Institute of Curiosity

A Post-work Society

Observatory Hill Park, Sydney

Brief

Students were asked to design an Extreme Institute of Leisure in the age of mass unproductivity within a post-work society. Situated in Observatory Hill Park, Sydney, our studio’s task was to create an institute through an atmospheric and meteorological lens, with the intention of representing our position on what a post-work society institute would be.

Our Position

Without the need to work to survive, people will have the new-found time to explore innate human desires; one of them being, curiosity.

Proposal

In the pursuit of leisure, the Institute of Curiosity encourages the exploration of newfound and unexpected knowledge through a transformed vision of retail consumption.

This vision interprets the collision between a library and a museum, in which an array of peculiar objects can be both borrowed and experienced. This program acknowledges the premise that retail consumption as a leisurely activity is unlikely to cease in a post-work society, whilst allowing for diversified avenues to inspire curiosity.

*4. Newtons’s laws of motion / Direct sunlight*

The institute holds bespoke rooms designed for these singular objects that explain phenomena; including Newton’s laws of motion, Einstein’s theory of general relativity, gravity, astronomy, light refraction, electricity and plant biology. Corresponding workshop spaces host satellite objects which allow for both instant interaction and off- site borrowing.

The Institute of Curiosity induces interest through its form by allocating 90% of the spaces to be either fragmented, concealed underground, cut into the landscape or peaking up from within it. Atmospherically, the rich qualities and variations of light is used as a medium to enhance each objects’ particular function, and as a result, stimulate the sense of curiosity even further.