I don’t often have much reason to go out to Midland, so when I had a meeting nearby I took the opportunity to sneak in a visit to Railway Square, Midland - a recently completed MRA project delivered by MG Group, with landscape architecture by the talented folks Place Laboratory 

The historical context of the site has been interrogated and interpreted masterfully by Place Laboratory, with visual cues layered through the space, all the while avoiding literal one-liners (not a pun) that could have quite easily turned the square into a themepark.

The Midland Railway workshops served as the construction and maintenance hub for all Western Australian Government Railways rolling stock for over 80 years, until its closure in the mid 1990’s.

MRA’s long term goal for the Midland Workshops is the realisation of a vibrant and sustainable mix of residential, retail/food/beverage, arts, medical and education infrastructure that is both forward thinking but also respectful of the history of the site and of the physical remnants