Arabella Hamilton - FIRE in the City

FIRE in the City

Master of Architecture - Studio 1 | Year 1, Semester 2, 2023

Speculative Collage

SITE: Capita Centre, 9 Castlereagh St Sydney

THE BRIEF:

Today, the Capita Centre is a busy work environment, in a few years the building will become an oasis and environment for plants to thrive and take over the building. In the year 2025, the seed bankers begin to hijack the Capita Centre by planting seeds of predominately endangered and extinct Australian native plant species. Over the course of the next few years, they continue to plant and maintain the plants, creating large garden beds to allow the plants to grow and therefore push out the tenants and workers who currently occupy the building. As the seed bankers take over the building, they hijack the mechanical water system, using the existing fire sprinklers as automatic water sprinklers for the plants. Depending on the sun exposure of each floors depends on the climatic conditions created and therefore the types of plants planted. Levels 1 to 8, has the climatic conditions of a forest - cool, dark and damp. Levels 9 to 12 is a grassland with the climatic conditions ranging from warm and temperate to cool and wet. Levels 13 to 18 is a rainforest being hot, humid and dry and Levels 19 to 31 has the climatic conditions of a desert - hot in summer, cool in winter and minimal rain.

The basement of the building will be redesigned into a seed bank with each room playing a key role in the seed banking process. These processes are seed collection and identification, cleaning of the seed, quality check, drying, packaging, storage, germination and dormancy and and longevity of the seed. These process will be key to ensure the current endangered species do not become extinct.

By 2050, the building is an active and thriving vertical garden and seed bank. The workers range from scientists, seed bankers, educators, gardeners and horticulturists, and transporters. The building will be a place for the community to learn about Australian plant species, a seed bank for Australian seeds and plants and a producer of plants to be transported, by e-bike, to other buildings also being converted into vertical gardens, turning the city of Sydney green.

THE SCENARIO:

The GREEN MACHINE, will be a location for seed bankers to take matters into their own hands and away from government and institutions to grow, store and produce Australian native and endangered plants. The building will allow for educational spaces for generations to come to learn about these species as well as research spaces for workers to continue their work on growing a green vertical building.