Richard Black: River Murray and Tidal Garden Architecture

Richard Black is an Australian architect and a Senior Lecturer at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University and is a partner with Michelle Black in Times Two Architects. He has co-authored three books on his teaching and research activities. He spent eight years studying the Murray River, Australia’s most important source of agricultural irrigation, as well as the source of drinking water for Adelaide.

Richard Black's 2009 PhD Project thesis (ADR, Architectural Design Review), which forms the core of this archive, was titled Site Knowledge: in Dynamic Contexts and explored the role of site in the architectural design process. His research traces overlaps and adjacencies between architecture and landscape with a particular emphasis placed on site analysis as a strategic aspect of the design process. The research was tested out on case study locations along the River Murray floodplain, examining the interaction of built environments and the ecological process of the river. This allowed Black to develop an architecture that matches the variable nature of the river in flood and drought. Materials include a copy of the thesis, perspective drawings, computer generated maps, and research materials.

• CAE1044: Sand Helsel: X_Field
• CAE1108: Libby Robin: Desert Channels
• CAE1109: Mandy Martin: Desert Channels
• CAE1302: Paruku Project