EOYS UTS School of Architecture

Masters Architecture – An Architecture of Relationality V: Territory, Border, Countermeasure November 6th 11:25 PM

Highlights An Ode to Ashfield – Marni Reti and Adelaide Lehmann November 6th 5:55 AM

Lectures Andrew Toland – Architectures of the Dirty Real: Projects of Affective Realism in Architectural and Landscape Culture August 27th 4:21 AM

Undergraduate Landscape – Granular Shifts November 6th 1:23 AM

Undergraduate Interior – New Socio-Cultural Imaginaries November 6th 2:08 AM

Undergraduate Architecture – ‘Housing’ Students November 6th 11:58 PM

Research Master – Distant storytelling October 23rd 3:22 AM

Archive The Architecture of Injustice: Behrouz Boochani Keynote from Manus Island October 11th 6:52 PM

Archive UTS School of Architecture Public Lecture Series – Spring December 8th 8:06 AM

Lectures Richard Hindle – Can Landscape Architects Invent Landscape Technology? June 19th 7:25 AM

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Highlights November 6th 2020
A Grounded Approach to Death by Design – Calum York and Jed Finnane

Australian cities are running out of burial space. As some of our oldest public spaces, NSW law mandates that they be maintained in-perpetuity; a noble cause in theory, but far more complex in reality. At Waverley Cemetery the impossibility of this task was revealed when, in 2016, the cliff collapsed. If there is one thing we must remind ourselves of, it is that nothing lasts forever.  

 

Despite the collapse, the grounds at Waverley impart an impression of permanence and solidity. However, delving under the surface reveals a different story.  

 

Classified as a geotechnical hazard, the site is slipping into the ocean at a rate of 20mm per year, its sandy soil moving freely between allotments carrying detritus and remains alike. The question remains: how can we move past this inherently pessimistic strategy of preservation, towards a more meaningful model of renewal? 

 

A Grounded Approach is a project of radical regrading, a generational approach to the problems faced at Waverley Cemetery.  

 

Conducted initially as an archaeological dig mindful of the site’s indigenous past, the act of digging uncovers the grave’s brick piers, whose gaps are filled in to unify the foundations of our collective past. The low nutrient soil that is preferable for endemic growth is exposed and, sheltered from the harsh coastal wind, the historical heath on sandstone ecologies can take root. 

 

In time, they may shelter the site from its surrounds as they once would have. The approach through this excavated terrain becomes a proverbial “crossing of the Styx,” navigating a space of stillness within native vegetation. 

 

As the graves’ kerbing is buried, the central area becomes a new ground, the land democratised as public domain. The ground unifies us, and the original headstones, once representing thousands of individual acts upon the land, are recontextualised as a collective, becoming a focal point for growth beyond being mere markers of death. 

 

The new ground opens up more space to the community as Waverley Cemetery becomes a place transformed by a changing landscape, layered with more meaningful ecological and social programs; a public domain characterised by a more nuanced understanding of our collective mortality. 

 

On October 2020, ‘A Grounded Approach to Death by Design’ was shortlisted for the 2021 AA Prize for Unbuilt Work

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