The group behind New Acton has unveiled plans for a highly experimental pavilion designed by a renowned Chilean architect to kick off its new 50-building precinct at Dairy Road, Fyshwick.
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The new precinct, for which the Molonglo Group will call expressions of interest internationally this year, aims to mix industrial, residential and commercial buildings, rejecting the highly segregated zoning that dominates planning in Canberra.
The group has commissioned Chilean architect firm Pezo von Ellrichshausen, which has designed art installations, pavilions and highly experimental buildings around the world, and will now design its first piece in Australia.
Described as a "parasitic pavilion" and "something between a bird hide and an urban observation tower", it consists of two towers, each about 20 metres, and circular walkways between.
Molonglo Group director Nikos Kalogeropoulos said it could be used as a shared working space or interpretive centre, providing an interface between the new estate and the wetlands.
"Pezo von Ellrichshausen has proposed an enigmatic piece; a mysterious sculpture. A simple, solid, heavy and monolithic vertical building divided in two - a paired tower," the design concept says.
"Between the two buildings is a void, filled with soft, informal, delicate bridges - a floating circular path, or possibly even a third building, that moves between, around and through the other two buildings. In time, it is hoped that the pavilion will be inhabited by the delicate wetland. It will become a relic of ambition."
Sofia von Ellrichshausen, from Concepcion, Chile, is in Australia for the announcement of the Dairy Road piece.
The Molonglo Group will not say what it is paying for the pavilion, but says it hopes to be building it as early as next year. It would be the first in a series of experimental "parasitic pavilions" around the world, designed to "subvert the pavilion concept" and "hijack, insert, envelope, attach, intervene".
The Efkapidis family's Molonglo Group is developing a 14.5 hectare site on Dairy Road over 10 to 15 years, promising more than 50 buildings, including "artist residences and studios, retail, light industrial, commercial, creative and cultural spaces".
The "experimental mix of highly interwoven uses" was "especially radical for Canberra", the company said, promising a "dense urban village", and "a vast experiment".
"At Dairy Road all uses will be challenged, including already laid-down regulations such as car-parking quotas," the company said. "The development of the site provides a unique opportunity to retain the industrial built form and immerse it within new and contrasting forms of uses."
The company would announce an international design competition for a site masterplan this year. Mr Kalogeropoulos said details of what would be built were yet to be worked out, but seven buildings on site and the 20,000 square metres of light industrial warehousing would remain.
The company was not about flouting planning rules but about bringing the life back into cities and creating "real" human spaces, he said.
"One of the joys of living in a wonderful small Greek village is you get to hear chitter chatter of neighbours, the smell from the town baker, these are elements of life we should somehow be bringing back into our communities as opposed to cocooning ourselves and having this insular perspective," he said.
The company has set out principles for the site: Zero carbon emissions and waste, new forms of manufacturing, putting the landscape first, eschewing "big roads" in favour of laneways, cycleways and walkways, without "big roads", improving bike links to the city, protecting the wetlands, and "pluralism" - making a space for everyone.
The Molonglo Group bought the site from the Commonwealth in 2002.
