These images display my contribution to an academic group project, titled the 'Waterloo Social Condenser'.
A social condenser is a building typology first proposed by Russian constructivists, in their desire to create a new social order and encourage collective consciousness.
Our brief was to adapt this typology to a former Kennards storage warehouse in Waterloo, NSW, using a range of commercial and creative programs.
The model pictured here is an abstract means of conveying the site's relationship to the surrounding urban context. Blue strings represents a site with waste to use in folly production,
green represents the placement and connection of the folly to it's material source, and orange represents social events and public engagement.
My chief contribution to the final proposal was the design of the makerspace, in addition to the conceptual model, and much of the site planning, programmatic, and conceptual development.
If you wish to understand more about the project's design process, you can find more information regarding my technical contributions
here, and conceptual thinking here.
The primary aim of the makerspace was to create a functional workshop large enough to facilitate the production of large-scale objects and large truck access. Alongside the fabrication area is space for collaborative design, socializing, and a functional laboratory.
It is a place where the community can come together to co-produce project-specific follies, made out of materials collected from local industrial waste streams, or developed and grown within the lab.
I understood this building to represent an example of a potential emerging typology: an open workshop and research commons for designers, technologists, and creatives. A place where a community of diverse interests and experiences can
collectively produce something tangible, with the shared goal of creating a more sustainable built-environment.
Location: Waterloo, NSW – Gadigal Country
Year: 2024
Tutor, Coordinator: John Cabello, Michael Ford
Institution, Studio: University of Technology, Sydney, Studio 6
Result: High Distinction, ‘Capstone Prize Commendation’
Group Members: Samuel Lloyd, Zack Heffernan