Customs House is located at the shifting interlace of land and sea and functioned historically as the point of juncture for maritime and urban economies. It is this fluid interlace that we want to bring to the refurbished building by creating an abstracted sense of the ebb and flow of the tidewater through the central axis of the building. In an elemental combination of rock and light used to create the artifice of water we will bring the twice daily tide through to the underground of the atrium floor.

The Atrium A braced glass floor covering the entire central area reveals a subterranean space of large sandstone rocks suggestive of the bedrock under the building and in its harbour environs. An overall low level lighting enigmatically illuminates the sunken stones. Synchronised with the twice daily lunar cycle of the harbour’s tide a wash of dancing ‘water’, created solely by lighting effects, slowly ‘enters’ and then ‘recedes’ along the atrium’s axis.

At ‘high tide’ the underground will be filled with light swirling in rippling patterns over the rocks. At ‘low tide’ it will be mysteriously still and dark. In between the light will slowly and almost imperceptibly move along the entire length of the space and back again in time with the shifting tide outside.

High above the floor’s tidal underground with its rhythmical ‘filling’ and ‘emptying’ of watery light, the new louvred glass ceiling filters the other daily cycle of the sun’s light entering the space.

The eternal elements of nature will cradle the changing history of the building that is preserved in its walls. Its new life as a public space will thrive within the lively continuity of nature’s cycles above and below.

The Disabled Ramp A large granite wedge matching the granite of the building’s steps and columns forms the disabled ramp and becomes a strong sculptural entrance to the building. The granite wedge is polished on the sides and textured on the surface for tread. It is as wide as the current entrance step between the front columns and is fitted with glass balustrades. The refined and streamlined treatment of the granite (not local to the site) acknowledges the overlay of both colonial and contemporary culture on the ancient land.

The Foyer The granite continues through the foyer in the line and width of the suggested floor piece. Here pieces of roughly edged sandstone are inlaid flush into the granite reminiscent of the foyers terrazzo floor and in preparation for the underground sandstone in the atrium.