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Carrington Wharf Project

Part 2 Project 2012
Warren Haasnoot
University of Newcastle | Australia

The Carrington Wharf Project restores the historical notion of the wharf as a place traditionally characterised by its diverse activity and mixing of social demographic. The project develops an empathetic fascination with the otherworldliness of transience, drinking, violence and promiscuity. This is the radical antithesis of contemporary market driven architecture surrounding the site that has decayed any notion of a complex social order.

Because of its proximity to the industrial harbour, wharfie culture and now closed BHP, Carrington developed as a working class suburb with a fearsome reputation that arguably had a greater character, vitality and human spirit than its current condition. From what was once mud flats submerged at high tide and used by the Awabakal people for fishing, has today become a testament to the accelerated tempo of production brought about by the industrial revolution. The gentrification of the suburb has all but cleaned up the feverish excitement of exuberant sexual promiscuity, lust and cruelty that once existed. The projects assemblage uses existing infrastructure, outmoded buildings, machines, boats and the programmatic characteristics of the wharf. The proposed Brewery uses the existing grain silos to store the barley and hops used in the production of beer. Storage, loading, consumption and throughput facilities assist in the exportation and trade of the alcohol. We glimpse into the innermost depths of human beings through the analogy of intoxication.

Architecture in this instance isn't purely to provide shelter, commercial return or aesthetic enjoyment but an armature for dialogue between people concerned with the current state of architecture and the continual restrictions forced on the profession by irresolute constraints. Further to this is a critique of the resource boom and the moral implications of the quantity of coal that leaves Newcastle harbour each day.


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2012
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