathways are seen as purely means to an end. The site, once adjacent to the now-drained Great Swamp is situated in the continual violence of monocultural practices. The interventions address regeneration through the adaption of existing conditions and promote more responsive viticulture in an era of man-induced enviro7nmental transformations. The construction of space and infrastructure is rethought by focusing on how the byproducts of winemaking practices and existing conditions offer a new set of architectural possibilities. Little is added or removed; scars in the landscape, trimmed sedges, grapevine off-cuts, and tree trunks all become instruments of architecture.

plan

vineyard

pathway

details - summer

details - winter