Reimagining Birrarung: Design Concepts for 2070

Focusing on ecological regeneration, public access and connectivity across the catchment, this exhibition asks what it means to acknowledge a river as an integrated natural entity.

Urban rivers are being rethought internationally, mindsets shifting from a time when they were seen as systems to be re-engineered to our liking – lands and waters for development, resource extraction and waste disposal. In Melbourne there is an increasing understanding that we should think of the Birrarung not as a disposable resource, but as a diverse, interconnected ecosystem that nurtures our health and is essential to communities both human and non-human.

Through the lens of landscape architecture, Reimagining Birrarung presents research, data, mapping and speculative design ideas for sites along the river corridor, from the city to the upper catchment. Together the projects reveal how the Birrarung has been altered over time, from an abundant ecology to a system in need of healing and care.