OBSCURA glimpses | Civic & Commercial

In response to the site where buildings along Clarence Street seem packed like sardines to fit into their building envelopes, this project has chosen to take a step back, for Country to inhabit the voids.

A Museum of Lost Environments. A Fine Furniture Maker.

A celebration of devotion.

In ancient China, an emperor chose to cut the sleeve of his valuable, well-crafted robe just to avoid waking his lover from his slumber. This caused a massive uproar and was the talk of the day as clothes and craftsmanship was much more highly regarded then, and few would be willing to destroy an entire garment just to ensure an uninterrupted sleep for a mere lover. This story has been passed down across thousands of years and there is a saying related to this story which is still referred to and used in day-to-day conversations.

This story connects the two programmes together as the depth of the emperor‘s devotion and the people’s appreciation for the delicacy of handcrafted items led to the related saying still being used today. The lost environment focused on in this museum of lost environments is that which existed in the past, where people loved more deeply, and cared more about finely-crafted objects -- products of this fine furniture maker workshop.

Inspired by Carlo Scarpa’s Castelvecchio museum and Olivetti Showroom, this project containing a fine furniture maker and a museum of lost environments aims to inspire visitors to ruminate on the sublime.

With winding passageways and unexpected views encouraging visitors to take their time exploring, this project hopes to cultivate a stronger devotion to craftsmanship and love -- this depth of devotion having been lost in the passage of time.

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Craftsmanship.
The torn sleeve.
The mandate of heaven.
Craftsmen whose work was so revered, they did not have to greet the emperor who had
the mandate of heaven.
These elements make up the story which originated two thousand years ago in the Western
Han dynasty. A story which emphasises the amount of skill, patience, attention to detail,
and perseverance required for craftsmen to weave the garments, and the amount of devo
tion to his lover the thirteenth emperor of the Xi Han dynasty had.
An amount of devotion so intense that the emperor Han Ai was willing to destroy a piece of
garment which even he, as the emperor, owned few pieces of (Due to the significant time
and labor investment, even the emperor possessed a limited number of highly elaborate
garments.). An amount of devotion that let him disregard how he would be perceived as the
emperor after this act. In response, his lover wore short-sleeved garments from then on to
show gratitude to the emperor.
This project laments the rise of fast fashion in this post-Industrial-Revolution era, and
hopes to be a reminder of the importance of craftsmanship which has been fading into a
distant memory.