Perth Town Hall - 29 April 2025
Legacy Lab is a project by design students that brings lost buildings back into the conversation through digital modelling and speculative design.
It is about memory, imagination, and the student journey.
It is one of those projects where everything aligns – heritage, design, education, and imagination.
Working with the original plans of the Hotel Adelphi, our students stepped into the shoes of designers from another time.
By reconstructing the building’s historic exterior, they could then speculate on its potential future – dreaming up vibrant internal spaces that could house cafés, boutique stores, bars, or public venues.
Not just a modelling exercise, this is about storytelling, designing with context, thinking critically, and building a future that honours the past.
It’s an immersive way for students to develop real-world skills—like interpretation, visualisation, and digital communication—while being deeply rooted in the local identity of our city.
Images: All images on this page, including the banner, showcase the work of Ron Facius. He taught design and drawing at the Perth Tech from 1981, with the aim of developing an Industrial Design program.
In 1989, this became the Design for Industry course under his leadership at Central Metropolitan College of TAFE, which he led until his retirement in 1998.
He went on to run a private practice and art school in Roleystone. He was also vice President of the Art Deco society.