For years we’ve been fascinated by the world of the Molonglo Group in Canberra. There was the Nishi Building on the New Acton Peninsula that changed the vibe in Canberra from dowdy to cool overnight – or so it seemed to we visitors at the time. We loved the six star Green Star timber Nishi office building, the hotel next door and the fabulous rich landscape that housed a residential development.
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A lot of deep design thinking was embedded in the project. We invited Nikos Kalogeropoulos, director and co-owner of the group, to share them at our first Urban Greening summit in July 2022. Not long after we popped in for an informal tour of the new project, at Dairy Road at Fyshwick, on the site of a former government bus depot.
The property is a huge sprawling complex of industrial buildings with soaring roofs that can’t help to get some people excited about the possibilities. Clearly there was no sense in knocking them down and losing the vast embodied carbon within their walls, Kalogeropoulos told The Fifth Estate on our recent tour of the place in November. (This time Iphone in hand, video rolling, hoping our enthusiasm for our new-found love of amateur live recording would overcome the natural and understandable reticence of our host).
Kalogeropoulos generously kicked off with a detailed dive into the history of the company and the site – along with the ambition, the strategy and the special challenges it’s encountered so far.
Among the most interesting outcomes at this site are social. The company has strategically decided to create a thriving place of work and businesses focusing on maker spaces with a large range of tenants that are locked (voluntarily) for the long haul, before embarking on a residential component. (In some similar ventures creatives are used to create the upscale brand but are then forced out as real estate prices climb and become unaffordable for them.)
As we start our tour Kalogeropoulos introduces us to some of the businesses and creatives adding this place is not for everyone.
He leads us through the corridors, lined with organic materials and repurposed original fittings, all dwarfed by the industrial tin shed roofs way above.
There’s a brewery; two gin makers, one doing so well they’re expanding; a big shed, no windows and sound proof walls for amazing (we’re told) weekend music events; a video filming and editing studio; a live theatre, a specialist leather craft business, a rock climbing business and even a fully fledged co-working office space.
Some of the activities and spaces are designed specifically to attract the local community for weekend outings. Kids in particular love the water play feature that’s part of an enormous sculpture at the front of the main building, Kalogeropoulos tells us.
The next stage of Dairy Road will be residential, with English architect David Chipperfield leading the project with Australian architects.
In keeping with the scene setting ahead of the residential development there’s an evolving landscape of native plants with a rewilding vibe and wetlands, replacing acres of bitumen.
Rammed earth
Chatting to some of the tenants was great but among the standout features of the building itself that we loved was a rammed earth prototype wall. Kalogeropoulos explained this was made from some of the vast quantities of soil that the Commonwealth removed from the new Parliament House site to make room for the building and that it dumped at the property.
What the group wants to do is reuse that soil as a rammed earth building material for the housing development. It looks brilliant – thick, organic and very tactile. Investigations and approvals for use over several stories as a structural product are nearing completion and its large scale use will probably be a first of its kind.
But is it cheaper than concrete and steel? Not likely, Kalogeropoulos says, and he winces at our suggestion the group might take on commercial production of this product as a new venture. There’s quite a bit of technology involved, and this job will be hard enough, he laughs. But hey, it opens up an opportunity for another enterprise to jump in. (We mull over this as a possible new venture for TFE, but realise we’re still way too busy to morph into the practical side of sustainability – so content ourselves with the free plus for someone else to get excited about! Seriously, it is beautiful!)
There was so much in the tour that we cut it up into random segments so you can dive in and out.
It’s a home video vibe and we’re hugely grateful to Kalogeropoulos for the personal brand risk he took to allow such an amateur walkthrough that’s only lightly edited. But we hope you find some great ideas and learnings in the results, regardless!
Enjoy the sampling.