My project thesis is located in Maribyrnong, a site in Melbourne’s inner west suburbs known for its Highpoint Shopping Centre. It is a place that is often overlooked in history, despite being home to one of Australia’s most significant multicultural communities. The focus of the brief responds to the government’s recent proposal to build a new tram depot on the former migrant hostel site. The history dates back to WWII, when large waves of migrants travelled to Australia in search of safety, escaping wars and political upheaval. Heritage migrant hostel homes carry prominent cultural and social value in Australia’s multicultural history. Rather than accepting the industrial needs for Maribyrnong, my counterproposal is a cultural tram depot that accommodates civic values.

Inspired by Bernard Tschumi’s Event Cities theories on “transprogramming”, the proposal integrates cultural facilities within the depot building, where conflicting programs become a new type of program that coexists between civic and infrastructure. This transforms a site that would otherwise be closed and private into a space that serves cultural appreciation for the Maribyrnong community. This project challenges the assumption that infrastructure and communities are conflicting, instead creating spaces that reflect the cultural identity of Australian-born migrants.