HASSELL will be partnering with Schiavello for the second year running to create the centrepiece for the 2014 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Building on the success of 2013’s centrepiece, Urban Coffee Farm and Brew Bar, this year’s installation project will be a multi-level cloud-like structure featuring a floating bar and open-air kitchen.

Titled The Immersery – Festival Kitchen, Bar & Raingarden, the hub is expected to be a bustling riverside meeting place and home to Victoria’s best food, wind and cocktails over the duration of the festival.

In line with the festival’s water theme, HASSELL’s vision for The Immersery is inspired by water’s cyclical journey. The three levels of the installation each represent one of the three states of water – liquid, solid and gas.

“The Immersery is a metaphorical representation of the water cycle, designed over three levels of the space: river, square and bridge,” landscape architect from HASSELL Brenton Beggs says.

“We celebrate the intriguing and ephemeral qualities of clouds, communicate the preciousness of water as a natural resource, and draw attention to opportunities for the capture and reuse of water in an effort to reduce consumption and protect the quality of our water ways.”

Temporarily transforming the space on Yarra River, the architects hope the installation will provide visitors with an immersive experience to learn about water within the urban context.

The floating bar will be located on a barge, moored in the Yarra River. At the same time, the open-air kitchen will sit on the banks of the river, next to the barge and adjacent to Queensbridge Square.

A skyline community space with a cloud-like canopy made from scaffolding and PVC pipes will ‘hover’ over the discussed rail bridge running parallel to Sandridge Bridge, creating a new, elevated view of the city skyline.

Pipes, fittings and other materials commonly used in water infrastructure will bring an industrial and urban feel to the space.

Throughout The Immersery, Melbourne Water and HASSELL will also create vertical demonstration raingardens featuring drought-tolerant plants to ‘green’ the urban space. This vertical plant display will allow visitors to learn about how water can be captured, filtered and reused before it re-enters the water cycle, as well as how water in its many forms can transform culinary experiences.

The 2014 Melbourne Food and Wine festival will run for 17 days, from 28 February through to 16 March.

Images: HASSELL

Geraldine Chua

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