A careful occupation of 12 Holland Court – Flemington library and heritage centre

The Melbourne skyline can always be framed with the odd 20-storey public housing towers that spread across the inner city. But what if they were to disappear? Recent events have brought about a scenario where all are demolished but one. The project is framed around preserving this last remaining one, as a memory to Melbourne and as a lived experience. The specific building, 12 Holland Drive - the one with a prior ARM intervention.

The project is undertaken with the thought of care. Seeing the difference between an aggressive or sensitive attitude, testing what should or could remain or disappear. Ultimately the project utilises care as an understanding of occupation in the building, in rooms, and on walls - finding traces that can be imagined amongst the new and revealing the hierarchy between them.

The program inside becomes a library for the community and archives with preservation labs as a response to the theme. The exteriority of the building remains, only a small incision and a base to the building indicates change, but this does not reduce the towers presence rather it gives it resilience. Inside new spaces capture the domesticity and existing experiences with new walls and structure that allow shutters, curtains, furniture, and doorways to interplay with the existing framework, colours, and apertures.