Brief
How do we shape the future of the most inhospitable places in Naarm / Melbourne? In this brief, we focus on the hospitality and place making of two inhospitable sites, Old Melbourne Gaol and Pentridge Prison, in tourism scene. Through a series of research and ideation, we are to deliver a place-based customer-facing retail “object” that carries the historical context and connotation of these places.
Deliverable
To create an object that target visitors would buy that communicates the identity and history of Pentridge. It must be sellable, shelf-friendly, aligned to National Trust values and objectives.
Studio Client
National Trust
About the Project
Students underwent the research and product development from scratch that spanned across six weeks. In week 4, National Trust representatives came in to listen to students' pitching. Each student presented two product ideas and picked one after National Trust's feedback to be developed into high-fidelity prototype. In week 6, a high-quality prototype and retail strategies were presented to National Trust.
About the studio - 'Hospitable Futures'
'Hospitable Futures' is a studio offered to the cohort of Year 2 & 3 students in Bachelor's Degree of Communication Design at RMIT University, Australia. Led by Rebecca Nally and Rachel Worcou, students embarked on a 14-week journey of discovering, auditing, reflecting, proposing, prototyping hospitality experience in Naarm / Melbourne. The studio learning spanned across food-led experience to prison tourism, aiming to transform the possibly most inhospitable place into hospitable site whilst honestly acknowledging its history.
