Forgotten Interiors

Historic buildings play an important role in helping shape and characterise a city’s’ urban fabric. They extend beyond purely the aesthetic by enhancing our urban experience through providing a notion of continuity, and, by forming an enduring connection to our past, present, and future. In many instances, extending a historic building’s life that has fallen into a state of dilapidation, and, saving the rich history in which resides within its walls requires a rehabilitative or adaptive approach. Undertaking this process however, can become challenging when there lies an absence of interior documentation for the site. A clear understanding of the current, forsaken state in which the building’s interior has sunken into cannot therefore be established.  The aim of this research is to therefore explore how a rehabilitative approach can be applied to the dilapidated, heritage listed, former Tramway Hotel to rejuvenate its forgotten interiors. By breathing another life into the building’s old bones, it seeks to make it fit for modern purposes once again whilst tangentially retaining the rich history that is housed within its weathered walls. Through the cyclical, reflective, and iterative nature of action research, this research investigates a range of techniques in response to the site’s forgotten interiors. By initially exploring the issue from various avenues, through the cycles of identifying, planning, acting and then critically self-reflecting, the design iterations produced refined in scope to eventuate in the act of strategically inserting, and then shifting newly built elements within the existing structure of the former Tramway Hotel. What was essential throughout the research and was therefore translated into a criterion for the evaluation of each iteration, was the need to add another life to the building, to allow it to persist, to live on without disrupting its historic integrity and character. Through the implementation and direct visual contrast of the newly built elements from historic ones, the developed design response seeks to establish a clear dialogue between the two so that each complements and enhances the other.