To History

_{Professional | with Neeson Murcutt Architects, 2017 
Assisting with research, design iterations, models, drawings, visualisation and documentation.
All materials presented here are completed by myself.}

This project is a visitor center located on the historical site of a female convict factory in Tasmania, set up by the British army. Women convicts incessantly cooked, washed clothes, provided essential services for the army, many of whom chronically overworked and suffered from various health issues. The site later became a depot for the poor, then a hospital, eventually a museum and a popular tourist attraction along the famous hiking route. It is the only remaining female factory in the world with substantial remnants from a history of forced immigration, incarceration and colonisation.

We traced the original heights of remnant decayed stone walls where the presence of time is acutely felt, and remake an enclosure that gently touches the relic of the wall while opening up to its sublime landscape around. A walkway is created journeying from the terrace to the excavated archaeological foundations, conjuring a misty atmosphere emanating from the rivulet outside. The field is delicately saturated with planting, poetically contrasting with the bleakness of adjacent yards, and eliciting contemplation of the past. Here, tapestry as a foregrounded texture for the canopy and interior walls bridges the history and the present.