Appropriating the historical Old Rialto Building site in Melbourne, ‘The Unseen’ is a project, which explores interstitial spaces within our imagination.

‘The Unseen’ is a concept influenced by the film of Wong Kar Wai. The project is an architectural ‘stage’ for a narrative inspired by the common theme of time and allure of the 1960s time period.  In various interviews, WKW often stated that his ‘films are about real life’ that ‘capture the moment’. The looseness of his films act as an invitation to the audience to participate and declare their own conclusions.



‘The audience should bring dessert’...

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This project is an architectural response to these notions. Inspired by Wong Kar Wai’s admiration of the 1960s, the narrative of this design takes place at the original Rialto Building during this same time period. A long, concealed, intertwining corridor circulates between the walls and floors of the Rialto Building, creating a secret passageway where the ‘artist’ wanders and captures moments of people in the building with them, unaware. The journey ends at the artist’s studio where the walls are covered with photographs of these captures moments The corridor is not exclusively accessible however; the secret identity of the artist survives. How? As more people discover the corridor, the level of mystery increases. Who is the true artist? Perhaps it is everybody? The protagonist in the end is fact, this hidden, interstitial space.