POWERPLANT/ POWER PLANTS

Anita Eckstein, Luke Grey (UoN) and Daniel Rooke, Thomas Woodhead, Ye Yang (UTS)

The Power Plant // Power Plants project presents a multifaceted and nuanced remediation of the White Bay Power Station site. It achieves this by linking the site’s narrative and proposed garden to the larger surrounding context of the Bays District’s public green spaces. In this way, this garden presents opportunities for investigation, discovery and education through a number of design interactions both active and passive.

This project seeks to unite the micro scale of site remediation with the macro scale of the site’s place within its past, present and, most importantly, future context. As illustrated above, the garden strives to communicate a speculative place amongst the continued greening of new public space from the post-industrial sites of the Bays District. It aims to achieve this through three main strategies: access, ambition and engagement.

The project aims to offer an engaging and performative aspect to all visitors of the site, not just at times of special events. The proposal for an installation of camera obscuras  judiciously dotted throughout the site, provides opportunity for both novel and informed engagement with the garden, directing and sharpening visitor attention between the macro and micro of on and off-site—anchoring the garden’s contextual bearing and relevance. Made from relic metal material found on site, they establish a dialogue between a historic past and speculative future. The installation offers a reprieve from a world of high technology, and offers visitors opportunity for reflection on the low-tech, organic processes present on the site juxtaposed with the technological heritage of the site. For further engagement, a range of artists or community groups can be engaged to design a series of sculptural or artistic chasises for the camera obscuras.

The above figurative section shows the new plan for remediating the ponds, the second larger pond is split into two. Pond one and three are developed into anoxic pools with emergent and free-floating planting while pond two becomes aerobic with submerged planting. Water from the higher first pond is allowed to cascade into the second pond, helping to oxygenate the water. This water is then let to flow through to the third pond. In preparation for this new cycle, it would be prudent to dredge the ponds of the toxic sediment no doubt located at the bottom in order to try and get a head start in letting the plants take-hold. The remediation of these ponds is just as crucial as that of the soil, but it also increases the level of interest and variety for visitors to the site, and what they learn about. It also promotes a more meaningful and holistic approach towards the remediation of the site.