Will O’Rourke constructs ‘The Martian Embassy’ for creative writing centre Sydney Story Factory

Sydney-based production company Will O’Rourke has designed and built a new home for the creative writing centre, Sydney Story Factory.

Dubbed ‘The Martian Embassy’ the centre is a permanent space situated in Redfern and opens at the end of next week.

Cath Keenan and Tim Dick from Sydney Story Factory approached Will O’Rourke to spearhead production of this charity project.

Over thirty specialists have been brought together to build a fully functioning shop and writing centre, under the creative leadership of designers The Glue Society and architects LAVA (Laboratory of Visionary Architecture).

The Sydney Story Factory is a not-for-profit creative writing centre for young people. They offer students free help to write stories of all kinds. Programs target marginalized young people, and those from Indigenous or from non-English speaking backgrounds, but are open to everyone.

The project is inspired by 826 Valencia, a creative writing centre for young people started by novelist Dave Eggers in San Francisco in 2002. Following that eight more stores have opened around the USA and UK, with each store having its own fantastical theme. The Sydney Story Factory brings this model to Australia for the first time.

Says Josh Mullens, head of projects at Will O’Rourke: “As part of our desire to deliver interesting productions that go beyond film, this has been a dream project. It demonstrates to our agency partners that we can help them build permanent spaces, pop-up shops, installations among others. With limited funds for this project, donors have been plentiful. We are very thankful to all the people and companies who have helped us get to this point.”

The landmark space will be officially opened by the Governor of NSW, Professor Marie Bashir, on Saturday July 21.