ALICE ANNA FORD

Developed as Alice Anna Ford’s architectural thesis, this project comprises three linked components:
(A) a written thesis,
(B) an Infrastructure Catalogue, and
(C) a series of Trace Drawings.

The research centres on a model of gradual managed retreat for APACE Native Plant Nursery, outlining two possible futures: remaining on the existing site or relocating in response to projected flooding along the Derbarl Yerrigan (Swan River).

Each scenario was developed through coordinated social, ecological, and built infrastructure strategies projected across a 100-year timeframe. A connecting path links both sites, allowing APACE’s program to operate independently in either location as conditions change.

Volunteer-led activity and materially accessible construction methods were treated as core social infrastructure. Design decisions prioritised elements that could be maintained, assembled, and adapted by the community using readily available resources.

Through archival research and site tracing, a wetland proposal emerged that — supported by a levee — could regenerate the shoreline while extending APACE’s long-standing commitment to ecological renewal. Precedent studies and painting informed the design of a linear shed, conceived as a flexible public structure accommodating accessibility and shifting programmatic needs.

Rather than resolving into a single built outcome, the project functions as a transferable framework. The social, ecological, and architectural toolkits developed here are intended for application across other community organisations situated along the Derbarl Yerrigan and similarly vulnerable river systems.

The work positions managed retreat not solely as an architectural response, but as an evolving social movement — one that anticipates the emergence of dynamic tidal ecologies alongside collective forms of care.

2021/10/20 The Legacy of APACE Nursery

CATALOGUE : archived

LOCATION : Whadjuk Country, Walyalup, Western Australia

WITH : APACE

this project is dedicated to Tony