Liquid Parliament reimagines the meeting point between city and sea as a site of civic assembly, ecological negotiation, and architectural intervention.
Sited at Wahganmuggalee/Farm Cove, one of Sydney's most complex waterfronts, the studio challenges participants to design a Water Council: a new civic institution where the governance of water, climate adaptation, and collective stewardship are made spatially and culturally explicit. In the context of accelerating environmental change, rising sea levels, ocean acidification and coastal erosion, this Council is envisioned as a forum for public deliberation, First Nations knowledge sharing, scientific exchange and community action.
The design challenge transforms the existing seawall from a passive barrier into an active edge. One that mediates between land and sea, human and non-human actors, and the urgent demands of climate resilience. Through architectural and landscape strategies, students will explore how the seawall can become a living infrastructure that foregrounds the agency of water and multiplicity of voices entwined with Sydney Harbour.
Liquid Parliament proposes a new civic typology for an urbanised coast, one that makes visible the relationships between environment and governance. It imagines a future in which architects design not only for the city or the sea, but for the complex, evolving threshold where public life, ecological care, and climate futures converge.
With thanks to the following contributors and critics:
Victoria King, Hill Thalis, Anna May Kirk, artist/Powerhouse Museum, Nicole Larkin, Nicole Larkin Design, Maya Martin-Westheimer, artist/Floorplan Studio, Nicholas Mielczarek, ADP, Max Volfneuk, Horizon
