D E S I G N P R A C T I C E 2 A

RESEARCH TASK: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ARCHITECTURAL PRECEDENTS: INVESTIGATE WAYS IN WHICN ABORIGINAL CULTURE HAS BEEN ARCHITECTURALLY ACCOMMODATED/PRESENTED IN RECENT ARCHITECTURAL PROJECTS FOR ABORIGINAL CLIENTS.

Evan Gilchrist Frederick Kakish Susannah Sweeney

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The literature relating to architectural precedents for designing buildings for aboriginal people is surprisingly limited and one suspects this limitation is not due to a lack of interest in or work done, but rather a difficulty in ascribing an aboriginal archetype. Denis McDonald comments in his essay Architecture and Dance (1) that “the most important point to make when someone is reviewing or designing buildings for Aboriginal people is that there are no experts and no definitive books on the subject”. Consultation is the most important part of designing for Aboriginal people, abandoning preconceptions that all aborigines live an ancestral lifestyle is paramount, equally however for communities who no longer live a traditional lifestyle, maintenance of culture, be it through cultural events or a relationship with a tribal place is a prerequisite to any urban design.

The precedents largely consider communal spaces where the architects have used design solutions based on either “abstractions of Aboriginal ancestral histories or environmental relationships” or the explicit refusal to use “The Dreamtime” or iconic references in design. Shaneen Fantin in her article “Aboriginal identities in Architecture”, states that new aboriginal places of significance are made through the occupation and use of a place over time without necessarily containing references to an ancestor or ancestral history.

1. Uluru - Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre – Gregory Burgess Architects 1990

The centre was designed through a collaborative on–site process lasting a month, between the Mutitijulu community of Uluru and the Australian Nature Conservation Agency (ANCA) as joint clients, with architect Gregory Burgess.

2. Karijini National Park Visitor Centre – Woodhead International 2001

The Karijini National Park Visitor Centre attempts to announce the place where cultural identity is born. The building is constructed of Core-Ten which matches the red earth it rests on and gives the building an organic patina. The design of the building in plan represents a metaphoric goanna moving through the country and is symbolic to the local Banyjima Aboriginal People.

3. Bowali Visitors Center, Kakadu National Park – Glen Murcutt with Troppo Architects

Bowali Visitor Centre, Kakadu National Park is the product of an architectural collaboration between Troppo and Glenn Murcutt. Named after a nearby creek, the building is a slender, linear complex inspired by the Aboriginal rock shelters in the nearby stone country of the great Arnhem Plateau, with “vaulted ceilings, cool niches and areas of discovery”.

4. The Tjulyuru Ngaanyatjarri Centre at Warburton – Inside Out Architects, 1998

The Tjulyuru Ngaanyatjarri Centre at Warburton was specifically designed to support and encourage existing Aboriginal living practices, as well as kin-related Aboriginal etiquette and respect for the layering of Aboriginal knowledge systems.

5. Mirika-Alderton house, Yirrkala, NT by Glenn Murcutt, 1994

A domestic dwelling commissioned by an aboriginal artist, Marmburra Marika in Yirrkala, NT. Sitting between the ocean and a billabong it is a barely grounded structure seemingly floating above the dunes.

6. Tranby College, Glebe, NSW – Cracknell Lonergan 1998

A cooperative organization engaged in the education of the aboriginal people for over half a century. This project was commissioned to add to the existing facility.

7. Wilcannia Hospital, Wilcannia, NSW - Merrima Design, 2002

Merrima Design sought to reinterpret the original hospital designed by Cyril Blacket and more importantly seek to re appropriate the river site in order to allow the Barkanji people to reinstate their recent historical connection with the river.

8. Redfern AMS, Redfern, NSW- Merrima Design, 2004

In this project the designers had to disengage from the surroundings. This is the opposite to the Wilcannia project.

In conclusion, the precedents and architectural dialogue highlight the imperative of consultation with the community, which may take weeks or months, before a responsive cultural design brief is determined. “The Dreamtime” or not the overriding message is to understand the culture of the people and to incorporate cultural significance into the design. Shaneen Fantin concluded her essay on aboriginal identities in architecture with the message that “designers are often called upon to imagine new possibilities, and when that happens they act as cultural critics and as promoters of cultural change. In the design of art, culture and interpretive centres, keeping places and museums architects contribute to changing where and how significant meanings in Aboriginal places are created, and to Aboriginal cultural production. As such, architects and designers need to have an understanding of the complexities involved in the use of abstracted metaphors and encryptions from Aboriginal culture into architecture which is mostly derived from the architects own cultural milieu”.

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