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The Augurist & The Apothecary

Part 1 Project 2021
Gabriel Edyvean-Heard
Oxford Brookes University Oxford | UK
Our senses are mechanisms to flourish in the natural world. Our current, constricted climate has caused heightened senses that either wilt or overgrow. This polarity has contributed to a mental health epidemic.

A refugee, Tiresias not only battles with the loss of a physical sense but also an overarching sense of disassociation within a non-inclusive society. His visual impairment allows him to create new connections in the absence of visual information, paradoxically resulting in a sixth sense, 'Augurism', a form of fortune-telling. The Wharf engages with these senses, creating a therapeutic place of accessibility, refuge, and opportunity for local communities seeking sanctuary. The Apothecary is situated at the Oxford Botanical Garden, connecting to the Wharf via the canal. It explores the garden's colonial past, tracing the journey of its stolen plants, celebrating their origins, and converting them into aeroponically grown herbal remedies that generate beneficial cognitive effects. For visitors, the building provides a sensory overload, intertwining textures, sounds, scents, tastes and sights. Whilst immersing themselves in the traditional tea-making process, visitors are invited to fill rammed earth cavities with items of personal, cultural importance. These oddities are gifted, as opposed to being stolen, reversing the historical context of the site.


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2021
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