Corrimal Coke Works
Corrimal Coke Works
A Heritage Plaza and Public Art and Interpretation Strategy as part of a major redevelopment of the former industrial Coke Works in the Illawarra.
Location
Wodi Wodi, Dharawal Country Corrimal, NSW
Client
Legacy Property & Illawarra Coke Company
Completion
Ongoing
Collaborators
Heritage Precinct Collaborators Urbis Clouston Public Art & Cultural Strategy Collaborators Juundaal Strang-Yettica Trent Jansen Indigigrow Kate Waters
Site Photography
Alexander Mayes
Visualisations
Choi Render
Working with prominent existing structures on the site, including a 1912 brick chimney stack, the old powerhouse building and battery ovens, alongside critically endangered Illawarra Grassy Woodland providing habitat for many non-human residents, Aileen Sage worked collaboratively with landscape architects, heritage specialists, ecologists, local creatives, community members and Knowledge Holders to provide a strategy for cultural, commercial and community gathering spaces within the new residential development.
Alongside the design for the adaptive reuse of these structures, our Public Art and Interpretation Strategy commissioned local artists to represent these intertwined ecologies and consider how they can be reimagined as a cultural contribution to Corrimal’s contemporary landscape.
The existing power station structure is adapted to house a new hospitality offering adjacent to Corrimal train station.
An entry sequence of salvaged brick seats and cultural plantings welcomes visitors to the precinct. The integrated artworks - ‘Catchment Benches’ by Trent Jansen and ‘Telescope Corridor’ by Juundaal Strang-Yettica - explore and celebrate the variety of shapes and colours of the mixed brick types salvaged from the site. Many of the bricks are marked indicating that they were made from local clay particular to Dharawal Country.
Demolition revealed an extensive system of underground flues and a vast array of brick colours ranging from pure blonde to rich reds, lustrous black to pale mauve; bricks that had been charred and melted by the intense heat of the ovens. Bricks were carefully collected and sorted by our team, salvaged for reuse in the public domain.
”It is envisioned that six trees (Dharawal Cabbage Tree palms,) planted in a circle are’ grown’ or manipulated by the use of light, to grow inward, toward each other, creating a canopy for a meeting place.” - Juundaal Strang-Yettica
A new public plaza connects the residential precinct to the existing train station.
Coal hoppers prior to demolition.
Coke ovens prior to demolition.
A new hospitality offering activates the precinct.