Adaptive reuse concept design for a boutique hotel. Collaboration between three designers.

A heritage-listed naval building on the harbour, reimagined as a boutique hotel. The research traced its past lives: Gadigal country, maritime industry, wartime storage and an extraordinary 1980s reinvention as an artists' squat, home to underground theatre and zine culture. Sydney hotels default to light, breezy and coastal; this building asked for the city's other face, the one shaped by convicts, rogues and rebels.

The concept word was TEASE. Public spaces are theatrical: strong colour, bold pattern, robust surfaces against the building's industrial weight. Guest rooms are intimate and enveloping. Nothing is revealed at first glance, and each visit unfolds differently.