Speculative Spolia

Exploring Blackwattle Bay as a microcosm for the history and future trajectory of Sydney at large, the project creates a speculative narrative of how a building built for the present may evolve into the future. With a research lens of projected societal and environmental challenges such as an Ageing Population Implosion and the increased frequency of Flooding events, the project scenario plans for the future through a polyvalent architectural system that can reconfigure its form and function by the demands of its future context. Ultimately, architecture is envisaged not merely as a static form but, as a dynamic entity in continuous flux.

Time Lapse model (1 to 200 scale). The building form emerges from its structural skeleton to a uniform form in 2030 to a dynamic expressive elevation in 2080.

The pervading uncertainty of the future concerning unprecedented societal shifts, environmental challenges and exponential technological advancements, ultimately forces uncertainty on the role of architecture in a constant stream of change.

The structural system is a beam and column system that can be reconfigured for future adaptation. A polyvalent modular structural system that anticipates the inevitability of change.

An architecture that identifies how it will dilapidate and how it may be a form of upcycling or spolia throughout time; to design buildings that recognise their mortality from their conception.

Hybrid Site Model at 1:1000 (Left) and Time Lapse Model at 1:200 (Right)