KINGLAKE

The Black Saturday Bushfires of February 2009, devastated 450,000ha of land in rural Victoria, Australia, claiming 173 lives and displacing thousands more. In response, a temporary village was established on private property on the corner of the Kinglake township that comprised 41 small units which housed whole families, 3 large sheds for kitchens, laundries and storage, and a central playground. The project presented to my second year studio group was to design and build a BBQ shelter that would over-look the playground and provide a communal undercover gathering space for the village. Due to the temporary nature of the village, our structure also had to be removable and was to be constructed using as many donated materials as possible. The structural timber members came to us covered in baby blue paint which was stripped off and the timber oiled. Pallets were altered, oiled and installed as wall panels, planter boxes and flooring, and timber slices from felled, burnt trees became feature flooring. Stairs were cut into the slope that lead to the playground, and a gabion firepit was installed including a pallet bench seat. The two-week construction period on site was particularly wet and cold, but we enjoyed soldiering on through the inclement conditions knowing we were creating something special; a space where the fire victims could create many new, positive memories, and a symbol of how much they were cared for by the greater Victorian community.