Richard Black: Australia's Murray River

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The Nevada Museum of Art's Centre for Art and Environment is an internationally recognised research centre that supports the practice and study of creative interactions between people and their environments. In 2011, the museum acquired Richard Black's Murray River archive (comprising more than 100 drawings, renders, photos and archival material); exhibited his work in a solo show ('Richard Black: Australia's Murray River'); and invited him to be a guest speaker at its triennial Art + Environment conference. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: This research explores how the construction of site knowledge is transformed into knowing where and how to intervene in a location. It uses the Murray River floodplain as a case study location, (a river system close to ecological collapse) to examine ways in which we might begin to learn how to live with the natural cycles and rhythms of the river. The research culminated in a range of designs that demonstrate how to integrate town and tourist developments into the re-established cyclical flows necessary for the health of the system. Site knowledge drove the design process. The researcher's work combined landscape architecture, ecology, political and social forces to suggest ways designers can engage with landscapes. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: Black was the first architect to be exhibited at the museum and the first to be included in its archive. The exhibition was curated by William Fox, the museum's director. Black was also an invited lecturer at the museum's Art and Environment conference.