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Dr. Louisa King
Perched on the ridgelines of the Blue Mountains, 1200 hanging swamps form a vital ecological and cultural threshold between townships and the World Heritage-listed National Park. Garguree (The Gully), on Gandangara Sweet Water Country, is a place of survival, resistance, and ongoing care. The Gully community has persisted through colonial dispossession, maintaining deep connections to the swamp through activism and stewardship.
Working with the community, Swamp Studio 4 explores the entangled relationships between architecture, landscape, and hydrology. Through fieldwork, design research, and collaboration with Gully Traditional Owners and Blue Mountains City Council, we develop interventions that support the swamp’s ecological and cultural resilience. Working at multiple scales—from catchment to habitat—we design structures, remedial interventions, and new ways of living with wet ground.
This studio teaches how to work with community, care for swampy landscapes, and reimagine architecture’s role in watery ecologies. To immerse ourselves in the wonder of the Blue Mountains, there is a three-night camping trip to Megalong Valley in the first half of the semester.
