Sisters of Mercy
Creating an expansive thematic world
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‘Sisters of Mercy North Sydney – Our Story’ is an immersive and highly interactive exhibition housed within the listed Federation Queen Anne style Stormanston House. This hybrid space for learning, exhibition, and experience delves into the beginnings, characteristics, values, and social forces that have shaped the Sisters of Mercy North Sydney.
This project was awarded the National Trust Heritage Award for Education and Interpretation in 2019.
The curatorial and design vision for this project interpreted our client’s values and objectives as follows:
• using ordinary objects in extraordinary ways
• incorporating motifs that evoke a sense of shelter and refuge
• creating an ‘expansive world’ for each thematic area
• fostering various moods and atmospheres to contextualise and inspire experiences
• respecting and highlighting the heritage envelope of the building
• and integrating STEM learning principles.
Various immersive design spaces promote active learning experiences and interaction. Each atmospheric world is linked by a cohesive design language that includes interactive art installations, materiality, graphic direction, colour palette, lighting, technology, audio-visual elements, and digital interpretation.
Curation and design creatively employ symbols such as beds, doors, and desks, in unexpected ways, moving away from conventional religious visual themes while emphasising the extraordinary heritage values of the listed building. A mix of unconventional and surprising components, including recycled items, sculpted illuminated acrylic elements, screens, projections, objects, and soundscapes, inhabit and activate individual spaces, creating a cohesive immersive multimedia experience.
The contemporary design response provides a stimulating contrast within the sensitively and adaptively reused heritage space. In the ‘Education’ and ‘Health’ spaces, interpretive modules are a contemporary reinterpretation of 20th-century school desks and hospital bed forms, connecting to the network of schools the Sisters founded and the Mater Hospital they administered. Everyday ‘institutional’ materials such as tubular steel, opal acrylic, and teak are reimagined to create physical forms. Overall, a luminous space that uplifts the spirit and aligns with client values has been created.