“If I were compelled to sum up Melbourne in a single building, it would be this one, with its striking terracotta and dark-green faience-glaze facade.” – Sophie Cunningham

Walking along Swanston Street, I went in any building or entrance that caught my eye. I came across an escalator going downwards, into a $2.80 Japanese mart, Daiso, where little knick-knacks were illuminated by faint 2700K lights. I also found a thrift shop with a sign outside saying 50% OFF EVERYTHING – it was an ocean of unorganised racks and mismatched colours; they had a decent playlist on the speakers and I Shazam-ed two songs. My favourite stop was a slightly dodgy building with a short stairway that led to a shop called RetroStar Vintage Clothing – if it weren’t for the sign outside, I wouldn’t have known that this place existed.

I came out of the shop with two tops and a pair of cute earrings (that were already dusty from age) and noticed that there was a stairway leading upwards on my right. I thought about how this might be a good bet for Assessment 2. Out of curiosity, I went up the steps and found the entrances to a shop selling buttons, and a place that offered Tarot reading. There was another set of steps ahead of me, but I dared not venture ahead – it seemed to get darker as the floors got higher. My curiosity turned into a small wave of fear. I turned back, and hastily found my way out of the space, which I then recognised to be the Nicholas Building.

The next time I was there, I was with my group mate, Nicolette, and we traversed up the stairways, one after the other, from the ground floor, all the way up to the ninth floor – the tenth was boarded up with no hope of entry. We also found our way to the vertical stairwell, where the toilets were situated. All of them were locked, though … Just like the door that led back to the building. We looked at each other in utter shock, upon realising that the door only opened from the inside. Making our way down to the lowest floor, we finally found relief as the door easily swung open.

We decided to pick this building. This would be the building we document for our upcoming assessment. I thought about what I might focus on, and perhaps, after these various experiences, perhaps one thing I would like to zoom in on are the elements of being trapped, or simply the experience of being in an enclosed area.