Located at the Heart of the Medway sits Chatham; a riverside town in Kent with a rich naval history. Following my first visit to the Historic Dockyards of Chatham, there was a clear disconnect between the dockyards and the people of the town. The brick wall surrounding the docks was a key contributor to this.
In response I designed a souvenir to reference this disconnect and restore balance between the people. The ‘cheers to Chatham’ drinking game encouraged a member of each party to drink in sync from a shared source.
To study the site deeper, I designed a device that would help to capture the forgotten history and stories on sight. The ‘Day in the Sun’ device gave forgotten objects their day in the sun by using cyanotype sun printing as its mechanism.
With the themes of balance and uplifting the forgotten came the drive for the major design project: Fruitful Futures. A fruit leather production and fashion education center that acts as a safe haven for local graduates and community members to enrich themselves in the ever growing world of material research. Fruitful futures is a playful yet sophisticated environment that highlights the former industrial history of the site, while keeping a clear distinction between the old and the new. With a strong linear intervention within the existing structural columns of the site, the design references the bold linearity of runways. With a gradual progression up to the highest point on the runway, the site is a journey through the life of fruit leather.
Using fruit as biomaterial opens the door to a playful, colorful future, blending sustainability with creativity.