INTRODUCTION TO PART III

Urban islands are places for experimentation; urban labs for acting and reflecting.

Cockatoo Island is a place at once vacant and full, near and far, real and imaginary. As a place that has been continuously inhabited, altered and re-inhabited throughout its history, the physical character of the island itself is entirely open to interpretation. Cockatoo Island thus presented an ideal site for the first Urban Islands workshop, allowing studio investigations to traverse phenomenological, conceptual, material and interpretational concerns.

To provide an operational context, the Urban Islands Symposium held at the outset of the studio sought to broaden discussion to the greater issues surrounding the future of the island itslef and of urban development of similar sites.

A group of emerging voices - theorists, practitioners and educators - were invited to co-ordinate the studios: Jin Hidaka and Satoru Yamashiro of Responsive Environment, Tokyo; Lisa Iwamoto and Craig Scott of IS.Ar, San Francisco; Jaime Rouillon of JRA, Costa Rica; and Dr. Henri Praeger of Prarchitekten, Berlin (who was assisted by Chris Abel of Sydney University).

Work varied enormously across the studios, from IS.Ar’s investigations into systems and operations; through Rouillon’s obsession with exposed physicality; the Prager-Abel group’s meandering and experiential ‘feedback loop’; and culminating in the magnificent installations in the Turbine Hall by the Responsive Environment group, created using only water, sound and light.173

REVIEW OF THE URBAN ISLANDS STUDIO WORKS IN THE OLD CONVICT CELL, NOW CONVERTED TO A DIGITAL MEDIA ROOM

Finally, the closing Review on the island brought together a wide range of artists, architects and practitioners from many fields to view and critique the work, and to participate in discussions about the potential of the island and the directions developments might take in the future.

The projects presented here are some testament to the inspiration that many found, and continue to find, on Cockatoo Island.

OLIVIA HYDE, THOMAS RIVARD & JOANNE JAKOVICH
URBAN ISLANDS PROJECT174

FIGURE 1

THE ‘FRIED EGG’ LAND FORM OF COCKATOO ISLAND: THE SANDSTONE WAS CARVED, TUNNELED AND REDEPOSITED TO MAKE WAY FOR INDUSTRY