Studio Cultures

The studio invited creative ecological-cultural regeneration proposals in response to the highly degraded Wangkondananko/Aldinga Washpool—one of the last remaining estuarine freshwater lagoons along the greater Adelaide coastline, a site of great cultural significance to the Kaurna People. 

Studio Cultures invited creative ecological-cultural regeneration proposals in response to the highly degraded Wangkondananko/Aldinga Washpool—one of the last remaining estuarine freshwater lagoons along the greater Adelaide coastline, a site of great cultural significance to the Kaurna People. The Washpool has been severely degraded through a number of historical factors. These are connected to a broader issues of water mismanagement, some of which have led to the draining of water bodies, to displacement and to disconnection of people and cultures to place. Soaking, the title of the studio, is a call to imagine more just futures with more abundance of water and greater interconnections with water bodies and people with water.

Key methods for the studio include deep listening, careful mapping and narrative means to ‘hear’, meet, feel and convey watery connections.

The design proposals will incorporate regeneration of the Washpool based on recommendations put forward by the Nature Glenelg Trust for the Green Adelaide Board in the report ‘Ecohydrological Restoration Assessment of the Aldinga washpool’ along with infrastructural elements that can support the ongoing monitoring and care of the Washpool, and a larger strategy of care that addresses issues such as erosion, recharging of aquifers, revegetation, agricultural practices.