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Slash
Successful ecosystems rely on diversity. This proposal is diverse at all levels – the programmatic, architectural, cultural, economic and landscape. We seek to re-imagine the site without starting again, to build on its history as a place for medicine, healing and learning. Important memories are embedded within the existing fabric of the site, and these are used to inform new design insertions. The tradition, technics and tactics of medicine have helped inform these operations onto the existing buildings and landscape.
From a sustainable viewpoint, there is no need for any new major building work on the site in order to house new programs. It is with this approach that we developed a staged strategy of design through removal, health through diversity and rehabilitation through community participation in the re-imaging of the site’s role to Adelaide and South Australia.
We diagnose the site as physically clogged and programmatically homogenous. We seek to reintegrate the surrounding city and parklands. In removing accreted parts of building that have clogged the site, we open up the buildings to be part of an urban system, with their own identity and program. Retention of existing parts is essential, removing only those that are not central to the life of the site. Unblocking the arteries of the site converts it from one large building into many.
A new east-west opening is created through the site. The North Wing is removed down to its base, becoming a series of platforms in the blurred extension of the Botanical Gardens, In addition to this key east-west link the proposal creates a series of north-south laneways between the reinstated buildings, consistent with the lanes of central Adelaide. A large new public space, Royal Adelaide Gardens, is the centre of the proposal. Gathered around this is active program. Cutting through it, pathways link surrounding conditions of city and park together.
The considered combination of public and key stakeholder feedback has been used to establish diversity of programs with a range of proposed funding schemes and economic benefits. The program mix brings day and evening vitality to the site, with visitors, workers and residents ranging across this new piece of the city with gardens at its heart. Detailed analysis of public and stakeholder feedback has made clear the need for both green public space and major attractors.
The flagshipprogram forthe site is the proposed RARA (Royal Adelaide Radical Art) Gallery, occupying the 1960s Outpatients and Theatre Blocks. A large new open undercroft sits within the central Outpatients Block, acting as new civic meeting point for visitor and locals alike. The Emergency Block becomes a new centre for emerging and indigenous culture and activity. ‘The Emergency’ is a facility that builds on its dynamic past, a place of energy and change. A variety of programs in this building link to both the gallery and the High School, for example, the currently-abandoned lecture theatre on level 7 becomes a new dual use cinema and lecture theatre.
The new East Adelaide High School reclaims the East Wing, facing into both the front courtyard and the Botanic Gardens. A space of exchange and activity, the front courtyard deepens the public space along North Terrace. The four major historic buildings along North Terrace are all retained and enlivened, through a combination of retail, residential, business hub, cycling hub and heritage programs. Along Frome Road, The Margaret Graham Building, as the most significant heritage structure on the site is fully activated with bars and restaurants filling its speculator verandahs day and night. Community program and gardens sit next door. A new design hotel in the Residential Wing defines the northern edge of the new Royal Adelaide Gardens.
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Presentation Boards
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