The Cotton Mills Arts Precinct aims give the community a platform where existing and new communities can create, sell, and grow both individually and together whilst respecting the heritage overlay of the site. It also aims to attract new communities through ideas of curiosity and bringing the inside out through its site features, activities, and people.

Docklands Cotton Mills was previously a jute factory that has since become a centre for artists to hone and showcase their craft. Beautiful vines, foliage, doors, and pops of colour scatter around the inside of the complex, giving us a glimpse of the tenants’ personalities. However, the exterior of the complex looked very uninviting. Therefore, the goal was to draw people into the precinct, whist also respecting that this is a heritage site.

The project then drew on the concept of curiosity, in terms of how we could encourage people to want to go into the precinct. With this, three strategies that also put heavy focus on social, economic, and environmental sustainability were followed:

• Flexibility: the spaces that were designed throughout this project allowed tenants to arrange and rearrange the spaces however they want. This project put emphasis on social agency where the people are able to use the spaces in whichever way they see fit.

• Layering of social activities, spaces, functions, and elements that would take the people on a journey as they go through the precinct. The goal is to keep the users curious of what is to come, which would encourage more meaningful social connections.

• Multi-use: The designed tenancies were designed to allow for more uses beyond its main function to encourage more engagement opportunities as well as economic growth.