Cardwell Foreshore Redevelopment

“Although the physical infrastructure has been badly destroyed, there are remaining social and economic infrastructures. You need to pick up those threads…” Robin Cross, Director of Projects at Article 25.

In recent years, pioneering design practices such as Architecture for Humanity and Article 25, have constructed a new sense of purpose for design professionals within global disaster zones.
It is within these areas that the practice of design is given a voice with both social and cultural resonance. Within this context, it is no longer the role of the designer to create a product or sell a concept, but rather to approach with caution, and act as mere instrument for the expression of a people.

In early 2011, the far north Queensland community of Cardwell experienced the savage force of Cyclone Yasi, generating a storm surge so powerful that the Cardwell foreshore was left as a desolate landscape. Since the devastation, the community has received assistance from both the state and federal government through the Reconstructing Cardwell Project funded under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangement. Here, $40 million dollars was contributed towards the redevelopment of the Cardwell Foreshore, a reconstruction that aimed to celebrate a communities' identity whist injecting it with a new sense of vibrancy. The new Cardwell Foreshore Redevelopment evokes a spirit of resurgence, while at the same time digging its feet firmly into the present time and place.

Dotdash has produced a collection of signage and pathway treatments that allow the visitor to navigate, interpret, and appreciate this revived landscape. Navigation signage trails the 5 km stretch of foreshore, punctuating the coastline with bursts of colour inspired by the surrounding reef and rainforest.  While, the more time-rich audience can appreciate the explanatory signage, exploring aspects of the site such as local flora and fauna and historical events.  Finally, contributions of work from local artists tell the story of Cardwell by capturing iconic forms and textures informed by cultural history and native wildlife.  These artworks where transformed into a series of bold impressions, integrated into the concrete paths throughout the foreshore. This key ingredient of community involvement provides a new layer of visual narrative, while allowing these residents to reclaim a sense of home and plant new roots.

While finding the threads can be a challenging task in the initial stages of a disaster zone’s redevelopment, it is only a small part of constructing a new cultural fabric. Dotdash identified that to navigate a new landscape, one that covers scars of natural disaster, is a complex process that requires a highly informed design response. It is in this approach that design becomes meaningful, and a community’s new sense of place is realised.

Client: Cassowary Coast Regional Council, 2013
Project Lead: Peter Rudledge
Project Team: Mark Ross, Agata Dworaczek, Erin Stromgren
Photographer: Andrew Watson
Newspaper Clipping: Provided by Jenny Green