For my honours project we were tasked with creating an adaptive reuse project for White Bay Power Station, in Sydney, that focused on creativity, community and culture. My Bump-In Performance Centre was designed to provide three theatre spaces for the community (a public amphitheatre, rooftop theatre and internal promenade theatre) as well as rehearsal spaces and restaurants for pre and post performance activities.
Process sketches and demonstration of opening archways and curtains
Bump In Performance Centre - Part I Taking inspiration from the theatrical experience ‘Sleep No More’, in New York, the main interior space of the building is left mostly bare for a fully adaptable promenade theatre experience. Structurally, the only major intervention is the entirely adjustable archway, spanning the length of the building, that can open up to take advantage of the city skyline or close to transport the audience to a completely new world.
Curtain and handle detail sketches
Bump In Performance Centre - Part II The Coal Handling Shed was repurposed to be the rehearsal and creation space for all creatives to develop and practice performances for the amphitheatre, promenade theatre and rooftop theatre that this performance centre provides. I have designed the space to invite collaboration and creativity through the ambiguity of the materials, the openness of the space and integrated peg boards for pinning up ideas, samples, sketches and inspiration.
Tile concept sketch for back wall
Process sketches, space inspiration and rendered perspectives showing the space from micro to macro
Bump In Performance Centre - Part III Another form of theatre iteration, the rooftop theatre, uses the combination of lighting and city backdrop as its setting for performances. Additionally, the seating is designed to remain dry during rain while also storing audience members’ bags and jackets during performances.
Seating process sketch
From top to bottom: Audience members ready for the show, corridor between seating and stage, stage spotlights
Banquette seating design process sketch
Bump In Performance Centre - Part IV Opia = the ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can feel simultaneously invasive and vulnerable. The entire focus of this restaurant was to create a space for observing and being observed, a hospitality response to the concept of theatre box seats. I have designed the above booth seating for this space to evoke the luxury of the traditional box seat experience, incorporating plush velvet upholstery and reflective kickplates to enhance the experience.
Floor plan, process sketch, space inspiration and rendered perspectives illustrating the vast length of the room
My cohort was given the brief of creating a cafe cart for the newly opened W Hotel in Sydney’s Darling Harbour with the inspiration word: Hooligan. My design took the fun loving nature of the Australian hooligan and delved into the notion of an ‘Esoteric Sydney’, the places in the city that are often hidden but deemed important or special by those that visit them. I found great inspiration from the two balancing factors that make Sydney so special - secret back passages that highlight the beauty of the city, naturally and architecturally, and the temporary installations and exhibitions that keep things new and exciting. I have executed this with the combination of bright colourful flowing forms that are revealing themselves from under a fixed concrete structure.
View from Chatswood Westfield parking
Architects of Air temporary exhibition
Hidden stairwell in the Rocks
Vivid light show
As a technical drawing project the ‘Covid Cafe’ looked at new ways we can introduce adaptability in public settings to allow for ever changing Covid restrictions. For me this included being able to create seating that could encourage or discourage sitting down depending on seatback placement. For this project I have incorporated seatbacks that can be inserted into and removed from a back pole with indents that would be uncomfortable to sit against if there were no seatbacks installed. This back pole is shown in the details on the right.
Visual representation of how the cafe set up can change to follow social distancing rules
In the middle of Covid we started a project on imaginative interiors and what provided us solace during lockdown periods. My ‘Observatory Theatre’ was greatly inspired by our attraction to all things entertainment, music, theatre, film, art and the escape they provided, as well as the juncture where classical and contemporary meet, both architecturally and creatively. This project required creating a building that took direction from digital artists like Alexis Christodoulou and making an ideal space that could not exist in our reality. I placed my work in a red rock cliff desert, completely void of society, giving full opportunity to submerge in the luxurious theatre where the entire building is your stage to play with.
Computer renderings, sections and floor plans
Physical model exploring transition spaces