Conservation management plan for 21st Century architecture

As an architectural ensemble, Melbourne's Federation Square has few precedents — formally or conceptually. It is also the first place in Australia completed in the 21st century to be managed under a statutory heritage regime. We developed a conservation framework for the Square that engages with the highly theoretical approach to architectural production pursued by its designer, LAB Architecture Studio. The outcome is a carefully tailored and anticipatory approach to heritage management.

Architects Donald Bates and Peter Davidson of LAB rejected traditional geometrical ordering systems in favour of engagement with the complexities of 21st century urban environments. Their approach was graphically led, collaborative and intensely iterative. The process they used allowed solutions to emerge, and enabled LAB to, 'understand the spatial consequences of decisions'. The heritage management of such a site needs to be equally compelling.

The heritage framework for Federation Square engages with issues not commonly addressed in heritage reports. A capacity for change is embedded in the conceptual rationale for the Square. As a consequence, a conservation regime that is retrospective, or that constrains the potential to accommodate new and evolving operational requirements, would represent a risk to the integrity of the principles that underpin it, as well as the Square’s commercial viability. There is also the speculative nature of its conception, design and construction, meaning that materials and technologies available today may be able to fulfil the design intent more effectively than the originals. The youth of the place also has implications — Federation Square is still finding its way socially and physically.