Monday, October 28, 2013

Major Design Studio - Design Proposal


Kings Cross undoubtedly represents the hub of drug, alcohol, and domestic problems within the greater Sydney area. The conceptual theory behind my project is based on the common needs between what are essentially three separate, but related agencies. These three agencies specifically being; an alcohol rehabilitation centre, an alcohol mediation court-based setting, and a ‘sober bar’.

The fact that these issues of alcohol related harm are so visible within the area has resulted in the view of them as an accepted part of the social fabric of ‘The Cross’. As per the project title, therapeutic advice has come to form a major part of my architectural position. These therapeutic qualities emerge in all aspects of the project, from the conceptual ‘bandage’ that wraps the three towers together, the fact that the three towers lean on each other for support both in a physical and conceptual sense, through to the sense of therapeutic justice applied to the mediation-based justice settings.

While the O’Farrell government had promised the introduction of 3 ‘Sobering-Up Centres’, which would have proved a useful precedent to this previously unexplored program , this promise is yet to be  enacted. As such my design intent could also be looked at as a means to provide a precedent for this style of ‘Pilot System - Sober Centre’.