About the Project

The brief was to design a university campus environment in a post-labour society.

In a post labour society we are given an opportunity to pause and reflect. Reflecting on our path forces us to observe our failures on our way of life as a species.

In a world previously dominated by infrastructure, urbanism and labour, little to no priority was given to the education on protecting the land we heavily occupy.

From early education through to university there is a lack of education on how to care for the land, specifically, water filtration and understanding how to produce and maintain clean water from our polluted bodies of water. There is a generational neglect of care, and in a post labour society is there much that is more important than the treatment of our land?

The site, located in Barangaroo, will be enclosed from the city with a large sandstone wall forming an oasis from the chaotic cityscape. The wall, constructed at first with intentional cracks and openings will begin to be further demolished by visitors to the site in order to infect the city with the universities message and way of life forward.

The university will educate users on why the surrounding bay is so polluted and what we as a society need to stamp out and how to then naturally filter not just the surrounding body of water by any water source for re purposing.

Users are given an opportunity to visit the university as their learning requires or to live on the site to understand long term effects of the filtration process. Each island in an archipelago site will research and teach its own process, from oyster farms to mangrove and reed farms students will have a practical and hands on approach on how to restore our forgotten water. The public is invited to the parent site to demolish the wall and to interact and engage through a built corridor acting as an artificial terrain, cutting through the site.

As the wall falls and the universiy takes over the city it will begin to occupy elements as required. If further dormitorys are required parts of the demolished wall will be used as part of pathways and structures to convert the nearby terraces into user accomodation. The university will begin these infections as a minimal oasis making them more relatable and saught out by the outside world, but once called upon they will be fit for purpose. Thus one infection at a time creating a new city, one where labour isn’t dominate and care for our water and ecoystems.