Synergy Muja Power Station

Designing for the future beyond the Synergy Muja Power Station closure in Collie, WA

With the gradual retirement of the coal fired sections of the Synergy Muja Power Station in Collie, Western Australia has been a challenging and complex process of shifting away from coal powered energy toward renewable energy sources. Prompted by a global focus on climate change, the Australian and West Australian governments have recently introduced carbon neutral targets which include an eventual decommission of fossil fuelled energy sources. This project explored how the eventual closure of Muja Power Station might impact not only Synergy employees but also the local towns people of Collie who have established their community identity around this significant south west site over the past seventy years.

Introduction

A team of six multidisciplinary designers developed concepts as to how the significance of the Muja Power Station could be shared to stakeholders of Muja, the town of Collie, the whole of WA and beyond, amidst its closure of Stage C in 2024, and its complete closure in 2035. The main focus became how the team and Collie could become involved in a co-design process to help them in the transitional period between being reliant on the Muja Power Station, to a more sustainable future in renewable resources.

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Initial scope of the project

Project overview

On August 5th, 2019, the WA state government announced the staged retirement of the Muja C units. One unit would be retired in 2022 and the other retired in 2024. The closure of the units will see the redundancy of approximately 75 positions, all of which will be via an expression of interest / voluntary process. Most of the employees leaving will be of retirement age – many with 30-40 years of service at the power station.

The initial project problem

Synergy provided suggestions on what they believed was the best way to capture not only the history of the Muja Power Station, but also the personal stories that are attached to it. They asked us to create a book to share the significance and history of the Muja Power Station. Therefore, the initial problem statement and scope of the project was to scope and research potential options to capture and communicate the history of Muja Power Station as it nears the retirement of Stage C.

They did not suggest a target audience for us to focus on. This meant that we had the opportunity to determine who this project should be for.

The Design Process

What we discovered through our research

Conducting research allows us to gain a contextual understanding of the project problem in order to make informed design choices and produce outcomes that clearly address project needs. Our research is composed of Desk Research which involves review of literature, contextual exploration and evaluation of similar projects; and Ethnographic Research which involves taking a human-centred approach to understanding the stakeholders, the environment and the ways in which these interact.

Our research included looking into the history of Collie, changes to coal powered energy, the impact that change typically has on small communities, and how other communities have thrived through change. We also researched how the history of communities is being shared in various parts of the world.

All of these research methods and topics made us more knowledgable, and therefore informed us of how we felt we needed to proceed with the project, which is outlined below.

Understanding the people affected by the project

Through conducting research in Collie, we came to the conclusion that the Muja Power Station is of major significance to the Collie community. This meant that this project needed to be designed for more people than just internal stakeholders of Muja. After further research and collaboration, we saw the potential to expand the project beyond Collie and design concepts that have the potential to reach the whole of Western Australia and beyond.

Clarifying the project problems

Our team’s goal for this project became to help instill confidence in the community of Collie about the possibilities for their future during the transition away from the coal industry. Sharing history and co-creating outcomes is a way to give ownership to members of the community, which in turn instills pride in the shared building of their future and strengthens the community bonds/ties.

We also recognised that the transition away from fossil fuels is occurring on a global scale with many other small, coal dependent towns set to undergo into the similar transitions in the next couple years. By employing evidence led practices to design a service system that is sensitive to the needs of the community and that will help them thrive through an uncomfortable transition phase, we are able to set a precedent for how other communities can face the challenge.

Generating ideas and concepts to help

Ideation is a mode of design where the sole concentration is to create, generate, develop and communicate ideas for the project. It is the formation of ideas and the construction of concepts using visual, concrete or abstract techniques and activities. In these sessions, prototyping, brainstorming, brainwriting and thinking (of the best and the worst possible) ideas are techniques used within the process. We engaged in a range of activities to help us think of and develop ideas, resulting in touchpoints and artefacts for this project.

What we made ...

The Lookout

A proposed concept to share the history and significance of the Muja Power Station is a lookout, which would be a place that is created, where Muja can be seen from a distance.

This place would be a popular spot for both local and tourists to visit to learn both factual and anecdotal information about Muja.

The lookout would also be a fantastic photo opportunity location, where visitors would potentially take photos and post it on social media, which would be a great avenue for advertising and tourism.

Park Benches

We have discovered that an effective way to share the history of Muja would be through education and art.

To do this, we have developed the idea of introducing commemorative park benches and tables throughout Collie. These outdoor seating options would act as both decorative and educational structures around the town, sharing the history of Muja through storytelling and artwork.

These features would be constructed to reflect the stories and memories contributed by those who have been involved with Muja.

Storytelling Events & Online Forum

We are proposing that Collie holds communal story telling events and have a complimentary online forum that allows storytelling to be told, shared and recorded. The storytelling event will be a reoccurring event where workers of Muja (and anyone else who has ties), to gather as often as they like, and record and write about their experiences. These stories could also be digitally written up transferred onto the online forum.

The online forum would be able to record the event date , time, place and any resources that will be valuable to the project. It is important to have a digital platform, to ensure that the stories of Muja are easily accessible beyond the south rest region.

Reoccurring Artefacts

Something significant that we noticed during our time in Collie, is that art and creativity is very popular within the area. Through these storytelling events and the online forum, artists/designers would also have access to the online forum, whereby they would able to produce art based on the stories that they read.

A collection of artefacts would be developed through this method, which would be used as merchandise to keep the memories of Muja alive within the town, and inform tourists about it.

Artefacts could include calendars, postcards and magazines.

Kinetic Trials Application

Whilst all of the proposed, site specific concepts are designed to stand and function independently, we are aware that creating an engaging experience to link these touchpoint together would encourage a broader consumption of information and create strong links with Collie.

The Kinetic Trails app can be described as a hybrid of a way finding tool, a virtual experience and a scavenger hunt checklist. The idea is that there would be a QR code at each of the physical touchpoints that we have proposed (along with more local sites), and tourists/locals would treat it like a scaveneger hunt and visit all of the locations.

What happens next ...

Continuous collaborative design is needed

The Muja Power Station project requires a continuous design approach to assist in deeply evaluating all aspects of how the Town of Collie will re-identify itself during the shift away from coal fired energy sources. The project needs further research and a customised co-design plan to ensure that the people in this region assist in designing their own future alongside disciplinary experts. This human focused design strategy will ensure that the outputs and outcomes that eventuate will be sustainable because the people of Collie will be the ones that participated in designing them. No one knows more about how the reinvention of Collie should be developed than the people of Collie themselves and we look forward to helping empower this community to do just that!