Master of Architecture students from Monash University have designed and constructed a series of site-specific installations in a former sandstone quarry in Victoria’s Otway Ranges, using discarded materials from past National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) Architecture Commissions.
The projects include a gathering space for events and a collection of structures at the edge of a waterhole, contributing to the rehabilitation of the former quarry site.
The projects were developed as part of the university’s Design Make program, in which approximately 15–20 Master of Architecture students take a project from initial concept through to construction, with prototyping in between. Running since 2008, the program focuses on hands-on learning, with students working directly with materials and construction processes across diverse contexts.
The projects at the quarry form part of an ongoing collaboration between Monash University and These Are The Projects We Do Together, which owns and is rehabilitating the former quarry as a large-scale site for research, art, design and education. These Are The Projects We Do Together maintains an arrangement with the NGV to salvage materials from past Architecture Commissions, preventing them from going to waste and making them available for reuse in projects and research.
Students are set a brief by These Are The Projects We Do Together and begin by visiting the site to assess the stockpiled materials from past commissions. Working in groups, they develop design proposals that are presented for review, with selected schemes progressing to full-scale prototypes for an end-of-semester exhibition. The same cohort then progresses the scheme further, undertaking a two-week on-site build, refining the designs in response to site conditions while living and working together on location.
Completed in 2025, Negative / Positive was the first project at the quarry, consisting of two circular gathering spaces. The Negative gathering space exposes underlying rock at the former quarry floor to create a contemplative space for reflecting on the site’s extractive history, with the displaced ground surface shaped into a conical mound beside it. In contrast, Positive is a built amphitheatre where groups can gather and take part in the site’s ongoing regeneration.
While some components from the pavilions are designed with disassembly in mind, others require significant intervention before they can be reused. A key material used for Positive was black-stained Tasmanian hardwood salvaged from In Absence, the 2020 NGV Architecture Commission. Originally fixed to a plywood substrate and difficult to reuse, the timber was painstakingly dismantled, de-laminated, cleaned, cut to length and sanded before being repurposed as seating for the circular space. In total, over a kilometre of timber was salvaged and reused, with the internal diameter of Positive closing aligning with the exterior diameter of In Absence.
Waterlines, the second project at the quarry, was realised by a new cohort of students around an existing waterhole at the northern edge of the former quarry floor. The brief called for the removal of a temporary scaffolding platform over the waterhole and its replacement with site-responsive structures that support recreation.
Five interventions were introduced. The first of these, Screen, provides a changing area, using an existing rock as a shelf for belongings. The second intervention, Bench, offers a sheltered space for sitting or belongings, with a roof form that follows the contours of the hill and directs views toward the water. Platform extends over the edge of the waterhole for sitting and observing or jumping into the water from, incorporating a handrail salvaged from the Brunswick Baths. Bridge spans a gap in the terrain between hillside and quarry. Folly is an enclosed meditative space, with a mirrored ceiling that reflects light and water movement into the interior.
A range of reused materials were used for Waterlines, many sourced from past NGV Architecture Commissions. These included pink fibreglass reinforced plastic (FRP) panels from Pond[er] (2021), steel portal frames from Garden Wall (2017), hardwood from In Absence, and structural steel components from Carwash (2016).
Ross Brewin, senior lecturer in architecture at Monash University and lead of the Design Make program said the projects enable students to learn practical skills such as handling tools, managing materials and understanding site logistics. He also points to the physical demands of construction – lifting, cutting, fixing and repeating tasks over long hours – as helping to foster understanding and empathy for builders and other on-site collaborators in their future practice.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
