Yarra Pools by Wowowa Architecture
Our proposal, located at Enterprize Park in Melbourne’s CBD, was developed in collaboration with the community-led not-for-profit organization Yarra Pools after several years of research, consultation, workshops and meetings. Developed with the support of the National Gallery of Victoria, the proposal acted as a catalyst for action on this neglected site and a way to foster a debate on how Melbourne should reconsider the management and ecology of its waterways.
In this proposal, swimming pools emerge from the landscape to create a rich tapestry of spaces for social and leisure activities that were commonplace until pollution rendered them unsafe.
The proposal reinstates bathing within the city reaches, made possible by treating the Yarra River’s water through biofiltration and saltwater extraction. Situated on the ancestral lands of the Boonwurrung and Woiwurrung language groups, this site has been heart and home to the people of the Kulin nation for thousands of years. The idea of reinstatement and repair is central to this proposition. By restoring one of the city’s most significant cultural sites, we can start a serious discussion about our connection to and responsibility for the natural environment, raising important questions on water management, pollution and what a meaningful engagement of the city’s Indigenous heritage might look like.
For our practice, the influence of this work has been not so much in its formal composition as in its advocacy and value as practice research. Although the proposal remains unbuilt, its civic engagement and impact on public discourse has highlighted the importance of presenting ambitious and challenging questions through the speculative architectural project. In turn, these questions have become significant to the practice. With each new project, we ask what responsibility it has to the community, the environment and the city in which it is situated – an acknowledgement that our “client” is, ultimately, the city itself.