What Remains Behind

Sydney Harbour poses the confronting reality that several vessels had sunken in past, left behind and unremembered and one such vessel encountered was a barge wreck along the shores of Sawmillers Reserve. Upon visiting, it had become clear that there were several histories to the site beyond the barge wreck, callously cut tree trumps, remains of the sawmill's foundation and a wharf, left in a state of disrepair and unacknowledged of any historic or hertiage status. Later visits would reveal that the tides would drown some of the remains, thus changing the narrative of the site. As such, the drama house proposed would frame, conceal and reveal these relics to allow passerbys to craft their own narrative of the site.

The site has several histories - once a sawmill, a timberyard, a wharf and today, a public reserve. Today, this is only evidenced by the remnants remaining thus, the development frames this, deliniating a journey to allow the acknowledgement of these relics.

As such, the site model became an exercise in mapping these fragments. The programmatic volumes would disrupt the views of the fragments before revealing them.

The programmatic volumes feel washed ashore, whilst the jetty remains rigid and forced to frame the views of the relics. As the tides rise, the public spaces would be drowned.

In place of cladding, cloth would be used as a theatrical device to further control views. As such, the ebbs of the water and gusty winds would determine what views would be revealed.

As such, the drama house becomes a remnant of the site itself, soley serving to frame views of its previous histories, bringing us to ponder.