All photos: Brett Boardman/Peter Murphy

International firm LAVA has gone intergalactic with their latest design “The Martian Embassy” for the “Sydney Factory Store”, a non-profit writing centre for young people in Redfern. Partnered with Will O’Rourke and The Glue Society, LAVA designed the space as a writing workshop, with room to accommodate up to 30 students and staff, plus expanded audiences for talks, launches, and events. Some 1068-milled plywood ribs line the periphery of the space, their curving profiles forming a “spaceship-like portal system” that undulates as it tunnels towards the rear of the volume.

Those same ribs (and the spaces between them) also serve as seats, benches, storage, counters and displays, with their bends and grooves functioning as both ornament as well as structure. Foreign guests of The Martian Embassy are greeted with special light and sound projections, leading them through the tunneling space where they first encounter the gift shop, filled with various products including Martian passports, 1kg cans of gravity and SPF 5000 sunscreen, before finally reaching the rear classroom, where tutors and volunteers help students craft their stories. Click through for more.

[via LAVA]

by Ashley Wells

posted in Uncategorized

tagged aliens, australia, LAVA, learning center, MARS, martians, non-profit, reading, SHoP, stories, Sydney Factor Store

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