Architecture is a product of the body. It is built through human sense and proportions, and it is experienced in the same way. Buildings are a collage of their navigable shapes, the sounds interacting with their textures, the smells that linger from their functions, and perhaps most importantly the light that bounces from their surfaces. The Extravision centre is a study of these sensations of architecture, particularly, it seeks to understand the impact vision impairment has on spatial experiences.

Like many other disabilities, blindness and low vision in the built environment is only a handicap when it is not designed for. Too often, designers restrict much of the aesthetic qualities of architecture to the visual realm, therefore this community centre built into the site of Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is about reconsidering the formation of seen architecture by designing for its unsee-able qualities.

The existing site is a vertical kaleidoscope of architectural styles, lending to its institutional position in the Australian design world. However, for the visually-impairment, the geometric impact of a floor plan is exceedingly more important than its vertical aspects. Therefore, when you consider the current building’s mostly rectangular plan the juxtaposed and curvaceous exterior is only visually accessible. In response, shapes of the existing structure were transplanted horizontally, to make it navigably perceivable. Further the sleekness of the 1988 addition is reflected in the smooth level and material transitions within the street side plaza. This is contrasted by the tactile immobility of the 1899 power station.

The encapsulating centre hangs above a plaza that mirrors its undulating tectonics. Curving paths and slopes guide users through three different levels of habitation. From the community hall and office spaces above, the plaza and non-visual cinema seen from the street and the canyon like gallery below, the historic facade shapes have been navigably transcribed into the landscape. Individual auditory atmospheres form in these spaces with alterations in brightness and heat providing spatial transitions. Changes in material texture identify your strata, while different plant smells waft from specific gardens beds, signposting an inhabitant’s position. The space of course uses well known features like braille signage and tactile pavement, but the centre is not just about accessibility but also accessible discoverability. Many of us explore buildings through vision, but here with consistent alternative sensations an occupant can do this non-visually, creating an architecture of sound, of touch, of temperature, of navigation, of balance and of smell, not just sight.