As the suburb of Bowden enters a period of renewal, prevailing historical and significant architecture is proudly displayed in an attempt to preserve and adapt Adelaide’s heritage for an evolving Australian lifestyle. Attracted by the parallels of Bowden and cinematography, the medium of photography also shares this passion to preserve its subject, in distinct but comparable ways.

With a wide audiance photography attracts a diverse range of interests, including cinematography, analogue, and digital photography, providing ideal entertainment for the residents of Bowden. Sunken into the landscape, the proposed club aims to conceal itself within Bowden’s historically rich architecture and industry, focusing on many of the operational aspects of photography itself. With a focus on the ability to control light throughout the building, the club uses louvres and a system of rotating lenses to control and filter natural light through a photographic studio, darkroom and gallery. When closed off from light the club atrium uses an apperture to focus light through a series of Fresnel lenses, and project light through a web of the members artwork and onto the closed louvres. Using tinted red light from draped plastic suspended from a functional skylight, the photographic enlarger can be controlled using natural light and focused with the slanted vertical movement up a supporting column.