Architecture Australia Jan / Feb 2019

Vol. 108 No. 1

A$14.95

Architecture in region l rur l nd remote Austr li

A R C H I T E C T: LYO N S , I R E D A L E P E D E R S E N H O O K
L A NDSCA PE A RCHITECTS: ASPECT STUDIOS
A R T I S T: J O N TA R R Y
PHOTOGR A PH E R: GA RY PETERS
limitless
customisation
An enduring design solution to match your
imagination. UrbanStone provides Australia’s
¿QHVWHQJLQHHUHGDQGQDWXUDOVWRQHSDYLQJIRU
the country’s most innovative landscape projects.

urbanstone.com.au | 1300 627 667

Glasroc F
High performance fire protection for
structural steel columns and beams
• Install one layer to achieve up to a 120 minute FRL
• No jointing needed to achieve fire rating
• High quality, robust surface with a smooth finish

Find out more at gyprock.com.au

 Contents
Architecture Australia
Jan / Feb 2019
Upfront
09 Foreword
Clare Cousins, National President
of the Australian Institute of
Architects, emphasizes the impact
of great architecture on the regions.
10 Reflection
Editorial director Katelin Butler
looks forward to the year ahead.
12 Community and contribution
An introduction to this themed issue
on architecture in regional, rural and
remote Australia.
Cover image Maitland Riverlink by Chrofi with McGregor Coxall
Photography Brett Boardman
Jan / Feb 2019
Projects
16 Maitland Riverlink
Chrofi with McGregor Coxall’s
revival of the Maitland city centre
is a sublime lesson in addition and
subtraction. Review by Kerry Clare
and SueAnne Ware.
24 Les Wilson Barramundi
Discovery Centre
Bud Brannigan Architects’ building
is a poetic and uncompromising
celebration of Karumba’s industrial
legacy. Review by Roger Mainwood
and Stefanie Field.
32 The Creamery, Bannister Downs Dairy
Bosske Architecture’s expansion plan
for a farm in Northcliffe is utilitarian
and agricultural, yet corporate and
spectacular. Review by Jennie Officer.
70 Waltzing Matilda Centre
Cox Architecture pays tribute
to the Winton community and
the landscape that inspired Banjo
Paterson. Review by Peter Skinner.
78 Freycinet Lodge Coastal Pavilions
Liminal Architecture amplifies
the experience of the distinctive
landscape of Freycinet National Park.
Review by Genevieve Lilley.
86 AGT Southern Crop Breeding Centre
A crop research facility designed by
Ashley Halliday Architecture Interiors
offers a contemporary vision of rural
enterprise. Review by Julian Worrall.
94 Lismore Regional Gallery
In Lismore, Dominic Finlay Jones
Architects in association with Phil
Ward has delivered a community-
minded and thoroughly successful
civic space. Review by Ashley Dunn.
Student work
100 Regional learning
Chris Knapp examines a selection
of recent studios connecting
architecture students with regional
communities.
102 Social practice
Deepika Mathur studies a University
of Newcastle and Tangentyere
Design partnership, which reframes
architecture as a social enterprise.
Discussion
41 Reframing the regional conversation
Helen Norrie investigates
the initiatives and projects that offer
a compelling vision of life outside
the major urban centres.
54 Fourth World problems
Kieran Wong laments the
ways politics, bureaucracy and
a misguided push for innovation
inhibit empowerment for Indigenous
communities.
57 On edge in the centre
Sue Dugdale considers what
the Alice Springs built environment
reveals about the town’s layered
social fabric.
60 A portrait of regional practice
Shaneen Fantin speaks
with practitioners in far north
Queensland to discuss regional
work and the profits and pitfalls
of collaboration.
62 Architecture for Indigenous
healthcare in the regions
Timothy O’Rourke reports
on a current study investigating
cross-cultural design in healthcare
architecture.
Profile
64 Iredale Pedersen Hook
Elizabeth Grant speaks with the
directors of this practice about
harnessing government agendas
in order to support and help maintain
cultural practices.
Platform
104 Source Architects
Ben Green finds the work
of Orange-based Source Architects
to be flexible, nuanced, robust and
resourceful.
110 People Oriented Design
Andrew Broffman discusses
how People Oriented Design’s agile
practice model addresses social
justice in the built environment.
07
National
Architecture
Awards

Chapter Entries
Closing Soon
See website for details
architecture.com.au
Foreword
Building a legacy Regional Australia is still Australia’s beating
heart, vital to the fabric of who we are.
of great architecture Its cities, towns and vast landscapes inform
our nation’s lore and its sacred dreaming.
in the regions From the sandy, rugged reaches
of our coastline to the deep red centre,
there is a move toward embracing innovative,
sustainable and beautiful architecture.
Once seen as the domain of the
major cities, architecture is germinating
with force, its appreciation and application
spreading to our most remote locations.
Increasingly, regional Australia is becoming
home to some of Australia’s best
contemporary architecture practice.
This issue of Architecture
Australia celebrates the richness and
diversity of architect-designed buildings
and precincts emerging all over regional
Australia. The projects within speak of
place, exhibit an acute sense of community
and reflect different visions of Australia
and its seemingly endless space. They
also exemplify the unique challenges and
rewards of creating great architecture
in regional Australia.
This issue ranges the length and
breadth of our vast continent, exploring
projects in the east from the Hunter Region,
northern New South Wales and Victoria
through outback Queensland and South
Australia and into Western Australia.
It includes insightful interviews discussing
the sometimes-tough realities, challenges
and successes of regional architectural
practice, including in the Top End.
It is important to note that the
Australian Institute of Architects’ 2018
National Architecture Awards demonstrated
the growing importance and embrace
of regional architecture.
Bendigo Hospital by Silver Thomas
Hanley with Bates Smart was awarded
the Sir Zelman Cowen Award for Public
Architecture, Barwon Water in Geelong
by GHD Woodhead won the Harry Seidler
Award for Commercial Architecture, the
krakani lumi standing camp in remote
Tasmania by Taylor and Hinds Architects
with the Aboriginal Land Council
of Tasmania won the Nicholas Murcutt
Award for Small Project Architecture,
and the Robin Boyd Award for Residential
Architecture – Houses (New) went
to the striking House on the Coast
on the Mornington Peninsula by Sean
Godsell Architects.
Jan / Feb 2019
Regional architectural projects
demand just as much skill and sensitivity
as those executed in a metropolitan
setting. As one of many examples, krakani
lumi demonstrates the tremendous power
such projects can possess. In the words
of the jury, “a respectful collaboration
between the palawa Aboriginal custodians
and the architects has infused the
project with cultural relevance and a
technical precision emanating from the
locale. The partnership enabled a setting
that reveals Country as the beginning
and the end.”
The 2018 award-winning
projects continue the resurgence
of regional architecture that has been
building in recent years, and which was
captured in the theme of last year’s
national conference, Edge. Australia’s
population has now surpassed 25 million,
making our regional centres more
important than ever before.
Great architecture offers a unique
economic opportunity to our regions,
not only through the value of jobs and
services during construction but also
through the enduring value of attracting
more visitors. The value of architectural
cultural tourism nationally is around $827
million.1 Continuing to extend this beyond
our metropolitan centres can help provide
a welcome boost to local economies
with an influx of tourists and visitors.
While it is easy to focus on the
grand architectural projects cities provide
a platform for, the enduring legacy great
architecture can bring to regional Australia
must not be overlooked.
Not only can our work help
reinvigorate communities, it can also be
the glue that binds them, creating a common
sense of civic pride so vital to keeping our
regions vibrant and cohesive.
— Clare Cousins, National President
Australian Institute of Architects
Footnote
1 “Measuring Up: innovation and the value add of
architecture,” NSW Architects Registration Board with
University of Technology Sydney, April 2016.
09
Reflection

The road ahead The November/December 2018 issue
of Architecture Australia was Cameron
Bruhn’s last as Architecture Media’s
editorial director. We wish him all the best
for his future endeavours as dean and
head of the School of Architecture at the
University of Queensland and thank him for
his significant contribution to Australia’s
architecture and design culture.
Cameron joined Architecture Media
in 2003 as a writer and editor, assuming
the position of editorial director in 2009.
In this role he made a major contribution
to developing Architecture Australia and
the company’s other magazine and
content website portfolios. In more recent
years, he also helped shape the Design
Speaks events stream through a clever
choice of topics and an informed selection
of local and international speakers. We
will miss Cameron’s extensive knowledge,
thoughtful leadership, endless ideas,
generosity and playful sense of humour.
I began my career as an
architectural writer, editor and critic in
2006 as assistant editor of Architecture
Australia, while I was still completing my
master of architecture at the University
of Melbourne. As the editor of the Houses
magazine portfolio for the past eight years,
I’ve become embedded in an inspiring
and supportive network of architects,
photographers, writers and academics and
I’m looking forward to growing this network
as editorial director. Throughout my career
I have been committed to promoting good
design and I am a passionate advocate of
Australian architecture within the industry
and beyond. It is a great honour to now be
guiding this publication through its next
editorial phase.
Architecture Australia is a journal of
record, a remarkable resource on and for
architecture in this country that is
collected in libraries across Australia and
internationally. Critical reflections and
rigorous debate lead to an expansion of
knowledge that propels architects and
designers to strategically and sensitively
evolve our built environment for a more
sustainable future. To this end, I acutely
recognize the significant responsibility in
leading the direction of this publication
and wholeheartedly relish this opportunity.
The year ahead will include a series of
themed issues that advocate for the talent
and accomplishments of the Australian
architecture profession, including a study
of religious buildings and sacred spaces,
a guest-edited issue exploring cities,
urban infrastructure and population and
a spotlight on work by our next generation
of architects.
The January/February 2019 issue
was commissioned by Cameron together
with Architecture Australia’s managing
editor Alexa Kempton and focuses on
projects, procurement and practices
across regional Australia. It examines the
impact of architecture outside the
metropolitan centres of the country and
acknowledges the important contribution
architecture makes to community life in
the regions. Over the course of its 115-year
history, Architecture Australia has always
published reviews of architectural projects
from regional Australia, but in dedicating
an entire magazine to regional work we
recognize the ingenuity of regional
practitioners and the diverse climatic,
economic, social and civic needs of the
cities, towns and communities they serve.

— Katelin Butler, Editorial Director

Editorial director Institute Advisory
Katelin Butler Committee
Commissioning editor Clare Cousins, Barnaby
Cameron Bruhn Hartford Davis, Anna
Rubbo, Shane Thompson,
Managing editor Geoff Warn
Alexa Kempton
Contributing editors
Assistant content editor
John Gollings, Alice
Stephanie McGann Hampson, Rachel Hurst,
Editorial enquiries Rory Hyde, Michael Keniger,
Fiona Nixon, Philip Vivian,
+61 3 8699 1000
Emma Williamson
aa@archmedia.com.au
Editorial team Distribution
Josh Harris, Melinda Knight, Australia, newsagents:
Mary Mann, Gemma Savio Gordon & Gotch
Australian bookshop
Production
distribution:
Simone Wall
Eight Point Distribution
Publication design
Subscriptions
Y-M-D
Six print issues
Printing per year (AUD)
Southern Colour $82 Australia/NZ
$135 Overseas
Six digital issues
per year (AUD) $52
subscribe
@archmedia.com.au
architecturemedia.com/store
General manager,
sales & digital
Eva Dixon
Account managers
Amy Banks, Belinda
Dobelsky, Lana Golubinsky,
Victoria Hawthorne
Advertising enquiries
All states
advertising@
archmedia.com.au
or +61 3 8699 1000
WA only
OKeeffe Media WA
Licia Salomone
+61 412 080 600
Managing director Architecture Australia Architecture Media Pty Ltd
Ian Close is the official magazine is an associate company
Publisher of the Australian Institute of the Australian Institute
Sue Harris of Architects. The Institute of Architects, 2a Mugga Way
is not responsible for Red Hill ACT 2603
General manager, events statements or opinions architecture.com.au
and administration
expressed in Architecture Member Circulations
Jacinta Reedy Australia, nor do such
Audit Board
Published by statements necessarily
Architecture Media Pty Ltd express the views of the © 2019, Architecture
Media Pty Ltd
ACN 008 626 686 Institute or its committees,
Level 6, 163 Eastern Road except where content ISSN 0003-8725
South Melbourne Vic 3205 is explicitly identified
+61 3 8699 1000 as Australian Institute
publisher@ of Architects matter.
archmedia.com.au
architecturemedia.com
architectureau.com
NSW office
Level 1, 3 Manning Street
Potts Point NSW 2011
+61 2 9380 7000

10 Architecture Australia
 Knauf Carbon Neutral
Opt-in carbon offset program
Barangaroo Image courtesy of Lendlease

Would you like to reduce your carbon footprint? Knauf has a solution to help you.
Knauf has made a commitment to reducing its carbon footprint and has developed an opt-in carbon offset program for its
wall and ceiling systems certified to the Australian Government’s National Carbon Offset Standard.
Knauf’s Carbon Neutral Offset Program now also offers carbon neutral metal systems in addition to its carbon neutral
plasterboard offer. If you have a project and you are interested in how our opt-in program can help you, contact our
Architectural Specification Team for more details.

Make Knauf part of your solution

For more information visit knaufplasterboard.com.au
or call us on 1300 724 505
 Northern Territory
Community and 1. Andrew Broffman, 2. Fish River Ranger’s
Alice Springs Accommodation, University
contribution Writer, p 110 of South Australia Design
Construct, Fish River Station
Sue Dugdale,
Alice Springs Student project, p 100
Writer, p 57 3. The Fulcrum Agency
Deepika Mathur, consultation, Groote Eylandt 2
This issue of Architecture Australia
Alice Springs Dossier, p 54
celebrates the contribution of architecture Writer, p 102
to communities in regional, rural and remote University of Newcastle 33
Australia. It surveys regenerative and with Tangentyere Design,
transformative regional buildings and profiles Alice Springs
Student project, p 102
practitioners living and working beyond
the metropolitan centres. It is a portrait
of regional Australia that reveals the
collegial network of architects, students
and academics working across the diverse
economic, social and geographic realities
of this country.
32
The focus is on public and
commercial projects to examine the way
architecture is contributing to community
life and to the prosperity of the cities,
towns and areas that lie beyond the limits
31
of the six metropolitan centres. Read as
a collection, the work is both accomplished
and resourceful; each building and practice
making the most of every opportunity.
Using one broad term, regional Australia,
to describe the vast majority of Australia’s
7.7 million square kilometres risks
oversimplification, so in the process
of selecting content, categorizations
defined by the Regional Australia Institute
(RAI) have proved to be a useful reference 30
tool. The RAI research reveals four regional
types, defined by different demographic, 29
economic and social factors. The projects
reflect the diversity of industry on which
regional Australia relies – from dairy farming
in Western Australia and seed breeding and 28

research in South Australia to tourism in

outback Australia and in Tasmania’s
Freycinet National Park.
This issue addresses the particular
opportunities and obstacles of working
Western Australia
with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander communities and identifies 28. The Creamery, Bannister 31. Wanarn Clinic, Wanarn
Downs Dairy, Northcliffe by Kaunitz Yeung
outstanding projects that work toward by Bosske Architecture Architecture
closing the gap in social, health and Project, p 32 Dossier, p 62
economic outcomes between Indigenous 29. Jennie Officer, Fremantle 32. Karratha Central Healthcare,
and non-Indigenous communities. Writer, p 32 Karratha
The publication of this issue has by CODA Studio
Kieran Wong, Fremantle
Dossier, p 54 and p 62
been incredibly rewarding and we thank Writer, p 54
everyone who has shared their stories. 30. Iredale Pedersen 33. MG/GT Administration
Hook, Perth Offices, Kununurra
We would like to acknowledge and thank by CODA Studio and
Profile, p 64
Helen Norrie for her research and Mark Phillips Architect
knowledge as guest editor of the Dossier Dossier, p 54
and Carroll Go-Sam from the University of
Queensland for her expertise in identifying Legend
the traditional custodians of the regions.
Project Dossier

Student project Writer Platform

12 Architecture Australia
 Queensland

4. Les Wilson Barramundi 8. Tree of Knowledge

Discovery Centre, Karumba and The Globe, Barcaldine
by Bud Brannigan Architects by Brian Hooper Architect
Project, p 24 and M3 Architecture,
architects in association
5. People Oriented Design, Dossier, p 51
3 Cairns
Profile, p 110 9. Sunshine Coast University
Shaneen Fantin, Cairns Hospital, Kawana
Writer, p 60 by Architectus and HDR
Dossier, p 62
Roger Mainwood, Cairns
5 5 Writer, p 24 10. Peter Skinner, Brisbane
4 Writer, p 70
Stefanie Field, Cairns
Writer, p 24 Timothy O’Rourke, Brisbane
Writer, p 62
6. Mount Isa Hospital,
Mount Isa 11. The Fulcrum Agency
by Conrad Gargett consultation, North
Dossier, p 62 Stradbroke Island
6
Dossier, p 54
7. Waltzing Matilda Centre,
Winton 12. Bond University
7 by Cox Architecture project,Tamborine Mountain
Project, p 70 Student project, p 100

1 1 8
New South Wales

9 13. Lismore Regional Gallery, 18. Newcastle East End,

Lismore Newcastle
10 11 by Dominic Finlay Jones by SJB with Tonkin Zulaikha
Architects in association Greer and Durbach Block
with Phil Ward Jaggers
12
Project, p 94 Dossier, p 49

14. Casino Aboriginal Medical SueAnne Ware, Newcastle

Service, Casino Writer, p 16
by Kevin O’Brien Architects 19. Source Architects, Orange
13 in association with AECOM Profile, p 104
14 Dossier, p 62
20. Chris Knapp,
15. Broken Hill Community Western Sydney
Health Centre, Broken Hill Writer, p 100
15 16 by Conrad Gargett
Dossier, p 62 21. Kerry Clare, Sydney
Writer, p 16
17 16. Biripi Aboriginal Medical
18 18 Centre, Taree Ashley Dunn, Sydney
19 Writer, p 94
by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture
26
Dossier, p 62 Ben Green, Sydney
27 20 Writer, p 104
21 17. Maitland Riverlink, Maitland
by Chrofi with
McGregor Coxall
Project, p 16
22
23
Victoria

22. Monash University project, 23. Latrobe Regional Gallery,

Stawell Morwell
South Australia Student project, p 100 by NAAU Studio
26. AGT Southern Crop Breeding Dossier, p 50
Centre, Roseworthy
by Ashley Halliday Architecture 24
Interiors Tasmania
Project, p 86 25 25
24. Freycinet Lodge 25. City of Hobart community
27. Elizabeth Grant, Adelaide Coastal Pavilions, engagement, Hobart
Writer, p 64 Freycinet National Park Dossier, p 48
Julian Worrall, Adelaide by Liminal Architecture Genevieve Lilley, Hobart
Writer, p 86 Project, p 78 Writer, p 78
Helen Norrie, Hobart
Guest editor and writer, p 41

Jan / Feb 2019 13

A demographic,
social and economic
picture of regional
Australia

Regional Cities

— Population greater than 50,000

— Approximately 50 Regional Cities
across Australia
— Diverse economies
— A diverse economic base –
the employment profile of Regional
Cities looks a lot like that of a
metropolitan region
— A Regional City’s size and diversity
create future opportunities

Connected Lifestyle Regions

— Populations are smaller than that

of a Regional City
— Approximately 60 Connected Lifestyle
Regions across Australia
— Geographically close to major
metropolitan regions
— Diverse economies
— Influenced by the connection
to metropolitan regions

14 Architecture Australia
 Regional Australia is defined as the
towns, small cities and areas that lie
beyond the country’s major capital
cities (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth,
Adelaide and Canberra). According to data
compiled by the Regional Australia Institute
(RAI), Regional Australia contributes one
third of our national output and is home
to 8.8 million Australians. The regions
provide employment for one in three
working Australians.
The RAI is a think tank that
is dedicated to all issues concerning
regional Australia. It gathers and analyses
data, providing evidence about the
demographics and social and economic
data that characterize Australia’s regions.
ce Hubs
Industry and Servic
Heartland Regions
Data sourced from Regional Australia Institute, “Talking Point:
The Foundations of Regional Australia,” November 2014,
regionalaustralia.org.au/home/what-is-regional-australia/
(accessed 11 November 2018).
Jan / Feb 2019
In its report, “The Foundations of Regional
Australia,” the RAI has classified four
regional types to represent the diversity
of regional, rural and remote Australia.
These classifications are guided by
economic, social and demographic
change data, and they are useful in
understanding how factors such as
proximity to metropolitan centres,
patterns of industry and population size
affect the challenges and opportunities
faced in each region type. These region
types, along with geographical and
demographic data drawn from the national
census, have been used as tools of
comparison throughout this issue
of Architecture Australia.
— Population between 15,000 and 50,000
— Approximately 40 Industry and Service
Hubs across Australia
— Futures of Industry and Service Hubs
are linked to the fortunes of key
local industries and their ability
to competitively service these
industries’ needs
— Diverse economies that nevertheless
hinge on one key industry, e.g.
manufacturing or healthcare
— More geographically dislocated from
metropolitan regions than Connected
Lifestyle Regions
— Population lower than 15,000
— More than 250 Heartland Regions
across Australia
— Isolated from major metropolitan regions
and Regional Cities
— Economies are dependent on the
fortunes of the dominant industry
in the region
— More than half of the Heartland Regions
are focused on agriculture and mining
— Shaped by local ingenuity
15
 Project

Maitland Riverlink

Architect

Chrofi with
McGregor Coxall

Review by Kerry Clare and SueAnne Ware

Photography by Brett Boardman, Edge Commercial Photography,
McGregor Coxall, Clinton Weaver and Simon Wood

Chrofi with McGregor Coxall’s

revival of the city centre of Maitland,
New South Wales, is a sublime
lesson in addition and subtraction.
Chrofi’s gateway building is a
delicate aperture in the otherwise
Photography Brett Boardman

solid streetscape, forging a strong

connection between city and river.
16 Architecture Australia
 The Riverlink Building is
part of a broader masterplan
to reconnect the parallel
corridors of Maitland’s High
Street and Riverside Walk.

The building reveals the

depth of the double-sided
warehouses and stores that
once occupied this street,
yet its shape and materiality
also lend it a human scale.

Prominent placement
means that the building
registers as a landmark
when viewed from the other
side of the Hunter River.

18 Architecture Australia
 Location Regional towns, like cities, are systems, and changes
Maitland, NSW to systems often have palpable knock-on effects that
can enhance or disrupt, cause regeneration or decline.
Local Government Area The growth of big-box supermarkets, the dominance
Maitland
of cars and the neglect or loss of landscape and
Region type
heritage all have the ability to disrupt the workings
Regional city of a town. The regional city of Maitland in New South
Wales has an informed community that is reclaiming
Aboriginal nation its High Street (the original bullock track from the
Yuin nation, Awabakal-
early 1800s), giving new strength to the city’s
Wonnarua dialects.
Traditional owners: character with selective additions and subtractions
Wonnarua in order to showcase its unique history, people and
produce. Like many regional towns Maitland has
Distance to nearest
“good bones”: much of its civic qualities, townscape,
state/territory capital
130 km (Sydney, NSW) landscape and grain were preserved when the
harbour city of Newcastle, located thirty-five
Population kilometres away, flourished into an industrial centre in
2016 census 78,015 the early 1900s, drawing industry away from Maitland.
2011 census 67,132
growth 2011–16* +16.2%+ In landscape architecture there are a number
*national average +8.8% of famous river walks that incorporate flood controls
+
Maitland boundary has changed
and levees. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates’
between censuses
Allegheny Riverfront Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
and Hargreaves Associates’ Guadalupe River Park
Top employment sectors in San Jose, California spring to mind. Both work with
(2016 census) processes of inundation and the ephemeral as part
5.9% Coalmining
3.5% Hospitals
of an urban river fabric. What stands out in McGregor
3% Takeaway food Coxall’s recent collaboration with Chrofi on the
services Maitland Riverlink is the way that High Street and
Riverside Walk serve as parallel corridors with key
connecting points. The central section of High Street
has been regenerated into an active public realm
called The Levee and this streetscape has a rich and
robust material palette. The street furnishings are
chunky and stout; they feel durable but somehow
appropriate to the place. The spatial rhythms of large
encircled specimen trees, simple benches and tables
Photography Simon Wood
with umbrellas create moments of repose alongside
slow-moving cars. The designers have resisted the
temptation to pedestrianize the street entirely,
knowing that in country towns this is often the kiss of
death to local businesses. The street ebbs and flows;
it offers shaded seating, intermittent views through
to the river walk and playfully intertwined areas for
walking, parking, seating and viewing. The richness
Photography Brett Boardman
Jan / Feb 2019
of the split-face porphyry stone on the ground plane
and the unexpected celebration of drainage through
bluestone detailing offer another take on water and
its movement, albeit an urbanized one.
In the 1800s warehouses and stores were
built to address Maitland’s High Street and they
also extend to the Hunter River, where goods were
unloaded. These double-sided town blocks still
exist today, as do some of the original buildings.
The peekaboo moments between and through
buildings as well as larger pauses – including that
offered by Chrofi’s new gateway building –
gracefully intervene in the street and river walk’s
cadence. These apertures are poetic. The delicacy
and fineness of the new building make for an
interesting juxtaposition to the solidity of the
streetscape. Chrofi’s Riverlink Building is a sublime
lesson in addition and subtraction. It defines civic
space while transmuting both the town and the river.
The daunting challenge of breaking the street wall and
adding a modern piece in a street of masterpieces
(including James Warren Scobie and Arthur C. Lee’s
1889 Town Hall and the many buildings of John
Wiltshire Pender) has been well met, and the project
successfully draws locals back to the river. Chrofi
explains, “The architecture is intended to act as a civic
set piece in a street full of great buildings. It also
registers as a landmark when viewed from the levee
bank, from [the suburb of] Lorn and the Belmore
Bridge. The design balances these architectural
ambitions with consideration for the human scale.
The precise angles of the walls, ceiling and floor twist
and distort the central space to subtly slow movement
through [it]. The gateway frames a public space that
invites occupation, a place to sit [and seek] shade
in summer, [providing] a mobile library, access to
high-quality public amenities and a restaurant. [The
space] can be transformed into an outdoor cinema
or theatre for the community.”
The apparent simplicity of the idea is an
illusion. The complexities are smoothed and resolved
through the architects’ mastery of shape, texture,
colour and light. The only distraction is the public
art piece, which lacks the sophistication of its host.
19
Maitland Riverlink

Key

1 New public domain

2 River walk
Hunter Rive
3 Riverbank
r 4 Cafe/wine bar
5 Kitchen
6 Bins
7 Audiovisual room
8 Public art
9 Store
3 10 Dining space
11 Void
2 12 Mechanical plant

High Street
Bulw
er S
t
reet

Site Plan
1:2000 0 10 20 m

4
7
10

11
1

5
12

9
6 11

Ground floor plan First floor plan

1:400 0 1 2 5 10 m 1:400

20 Architecture Australia
Photography Simon Wood

Brickwork is in keeping
with the built heritage of
the streetscape, ensuring
that the project “belongs”
to the town. It is catalytic
Photography McGregor Coxall

yet unimposing.

The public realms

of High Street and
Riverside Walk are
conceived as parallel
corridors, anticipating
future opportunities
to intertwine the levee,
the river and the street.

Jan / Feb 2019 21

 The western wing of
The Riverlink Building is a portal that cleverly houses second stage of the Levee Development began in
Photography Brett Boardman

the building accommodates

public amenities in the eastern triangulated wing and 2016 and includes construction of Chrofi’s Riverlink a two-storey restaurant.
a two-storey restaurant in the other. High-quality Building, as well as upgrades to Bourke Street Link and Chamfered timber blades
design pervades, demonstrating Maitland City Riverside Walk, funded through the state government’s echo the finely curved
edges of the brick structure.
Council’s investment in the town’s public realm. The Restart NSW Resources for Regions program. The
bathrooms have shaped walls that are washed with new building is a good fit and already “belongs” to the A smaller dining
space on the first floor
light from clear circular skylights, while the interiors town; it is catalytic yet unimposing. The council is overlooks the river,
have finely detailed materials and finishes. The to be commended for avoiding the pitfalls of procuring reframing it as an asset
restaurant is carved into the western wing with white civic improvements. Riverlink is significant without rather than a flood threat.

curved walls and stair. The timber-battened ceiling being “desperately interesting” (to borrow a phrase Curves in the stair
turns down to become a fine screen to the upper floor often used by Glenn Murcutt). It’s clearly new but not create a sense that interior
spaces have been carved
– a single room that caters for just under forty guests. “foreign,” nor given over to wow factor. The regeneration into the structure.
At ground level, the restaurant is a place to sit, eat and had potential to disrupt the grassroots of the town,
experience the river, suspended between the rural to create a shift in favour of gentrification, but instead
outlook and buzzy main street. The restaurant menu it has allowed the town to share its genuine talents
focuses on regional ingredients, local beer and Hunter with both the local community and visitors. At a larger
Valley wines. There are a few awkward moments where scale, by rethinking civic infrastructures, this project
the building’s apron meets the river walk’s public anticipates a number of new opportunities for
realm. The thin, acutely angled concrete steps down to intertwining the levee, the river and the street.
the grassed levee bank and the low brick wall
separating the apron from the river walk are inelegant — Kerry Clare is a director of Clare Design, professor in the School
of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle and
and disrupt the seamless nature of the public realm, visiting professor at the Abedian School of Architecture at Bond University.
as do the circular planters on the street-side entry
— SueAnne Ware is head of the School of Architecture and Built
to the building. While it is understandable that there Environment at the University of Newcastle.
is a need for thresholds between these spaces, the
opportunity seems to be lost here.
The Riverlink is a key part of Maitland Council’s
ongoing redevelopment of Maitland. In 2015 the central
section of High Street was reopened to traffic for the
first time since it was closed in 1988. The $9.92 million
Photography Clinton Weaver (L), Edge Commercial Photography (R)

Architect Chrofi with McGregor Coxall; Project team Tai Ropiha, Joshua Zoeller, Susanne Pollmann
(Chrofi), Adrian McGregor, Ann Deng, Julia Manrique, Maria Sabria (McGregor Coxall); Public art Braddon
Snape; Structural engineer SDA Structures, Cardno; Heritage City Plan; Planning Ethos Urban; Lighting,
electrical and mechanical engineer Northrop; Hydraulic engineer Whipps Wood Consulting; BCA
Steve Watson and Partners; Accessibility BCA Access Solutions; Acoustic engineer Marshall Day Acoustics;
Kitchen Frost Catering Equipment; Quantity surveyor Rider Levett Bucknall; Signage Deuce Design;
Fire engineer MCD Fire Engineering

Jan / Feb 2019 23

Project

Les Wilson Barramundi

Discovery Centre

Architect

Bud Brannigan
Architects

Review by Roger Mainwood, Stefanie Field

Photography by David Sandison

Responding to the booming

recreational fishing industry,
Bud Brannigan Architects’
building for a fish hatchery and
interpretation centre in Karumba,
Queensland is a poetic and
uncompromising celebration
of the town’s industrial legacy.
24 Architecture Australia
 Bud Brannigan
Architects’ Les Wilson
Barramundi Discovery
Centre responds to the
utilitarian, big-shed typology
of Karumba, a small town
in northern Queensland
on the edge of the Gulf
of Carpentaria.

A 130-metre-long
curving steel frame is
clad in faceted, silvery
galvanized screens.
A shaded, east-facing
verandah traces the edge
of the growing pond.

The lantern-like entry

tower exaggerates the
scale of the building and
celebrates its structure.

The majority of the

$11 million project, which
replaces an old hatchery
and interpretative centre,
was funded by a Queensland
government regional
investment fund. The area
is a popular destination
for recreational fishing.

26 Architecture Australia
Location Nine hours west of Cairns, on the edge of the
Karumba, Qld Gulf of Carpentaria (GoC), the town of Karumba
sits at the mouth of the Norman River. The red,
Local Government Area salt-encrusted coastline here is cracked with
Carpentaria
fissures draining the Cape York wetlands into
Region type
the sea, appearing from the air like a microscopic
Heartland region cross-section of sweaty skin. The delta landscape
is a paradise for fish and fishers alike.
Aboriginal traditional A resident population of just over 500 endures
owners
the forty-degree days of summer, while in the dry
Gkuthaarn, Kukatj and
Kurtijar peoples season the shacks, camp sites and caravan parks swell
to accommodate 3,000 visitors a week. Most are here
Distance to nearest for barramundi season. From March to October, the
state/territory capital
iconic barra is fought, caught, battered, crumbed,
1,209 km (Darwin, NT)
grilled and served with local prawns or mudcrab.
Population Robert O’Hara Burke and William John Wills, the
2016 census 526 original backpackers, arrived in the area during their
2011 census 586 1860–61 expedition to cross the Australian continent.
growth 2011–16* -10.2%
*national average +8.8%
Failing to spot the ocean through the dense mangrove
swampland, they gave up and turned south, missing
the opportunity to catch a southern GoC barramundi.
Top employment sectors We arrive on the postal run – one plane in and out,
(2016 census)
16.3% Accommodation
twice a week. A selection of port infrastructure serves
9.7% Local the town’s other industries of zinc ore and cattle,
government which are exported from here into Asia.
administration
5.3% Primary
While the town is relatively small, everything
education else is BIG. There’s the big zinc processing shed,
4.8% Fish and seafood an enormous cathedral-like structure; the 304-
wholesaling
kilometre-long pipe delivering the zinc concentrate
from the mine for processing; the cattle travelling
vast distances to board export ships; the oversized
sheds dwarfing most homes, housing the mandatory
big boat; the three-rig-long fuel tankers and road
trains; the big barbecue steaks; the big mudcrabs;
and of course the big barramundi.
Bud Brannigan Architects’ reimagining of
the Les Wilson Barramundi Discovery Centre responds
sensitively to this local, rough-and-ready, industrial
big-shed typology. Curling around a central pond,
the building’s fishy form is also a subtle wink and
a nod to roadside “big things” across rural Australia.
Jan / Feb 2019
The story of the centre begins twenty-five
years ago when the local mining industry was slowing
down and fishing tourism was on the increase.
Facing rapidly depleting southern GoC barramundi
stocks, a group of local fishermen developed a
barramundi restocking program and hatchery and,
ultimately, a small interpretative centre. The hatchery
has become a significant source of barramundi
fingerlings and is now an industry in its own right,
with adjacent townships purchasing a portion of
approximately 120,000 fingerlings released into the
wild each year. However, the existing hatchery and
interpretative centre were due for a major upgrade.
In recognition of the value of the industry to the
township, a Queensland state government Building
Our Regions program grant was awarded to the Shire
of Carpentaria, funding the majority of the $11 million
new centre, to be located on a greenfield site adjacent
to the existing facility.
Bud Brannigan was approached by the council
to develop a concept, ultimately winning the tender
to design and document the facility. Working with
a local builder and a local project manager, Brannigan
has been able to deliver a complex, innovative project
in a remote setting. The passion and care of a project
team living and working within a stone’s throw of
the building site are evident in the centre’s poetic,
uncompromising architecture.
On approach, the building’s long, thin portal
frame structure curves gently, rising toward a lantern-
like entry tower that acts as a landmark for visitors.
The white corrugated polyurethane cladding allows
the tower’s high-tensile steel bracing, delicately rigged
like a boat, to shine through at night. The trailing
skeletal frame is clad in faceted, silvery galvanized
screens and its skin gently follows the curves on the
horizon to embrace the east, sheltering the interior
from the unrelenting western gulf sun.
Brannigan is not new to working in the
north, having designed the Cooktown Art Gallery
and Interpretative Centre in 2000. The structural
27
Les Wilson Barramundi Discovery Centre

Site plan key

2 1 New Barramundi
Discovery Centre
2 Existing barramundi
hatchery

Floor plan key

1 Yap
pa
rS 1 Covered entry
tre
et 2 Entry/foyer
3 Reception
4 Office
5 Gift shop
6 Interpretative Centre
entry
7 Theatre
Site plan 8 Interpretative Centre
0 10 50 m 9 Store
1:5000
10 Loading dock
11 Cafe
12 Kitchen
13 Service
14 Cold store
15 Gallery
16 Meeting/conference
17 Outdoor meeting
18 Verandah
9 19 Outdoor performance
10 8
7 space
6 20 Barramundi pond
9 9
11
12 5 4
14 19
13
9 18 18 3
15

16
20 1

17

Floor plan
0 5 10 m
1:1000

The interior of the arrival

hall accentuates the
slope of the roof, which
steps down gradually from
fourteen metres at the entry
to 3.5 metres at the far end.

Because of the remote

location and the extreme
local weather conditions,
structural elements were
fabricated offsite and
standard framing and metal
external cladding were used
Sections in order to simplify and
0 5 10 m
1:750 accelerate construction.

28 Architecture Australia
Jan / Feb 2019 29
Les Wilson Barramundi Discovery Centre

An artwork by the
system here reflects an understanding of challenges The centre’s connection detailing is light,
Pormpuraaw Art and Culture
in delivering projects in such a remote regional setting. visible and robust, its silvery mesh screens stretching Centre, woven out of fishing
The 130-metre-long spine appears (appropriately) across the verandah deck. Detailed to look seamless nets, hangs in the entry
much bigger on arrival, its length exaggerated across the length of the building, the scale-like tower. Brannigan referred to
the composition of structure
in a trick of perspective. To achieve this sloping screens reflect the light from the sun and the water, and light fabric in sculptures
form, a segmented, Meccano set approach was giving a sense of movement to the sweeping eastern like this as the design for
adopted, with structural elements fabricated offsite facade. By the time we arrive the gulf’s red dust has the building evolved.

in Mareeba, totalling approximately eighty-seven
tonnes of steel held together by 11,000 bolts. Each
modular segment repeats the simple plan section of
services, gallery and verandah, from the west-facing
wall, with its thin, gill-like slit horizontal windows,
to the deck overlooking the fishpond to the east.
Twenty-seven individual radiating portal sections
each step up 300 millimetres in height, rising from
3.5 metres at the end to over fourteen metres at the
entry. The verandah deck and colonnade flare
generously to accommodate the central cafe space.
The plan program is equally simple along the
building’s body. The arrival hall, including the reception the story of Karumba and its big fish.
and shop, leads to the central interpretative gallery
and cafe, with a conference meeting room at the tail.
already settled into the mesh, grounding the building
in the changing landscape, waiting for the next big
wet season to wash it away.
As we tour the site, landscaping is rolling off
the trucks: fresh new grass coming all the way from
Cairns. Like the building, the landscape architecture
and planting palette are simple, robust and regional.
The new centre manager, also recently arrived
from Cairns via Germany, full of energy and passion
(not necessarily for fishing but the fish), is readying
the centre for next season, confident that many of
the town’s 5,000 annual visitors will drop by to learn
— Roger Mainwood is the principal of Cairns-based TPG Architects.

The kid-friendly gallery display was conceived locally — Stefanie Field is an architectural graduate at TPG Architects.
– the Cairns Regional Gallery was commissioned
to curate and deliver the interpretative story.
An art piece destined to hang in the entry
tower has been created by the Pormpuraaw Art
and Culture Centre, an Indigenous community group.
A jumbo-sized barra has been woven out of old
fishing nets collected as flotsam washed up on the
beaches of the gulf, locally referred to as ghost net
sculptures. Brannigan visited the Cairns Art Gallery
in the early stages of the project, where he discovered
an exhibition of these ghost net sculptures created
by Indigenous artists from the gulf communities.
“We were particularly impressed by these sculptural
works. In the design stage, we discussed their
composition of structure and light fabric, something
we referred to as the building documents evolved,”
he said.

Architect Bud Brannigan Architects; Project team Bud Brannigan, Duncan Maxwell, Melina Hobday;
Structural engineer Ross Argent Structural Engineer; Landscape architect Andrew Prowse Landscape
Architect; Hydraulic engineer Gilboy Hydraulic Solutions; Electrical and mechanical services engineer
Webb Australia Group; Interpretative design Brandi Projects; Interpretative centre concept Cairns Regional
Gallery; Quantity surveyor Davis Langdon; Client’s superintendent of works Peter Watton

30 Architecture Australia
 CONNECTING
YOU
TO YOUR
PROFESSION

RENEW MEMBERSHIP
TODAY 2019
Visit architecture.com.au/renew for more information.
Not a member? Join now at architecture.com.au/join
Photo: Boaz Nothman All enquiries to 1800 770 617 or email membership@architecture.com.au
Project

The Creamery,
Bannister Downs Dairy

Architect

Bosske Architecture

Review by Jennie Officer

Photography by Peter Bennetts

In its expansion plan for a successful

dairy business based in Northcliffe,
Western Australia, Bosske Architecture
has explored the architectonic
Photography Silvertone Photography

potential of the farm, finding a solution

that is utilitarian and agricultural,
yet corporate and spectacular.
32 Architecture Australia
 The Creamery at
Bannister Downs Dairy
is a facility for milking,
processing and dispatching
dairy products in addition
to housing administration
and visitor spaces.

Programmatic shifts
are expressed externally,
signalling the transition from
barn to shed and alluding
to the collection of buildings
that typically characterize
farm settings.

Circulation around
the public areas offers
a human scale that
counters the sense of
inhabiting an agricultural
production facility.

The building is a
“ductile loop” that brings
together three distinct
groups – cows, vehicles
and people – containing
various functions within
a pebble-shaped plateau
of land.

34 Architecture Australia
Location Seven kilometres east of Northcliffe, a small
Northcliffe, WA town in the lower south-west of Western Australia,
is the recently completed Bannister Downs Dairy
Local Government Area Creamery designed by Bosske Architecture.
Manjimup
A place with tall trees and high rainfall, this was
Region type
one of the first areas to be opened to dairy farming
Heartland region in Western Australia, through post-World War I
government Group Settlement Schemes in which
Aboriginal nation British would-be farmer immigrants received dairy
Noongar, Pibelmen peoples
cows as incentive for clearing land.
The Daubney family are third-generation
Distance to nearest
state/territory capital Northcliffe farmers, who, after the deregulation and
299 km (Perth, WA) resultant destabilization of the dairy industry in 2000, or temple. The ingenuity of the masterplan is its
recast their farming practice as a vertically integrated binding of this contour with a swept path, a ductile
Population
dairy farm, a grass-to-gate business. Cows are
2016 census 300
2011 census 282 milked on the property where they graze and the milk
growth 2011–16* +6.4% is processed, packaged and dispatched from the
*national average +8.8%
same place. Bannister Downs Dairy is an agribusiness prevents development beyond it. It pre-empts and
success story. High animal welfare principles; a focus
Top employment sectors on animal, land and human health above yield; minimal that characterizes farm settings, often stringing
(2016 census) processing; chalk-based biodegradable packaging;
24.7% Dairy cattle and a palpably identifiable family-run farm have led
farming
6.8% Secondary
to a highly recognizable, premium brand.
education The success of this venture led to a need for
5.5% Concreting expansion to allow production capacity to increase.
services
5.5% Nature reserves
Bosske Architecture was asked to design this
and expansion – an on-farm facility to house milking,
conservation processing and the dispatching of dairy products
parks operation
along with administration and staff areas and a
variety of visitor spaces from which back-of-house
operations could be viewed. It’s important to make
the distinction that Bosske was engaged to design
an expansion rather than a building. A remarkable
new building has resulted, but it’s part of a broader
set of considerations and a discursive process.
While a lucid site strategy was key to the project’s
success, this lucidity is neither reductive nor frugal
nor elemental. It homogenizes, yet it resists being
summarized. It is utilitarian and agricultural, but
also corporate and spectacular.
At the project’s opening, the client said of
Bosske principal Caroline Hickey that “she understood
the vision of the project better than I did.” The brief
called for the propinquity of cows, processing and
people – a new typology that unites farm and factory,
which have traditionally been separated, even in
vertically integrated models. After exploring multiple
sites and approaches, an ideal site was found for
the project. By grading to the edge of a contour,
a pebble-shaped, gently prominent, free-draining
plateau was made. The building at the top of the
hill is an architectural trope – a silhouette, citadel
loop that organizes program and explicitly defines
what is farmyard and what is farm. It allows activity
and expansion within it – a campus approach – but
contains the ad hoc accretion of infrastructure
haphazardly beyond the farmyard.
Three breaks in the loop admit people, cows
and heavy vehicles from different directions. Because
all vehicle movement is contained within the site,
the landscape can come right up to its perimeter,
immediately grounding the project. Along its western
edge, the loop solidifies, sweeping through archetypal
“barn” sections, from gable to gambrel, which house
the front-of-house public and administration areas.
Back-of-house processing and service areas stack
behind in a series of single-pitch lean-tos inclining
into the middle of the site. These are deliberately
clunky, formally addressing the over-large scale of the
cow and the truck, and clearly reading as recessive
and utilitarian – like built shadows behind the strong,
lustrous, red, anodized front of house that meets the
scale of cars and people.
Bosske Architecture has, in this project,
furthered an exploration of archetypes and our
reading of them, following the oast-like Camino House,
35
The Creamery, Bannister Downs Dairy

Site plan key

1 Carpark
2 Bus drop-off
3 Entry
4 Cow yard
5 Energy complex
6 Tanker bay
10
7 Water treatment
8 Services
9 Loading
3 10 Future calving
4

5 7
9
2
6

Site plan
0 10 20 m
1:2000

Floor plan key

22 24
23 1 Foyer
2 Staff room
3 Rotary robotic dairy
25 4 Treatment area
21
26
5 Cow yard
6 Treatment office
7 Dairy office
8 Processing room
9 Testing office
10 Filling room
Level one plan 11 Working coolroom
1:1000 12 Office
13 Coolroom storage
14 Daily dispatch
15 Ambi chamber
16 Loading docks
2
17 Cartons
18 Dry store
19 Services dock
1 20 Waste dock
12 9 21 Cafe
8
22 Reception
3 23 Administration
10 24 Boardroom
11
13 5 25 Exhibition
7 26 Viewing gallery
19
4

14 6
17
20

15

16

18

Ground floor plan

0 5 10 m
1:1000

36 Architecture Australia
 The loop morphs into
a barn gable at the main
visitor entry. Processing and
service areas stack behind
the main building and offer
utilitarian contrast to the
Sections lustrous anodized cladding
0 5 10 m
1:1000 of the public areas.

Jan / Feb 2019 37

The Creamery, Bannister Downs Dairy
the figured Omeo House and the Block Branding
headquarters starburst. In the creamery, the archetypal
barn and shed generate sectional shifts in the loop
and let us recognize both the familiar and unfamiliar
between them.
The loop, a swirling, sequential, non-uniform
figure, alludes to the many circular processes
the project encompasses – the rotary dairy,
seasonal and circadian routines, rolls of flatpack
packaging, centrifugal separators, digestion –
and gathers program into its form. It is cut to reveal
its archetypical sections and mark entry, peeled
and lifted to make openings and an upper terrace,
and sectioned to make an external colonnade.
It frays and inverts at its ends as if it’s been
teased apart or is still moving or still performing.
It’s a device that allows for both variety and
integration. It anticipates future bits of itself
materializing as needed around the site.
Binding the edge of the contour also means
that the built edge is convex, so from ground level
you can never see the whole thing – it’s always slipping
around the corner. The creamery’s distended elevation
and undulating peristyle, formed by the natural
variability of its generating archetypes, is speculative
rather than succinct. Its likeness to a barn cannot
be easily summarized as it bows, dips and arcs away.
Sunlight is unpredictably thrown from its surfaces.
There’s a sense, from the public side, of knowing
there’s a back to this building but not being able
to get around to it. From inside, views array outward
rather than line up. Howard Taylor, a prominent painter
and sculptor, produced much of his work, centred
on his particular reading of the local landscape and
its sublime qualities, from his studio near Northcliffe.
He persistently explored the formal potential of
surface, investigated the nature of perception and
conveyed the “velocities of nature.”1 The creamery,
like a Howard Taylor sculpture, refuses to be static.
It induces us to move around it and to interpret it.
It’s an architecture intending to be read, a means
for expression.
None of this, however, is at odds with what
is also an efficiently planned, functional and highly
technical facility. Like a built flow diagram,
38 Architecture Australia
Cool, clinical architecture
contains the production
areas of this grass-to-gate
dairy processing facility.
the arrangement organizes milking to dispatch
in a streamlined, linear sequence. Cows enter the
voluminous robotic dairy, which has large openings
for ventilation and views. The high hygiene standards
of the production areas have been enhanced by cool,
clinical architecture. Visitors are generally contained
at the southern end of the building, with a foyer on
the ground level and cafe above. However, two
corridors stretch the length of the building, from cafe
to dairy and back again, separating administration
and back-of-house areas. They provide an exhibition
space on one side and a viewing gallery into production
areas on the other. It’s a fascinating insight into
cutting-edge technology and into what is clearly
a designed environment rather than an engineered
solution. It allows you to follow the line of milk, from
cow to cafe. The corridors don’t take on the swirling
language of the external edge, but instead are like core
samples through the flow diagram.
The design of the creamery exploits the
architectonic potential of “the farm,” with its various
pre-existing forms and modern industrial processes.
It reminds me of Hugo Häring’s 1926 Gut Garkau
Farm project, a commitment to organic functionalism.
However, Häring made a distinction between form
derived purely from the expression of a functional task
and form driven by abstract or geometric organizing
principles. Bosske Architecture has demonstrated,
in the design of the creamery, that it’s possible,
credible and laudable to do both.
— Jennie Officer is a senior lecturer in the School of Design,
University of Western Australia and a director of Officer Woods Architects.
Footnote
1. Clarissa Ball, “The Nature of Perception,” Artlink website,
artlink.com.au/articles/404/the-nature-of-perception/,
March 1997 (accessed 3 December 2018).
Architect Bosske Architecture; Engineer Forth Consulting; Building surveyor JMG Building Surveyors;
ESD Cundall; Fire engineer Arup; Quantity surveyor Donald Cant Watts Corke; Surveyor Thompson Surveying;
Geotechnical consultant CMW Geosciences; Dairy equipment DeLaval; Processing equipment GEA;
Packaging equipment Ecolean; Bottling equipment Icon; Design and construct contractor Perkins Builders
National
Architecture
Conference
2020
Expressions of interest are now
open for the role of
of Australia’s premier architectural
event.

EOIs close
Visit for details or
enquire at Photos: Boaz Nothman
 SPECIFICATION. BY BOSTIK
ALL UNDER ONE ROOF

@BOSTIKTRADE

@BOSTIKTRADE CONTACT US FOR YOUR NEXT PROJECT

BOSTIK AUSTRALIA SMART HELP: 1800 267 845 www.bostik.com.au

Find what you

need for your
next project
—

Selector.com

Inspiring building
and design products
Sign up to our weekly e-newsletter.
Phone: +61 3 8699 1000
Email: selector@archmedia.com.au

Endorsed by:

40 Architecture Australia
Dossier —
Reframing the
regional conversation

Guest editor

Helen Norrie

Regional towns and cities have

historically been the backbone
of Australia, yet they currently represent
a blindspot in urban thinking.
Helen Norrie examines the initiatives
that are reframing the perceived
limitations of smaller populations
and geographical dislocation
to present compelling alternatives
to life in major urban centres.
Jan / Feb 2019 41
The Architecture Symposiums
Exploring the pivotal role architects
play in shaping cultures and economies

Brisbane, 15 March 2019

Innovative thinking and transformative projects
creating new world cities for the emerging Asian Century.

Hobart, 30 & 31 March 2019

A weekend of learning in the Tasmanian landscape,
featuring a visit to John Wardle Architects’ Bruny Island
farm and residences.

Sydney, 4 October 2019

Giving voice to Australia’s world-class architects.

Design Speaks presents Australia’s most influential portfolio

of seminars and conferences for design professionals and their clients.
For partnership opportunities, to purchase tickets and to
register for updates visit:

designspeaks.com.au
PRESEN TED BY
 Dossier

— Regional Cities with populations

Regional Australia for their potential to provide alternative
urban futures. Speaking at a 2011 over 50,000;
Essay by Helen Norrie conference on reinventing regional — Connected Lifestyle Regions that
Victoria, then-minister for agriculture do not have a defined population,
and food security Peter Walsh said but are close to other major
that although the state of Victoria metropolitan regions and are
is expected to grow by 44 percent influenced by this connection;
to 2.7 million people in the coming — Industry and Service Hubs with
decades, fewer than 500,000 of more than 15,000 people,
these people are projected to live in dislocated from major metropolitan
regional Victoria. The cost of providing centres, their performance linked
Australia is both large and small, in local infrastructure to accommodate to industrial outcomes; and
and global terms. Australia’s land area Melbourne’s growing population — Heartland Regions, small areas
is similar to that of Brazil, a country with is estimated at $3.1 billion, but, Walsh that are dislocated from both
a population more than eight times the argued, this cost could be reduced by major metropolitan areas and
size of our own. Our island continent two thirds if more people could be Regional Cities but are shaped
2
spans an area that is equivalent to more encouraged to move to regional areas. by “local ingenuity.”4
than twenty-five European countries, Focusing on the regions highlights
from Ireland to Ukraine and from Spain a range of opportunities that could The series of maps on pages 14–15 shows
and Turkey to the south of Finland, yet assist the future social, economic and the spread of these region types.
60 percent of our population lives environmental sustainability of Australia’s Each regional type represents
in the five major capital cities of more smaller towns and cities, and also provide a diversity of conditions, opportunities
than one million people. Across Australia alternative scenarios for the future of and challenges. Some regional settlements
there are fewer than twenty cities with major cities. Paul Collits observes that are satellites of metropolitan centres, while
populations of more than 100,000 people, regional Australia is frequently unified others are remote and disconnected from
which is the limit of the Australian Bureau by enduring negative stereotypes that other places, both large and small. Some
of Statistics’ definition of major urban are both limited and inaccurate, and do not regional cities are also state capitals, and
centres. Beyond these centres there assist in understanding positive futures this status confers benefits not afforded to
are hundreds of regional towns with for regional and remote communities. other places of similar size. Some regional
smaller populations, many of which are He suggests that the myth of regional places are experiencing rapid change due
geographically disconnected from major Australia as a “giant farm or mine” distorts to inward migration, economic shifts and
cities but central to the national economy. the reality of how “regional economies now increasing growth pressures, while others
Some estimates wager that regional mirror the national economy, in terms of are struggling with challenges presented
Australia accounts for around 40 percent their industry structures and employment by low population and geographic
of national economic output.1 patterns.” Collits contests that perpetuating dislocation. However, although many
Regional towns and cities have the idea of regional Australia in decline regional towns and cities lack a critical
historically been the backbone of Australia, overlooks the diversity of ways that many mass of population to ensure economic
yet they currently represent a blindspot regions have grown in both population stability, they also offer conditions
3
in urban thinking. While national policy and cultural diversity. of affordability and liveability that rival
focuses on how to manage the continual Central to understanding the future larger cities. Approaches as diverse as the
growth of major metropolitan centres, potential of the regions is an understanding regions are being developed across
there is an increasing acknowledgement of regional diversity. The Regional Australia Australia. This Dossier explores a small
that the regions are under-recognized Institute identifies four regional types: selection of innovative ideas, showcasing
ways of reconceptualizing challenges and
capitalizing on the opportunities of living
architects in association (2015). Photography Christopher Frederick Jones

beyond Australia’s major urban centres.

The Globe, Barcaldine by Brian Hooper Architect, M3 Architecture,

Footnotes

1. Regional Australia Institute, “Talking Point: The Economic

Contribution of Regions to Australia’s Prosperity,”
3 December 2015, regionalaustralia.org.au/wp-content/
uploads/Talking-Point-The-economic-contribution-of-
regions-to-Australia’s-prosperity_to-send.pdf
(accessed 28 November 2018).

2. Committee for Economic Development of Australia and

Regional Development Victoria, “Reinventing
the Regions: Victoria’s changing regional economies,”
28 March 2013, 19, apo.org.au/node/33377
(accessed 11 November 2018).

3. Paul Collits, “Is There a Regional Australia,

and Is It Worth Spending Big On?” Policy, vol 28 no 2, Winter
2012, 24.

4. Regional Australia Institute, “The Foundations of Regional

Australia,” November 2014, regionalaustralia.org.au/
wp-content/uploads/2014/12/foundations-of-regional-
australia-FINAL-.pdf/ (accessed 11 November 2018).

Jan / Feb 2019 43

Dossier
Regional thinking
Essay by Helen Norrie
Understanding the particularities
of regions draws into focus issues
of spatial, financial, social and cultural
equity, which Judith Brett argues were
at the foundation of the formation of the
federation of Australia.1 The diversity of
regional towns and cities that are spread
across a large geographic area presents
social, cultural and economic challenges
as well as opportunities. The combination
of small populations and disconnection
from major centres creates issues
for the provision of services, particularly
health and education. At a financial
level, municipalities with small populations
generate a modest rate base that needs
to cover a range of services. Major
infrastructure projects can provide a boon
to regional areas, with funding from state
and federal governments facilitating
projects that could not be funded locally.
But as Paul Collits argues, although these
projects may provide services and inject
funding, they are not necessarily the key
to regional revitalization. He emphasizes
the need to distinguish between government
spending on regional Australia and proper
regional policy.2
The 2015 report “Local Government
Growing Regional Australia” highlights the
shift in regional economic development
strategies over the past sixty years from
a focus on comparative advantages/
disadvantages in the 1950s and 60s to
building competitive advantage between
the 1970s and 90s, to the current approach
of “drawing on collaborative advantage
across public, private and community
sectors.”3 The report suggests that the
change from comparative or competitive
to collaborative approaches has involved
a shift from hierarchical top-down
processes to “place-based holistic”
approaches that are evidence-based
and supported by greater governmental
cooperation.
Many regional communities
are developing new ways of working
together to create connections between
places and people, exploring ways
of fostering positive change. Recurring
themes among transformative regional
initiatives are central to developing
place-based holistic approaches.
44 Architecture Australia
Character
Local knowledge of a region’s
“character” can offer a nuanced
understanding of culture and context
and question the limits of municipal
boundaries, revealing alternative
character-based narratives for future
development. Collits suggests that
communities should decide on regional
boundaries in terms of “communities
of interest” that may be conceptualized
and formed in diverse ways.4 For example,
regions may be defined in terms
of patterns of use, visual connections,
specific landscapes, commodities or
produce. For architecture practices
that have worked on several urban and
infrastructure projects in one region,
a localized, regional character can
be identified in built form.
Connectivity
Physical connectivity is central
to the provision of essential services,
particularly transport and communication
infrastructure that links regions
economically, socially and culturally.
Connectivity is both perceptual and
conceptual: a sense of connectivity might
be used to promote character or create
collaborative relationships. For example,
linking locations by a theme such as wine
production or developing touring routes
along historical trading lines can connect
physically separated towns, emphasizing
particular character and providing new
meaning for places along these routes.
Similarly, understanding heritage and
past histories can reveal strong cultural
and social connections that can be used
to underpin future scenarios.
Collaboration
Many municipalities are collaborating
to build networks in imaginative ways,
working together to lobby state and
federal governments. Reaching beyond
the limits of municipal boundaries to form
collaborative communities of interest
breeds the cooperation that is key
to developing shared strategic directions.
The Evocities initiative in New South Wales,
Regional Cities Victoria, the G21 Geelong
Region Alliance and the Greater Cities
initiatives in Launceston and Hobart are
some examples of the ways municipalities
have redefined their relationships in order
to foster strategic regional thinking. Each
involves different modes of engagement,
with varied aims and outcomes.
Commitment
Regional leadership requires personal
commitment and “intense personal ties,
particularly cooperation of a group
of connected individuals with a shared
vision.”5 Collits highlights the need
for well-trained staff who are able to
negotiate change and think strategically
about innovative and collaborative
ideas.6 Ongoing engagement, long-term
association and enduring personal
commitment are common traits among
mayors and senior council staff in regional
towns and cities that are successful
in generating positive change.
Community engagement
The small population sizes of regional
communities leads to a high degree
of personal involvement. Garnering
cooperation and drawing on local
knowledge are important for establishing
social agency and collaborative
relationships between the council and
the community. The International
Association for Public Participation
describes the parallel processes
of community engagement as the “goal
of participation” and the “promise to
the public,” and includes a spectrum
with five levels that measure the degree
of public participation. Understanding
the diversity of models and the goal/
promise helps identify the appropriate
form of engagement.
Footnotes
1. Judith Brett, “Fair Share: Country and City in Australia,”
Quarterly Essay, no 42, June 2011, 68.
2. Paul Collits, “Is There a Regional Australia, and Is It Worth
Spending Big On?” Policy, vol 28 no 2, 24.
3. Robyn Morris, Alex Gooding and Lucinda Molloy,
“Local Government Growing Regional Australia,” March 2015,
Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government,
University of Technology Sydney, 10-11.
4. Collits, 29.
5. Michael Kroehn, Alaric Maude and Andrew Beer,
“Leadership of place in the rural periphery: lessons
from Australia’s agricultural margins,” Policy Studies,
vol 31 issue 4, 2010, 501–502.
6. Collits, 29.
Regional initiatives
Essay by Helen Norrie
Across Australia, transformative regional
initiatives are being developed through
collaborative strategic thinking that
involves different levels of government
and leadership from local councils and
the community. Connectivity between
regions is being defined in different
ways, fostering collaboration to create
productive futures.
In New South Wales seven regional
cities have joined together to form
Evocities to “change perceptions
of life in a regional city” and promote
the cities’ “lower cost of living, strong
career and business opportunities
and enhanced lifestyle.” Launched in
2010 and sponsored by Qantas Link
and the NSW state government, Evocities
aims to encourage people to live, work and
invest in Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Dubbo,
Orange, Tamworth and Wagga Wagga.
Essentially a marketing campaign, this
bottom-up initiative implemented locally
joins geographically disconnected and
diverse towns and cities, building a
collective profile that can promote life
beyond the metropolitan centres.
In Western Australia, where the
state population is predicted to double
by 2056, the state government’s Royalties
for Regions program has been reinvesting
the state’s resources royalties into
a diverse range of initiatives since 2008.
The program is currently funding a series
of “SuperTowns,” creating new business
opportunities to attract investment
and generate the jobs required to attract
people to these regions. The first nine
towns have been identified: the Connected
Lifestyle Regions of Boddington and
Northam, and the Heartland Regions
of Collie, Esperance, Jurien Bay, Katanning,
Manjimup, Margaret River and Morawa.
Regional Economic Development Grants
and the Creative Regions program provide
funding for both facilities and activities.
Regional Cities Victoria (RCV),
established in 2000, brings together
the mayors and CEOs of the ten major
regional cities in Victoria, with the aim
to “achiev(e) real change in regional
Victoria through policy development and
active implementation of those policies.”
Collectively, Ballarat, Bendigo, Geelong,
Horsham, Latrobe, Mildura, Shepparton,
Jan / Feb 2019
Wangaratta, Warrnambool and Wodonga
account for 10.8 percent of the population
of Victoria, and the RCV focuses on
developing infrastructure and increasing
liveability by encouraging new industries
and fostering workforce capacity through
education. Evidence-based research
is central to this process, which involves
tracking statistics on the economy,
liveability and population to inform
strategic initiatives that promote regional
connectivity, both physically and
conceptually. Data is used to develop
strategies and to lobby local, state
and federal governments to support
projects such as a regional rail network
that connects a series of “regional super
hubs” across the state.
Some smaller regions are pursuing
similar paths. The G21 Geelong Region
Alliance develops collaboration between
government, business and communities
in Greater Geelong and the neighbouring
municipalities of Queenscliffe, Surf
Coast, Colac Otway and Golden Plains.
From an alliance of more than 300
community leaders and specialists from
the region, eight “pillar groups” were
formed to address the region’s priorities,
from the arts, culture and the
environment to economics and transport.
The G21 Alliance is the official Strategic
Planning Committee for the region,
facilitating engagement in the Geelong
City Deal and negotiating for infrastructure
projects across Geelong and the
Great Ocean Road.
The federal government’s City
Deals program, implemented in 2015,
is intended to foster collaboration
between three levels of government
and to encourage councils to work
together to identify local economic
development opportunities that form the
basis of a negotiation for federal funding.
City Deals are framed around key
national priorities, including jobs,
housing and sustainability, governance
and regulation, and innovation and digital
opportunities. Five out of the seven cities
that have signed up to this program are
regional cities: Townsville, Launceston,
Darwin, Geelong and Hobart.
Regional universities have
played a part in many of the City Deals,
highlighting their importance in the
social and cultural life of regional towns
and cities. Many regional universities
are increasingly understanding their
role beyond the service provision of
education, exploring their potential as
“civic players” by working collaboratively
with local councils and communities
to establish strategic alliances and
creating publicly accessible buildings,
spaces or infrastructure.1 James Cook
University is central to Townsville’s
City Deal, developing health and
knowledge precincts and promoting
the city as a destination for education,
edu-tourism, training and research.
The centrepiece of Launceston’s
City Deal is the University of Tasmania’s
Northern Transformation project,
which relocates suburban campuses
into the city to create stronger
community connections. Hobart’s City
Deal involves the relocation of the University
of Tasmania’s STEM facilities into the
city, and the development of an Antarctic
and science precinct on the waterfront.
Although funding is yet to be committed,
the coordination of the City Deal has
involved cooperation between the five
municipalities that make up Greater Hobart
and it is the first step toward developing
an integrated transport strategy and
addressing affordable housing.
As a federal policy, City Deals have
been criticized for a lack of transparency
along with accusations of pork-barrelling
to bolster votes in regional electorates
and questions about the extent to which
landmark projects actually make better
places. But from the point of view of
regional policy, the collaboration required
to articulate arguments for funding
is fostering strategic thinking that reaches
beyond day-to-day operational issues,
encouraging more transformative
processes that might catalyse visions
for alternative regional futures.
Footnote
1. Helen Norrie, “Transformative participation
and collaborative practice-led design research,”
in Marie Sierra and Kit Wise, Transformative Pedagogies
and the Environment: Creative Agency Through
Contemporary Art and Design (Champaign, Illinois:
Common Ground Research Networks, 2018), 115–137.
45
Dossier
Regional practice
Essay by Helen Norrie
Different models of regional architectural vernaculars was reflected in his wonderful
practice can be found across Australia,
from small, locally embedded firms
to larger urban offices that specialize
in regional projects, working with
or without local partners. Collaboration
between regional and urban practices
combines local knowledge with diverse
skills and experience, enabling smaller
local practices to be involved in larger
public realm projects. The knowledge
sharing and upskilling realized by joint
ventures and other modes of collaboration School that explored site-specific
streamline the practicalities of compiling regional architecture in the 1960s
submissions, improve documentation
capability and management structures
and capitalize on past experiences
of dealing with diverse user groups
and clients, particularly local councils,
state governments and universities.
The nuanced understanding possessed
by local practices provides insight into
a diverse range of issues, from the
practicalities of materials and trades
supply to the particularities of culture,
character and context.
Ironically, one of Australia’s most Cox Rayner Architects) on the Cairns
enduring “regional” practices, Cox
Architecture, is based in capital
cities across Australia. The roots of the
practice’s engagement in the regions lie
in Philip Cox and Ian McKay’s work at the
46 Architecture Australia
C. B. Alexander Campus of Tocal College
in New South Wales in the 1960s,
which embraced the rural Australian
landscape and presented a shift from
a European approach to building,
particularly emerging modernist
preoccupations. Cox’s interest in rural
book Rude Timber Buildings in Australia,
co-authored with John Freeland
with photography by Wesley Stacey,
which beautifully documents an array
of rural timber buildings, reframing the
honest and unpretentious vernacular
structures as something more heroic.
Cox started his own practice in 1967,
with more offices across Australia
developing over the next fifty years,
extending the values of the Sydney
and 70s. While the practice has become
known for large-scale urban projects,
its engagement in the regions
has remained.
Cox Architecture’s Brisbane
office has an ongoing commitment
to regional Queensland, undertaking
a series of projects in the regional
cities of Townsville and Cairns. Local
partners have played important roles,
significantly Carlo Amerio, whose practice
CA Architects partnered with Cox (formerly
Foreshore Redevelopment (with RPS and
O’Neill Architecture). Pavilions with large
overhanging roofs reinterpret the local
vernacular sheds and wharves,
creating shady spaces that can be opened
up to provide welcome cooling breezes
or closed down during cyclonic conditions.
The blurring of interior and exterior spaces
demonstrates ways of living in the tropics
that are not reliant on airconditioning,
providing relaxed low-key civic
spaces where tourism and local
life exist side by side.
In Townsville, the Museum
of Tropical Queensland (2000) with
Barrett Architects provided Cox
Architecture (formerly Cox Rayner
Architects) with an entree into the city,
which led to a series of transformative
urban projects. The Thuringowa Riverway
Arts Centre and Lagoons (2007) and
the Flinders Street Revitalisation (2011)
have created urban spaces that engage
positively with the tropical climate.
These ideas are followed through in recent
commissions for the masterplan of James
Cook University’s Townsville campus and
North Queensland Stadium, both joint
ventures with 9point9 Architects,
a local practice led by Zammi Rohan
that has recently merged with Outcrop
Architecture to form Counterpoint
Architecture. The collaboration combined
the extensive stadium design experience
of Cox with 9point9’s in-depth knowledge
and understanding of the local climate
and local materials, trades and services.
Rohan highlights the generosity
of engagement of the Cox Architecture
team and notes that the collaboration
helps to mitigate the isolation of regional
practice, creating everyday contact
with broader practice conversations
and mentorship.
CA Architects and O’Neill Architecture (2013). Photography Christopher Frederick Jones
Finn Pedersen, a founding director
of Perth-based practice Iredale Pedersen
Hook (IPH), observes that working
Cairns Foreshore Redevelopment, Cairns by RPS with Cox Rayner Architects,
in the regions reveals important lessons
for cities. For IPH, community engagement
is key to understanding the tensions
and realities of the “two-speed economy”
of some regions, which in Western
Australia is affected by differing corporate
cultures of mining companies and diverse
Aboriginal communities who are frequently
marginalized from these economies.
Added to this is the contrast between the
transience of people employed in service
industries – nurses, teachers and police
who are stationed in regional areas for
limited contracts – and the permanence
and enduring connection of diverse
members of Aboriginal communities.
Within Aboriginal communities, there
C. B. Alexander Campus, Tocal College by Philip Cox and
are further contrasts between older
generations and younger community
members who engage with traditional
Ian McKay (1964). Photography Max Dupain
lore and culture but also want to connect
with Western lifestyles.
Pedersen suggests that effective
community engagement requires the
architect to become an anthropologist.
He advocates for a process of “deep
engagement” that mirrors Jeremy Till’s
views on “transformative participation,”
in which the community is consulted,
involved or engaged as collaborator.
Till recommends that the community is
 were central to these projects, creating
connections to the historical and cultural
context of Barcaldine and historic
Thuringowa Riverway Arts Centre and Lagoons, Townsville by Cox Architecture

travelling stock routes. Read more about

this project on page 51.
As regional towns and cities
come under increasing pressure from
new development driven by external
investment, regional practices have
a role to play in local advocacy.
By engaging with the community, the
(2007). Photography Christopher Frederick Jones

profession can help articulate shared

values and evaluate the pros and cons
of particular development proposals.
Regional practitioners are able
to communicate the benefits of well-
designed new buildings, particularly
mixed-use, medium-density
developments, advocating for ways
that these new building types can
engage formally and spatially with
the local context.
SJB director of architecture
Adam Haddow highlights the importance
positioned as “citizen experts,” knowledge of local advocacy, community engagement
custodians who provide valuable insight and collaboration in the development
and contributions to the project. In this of projects in the regional city of Newcastle.
process, the architect/designer takes The replacement of the heavy rail with
a complementary role as the “expert inner-city light rail has provided welcome
citizen” and “spatial agent” who “effects opportunities to create better connections
change through the empowerment of between the foreshore and the high street.
others, acting with intent and purpose” In the practice’s masterplan for Newcastle
and advocating strategies of appropriation, East End, community engagement helped
dissemination, empowerment, networking articulate local character. SJB worked
and subversion.1 Pedersen highlights with and for a public/private joint venture
the importance of valuing everyone’s between Urban Growth NSW (the
point of view, and the role of the architect development arm of the state government)
as arbiter and advocate who speaks and developer GPT (the site was sold in
up for diverse voices. Read more about 2016 to Iris Capital, and SJB is now working
IPH’s work on page 64. alongside Durbach Block Jaggers and
Brian Hooper also talks about the Tonkin Zulaikha Greer on the precinct).
community engagement and collaborative Extensive community engagement
relationship with Barcaldine Regional allowed the consultancy process
Council in recent projects undertaken to morph into one of collaboration,
with Brisbane-based M3 Architecture empowering businesses and state
in Barcaldine: the Tree of Knowledge and local government to become actively
Memorial and the Globe Hotel. Rather involved in future thinking for the city
than conforming to the limited scope centre. Read more about this project
of the first commission – a memorial for on page 49.
the Tree of Knowledge – Hooper and M3
encouraged the council to pursue a more Footnote

ambitious scheme that engaged with 1. Jeremy Till, “The Negotiation of Hope,”
the broader context of the town. The in Peter Blundell Jones, Doina Petrescu,
and Jeremy Till (eds), Architecture and
collaboration with M3 allowed Hooper Participation (New York, NY: Spon Press, 2005).
to extend his practice beyond residential
and small local government projects,
broadening his expertise. It also facilitated
an engagement in a productive practice
dialogue not readily available to a sole
practitioner based in Yeppoon, central
Queensland. The leadership and personal
commitment of Mayor Rob Chandler
and executive manager Brett Walsh

Jan / Feb 2019 47

Dossier
Regional case studies:
community engagement
Location
Hobart, Tasmania is one of Australia’s
Hobart, Tas most rapidly changing regional cities,
where increased external investment
Local Government Area is presenting both challenges and
Hobart
opportunities. In parallel, a new statewide
Region type
planning scheme has changed the
Regional city goalposts for development. Intended to
simplify the complexities of thirty different
Aboriginal clan planning schemes, the Tasmanian Planning
Mouheneenner peoples
Scheme (TPS) has universal State Planning
Provisions and Local Provision Schedules
Distance to nearest
state/territory capital (LPSs). However, the TPS allows for
N/A projects of state significance to potentially
override the LPS, raising concerns
Population that development driven by financial
2016 census 178,009
2011 census 170,975 imperatives might undermine the social,
growth 2011–16* +4.1% cultural and environmental sustainability
*national average +8.8%
that is central to Tasmania’s identity.
Understanding the value
Top employment sectors
of councils working with the community
(2016 census) to develop a shared future vision
4.2% Hospitals to reinforce identity, as well as the
4.1% State
government
new Local Government Act requirement
administration for municipal ten-year plans, in 2017
3.2% Cafes and the City of Hobart undertook a community
restaurants
2.8% Central
consultation process that provides
government an interesting model for strategic
administration regional thinking. The six-stage process
began with the council engaging research
expertise to develop a conceptual
understanding of city visioning,
reviewing international best practice.
This led to a co-design process with the
council and consultants, dubbed “The20,”
working together to develop the structure
for community engagement.
In the second stage, more than
two hundred interviews revealed a range
of common themes, twenty of which
were posted for discussion on the Only
in Hobart website. A narrative for a “story
of Hobart” was used as the foundation
of a city forum in the third stage
of engagement, with more than one
hundred citizens working over two days
to develop ideas for the city vision.
A fourth stage of wider engagement
included online and paper-based surveys,
a children’s vision workshop with primary
school students and pop-up information
stalls. Stakeholder engagement formed
the fifth stage, with reference groups from
48 Architecture Australia
City of Hobart
business, the community, the state
government and major operational
stakeholders. In the final stage, a
community panel of forty-six community
and business people drew on the ideas
developed and the feedback received
to draft a vision statement and major
objectives. This involved two evening
and two full-day sessions, which, like
the two-day city forum, required a high
level of commitment and engagement
from participants.
The community panel presented
the Hobart City Vision to the council
as a roadmap for future decision-making
framed around eight pillars, from sense
of place and the natural environment
to governance and civic involvement.
The presentation was an important part
of the process, signalling a handover
of shared community values into
the custodianship of the aldermen.
This project is particularly
noteworthy, not only for the dedication
and leadership demonstrated
by the council, but also for the thorough
involvement of the community and a clear
communication strategy throughout
the six-stage process. The council’s
Your Say Hobart website continues to
provide a portal for ongoing community
input into current and pending projects.
A continuing communication strategy
will ensure that newly elected council
members, arriving following the most
recent council elections in late 2018,
Photo from the City of Hobart workshops, which helped guide
will engage with and honour the process
in order to continue a productive and
the Hobart City Vision (2017). Photography Amy Brown
informed dialogue about the city’s future.
 Regional case studies: Newcastle East End
collaboration by SJB

Location
The renaissance of the port city
Newcastle, NSW of Newcastle in New South Wales began
in 2008 when Marcus Westbury established planning strategies. The masterplan
Local Government Area the social enterprise Renew Newcastle.
Newcastle
This urban renewal initiative enabled
Region type
artists and others to use empty
Regional city commercial spaces, many of them
vacant following the downturn caused
Aboriginal custodians by the closure of the BHP steelworks
Awabakal and Worimi
in 1999. Renew Newcastle transformed
peoples
the former industrial city’s central
Distance to nearest shopping district, with a 2011 economic
state/territory capital analysis finding that the project had
117km (Sydney, NSW) generated a 10:1 return on investment
1
for the local community.
Population
2016 census 322,278 The Newcastle Urban Renewal
2011 census 308,308 Strategy (2012) and the Local Planning
growth 2011–16* +4.5% Strategy developed in 2015 established a
*national average +8.8%
framework for future development as part the site. Each practice designed separate
of the Newcastle 2030 Community
Top employment sectors Strategic Plan. Education is a core
(2016 census) component of the “innovation revolution,”
5.5% Hospitals
2.9% Other social
with the University of Newcastle’s NeW
assistance Space and the conversion of the
services Newcastle Law Courts into the first
2.4% Cafes and
restaurants
offshore campus for Japan’s Nihon
University increasing Newcastle’s profile
as a university city.
Rezoning land for inner-city
housing will provide 23 percent of the
city’s projected residential capacity
in 2016-41, delivering fifty to seventy-five the adjacent historic buildings on the
people per hectare. These forecasts
underpin the viability of new light rail.
A mixed-use development in the inner
west designed by Bates Smart and based
Proposal for King and Perkins, part of the Newcastle East End
of urban spaces fulfilled the principles
of both the urban renewal and local
process, led by SJB, included extensive
consultation with the community
and Newcastle Council’s Urban Design
Consultative Group. It established
an aspirational standard for future
development. The development approval
of this masterplan was passed on when
GPT sold the land to Iris Capital in 2016.
Recognizing the importance
of a richness of responses across the
series of buildings on the site, SJB
realigned its role to become executive
architect and invited Durbach Block
Jaggers and Tonkin Zulaihka Greer to
join the first stage of development on
buildings, a combination of adaptive
re-use and new build, to form a rich
tapestry that extends the existing
character of the city. Building envelopes
are shaped to provide a sympathetic
context for existing buildings, mirroring
street wall and building edge conditions,
and hollowing out the centre of the
block to allow sunlight into the central
“public heart” formed by a new internal
laneway through the site. The materiality
and facade modulation complement
site. The input of three practices with
extensive experience and recognition
in well-executed multiresidential projects
sets a high bar for local developers

around a transport interchange will create to strive for and also offers a strong
thoroughfares and pedestrian spaces. precedent for local architects to follow
At the eastern end of the city, in future projects.
a team led by SJB is employing similar
development led by SJB. Image Courtesy of SJB

principles to develop two whole city Footnote

blocks. SJB was initially engaged 1. Renew Newcastle, “Renew Newcastle Annual Report
by the state government’s Urban Growth January–December 2011,” 12.

NSW and developer GPT, who had

purchased the site with the intention
of demolishing all the buildings to
create a big-box development that would
have erased the heritage buildings and
urban scale. Developing an alternative
proposal for mixed-use, medium-density
development that retained existing
buildings and created a finer grain

Jan / Feb 2019 49

Dossier
Regional case studies:
culture as catalyst
Location The local government area of Latrobe
Morwell, Vic in eastern Victoria encompasses
four urban areas: Morwell, Moe,
Local Government Area Traralgon and Churchill. Industry in the
Latrobe
region was driven by coal-powered
Region type electricity generation, particularly
Regional city at the Hazelwood power station,
which was commissioned in the 1960s.
Aboriginal nation The Latrobe Regional Gallery was
Gunaikurnai, Braiakaulung
people
established in Morwell in 1971 at the
height of the region’s prosperity, but the
Distance to nearest restructuring and gradual privatization
state/territory capital of the State Electricity Commission in
135km (Melbourne, Vic)
the 1990s led to job losses and a
Population
subsequent decline in the region’s
2016 census 13,540 population. In 2016, in response
2011 census 13,691 to the planned closure of Hazelwood
growth 2011–16* -1.1%
power station, the state government
*national average +8.8%
formed the Latrobe Valley Authority
to manage a $266 million support fund
Top employment sectors for the region and to partner with the
(2016 census)
community and business to deliver
4.2% Hospitals
3.9% Supermarket regional improvement.
and grocery Mark Themann arrived as the
stores new director of the Latrobe Regional
3.5% Takeaway food
services Gallery in 2015, drawing on past
3.5% Fossil fuel experience in Europe to understand
electricity the potential of regional galleries
generation
to serve as cultural catalysts.
He formulated an ambitious plan
to refurbish the gallery and create
a world class venue for local and
international travelling exhibitions.
One of Themann’s first successes
was to work with the Magritte Foundation is one of a series of projects supported
in Belgium to bring an exhibition of the
work of influential surrealist painter
René Magritte to regional Victoria.
For the refurbishment of the gallery, and a library in Moe. Understanding
funding from the Latrobe Valley Authority
and the Latrobe City Council was secured
and three architecture practices were
invited to develop a vision for the project. of the collective capacity of these towns
Melbourne-based NAAU Studio won
the commission with an archaeological
approach of removing and reorganizing
parts of the existing building, transforming
the gallery’s spaces and creating
stronger connections to the streetscape.
Staged plans were developed to
allow parts of the project to be realized
as funding permitted.
50 Architecture Australia
Latrobe Regional Gallery
by NAAU Studio
NAAU Studio presented the
proposal directly to the community in an
information and consultation process
that solidified the community’s
commitment to the project. A lightning-
fast eight-month design and construction
process required ongoing collaboration
between council, gallery, architect
and builder. As the labyrinth of the
existing building was unpicked,
new problems needed to be resolved,
and the costs and building approvals
negotiated to suit. Fortnightly meetings
over the three-month construction
process involved constant creative
problem-solving to keep the project
on time and within budget.
Themann notes that the
transformation of the gallery will
continue beyond the refurbishment
of the building. Diverse programming
from pop to high culture aims to widen
the audience, engaging with local
schools, intrastate visitors and the
region’s Federation University. In the
year since the gallery’s opening in August
2017, its membership has more than
doubled and there has been an increase
in visitors, including from Melbourne
and interstate. New openings in the
building create connections between
the gallery cafe and foyer and the
street, enhancing the public domain.
The Latrobe Regional Gallery
by the Latrobe Valley Authority,
including a range of sporting facilities,
a proposed creative precinct in Traralgon
complementary relationships and building
Latrobe Regional Gallery by NAAU Studio (2017).
collaborative regional strategies between
towns will assist in the development
to promote the Latrobe Valley’s potential
for industry, business, community
and culture.
Photography TM Photo
 Regional case studies: Tree of Knowledge
connectivity and The Globe by
Brian Hooper Architect
and M3 Architecture

Location Heartland regions make up the majority character. The leadership of the
Barcaldine, Qld of the municipalities of Australia and council, in particular the personal
as such are core to the country’s identity commitment of Mayor Rob Chandler
Local Government Area and heritage. In these areas, connecting and executive manager Brett Walsh,
Barcaldine
with context, personal commitment and proved instrumental.
Region type community engagement are key. The project supports a broader
Heartland region Understanding the history of a place tourism strategy and is one of a series
can provide possibilities for the future. of buildings that have been given a new
Aboriginal traditional In Barcaldine in central Queensland, life. Through community involvement
owners
Iningai language group
the council and the community have and commitment, they are now delightful
recognized the importance of engaging buildings and spaces that preserve and
Distance to nearest with the hundreds of thousands of visitors strengthen the character of the town.
state/territory capital who travel along the state’s historic These buildings help to put Barcaldine
887km (Brisbane, Qld)
stock routes each year. Visitors peak on the map, extending the town’s appeal
Population
between May and September (loosely to travellers and marking Barcaldine as a
2016 census 1,287 Mother’s Day to Father’s Day), when destination, rather than merely a roadside
2011 census 1,316 the weather is cooler and there are pit stop. They enhance amenity for the
growth 2011–16* -2.2%
fewer flies. Recognizing the potential community and visitors and provide new
*national average +8.8%
of tourism to provide a second income, social and economic opportunities.
which could mitigate the effects of
Top employment sectors drought, Barcaldine has embarked on
(2016 census)
ambitious projects to encourage visitors
8.1% Hospitals
5.1% Local to stay longer than a quick rest and refuel.
government When Barcaldine’s historic
administration Tree of Knowledge, a ghost gum hailed
4.9% State
government as the site of the foundation of the
administration modern labour movement, was poisoned,
4.9% Primary and the council commissioned Yeppoon-based
secondary
education architecture practice Brian Hooper
Architect to design a memorial to
preserve the tree’s remains. Hooper
formed a collaboration with Brisbane
The Globe, Barcaldine by Brian Hooper Architect, M3 Architecture, architects in

practice M3 Architecture, seeding

the beginning of a series of innovative
commissions for Barcaldine. Thinking
beyond the limits of the modest budget,
association (2015). Photography Christopher Frederick Jones

the team proposed a grander vision

that not only celebrated the tree’s
history, but also reordered urban space,
creating a sense of place and connection
to the town for locals and visitors.
Following the success of this
project, Hooper and M3 were engaged
to extend the masterplan, incorporating
the relocation of the tourist information
centre to the centre of town. The council
initially intended to demolish the old
Globe Hotel that it had purchased in 2011.
However, the design team emphasized
the storytelling capacity of transforming
the old pub into a new civic building,
maintaining its social role and original

Jan / Feb 2019 51

 Exploring Australia’s role
in shaping the future of
WKH$VLD3DFLƠFUHJLRQ

Add your voice to this

WLPHO\FRQYHUVDWLRQ

FOUND ING PARTNERS P R E S EN TIN G P ART NE RS

 What opportunities does the Asian
Century present for architects,
designers and planners?

Through an exciting program of

symposia, lectures, exhibitions
and workshops, the Asia Pacific
Architecture Forum brings together
leading practitioners and thinkers
to explore our role in shaping
the future of the region and its
culture, economy and sustainability.
Add your voice to this timely
conversation by joining us in 2019.

Light surge, Michelle Xen, single channel video, 2018

Dossier
Fourth World problems Kieran Wong laments
Essay by Kieran Wong the failings inherent
in procuring essential
work for Indigenous
communities, a process in which politics,
bureaucracy and a misguided push for innovation
inhibit empowerment and reconciliation.
“on Country,” not realizing that their nearest
Just over ten years ago, at the height
of the resources boom in Western Australia, Fourth World, a term coined by Canadian
CODA Studio co-founder Emma Williamson First Nations leader George Manuel in 1974
and I started to work regionally and
remotely across Western Australia.
Our work focused on two areas – small
community and health projects and
the development of state government-
sponsored design guides and handbooks.
These handbooks aimed to identify
and retain the character of townships,
settlements and outstations in the
face of the overwhelming onslaught
of development that resulted from the
resources boom. Through this work
we began relationships with Indigenous
organizations and communities, working
collaboratively to deliver projects ranging regional Indigenous communities deepen.
from land subdivision to community
buildings, offices and health clinics.
54 Architecture Australia
Since then we have worked with
four different Indigenous communities
in Queensland, Western Australia and
the Northern Territory, each within two
kilometres of a major tourism destination.
Incredibly, these “one-mile” communities
are without access to running scheme
water, sewerage treatment or reliable
power. These conditions are the remnants
and reserves of institutionalized racism
that survive today. Each community is
adjacent to homes and tourist resorts in
which visitors pay top dollar for a holiday
neighbours are living without basic amenity.
These communities are living in the
to describe Indigenous peoples who live
in First World nations but are excluded and
marginalized from mainstream advantage
and opportunity.1 We tread a challenging
tightrope as First World consultants,
working and walking alongside our clients
in the Fourth.2 This walk is more like
a dance between two ways of seeing
the world. The tensions and opportunities
inherent in this dance have created much
of the meaning our work has sought
to explore. These challenges take many
forms as our growing awareness and
understanding of working in remote and
I am not a seagull …
Working in communities post-native
title determination, often with leaders
who are key to maintaining ceremonial
and sacred life, is a distinct challenge for
us Westernized middle-class professionals.
How can we relate to the vast array
of cultural and familial obligations,
nationhoods, resettlement patterns,
stolen generations and collective and
intergenerational trauma? The paradox
is one of striving to do good through
a model of “community development”
when we are labelled “seagulls”: white
beings that fly in, make a lot of noise,
shit on everything and fly away again.
The contradiction of maintaining an
anti-racist position while working within
regimes, systems and procurement models
that can only be considered colonizing
is exhausting to motivation. As author
Kim Mahood has articulated it, “… the
Photography Peter Bennetts
most highly skilled and scrupulous people
are hollowed out by the effects of this
contradiction.”3

Photography Courtesy of the author
The MG/GT administration
building in Kununurra,
Western Australia by CODA
Studio and Mark Phillips
Architect (2013) services two
Indigenous organizations in
the wider Kimberley region.
Kieran Wong is currently
working in Groote Eylandt
in the Northern Territory,
improving community
infrastructure and housing
for the local communities.
Jan / Feb 2019
Keeping clients alive
The reality of the unacceptable health gap
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous
Australians is keenly felt when working
with communities that can have an average
life expectancy as low as fifty-two.4 Not so
many years ago I had the privilege of
working with an articulate leader and
traditional owner my own age. His untimely
death at the age of forty-two was tragic
and profound. It created a leadership void,
ongoing trauma in the community and
significant disruptions to the delivery of his
organization’s project. Our current work
in the Groote Archipelago in the Northern
Territory is punctuated with constant
“sorry business” (social practices that
follow the death of a community member)
and the elastic responses required as
relatives arrive and houses, cars and
boats are vacated to await the smoking
ceremony that helps spirits to be sung
out and onward.
The challenges of innovation
We have read dozens of auditors’
reports arguing (with eye-glazing similarity) in procurement processes that are
that Indigenous projects, programs and
partnerships have resulted in suboptimal
outcomes because of poor design,
delivery and review processes. Reports
that assert recommendations to (yet
again) improve local consultation, improve
coordination between agencies, innovate
in design and innovate in delivery. This
innovate/neglect/crisis/rebuild/neglect
cycle, which characterizes much housing
policy and funding for Indigenous
communities, is a key challenge. It is
the flawed model that architects and
health professionals seeking to improve
the most basic of requirements for living,
a healthy house, encounter again and
5
again. We must stop innovating through
novelty as this supports a system that
6
is essentially designed for failure.
Instead we must continue to advocate
for evidence-based models of quality
design and delivery and robust
maintenance practices, as championed
through the work of Health Habitat,
Tangentyere Design and many others.
Of politics
These challenges are, at their heart,
political. The rhetoric of “better design
practices for healthy housing” slips easily
off the tongues of politicians, but can
so easily disappear in the complex and
exhausting chains of middle management
7
tasked to deliver it. Working within
a political system designed to support
and feed an ever-burgeoning bureaucracy
places emphasis on the new, the quick
and the initial cost, and diminishes the
value of life cycles, incremental and
evolutionary improvement and community-
led feedback loops.
Of land, right?
In our work with the Quandamooka
community on Minjerribah (North
Stradbroke Island, Queensland), we’ve
experienced the effects of recent native
title determinations and the striking
political strength of traditional owners,
who have been bruised and pilloried
by “locals” during the process. Native
title and land title tension between third-
generation holiday-makers and a culture
built over millennia simply adds to the
generational trauma. Rather than building
bridges between community members,
it can result in fractured opportunities
to work together across boundary lines
of freehold and reserve lands.
… and “action”!
One of the greatest challenges lies
predicated on the rhetoric of the right
“action” words, yet fail to deliver
meaningful change or actual outcomes.
The neoliberal development patterns,
project management processes and
de-risked delivery models espoused by
governments and private consulting firms
must be reimagined. Time and again we
have seen Indigenous organizations
struggle with “corporate knowledge” and
the never-ending bureaucratic processes
designed to “build capacity.”8 We need
a model that is the right fit culturally
and commercially, and one that can be
led by Indigenous communities.
It may be difficult to imagine this
alternative model, given that the Uluru
Statement from the Heart’s most basic
proposition of a Makarrata Commission
can be neither understood nor supported
by our government.9 For us, this is emphatic
evidence that current systems are not
geared to facilitate and celebrate Indigenous
organizations, native title holders and
owners of culture, story and country.
This is one of the reasons we seek
to work directly with traditional owner
groups, post-native title determination,
on their own country and on their own
projects. Unfortunately, though, this work
is not always on their own terms. Why
not? Because the strings tied to funding,
land release and the “economic transition
strategy” require the use of standardized
bureaucratic processes and conventional
project management and milestones.
55
Dossier
Karratha Central
Healthcare (completed 2016
by CODA Studio), which
provides broad-spectrum
healthcare to Indigenous
and non-Indigenous
communities in the Pilbara
city of Karratha.
Footnotes
1. George Manuel’s The Fourth World: An Indian reality is a
searing indictment on the mistreatment of Indigenous and
stateless peoples around the world. This powerful work, by
the leader of the National Indian Brotherhood (predecessor
of the Assembly of First Nations) in Canada, laid the
intellectual foundations for the establishment of the World
Council of Indigenous Peoples in 1975. Manuel and his
Indigenous colleagues from countries around the world
brought a radically different perspective to international
politics, one based on the experience of colonization, the
often brutal suppression of Indigenous cultures and a
passionate determination to assert control over their future.
2. See also Nicolas Rothwell, “Our Fourth World,” The
Australian website, 30 May 2009, theaustralian.com.au/
news/inquirer/our-fourth-world/news-story/5e9e55ddcafc
0194a2933c92a5212651 (accessed 24 October 2018).
3. Kim Mahood, “White Stigma,” The Monthly website,
August 2015, themonthly.com.au/issue/2015/
august/1438351200/kim-mahood/white-stigma
(accessed 24 October 2018).
56 Architecture Australia
Government briefs set targets and
outcomes that can be identified within
electoral cycles. It is impossible to resist
the colonizing effects of these kinds of
procurement processes.
What then of the future,
the possibility inherent in community
as more and more post-native title
determination communities are recognized,
formed, re-formed, imagined and
projected? Is there another way forward
that doesn’t solely use the “rational,”
Westernized economic development
model to empower communities?
We are optimists – our work is
always imagined in a (brighter) future.
We imagine Australia as a Fourth World
in which this is not a pejorative term
denoting marginalization, disempowerment
and despair, but rather one describing,
as the Uluru Statement from the Heart
4. Australian Bureau of Statistics data in 2014 revealed that
people living in very remote parts of the Northern Territory
had a life expectancy of 52.2 years of age, while people
living in remote areas had a life expectancy of 62.6 years of
age. The life expectancy for very remote Territorians was
more than ten years behind the Australian average of 63.9.
Jill Poulsen, “ABS stats show that life expectancy in Territory
years behind rest of Australia,” NT News website, 17
November 2014, ntnews.com.au/news/northern-territory/
abs-stats-show-that-life-expectancy-in-territory-years-
behind-rest-of-australia/news-story/e5cc22869faf11ea9
cadf989e620b6f4 (accessed 24 October 2018).
5. See figure 9 in Tess Lea and Paul Pholeros, “This is Not a
Pipe: The Treacheries of Indigenous Housing,” Public Culture
website, 22, March 2010, researchgate.net/publication/
249879335_This_Is_Not_a_Pipe_The_Treacheries_of_
Indigenous_Housing (accessed 24 October 2018).
6. Kieran Wong, “We need to stop innovating in Indigenous
housing and get on with Closing the Gap,” The Conversation
website, 31 May 2018, theconversation.com/we-need-to-
stop-innovating-in-indigenous-housing-and-get-on-with-
closing-the-gap-96266 (accessed 24 October 2018).
Photography Peter Bennetts
states, “a fuller expression of Australia’s
nationhood.” It is a country of empowerment
and reconciliation, truthful and open to
Indigenous voices. Getting there will require
political maturity, genuine reconciliation
and a collective recasting and reimagining
of the postcolonial, neoliberal malaise that
got us here in the first place.
We dream of this place. Where our
country, continuous narratives and human
relationships intersect to create a new
way – our Fourth World teaching us to walk
together and transform the First.
— Kieran Wong is a principal at Fulcrum,
a consulting and research advisory agency focused on
social impact through design thinking. He is an adjunct
senior research fellow at Monash University and an industry
partner of the University of Sydney’s Housing for Health
Incubator. Kieran is currently working in Groote Eylandt,
NT and Minjerribah, Qld on community infrastructure and
housing projects that seek to improve the quality of life
for Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.
7. Commonwealth of Australia, Department of the Prime
Minister and Cabinet, “Remote Housing Review: A review
of the National Partnership Agreement on Remote
Indigenous Housing and the Remote Housing Strategy
(2008–2018),” pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/
review-of-remote-housing.pdf. See Part 4.5: “Over the
course of the Strategy many lessons were learned
(or re-learned).”
8. These challenges and the self-fulfilling process is
eloquently outlined by Tess Lea in Bureaucrats and Bleeding
Hearts: Indigenous Health in Northern Australia, UNSW Press,
August 2008.
9. Uluru Statement from the Heart, presented at the First
Nations National Constitutional Convention, May 2017,
referendumcouncil.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-05/
Uluru_Statement_From_The_Heart_0.pdf.
 On edge in the centre In the Northern Territory
Essay by Sue Dugdale town of Alice Springs,
a discernible edge can
be traced between
the town’s different communities. Architect and
town resident Sue Dugdale considers what the
Alice Springs built environment reveals about
its layered social fabric.
I live and work in Mparntwe, or Alice Springs,
in the Northern Territory, which is a town
with edges. The edges I have in mind
are not spatial constructs but rather the
multiple levels and types of anxiety that
operate in the social fabric of the town.
Town residents not born and bred
in Alice Springs are essentially an expatriate
community. They come for six months,
twelve months, three years or even a full
career, but all of them, always and at some
level, have an exit plan. This “foot to the
door” mentality manifests as a persistent
anxiety that pervades our lives, producing
a profoundly different experience of place
from that of someone born in the town –
those who are centred there for many
and varied reasons, from cultural ties and
obligations, a profound relationship with
the land and kinship networks to poverty
and lack of opportunity.
Large, angular sunhoods
ameliorate the visual These two communities occupy
experience of an otherwise the same space but seem to operate
typical industrial shed in the in different universes. Except for rare
design of MPH HQ (2018),
enhancing the public value interactions, the groups mind their own
of a commercial building. business and get on with their own
Photography Peter Barnes
Jan / Feb 2019
activities. This well-established separation
appears to follow a set of tacit rules – a level
of civility and cooperation that sits strangely
in the context of this rich, stimulating,
frustrating and exhausting town.
Strangely enough, it is an English
novel that provides insight into this urban
condition. The City and The City by
China Miéville is a detective novel with
a science-fiction twist. The detective
story takes place in a fictional European
city. This setting is in fact two cities that
occupy the same space simultaneously.
The citizens of each city walk many
of the same streets and drive on the
same roads, but are trained from early
childhood to recognize the “other” city
and to immediately “unsee” it along with
all its elements and citizens.
This paradigm has an immediate
resonance with conditions in Alice Springs.
There are at least two towns operating here,
and they can predictably be divided into the
Indigenous town and the non-Indigenous
town. There is a surprisingly low level of
integration, or joint participation, between
the two towns of Alice Springs, with some
notable exceptions, one of which is sport.
Architectural practice is an activity
centred firmly in the non-Indigenous town;
however, as professionals who engage
in the production of physical environments,
there are opportunities for us to shape
both environments. Three of our recent
projects can be used to illustrate this
two-town paradigm.
The first, MPH HQ, occupies space
and functions mainly in the non-Indigenous
town. It is a large work shed and office for
a local building contractor.
The site for the project is a
prominent corner in a light industrial area
that is already developed with worksites
and the type of retailers who need a large
amount of inexpensive space – tyre fitters
and bedding and plumbing retailers,
for example. The existing development
in the area is the depressingly familiar
off-the-shelf industrial shed with a small,
often two-storey office and retail section
at the front – a form common to light
industrial precincts and highway strips
across the country.
In our project, an off-the-shelf
industrial shed aligns with one street
boundary and a leftover wedge of land
is used to provide the finer-grained space
needed for reception, office and staff
facilities. Office functions are placed on
the upper level to take advantage of great
views and large enveloping sunhoods are
designed to exclude 99 percent of direct
sun from a problematic south-south-west
57
Dossier
The ASTC Garden
Cemetery Chapel (2018)
is a place where the lives and
cultures of people in “both
towns” of Alice Springs
converge. Large sliding
doors allow the space
to be transformed into an
expansive one-room pavilion.
A connection to
landscape ensures that the
chapel does not predicate
a particular type of service
or cultural protocol.
58
aspect. The big shed operates as a dynamic
space that changes from day to day as
materials and vehicles for worksites come
and go.
This building appears quite
different from the other commercial
premises on the street, but is essentially
the same building type working harder
to achieve more amenity, comfort,
sustainability and aesthetic value for the
street and the owner’s business profile.
This project operates mainly within
the non-Indigenous town. It achieves some
reasonable architectural aims and is a
solid citizen in its own town, but does
not offer much to the other town. In that
respect, the citizens of the Indigenous
town probably “unsee” this building.
The second project – the ASTC
Garden Cemetery Chapel – is a place
where the lives and cultures of people
in both towns converge. The chapel is
a non-denominational space for the
community of Alice Springs and is open
to all religions and types of ceremonies.
The chapel is designed to act as
a one-room open pavilion or a one-room
enclosed space, depending on weather
conditions. Six large doors of multi-cell
polycarbonate can slide away to connect
the interior to the verandah with a thirteen- provide a key to the stories and culture
metre column-free opening, more than
doubling the seating capacity.
It is not uncommon that a funeral
for a significant person in Alice Springs
is attended by more than a thousand
people. Because of this, the chapel
verandah adjoins a wide grassy area with a an indirect reference to the Yeperenye
low-relief mound on its perimeter that can
seat an unspecified number of additional
people, while also providing a place for kids MacDonnell Ranges that flank the town.
to cut loose and play. This connection
to the exterior landscape facilitates a level of course, a gross oversimplification
Architecture Australia
of comfort and ease that does not
predicate a particular type of service
or cultural protocol, allowing the chapel
to engage, to some extent, with the lives
and cultural contexts of both towns.
In the third project – the Alice
Springs CBD Revitalisation – we consciously
aimed for a strong engagement in both
towns in order to create places that
have layered meanings and provide wide
functional benefit.
The project reopens part of
the town’s central mall to traffic and
establishes stronger connections between
the CBD and the Todd River, which defines
the eastern edge of the CBD. The river,
dry for most of the year, is a beautiful
natural feature with strong Indigenous
cultural values.
Arrernte custodian Doris Stuart
and local artist/photographer Mike Gillam
were commissioned to map out a cultural
framework for the project. Their proposal
for a biodiversity corridor provided a way
of highlighting cultural links between
the CBD and the river. The biodiversity
theme was most strongly expressed in
the design by opening up sightlines
between a significant and imposing river
red gum in Parsons Street and a stand
of sister trees at the river’s edge.
We deliberately created poetic
names for areas of the project to try
Photography Gary Annett
to strengthen community engagement
and add cultural depth. We hoped that
these names – the Rainwater Reflection
Pan, the Caterpillar Seats, the Cascade
Feature and the Riverbank Garden – would
gain currency in the public realm and
that generated the design features.
These design elements serve
a range of functions, providing graphic
demonstrations of the seasonal presence
of water and references to flora and fauna.
The moth-inspired shade structures are
Caterpillar, one of the three Dreamtime
caterpillars who created the striking
This two-town analogy is,
Photography Brendan Chan
of a complex urban social fabric. There
are many more towns if you choose to see
them, including tourists and young people,
who are a town unto themselves. What is
the point of talking about two towns?
Why not just talk about Indigenous and
non-Indigenous people occupying the
same space?
Others might argue that the
two-town analogy does nothing more
than point out differences between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous people’s
lives that everyone is already aware
of in outline, if not in detail: statistically,
Indigenous Australians are poorer, have
a lower life expectancy and level of
education, and experience astronomically
higher levels of incarceration than non-
Indigenous Australians. Non-Indigenous
Australians are all displaced peoples
of one sort or another, lacking the
longstanding culture and connection
to land of Indigenous peoples and forever
connected to a rapacious colonial past
and its associated burden of guilt.
An architect can feel pretty
ineffectual when designing within this
value-laden space. We are assigned or
adopt our roles as rescuers and rescued,
Jan / Feb 2019
and the perceived problems continue, The Alice Springs
CBD Revitalisation (2013)
decade after decade. broaches the edge
However, these descriptors between the “two towns”
of Indigenous and non-Indigenous people of Alice Springs. The
project reconnects the
are comparative or made by association,
CBD to the culturally
and risk defining Indigenous people by their significant Todd River
disadvantage and non-Indigenous people with an open and visually
unobstructive design.
by a historic debt. These issues are
important and must be recognized, but
do not provide a constructive framework
for architects and others working with
the contemporary built environment.
The two-town analogy provides a way
of framing the contemporary world
that is not value-laden and recognizes
that people are living their own lives,
centred in their own personal experience
and cultures, and are not to be defined
by comparison.
— Sue Dugdale is director of Susan Dugdale
and Associates. Prior to establishing her practice,
Sue worked with Aboriginal-owned architecture practice
Tangentyere Design. She has a personal passion for
exploring and giving form to the cultural narrative and
environment of Alice Springs and the surrounding region.
59
Dossier
A portrait of regional How do the smaller
practice social and political
Essay by Shaneen Fantin ponds of regional
Australia shape
architecture practice? Shaneen Fantin speaks
with practitioners in far north Queensland
to discuss flexible practice models, working
with government and the profits and pitfalls
of collaboration.
Relationships, service and flexibility
The population of far north Queensland,
a region stretching from Hinchinbrook
on the east coast north to the Torres Strait
and west to the Shire of Carpentaria,
is estimated to be 272,000.1 This is less
than 7 percent of the population of Greater
Melbourne or Greater Sydney and around
12 percent of Greater Brisbane’s population.
In spite of this significant disparity of scale,
practices from the region consistently
receive commendations and awards in
the Australian Institute of Architects’ state
and national awards programs. Sometimes
the awards are for collaborations with
larger firms, but often they are for local
projects, procured at a regional level,
with a commitment of many years
to bring the projects to completion.
One such example is the School
of Arts, Cairns Museum building by
Total Project Group Architects (TPG).
In 2017 the project was awarded
the Don Roderick Award for Heritage
Architecture at the Queensland state
awards and the Eddie Oribin Award
for Building of the Year in the far north
Queensland region. TPG worked closely
with the Cairns Historical Society and
Cairns Regional Council over four
consecutive terms (and three mayors)
to secure funding and deliver the much-
needed local museum. The $8.69 million
budget included renovations to the existing
building and its four previous extensions,
all of which are heritage-listed. TPG has
a long history of working on heritage
and arts projects in the region and the
practice’s ongoing relationship with local
arts organizations and local government
assisted it in securing the Cairns Museum
project at each stage. Director of TPG
Roger Mainwood said, “As it was a
community project, with little funding,
it took many hours of volunteer effort by
both professionals and passionate
60 Architecture Australia
members of the Cairns Historical Society,
working closely with the different councils
and their senior officers, to guide the
project to success.”
Regionally based architects have
to build long-term, solid relationships with
potential clients, funders and project
managers in order for their businesses
to be sustainable, and to ensure they
are consistently invited to tender on
government projects. If things go awry
on a project, the business community will
know about it very quickly. The social and
political pond is small in far north
Queensland and having a reputation for
delivering and servicing well on projects
is paramount. Reputation, of course,
matters everywhere, but in the regions
it is likely more pronounced: you may well
live next door to, attend school functions
with or play sport with your client
representative, project manager
or local councillor.
Andrew McFadden, director of
PAWA Architecture, also believes that
success and business sustainability
come from building strong, trusting and
productive relationships with people
who align with your work and creative
philosophy. He stated, “Expertise specific
to whichever region you are operating in
is paramount. Relationships between the
client and architect appear to be far more
intimate in regions than in cities.”
Practice flexibility and the
ability to undertake a diverse range of
services is also important. Specialization
is rare for regionally based practices,
because services need to align with
what the economy has to offer. Whether
it be education, social housing, health,
tourism or commercial projects in
architecture, or other services such
as project management, community
engagement and graphic design, practices
with a diverse skills base are more likely
to succeed because they are less limited
by the smaller number of potential clients.
Working with government
When the topic of procurement was
raised during discussions with architects
practising in Cairns, the most immediate
response related to state and local
government-funded projects. Although
the Queensland government is in the
process of changing procurement
methodologies, there are still many
problems with procurement in the regions
from an architect’s perspective. Projects
continue to be tendered with price
as 80 percent of the assessment criteria
weighting. Prioritizing cost does not value
design outcomes, relevant experience
or demonstrated capacity. It just makes
the local business environment extremely
cost-competitive and delivers below-par
built environments. Many projects are
tendered as concept or pre-design
phase only and are then repackaged
and re-tendered for developed design
and documentation, or as document
and construct contracts. In a regional
area, this leads to one firm doing
the concept and a neighbouring firm
documenting it, which is counterproductive
for maintaining design and documentation
quality, continuity and efficiency, let
alone relationships in a small town.
Tender invitations seem to come in a
boom-bust cycle that relates to political
commitments, program funding and the
wet/dry seasons of the tropics. There is
always a mad rush to get buildings started
(or completed) before the wet season.
To secure a place on the
pre-qualified suppliers list on Local
Buy (the Local Government Association
of Queensland’s platform for local
government tenders), a firm must first
win a tender through Local Buy and the
LG Tenderbox portal. For many practices
this reality has never come to fruition,
and so tenders continue to go to those
on the pre-qualified suppliers list.
There are only seventeen architects
on the Local Buy suppliers list for all
of Queensland. A number of architects
question the transparency and equity
in the process that Local Buy promotes.
Andrew Lane, director of Indij
Design (a 100 percent Indigenous-owned
business), spoke specifically about the
Queensland Indigenous Procurement Policy
(QIPP): “It sounds like it should be good
for Indigenous business, and it is if you
are a supplier of goods, but not if you are
a professional service.” The QIPP is
intended as a “whole-of-government
 framework to increase procurement with
Indigenous businesses to be three percent
of the value of government procurement
contracts by 2022,” but Lane does not
believe that his practice has ever been
invited to tender for work because of the
QIPP or seen a tender in which the QIPP
was cited. This is one instance that
demonstrates how procurement systems
either don’t comply with or don’t refer
to government policy documents.
Collaboration or servitude?
When the Cairns Civic Theatre was designed
and constructed in 1973, a collective
of three local architects was awarded
the contract for the service: Edwin
Oribin, Jack McElroy and Barney Lynn.
The project was successfully executed
and was the main performing arts centre
in Cairns from 1974 to 2016, when it
was closed for major upgrades to
create the new Cairns Performing Arts
Centre, currently under construction.
The contract for the Cairns Performing
Arts Centre was awarded to local firm
CA Architects in collaboration with national
firm Cox Architecture.
For projects over $30 million in
value, this is the typical modus operandi
in the regions and has been for many years.
Local firms rarely get awarded projects
of this scale on their own, even when
they have offices with capable staff,
state-of-the-art resources and years
of experience working on large projects.
Somehow there is a perception that the
influence of a large, metropolitan-based
firm will make regional projects better
or that there may not be sufficient skills
at a regional level to create or complete
the project. This perception is held not
only by local governments but also
by regional practitioners, as evidenced
by the following behavioural pattern,
which typically occurs when a large project
goes to tender: either large firms contact
smaller local ones offering collaboration
or regional firms contact larger firms
they have relationships with or with whom
they are interested in collaborating, in the
hope that it will win them the project.
Is this a problem? If this pattern
produces noteworthy places that improve
our built environment, it shouldn’t be any
cause for concern. You might argue that
Photography Andrew Watson
collaboration occurs every day, in cities
around the world, and this is just another
example of globalization, a win-win for both
the architects and the region. But it is the
nature of the agreement and the balance
of the partnership between the practices
that is most revealing. I believe the
Jan / Feb 2019
served and service relationship is more TPG Architects’
extensions to and heritage
pronounced for architects in the regions. adaptation of the School
In reality, the regional firm usually ends of Arts, Cairns Museum
up with the service relationship: contract building (2017) restore
the city’s oldest public
administration, detail documentation of building while also adding
specific parts (wet areas), perhaps some a new chapter to the
collaboration on design, local stakeholder building’s story.
management and, critically, a smaller cut
of the fees.
If regional architects choose to
collaborate then they should be negotiating
an equitable share of the work. They know
the climate, history, politics and local
conditions, and without an implicit
understanding of these elements projects
can easily fail. Architects in the regions
need to sell the message that their work,
experience and skills compete at state
and national levels. The assumption that
to be at the cutting edge of architecture
you must be living and working in a large
metropolitan centre is as outdated
as it sounds, and practices in far north
Queensland are challenging and disrupting
the status quo.
Author’s note
I acknowledge contributions from
the following far north Queensland
architects in the preparation of this article:
Andrew McFadden, managing director of
PAWA Architecture; Andrew Lane, director
of Indij Design; Roger Mainwood, founding
director of TPG Architects; Loftus Overend,
principal of Best Overend and Associates;
and Belinda Allwood, director of People
Oriented Design.
— Shaneen Fantin is director of People
Oriented Design, adjunct associate professor
at the University of Queensland and James Cook University
and a third-generation local of far north Queensland.
Footnote
1. Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics
based on data gathered in the 2016 census. These figures
are for the Far North Queensland Regional Organisation
of Councils. See profile.id.com.au/fnqroc/population
(accessed 20 November 2018).
61
Dossier
Architecture for Indigenous Timothy O’Rourke
healthcare in the regions reports on
Essay by Timothy O’Rourke a current study
investigating
Indigenous perceptions and experiences
of healthcare design in order to increase
the efficacy of cross-cultural design
in healthcare architecture.
The health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people compared to that of
non-Indigenous Australians is one of the
more disturbing and enduring measures
of inequality in Australia. Compared
to those in urban centres, measures
of Indigenous health decline in remote
and very remote regions, where access
to health services is more haphazard
and factors that determine health –
housing, education, unemployment
and poverty – vary with place.
The most recent “Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Health Performance
Framework Report” to address the gap
in Indigenous health identifies a need
for readily accessible, culturally supportive healthcare projects that reveal a growing
healthcare services, but the design
of hospitals and clinics is ignored
in this otherwise comprehensive set
1
of recommendations. By comparison,
we recognize that culturally appropriate
design matters in Indigenous housing
and that sociocultural imperatives
should influence prison and courthouse
architecture. Given accepted practice
in these building types, can healthcare
architecture be improved to help
ameliorate this crisis in the health
of Australia’s First Peoples?
Although wanting, evidence-based
design (EBD) research has made inroads
into health architecture, incorporating
research into ideas ranging from the
effectiveness of views to workplace
efficiencies. Mostly North American
in origin, EBD research into measures
of patient satisfaction and recovery
has largely neglected cross-cultural
design. A lack of coherent policy about
healthcare design that meets Indigenous
cultural and social preferences led to
an unedifying media focus in April 2018,
when the New South Wales health minister and overlapping social and cultural
updated state policy to direct that
hospitals consider segregated waiting
rooms in future emergency departments
in order to reduce the high numbers of
62 Architecture Australia
Aboriginal patients failing to present and
stay for treatment. This decision appears
to have been made without much
architectural research or design expertise.2
A current multidisciplinary study
led by Paul Memmott at the University
of Queensland is attempting to answer
questions about Indigenous perceptions
and experiences of healthcare
architecture.3 This research aims to add
to the fragmented anecdotal evidence
for cross-cultural design by compiling
data from surveys and interviews with
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
and health workers. An additional task
is to interview architects about recent
awareness of Indigenous requirements
in both public hospitals and clinics.
Projects that initiate such responses
add to the meagre evidence about
cross-cultural design, more so if the
projects can be thoroughly evaluated.
The study surveyed and interviewed
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
participants in Mount Isa and Townsville,
Queensland. Both places have established
Aboriginal-controlled healthcare
organizations, while the public hospitals
in both cities treat a disproportionate
number of Indigenous patients – in
particular the Townsville Hospital, which
services a large area of regional and
remote Queensland. Across a range of
healthcare settings, the results indicate
that architecture affects Indigenous
experience and use of hospitals and clinics.
For example, data from different sources
in our research confirm that waiting rooms
– from emergency to oncology – are often
a cause of discomfort for Indigenous
patients and visitors.
We can begin to describe varied
reasons for discomfort in hospitals and
clinics to which designers might respond.
Healthcare staff reiterate common
observations that Indigenous family and
kinship connections bring more visitors
to both hospitals and clinics, whether
seeking primary care or as inpatients.
Participants informed us that spaces are
too often inadequately sized for visitor
numbers; this includes inpatient rooms,
maternity wards and waiting areas.
Indigenous patients and visitors show
strong preferences for outdoor spaces,
both for social reasons and for thermal
comfort. This need for outdoor space has
implications for the planning and detailed
design of entrances. Other spatial
implications for public areas include the
need to provide for levels of privacy while
maintaining visual communication with
other people. This might vary with location,
but the stresses of interaction, sometimes
accompanied by feelings of shame,
are given as reasons for avoiding
healthcare services.
Photography Brett Boardman
Unsurprisingly, survey preferences
for views from inpatient rooms and from
waiting areas accord with the general
EBD research, with similar results for
comfortable outdoor spaces and clarity
in wayfinding. While the benefits of art
in clinical settings are relatively well
established, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people also value Indigenous
cultural symbolism in healthcare
architecture. This is becoming a more
regular feature of recent urban and
regional hospital projects as architects
engage with local Indigenous artists,
such as at the Sunshine Coast University
Hospital in Queensland by Architectus
and HDR (see Architecture Australia
September/October 2017) and in the
redevelopment of Broken Hill Community
Health Centre in western New South
Wales by Conrad Gargett.
A strategic response to inequities
in Indigenous health includes the support
and expansion of Aboriginal-community-
controlled clinics. Much can be learned
from recent primary care clinics that
respond to and acknowledge Indigenous
staff and patients – the Casino Aboriginal
Medical Service in Casino, New South
Wales by Kevin O’Brien Architects in
association with AECOM (see Architecture
 In Kaunitz Yeung’s Australia September/October 2016)
Biripi Aboriginal Medical
is a notable example. Further south
Centre in Taree, NSW (2017),
a modest built addition at the Biripi Aboriginal Medical Centre
to an existing 1970s in Taree, New South Wales, Sydney
clinic is planned around
practice Kaunitz Yeung Architecture
a courtyard waiting area.
worked with a local artist to create a
Serving a remote conspicuous Indigenous entry facade for
Aboriginal community
in Western Australia’s a modest but carefully planned building.
Gibson Desert, the Wanarn Just beyond the entry, the reception and
Clinic (2015), also by Kaunitz waiting area focus on a courtyard that
Yeung, uses laser-cut
screens to mediate privacy exploits an established poinciana tree.
without compromising In the design of Wanarn Clinic,
visual connections. which serves a remote Indigenous
Community community in Western Australia’s Gibson
consultation during Desert, Kaunitz Yeung used laser-cut
the design development
of Wanarn Clinic.
screens based on local artwork to create
a robust presence on a sensible
arrangement of prefabricated buildings.
The screen is symbolic to both patients
and health workers, but also works
to mediate privacy without compromising
visual connection to the comings and
goings of the community. In these local
clinics, consultation that includes frequent
engagement with local user groups helps
to establish a community connection
with the building.
In close-knit communities,
social structures – the avoidance of
familiar people for both social and cultural
reasons – pose architectural challenges.
One such challenge is to create visual
transparency at entries that continues
into public circulation zones, while
providing places for privacy and discrete
waiting. In its design of Karratha Central
Healthcare in the Pilbara region of
Western Australia, CODA Studio allowed
alternative entries to the reception area
as well as dual circulation (see
Architecture Australia January/February
2017). Indiscernible but considered
planning strategies such as these may
reduce the potential for stress in
Indigenous patients and may also improve
the experience of healthcare environments
for non-Indigenous users and staff.
Responses to sociocultural
requirements can vary with place
and may be more pronounced in remote
areas. For its major upgrade of the Mount
Isa Hospital, Conrad Gargett engaged
anthropologist Paul Memmott to report
on specific Indigenous needs that could
influence the masterplan and design
Photography Brett Boardman
of different health units. The report
informed hospital planning as well as
more mundane details, including the
retention of a large fig tree used as
a gathering place, the inclusion of a
smoking ceremony room and the
creation of a large shaded entry with
drinking water fountains.
Jan / Feb 2019
Cross-cultural design for hospital
projects, with local, representative
consultation, is not always easy with
processes governed by varied priorities.
The sites have confronting histories
and are often politically contested and
sometimes fractious. On larger healthcare
projects, assembling a multidisciplinary
team that can connect with a broad and
representative range of Indigenous user
groups can elicit relevant data for the
design brief.
Photography David Kaunitz
Architecture is only one of multiple
factors that affect Indigenous participation
and experience in healthcare, but the
spatial qualities and architectural features
of hospitals and clinics are significant
to many Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people. Government-led initiatives
for the type of design processes that
result in architectural change are variable
and too few projects are thoroughly
evaluated. Further design research is
needed in different places and across
different health planning units to affirm
that design matters across a range of
settings. As the projects discussed here
and many others show, architectural
advocacy for meaningful consultation
can result in healthcare buildings that
recognize Australia’s First Peoples.
— Timothy O’Rourke is a senior lecturer in the
School of Architecture at the University of Queensland.
His research interests include the cross-cultural design
of healthcare and domestic architecture.
Footnotes
1 Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council, “Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander Health Performance Framework
2017 Report,” AHMAC, Canberra, 30 May 2017, pmc.gov.au/
resource-centre/indigenous-affairs/health-performance-
framework-2017-report (accessed 11 October 2018). This
is the sixth report in the series, first published in 2006.
2 “Indigenous patients to get culturally appropriate waiting
rooms in hospitals,” SBS website, 3 April 2018, sbs.com.au/
news/indigenous-patients-to-get-culturally-appropriate-
waiting-rooms-in-hospitals (accessed 11 October 2018).
3 ARC Discovery Project: Understanding Indigenous
experiences of architectural settings to improve
Indigenous health outcomes: Does design matter? With
researchers Paul Memmott, Michele Haynes, Daphne Nash
and Timothy O’Rourke.
63
Profile

Recent work in rural

and remote Australia

Iredale Pedersen Hook

Words by Elizabeth Grant

The work of Iredale Pedersen Hook

seeks to lessen the divide between
the health, economic and educational
outcomes of urban dwellers and those
of people living in rural and remote
areas of Australia, and to realize
Indigenous aspirations. Elizabeth Grant
speaks with the practice directors
about harnessing government agendas
in order to support and help maintain
cultural practices.
64 Architecture Australia
 The non-institutional Architectural typologies that function well in urban Renal Hostel provides long-term accommodation
design of the Fitzroy
Crossing Renal Hostel settings often do not work for people in rural and for residents and kin. The design comprises thirteen
in Fitzroy Crossing, remote areas. Away from metropolitan centres, one- and two-bedroom spaces, distributed over
Western Australia (2017) the design of institutional and community buildings six cottages, each with a front verandah for users
meets the socio-spatial
and cultural needs of its
and housing needs to be reconceptualized to consider to observe activity and the surrounds of each
Indigenous users, enabling the context of the project and the needs of rural cottage and a private external sleep-out at the rear.
them to access renal and remote users and, particular to architecture The non-institutional design provides small gathering
dialysis on Country.
in Australia, the cultural and socio-spatial needs areas to ensure residents remain connected with
and aspirations of Indigenous peoples. others, and larger areas for community events.
Recent architectural works in Western Colour and light are integral to the design. Light
Australia have been pivotal in the reconceptualization is filtered and coloured by screens responding
of architectural typologies across a number of genres. to various levels of privacy and integrated with the
In particular, the work of Iredale Pedersen Hook (IPH) landscape to create a welcoming and highly liveable
seeks to lessen the divide between the health, therapeutic environment that fits the socio-spatial
economic and educational outcomes of urban and cultural needs of its Indigenous users. As IPH
dwellers and those of individuals living in rural and codirector Finn Pedersen observes, “All things
remote areas, and to realize Indigenous aspirations. architectural are contextual. It is about people.
Since its formation in 1999, the practice has been We have to take a government agenda, push the
grounded in the design of culturally appropriate, boundaries and translate it into an Aboriginal agenda
accessible housing and social, community and regional to produce architecture that fits people’s needs.”
infrastructure. IPH has pursued a number of goals and IPH pursued the important Indigenous
thematic concerns, from seeking social equity through agenda of reaffirming Indigenous rights and
architectural excellence and building for extreme connections to Country and dignifying Indigenous
climatic conditions to using Country as the genius identity through design in the Bilya Koort Boodja
loci and collaborating with Indigenous peoples Centre for Nyoongar Culture and Environmental
to ensure true participation in the design process. Knowledge. The centre is located in Northam, eighty-
The Fitzroy Crossing Renal Hostel, completed two kilometres north-east of Perth at the confluence
in 2017, realizes these goals. Located in a remote town of the Avon and Mortlock Rivers (Bilya Koort Boodja
in Western Australia’s Kimberley region, Fitzroy Crossing translated means “river heart land”). It serves two
Renal Hostel allows Indigenous people to stay on main functions. The first is operating as a “keeping
Country while receiving dialysis. Indigenous people house” for traditional and contemporary Ballardong
in remote and very remote areas are up to twenty times Nyoongar Knowledges, with oral histories, ceremony
more likely to suffer from end-stage kidney disease and Indigenous Knowledges incorporated and revealed
1
than non-Indigenous people. The burden of being off through the design. The act of designing the building,
Country and separated from family and kin for triweekly and the structure itself, are tangible symbols of the
dialysis causes great distress. The Fitzroy Crossing unification of local peoples, their rights to Country
Photography Peter Bennetts

Jan / Feb 2019 65

Profile

Photography Peter Bennetts

Upper floor plan key

iver 1 Interpretative exhibition

Avon R
2 Light lock introduction
3 Exhibition shop
4 Foyer
5 Reception
6 Community meeting
7 Workshop
8 Meeting room
9 Store

In Northam, the Bilya

Koort Boodja Centre for
Nyoongar Culture and
Environmental Knowledge
(2018) is at once a
keeping house for local
Indigenous knowledge
and an educational and
tourism venue.

The building is oriented

Upper floor plan toward the riverbank and
0 5 10 m
1:750 hovers above the floodplain.

66 Architecture Australia
 On the building’s
western edge, a wide
verandah overlooking the
river acts as a generous
outdoor room and frames
views of the river.

IPH and exhibition

Photography Peter Bennetts

designer Thylacine
worked in collaboration
with the Aboriginal
community to generate
the brief for the building.

Connections are
forged with the pedestrian
path along the river and
the adjacent bridge.
Photography Peter Bennetts

Jan / Feb 2019 67

Profile
The Cunderdin Health
Centre (2018) in Cunderdin,
Western Australia is
intended to promote good
health, prevent illness
and manage chronic health
issues in regional
communities, minimizing
time spent in hospitals.
The centre’s therapeutic
design stresses access
to natural light and a
connection to the external
environment.
68
and the determination to pass on Indigenous
Knowledges to future generations. Cultural preservation which feature soft edges, colourful stains, layered
and revival equate to Indigenous survival and in this
respect the project reflects IPH’s continuum of research using a colour glass-printing process onto a series
and understanding. IPH codirector Martyn Hook
notes, “Architecture observes as much as it dictates.
The architecture should facilitate cultural presence
and reflect and reinforce cultural practices.” The
building rises up, framing the land and water, and
is an exploration of materiality through recycled timber in their community.
and Colorbond. Second, the project has a functional
agenda, assisting Indigenous business development
as an educational and tourism venue. In celebrating
Nyoongar Ballardong culture through architectural
excellence, the building and surrounds take the
visitor on an informative journey that highlights
the cultural and land-management practices of
traditional custodians.
The Cunderdin Health Centre, located just
over 135 kilometres east of Perth in the wheatbelt
of Western Australia, was conceived as a health
initiative that would keep people in community
and out of hospitalized settings. It provides access
to a range of services and 24/7 emergency care.
It contains an emergency department, ambulance
bays, telehealth videoconferencing facilities,
four multipurpose consult rooms enabled with
telehealth, group therapy rooms and consultation
and treatment spaces. Residents benefit from
close proximity to medical care, allowing patients –
even those with complex health issues – to live locally.
A sense of gravitas and permanence is embedded
in the design, with carefully selected materials that
relate to both historic and contemporary contexts, the
form and materials reflecting the surrounding natural
environment. The therapeutic design stresses access
to natural light and a connection to the external
environment, its inner spaces filled with soft southern
light. Carefully placed windows reveal the surrounding
context, aiding orientation. Local artist Jennifer
Architecture Australia
Photography Peter Bennetts
Hopewell’s landscape paintings of the wheatbelt,
patterns and local motifs, have been manipulated
of windows, doors and aluminium screens to provide
privacy and to aid in orientation and wayfinding.
The project is built alongside new “ageing in place”
accommodation, an innovative solution that allows
people with complex health needs to continue to live
There is a rift across Australia. Vast distances
mean that rural and remote areas lack housing and
social, community and regional infrastructure, resulting
in a divide between the health, economic and
educational outcomes of people living in cities and
those of people living in the bush. Rural and remote
architectural typologies need to be compatible with
the climate, the landscape and the sociocultural
needs, resources and – equally importantly – the
aspirations of users, if we are to have effective
sustainable buildings that demonstrate a responsible
environmental and social agenda. Speaking of
IPH’s rural and remote works, Pedersen observes,
“A merry-go-round of forgetting occurs with each
successive government. Their responses to planning
and architectural design are sometimes overbearing
and colonial … each piece of architecture needs to
embody a unique design response demonstrating
[the architect’s] capacity to embrace the context and
the complexity of experience.”
— Elizabeth Grant is an adjunct professor of architecture
at the University of Canberra and an adjunct associate professor
at the Indigenous Design Place at the University of Queensland.
She is the lead editor of The Handbook of Contemporary Indigenous
Architecture (Springer, 2018).
Footnote
1 Sasha Stumpers and Neil Thomson, “Review of kidney disease
among Indigenous people,” Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin,
April–June 2013, 5.
 The pinnacle
of residential
design
Celebrating
Australia’s
best

Enter now
for the 2019
Houses Awards

Entries open until 15.03.19

housesawards.com.au

SUPPORTERS PRESENTED BY

ORGANIZED BY
Project

Waltzing Matilda Centre

Architect

Cox Architecture

Review by Peter Skinner

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones

The outback tourism economy has

been a talisman to drought-ravaged
Queensland. Cox Architecture’s
Waltzing Matilda Centre is a tribute
to the community of Winton, embedded
in the rugged landscape that inspired
the ballad to which it is dedicated.
70 Architecture Australia
Waltzing Matilda Centre
Location We approached the Waltzing Matilda Centre
Winton, Qld by Cox Architecture at Winton as fly-in fly-out grey
nomads. A hire car trip across central Queensland
Local Government Area took us through six hundred kilometres of parched,
Winton
cracked and de-stocked plains that hadn’t seen
Region type
useful rain for eight years. Amid the rural heartbreak,
Heartland region the state’s outback tourism economy has been
growing strongly, a record $602 million in the year
Aboriginal traditional ending 2017.1 A mix of rivalry and cooperation between
owners
Koa peoples
the towns of the region has produced an impressive
architectural trail.
Distance to nearest Driving west from Emerald, we followed
state/territory capital the route of the momentous 1891 shearers’ strikes.
1,155 km (Brisbane, Qld)
Barcaldine’s role at the start of the labour movement
is told at the Tree of Knowledge Memorial and the
Population
2016 census 875 Globe Hotel renovation (M3architecture and Brian
2011 census 954 Hooper Architect, 2009 and 2015) and at the Australian
growth 2011–16* -8.3% Workers’ Heritage Centre, the highlight of which is
*national average +8.8%
the Daryl Jackson-designed big top from the travelling
Australian Bicentennial Exhibition (1987–88), which
Top employment sectors has found a permanent home here. Each of these
(2016 census) tells the story of unionism and the birth of the Labor
18.3% Local
government Party. Longreach, in contrast, celebrates pioneering
administration pastoralists and entrepreneurial aviators at the
7.3% Hospitals Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame and Outback
5.4% Accommodation
5.1% Beef cattle
Heritage Centre (Feiko Bouman, 1988) and Qantas
farming Founders Museum (Noel Robinson Architects,
stage 1 2002, stage 2 ongoing). A final essential
stop on the road into Winton is the remarkable
Australian Age of Dinosaurs, an architectural
precursor and companion to the Waltzing Matilda
Centre also designed by the Cox Architecture team,
led by then director Casey Vallance (stage 1 2012,
stage 2 ongoing).
An earlier Waltzing Matilda museum
was destroyed by fire in 2015, leaving a raw hole
in the main street of Winton and causing the loss
of valuable artefacts and documents recording the
creation of the famous song in the Winton district
in 1895. The decision to rebuild won enthusiastic
community backing and government support. In
the 2016 architectural competition, Cox Architecture
72 Architecture Australia
won the challenge to design the world’s first museum
dedicated to a song.
The long, straight road from Longreach
runs through dry flat plains, with a series of mesas
or jumpups appearing on the horizon only as
we get closer to Winton. In town, the highway runs
parallel to the main street. The Waltzing Matilda
Centre, with entries from both roads, is unmissable
and unexpected.
Winton, population 875, is a typical
outback town of wide flat streets, verandah-ed pubs
and formal-fronted shops with corrugated sides
and junkyard backs. In this streetscape, the new
centre looks like a geological monolith, a translocated
jumpup with rough, undulating earthy red walls,
deep shadowy recesses and a series of irregular
projections darkly silhouetted against the cloudless
sky. As we approach it is clear that the geological
associations are deliberate. The external walls
have the colour and texture of termite mounds
and are studded with chunks of opal-bearing rock.
The boulder opal of the Winton region forms
as seams of common “potch” or precious “fire”
in fractures within rounded ironstone nodules.
The geomorphology of the gemstone and the jumpup
are metaphors evoked by the architects to embed
the building in the landscape of the region.
Planning geometries are a matrix of convex forms
and concave volumes fractured by angular planes.
The entry foyer is a top-lit chasm that cleaves
through the building, opening a path to outdoor
performance spaces and rustic exhibition sheds
at the back of the site. The street-front cafe and
gift shop are cave-like erosions onto the street,
while the reading room is a taller cavern space lit
by irregular shafts of light.
Loose patterns of perforation mark the edges
of rusted steel planes and cast speckles of bright
sunlight into dark shadows. The pattern recurs
elsewhere as spots of precious gold in the potch
of translucent glazing. Beautifully crafted light fittings
repeat this pattern as perforations in polished gold
 The Waltzing Matilda
Centre, in the outback
town of Winton, Queensland,
replaces the original
museum that was destroyed
by fire in 2015.

In colour, texture and

form, the building appears
as a geological monolith
that belongs to the outback
landscape.

The entry foyer is a

top-lit chasm that cleaves
through the building,
linking the main entry
to a garden and exhibition
sheds at the rear.

Arterial Design’s
exhibition design includes
an interpretive space called
the Billabong, which uses
visual and audio elements
to convey stories.

Jan / Feb 2019 73

 Fissure-like fractures
accentuate the textured
concrete panels.

Circular, gemstone-like
windows are a geological
reference in the reading
room. Light fittings abstract
the museum’s theme song
punched into pianola rolls.

74 Architecture Australia
 Key

10 1 Entry plaza
17 17
2 Statue
3 Entry
14 4 Lobby
18 5 Cafeteria
17 16 6 Kitchen
19 20 13 7 Comms / AV
8 Temporary exhibition
9 Main exhibition
10 Plant room
22
12 11 Retail
12 Gallery
15
Riley Street

21 13 Gallery store
14 Loading bay
24 23 15 Central garden
3 11 16 Existing Christina
Macpherson Cottage
17 Existing shed
4 18 Existing train station
25 26 27

Elderslie Street
7 19 Existing train carriage
3 20 Existing train
8 21 Billabong
22 Existing raised
9 5 1 covered deck
10
23 Existing theatre
28 28
6
2
24 Existing water tank
1
25 Existing exhibition
loading
29 26 Existing exhibition prep
28 and store
31 27 Existing archive
28 Seating
30 29 Windmill
30 Laneway
31 Bus drop off

Floor plan
1:750 0 5 10 m

North elevation
1:500

East elevation
1:500

West elevation
1:500 0 1 2 5 10 m

Jan / Feb 2019 75


ribbons, abstracting the museum’s theme song
punched into pianola rolls. The unfurling ribbon form
recurs as a curtain of translucent rods at the centre
of the major exhibition space. Gentle flowing ambient
music and slowly twinkling blue projections create
a poetic evocation of the billabong at the heart of
the building, a beguiling object/space for dreamlike
projections and reflections.
Arterial Design’s exhibition design is arranged
sequentially around the indented perimeter of the main
hall, starting with Banjo Paterson’s words, Christina
Macpherson’s music and the subsequent adaptation
and adoption of Australia’s “unofficial anthem.”
The middle sections document and interpret key
facets of the natural and social history of the region.
The final sector returns to artistic representations
through cinema and photography of the local landscape
and its identities. Audio headsets augment the
interpretive experience with snippets of audio
narrative and interviews with locals.
At regular intervals the houselights dim,
headphones fade and a resonant bushman’s
voice rises as projections animate the billabong:
the anthemic story of the song; a creation story linking
stars and earth in opalescence; the grim impacts of
drought, dust and heat; the relief of rain and regrowth;
and hypnotically swirling, chirping flocks of budgerigars,
the “beautiful plague” in seasons of plenty.
The languid tones of the narrator, drifting
snatches of audio and the rhythmic rise and fall
of light in the darkened room create a lulling, ephemeral,
slightly ethereal experience. After the full cycle
of immersion, the song itself remains a riddle.
Is it a requiem to rebellion or a rollicking knees-up?
Is it the tale of an opportunist, an anarchist, a jolly
soul or a jolly nuisance whose tragic fate is suicide,
or is it homicide?
Jan / Feb 2019
Signage at the main
The architecture of the centre is equally
entry evokes the mesa
slippery. Geometries and spaces shaped for experience or jumpup, a distinctive
conceal any constructional logic. Strong light rock formation found
and deep shadow give a shifting, abstract overlay in and around Winton.
to a material palette that spans from rust to gold. External walls of
Details are strong, sometimes delicate, sometimes shotcrete have the colour
and texture of termite
with the rude panache of the bush mechanic. mounds and are studded
The geological analogy is omnipresent – there in places with chunks
are literally opals in the polished concrete floor. of opal-bearing rock.
Alvar Aalto-esque undulations imply landforms, Screens of steel rods
water and music, but other figuration in the centre arranged in a pattern
informed by the song’s
remains mysterious. The bold but blankish signage appearance on a pianola
elements are particularly inscrutable. The dark roll provide sun protection
profile could suggest an upraised hand, a horn, for north-facing glazing.
a roo, the silhouette of a battered hat, the shadow
of a swag … perhaps a ghost may be seen.
On the drive home, we reflected on the moving
stories of outback endeavour and sacrifice in peace
and in war that are so marvellously recorded by the
museums and memorials of Western Queensland.
There remains, however, a significant and noticeable
imbalance in the overall historical narrative. The epic
history of Aboriginal people as the pioneers of life
on this land for millennia, and their experiences at the
colonial frontier and today, remains under-represented
and under-researched. It is my hope that the voices
of elders past, present and future will form the primary
focus of the next major cultural project in the region.
— Peter Skinner is an independent architect and researcher and
formerly professor and head of department at the University of Queensland.
Peter travelled to Winton with his wife Elizabeth Watson-Brown. Both Peter
and Elizabeth have strong historical family links to Western Queensland.
Footnote
1. Tourism and Events Queensland, Outback Regional Snapshot,
three-year average – year ending December 2017, cdn2-teq.queensland.
com/~/media/6307a214cffb4b358bffeee580e90b3e.
ashx?vs=1&d=20180424T110029 (accessed 11 November 2018).
Architect Cox Architecture; Project team Brendan Gaffney (project director), Casey Vallance (design director),
Justin Bennett (project leader), Michelle Mitchell, Steve Hunter (senior interior designers), Carol Brubaker
(senior architect), Mark Shay (senior technician), Elizabeth Nel, James Baker, Ashley Beckett (architects),
Mitchell Buckley (graduate of architecture), Emma Spann (interior designer); Project manager Peak Services;
Exhibition design Arterial Design; Structural, civil engineer Bligh Tanner; Electrical, mechanical
and hydraulic engineer, Section J analysis Umow Lai; Acoustic engineer Resonate; Landscape architect
RPS; Building certifier, DDA McKenzie Group; Food and beverage design FSDA
77
Project

Freycinet Lodge
Coastal Pavilions

Architect

Liminal Architecture

Review by Genevieve Lilley

Photography by Dianna Snape

On the east coast of Tasmania,

Liminal Architecture has designed
a series of sensitive and masterfully
crafted accommodation pods that
amplify the experience of the
distinctive landscape of Freycinet
National Park.
78 Architecture Australia
Freycinet Lodge Coastal Pavilions
Location For anyone who has ever visited, or seen photos
Freycinet National Park, Tas of, Freycinet National Park on the east coast of
Tasmania, the landscape is all-powerful. The crescent
Local Government Area arc of the Wineglass Bay beach, from the lookout
Glamorgan–Spring Bay
above, is one of the most recognized landscape
Region type
images of the state. The coastline here is remarkable,
Heartland region all granite boulders, dusted in orange lichen or
submerged in the ocean, hemmed by the changing
Aboriginal nation colours of the cliffs, with Mount Amos rising behind
Paredarerme
the tree line. The scale of the landscape is heroic
and rich, yet full of beautiful, detailed textures.
Distance to nearest
state/territory capital For a long time, the area has been served
116 km (Hobart, Tas) by limited accommodation options – camp sites
in the national park; Freycinet Lodge, which was built
Population
in the early 1990s; and a more recent (but extremely
(nearest locality: Coles Bay)
2016 census 353 high-end) Saffire complex that is a large and
2011 census 305 prominent organic steel-clad form in the landscape.
growth 2011–16* +15.7% When the client, the Royal Automobile Club
*national average +8.8%
of Tasmania, purchased the lodge, it took ownership
of a tired resort with a “bush hut” aesthetic,
Top employment sectors painted in peach tones. The organization tasked
(2016 census) Tasmanian tourism developer Brett Torossi with
42.7% Accommodation
7% Cafes and
delivering a new premium layer of accommodation.
restaurants Initially, it was assumed that this venture would require a normal hotel room, fumbling in the darkest recess
6.3% Pubs, taverns an extension to the lease into the adjacent national
and bars
6.3% Travel agency
park. But public consultation, led by Torossi, delivered
and tour a strong message that further expansion would not
arrangement be supported by the community and she concluded
services
that a more appropriate idea was to create new
accommodation at the front line of the existing cabins. lined corridor (with concealed toilet and shower)
Torossi decided that the best team to bring
the idea to life was Liminal Studio. This group,
comprising a number of different disciplines,
works on projects around the world from its Hobart
base and prides itself on collaborating with other
firms. The practice had previously been lauded
for a lot of its work and had produced rich interiors,
but had little experience in the hotel domain.
The result demonstrates what a fresh mind and
approach can bring to a much-photographed genre.
80 Architecture Australia
The new work, Freycinet Lodge Coastal
Pavilions, takes the form of a series of pods that
sit gently in front of the previous offering (now
some twenty years old, of the park cabin variety)
and are accessed through and between these
older buildings. They are almost invisible from the
waterline, nestled as they are into the landscape,
and exude an individuality that defies their
number and the size of the resort.
The approach to the pods is quite masterful
in its management of expectations and a gently
increasing sense of delight. A simple boardwalk
between older cabins leads between the trees
to a series of angled timber walls, charred black.
Each building has a concealed porch, perfect
for finding unfamiliar key fobs in a daypack and
for concealing services and guest amenities.
This porch is the first of a dramatic sequence
of dark and light experiences. On entering the
suite, one is amazed to find only sky above, seen
through clear glass, with a pristine water view
through a full-length window only a few steps away.
It is a completely different experience from entering
of a suite before working forward to eventually find
natural light and a view of sorts. This wondrous idea
is achieved by bifurcating each pod into two parts.
On one side of the entry is a cosy, curved bedroom pod.
On the other side, guests squeeze through a timber-
to a living room suite that opens out toward the water.
The place feels like a crazy, fabulous cubbyhouse
from a child’s imagination. There isn’t a straight wall
in the place, the water side has extravagant floor-
to-ceiling curved glass and the furniture is all clearly
customized. An exquisitely playful, custom-designed
sofa is made of parts that can be moved around into
different organic configurations. A simple table nest
– designed in collaboration with pakana Aboriginal
elder Vicki West – includes a component of woven
Nine pods have been
added to an existing
accommodation facility in
Freycinet National Park, on
the east coast of Tasmania.
Each pod nestles into the
landscape and is almost
invisible from the water.
The pods’ rounded
forms respond to the curves
of the granite boulders that
characterize the coastline.
Netting offers an
alternative to obstructive
balustrades, providing
a hammock-like space
from which to enjoy
the landscape.
 Photography Alastair Bett

Jan / Feb 2019

81
Freycinet Lodge Coastal Pavilions

Location plan
1 5 10 20 m
1:2000

Typical floor plan key

1 Entry
2 Foyer
10 3 Art wall
4 Living
5 Shower
6 Bath
8
7 Bedroom
9
8 Deck
9 Stepped platforms
10 Hammock-balustrade

4
6
7

2 Tasmanian oak
5
3 offcuts of different sizes
and thicknesses are layered
on the walls to extend the
sequence of light and dark
experiences within the pods.
1
Interior materials
including Tasmanian oak,
blackwood and locally made
plywood offer a decidedly
Tasmanian material palette.

Inside the pods,

a glass ceiling and full-length
window overlooking the
Typical floor plan water create a dramatic
0 1 5m
1:250 arrival experience.

82 Architecture Australia
Jan / Feb 2019 83
 The living and sleeping
arms of each pod embrace
a private deck, providing
shelter and privacy.

Access to the pods

is over boardwalks,
past the older cabins.
Charred black timber
walls imply enclosure
and belie the experience
of light inside the pods.

84 Architecture Australia
 basket in an otherwise minimal metal form. These
pieces complement the room and allow different ways
of experiencing the views. They play perfectly into
the joy of being shacked up in a room for a few days
– one almost hopes for solid rain, if only to fully enjoy
the nuance of the spaces and fittings in these pods.
Nestled between the two embracing arms of
the pods is a private deck, with an outdoor bath as well
as furniture for outdoor eating. Visually, the (outdoor)
bath is cleverly tied to the other (indoor) bathroom
facilities, as the bathroom basin and separate shower
inside overlook the external tub. The front deck of each
pavilion ties the disparate glazed curves into a single
entity, marking a private domain.
The pods have been carefully positioned
by the architects so that each one, while quite close
to its siblings and existing neighbours, feels quite
isolated and intensely private. The two wings embrace
the external space in between, protecting it from
winds and from overlooking.
Modern hotel rooms often have “tokenistic”
features – some lavish materials, but otherwise dreary
and ill-considered finishes, or perhaps a good bit
of furniture offset by some remarkably careless choice.
This is not the case with this project – every built detail
is considered. The timber wall panelling reminds one
Architect Liminal Architecture; Project team Peta Heffernan, Elvio Brianese, Bec Wilkie, Belen Chirivella
Vina, Michaela Turner, Ronja Scherer, Rosalyn Bermudez, Andrew Grimsdale, Carly McMahon, Chris O’Brien,
Jeremy Holloway, Janine Holt; Interior design Liminal Spaces; Furniture design Liminal Objects; Project
manager / tourism consultant Brett Torossi; Builder Cordwell Lane; Joiner Mint Joinery; Landscape
architect Rush Wright Associates; Flora and fauna consultant EcoTas Ecology; Aboriginal heritage and
archaeology Cultural Heritage Management Australia; Structural engineer Gandy and Roberts; Services
engineer JMG Engineering and Planners; Land surveyor Woolcott Surveys; Building surveyor Pitt and
Sherry; Planner Ireneinc Planning; Quantity surveyor Stehel Consultants; Traffic engineer Howarth Fisher
and Associates; Artists Helene Weeding (represented by Handmark Gallery) and Brigitte de Villiers with
geologist Bill Cromer
Jan / Feb 2019
of Hobart’s Supreme Court Complex (a Department
of Public Works masterpiece of the 1970s and
timelessly beautiful). The bathroom components
are private, bright and generous, compact spaces
that are part of a greater flow of space. Each building
is crammed with considered and beautiful details.
Delivered through an unusual but inspired
collaboration, these pods contribute a huge amount
to the Freycinet Lodge complex and to the
accommodation offerings available to travellers
visiting the area. This is an exceptional start to
a new hospitality branch of Liminal’s multidisciplinary
studio – generous, spirited, perfect for its surroundings
and free from trends that would age the buildings
quickly. One can only hope it will inspire other
organizations to match or surpass this level of
accommodation in Tasmania in the near future.
— Genevieve Lilley is a Hobart-based architect practising in New
South Wales and Tasmania. After working for eight years for British
architect Sir David Chipperfield, she opened her own practice in London in
1999 and in Sydney in 2005. She currently sits on the Tasmanian Heritage
Council, the NSW Heritage Committee and the Australian Institute of
Architects Tasmanian Chapter Council.
85
Project

AGT Southern Crop

Breeding Centre

Architect

Ashley Halliday
Architecture Interiors

Review by Julian Worrall

Photography by Sam Noonan

A new facility for a plant breeding

and crop research organization
builds on the agricultural heritage
of Roseworthy, South Australia,
yet also offers a contemporary
vision of rural enterprise. Ashley
Halliday Architecture Interiors has
reinterpreted the shed as a vessel
for advanced technology, science
and innovation.
86 Architecture Australia
AGT Southern Crop Breeding Centre
Location In South Australia, the name Roseworthy has
Roseworthy, SA long been associated with agricultural research.
Located forty-six kilometres north of Adelaide with
Local Government Area a population of close to one thousand, the town has
Light
been home to Roseworthy Agricultural College since
Region type 1883. Now a campus of the University of Adelaide,
Connected lifestyle area the site continues to advance research and
education in agriculture.
Aboriginal traditional This heritage forms the foundation for
owners
Kaurna peoples
Australian Grain Technologies (AGT). Established in
2002 as a joint venture linking the South Australian
Distance to nearest government, the University of Adelaide and the
state/territory capital Grains Research and Development Corporation,
46 km (Adelaide, SA)
the company has expanded to become Australia’s
largest commercial enterprise dedicated to plant
Population
2016 census 948 breeding and crop research. AGT-sourced seeds
2011 census 664 constitute an estimated 50 percent of the Australian
growth 2011–16* +42.8%+
wheat crop, while nationally the wheat crop is worth
*national average +8.8%
+
Roseworthy boundary has more than $7,300 million to the Australian economy.1
changed between censuses The focus of the company is the development
of new strains of wheat, durum, barley and lupin for
improved yields, disease resistance and versatility.
Top employment sectors
(2016 census) A commitment to science, technology and innovation
4% Supermarket is embedded in the company’s DNA, along with
and grocery a commercial orientation and a position as a market
stores
3.3% Hospitals leader. These attributes have been given architectural
2.8% Primary form in AGT’s new flagship and headquarters facility:
education the Southern Crop Breeding Centre in Roseworthy,
2.6% Road freight
transport
designed by Ashley Halliday Architecture Interiors,
which opened in September 2018.
Director Ashley Halliday describes the project
as a “merger between a cellar door, a rural head office
and a research laboratory.” The facility comprises
6,600 square metres of administrative, laboratory
and infrastructural components, including a dough
rheology laboratory, temperature-controlled robotic
seed storage carousel towers, cool storage facilities,
a workshop, harvester shedding, greenhouses and a
controlled-environment research facility. Situated
on the edge of the Roseworthy township, the buildings
are set within a landscaped curtilage and look
out onto demonstration and agronomy field blocks.
88 Architecture Australia
It is, according to its proud owners, one of the
most advanced facilities of its type in the world.
The core of its program is gathered into
a compact set of conjoined spaces to efficiently link
each of the components and give the complex a clear
and coherent physical presence. In the laboratory
and workshop spaces, planning is rationally organized
in rectilinear configurations to optimize workflow
and functional segregation. Flexible workspaces and
gathering spaces are given high-ceilinged volumes
naturally lit by clerestory apertures. A knuckle in the
plan establishes a legible entry and central point of
focus, providing the hinge between the public-facing
elements and the functional bulk of the program.
An external layer of screens and battens
softens the rigour of the plan, veiling sunlight while
maintaining views, regulating the building profile
and producing layered spatial effects. These elements
also provide an opportunity to insert subtle narrative
content. The northern and western facades are
shielded by operable screens of perforated metal,
which wrap the main public areas of the building.
The lines of square perforations are subtly varied
in size and density, in an explicit echo of the striated
landscapes of the wheatfields that form the dominant
landscape of the region. The device is simple but
effective, bringing visual interest, formal coherence
and a dash of urbane polish to what could easily have
been a huddle of boxy, utilitarian sheds.
The shed, of course, is an essential building
typology for agriculture and it has played an important
role in Australian architecture. The direct and unaffected
vernacular of agricultural sheds set in rural landscapes
has provided a potent archetype for many Australian
architects, such as the timber and corrugated iron
woolsheds that inspired Glenn Murcutt’s early houses.
A romantic picture of the bush and of lives lived in close
connection to the land underpins this. However, the
story of AGT reveals contemporary agriculture as an
enterprise that is thoroughly immersed in advanced
technology, global markets and a scientific approach
to nature. The AGT website boasts that its staff uses
 Perforated metal screens
and battens soften the
scale and rigour of Australian
Grain Technologies’ new
6,600-square-metre facility
for plant breeding and
crop research.

The crop breeding

centre is located in
the South Australian
town of Roseworthy,
forty-six kilometres north
of Adelaide, which has
long been associated with
agricultural research.

A knuckle in the plan

establishes the main entry
to the buildings and
efficiently connects
public-facing elements
to the laboratory and
workshop components.

The buildings
accommodate a range
of functions, from
administrative and
laboratory areas to
infrastructural components.

Jan / Feb 2019 89

AGT Southern Crop Breeding Centre

19 18 17

16
22
20
21

15

13

14

Site plan
01 5 10 20 m
1:2000

Key

1 Lobby 11 12
2 Gallery
3 Open-plan office
4 Office
5 Lunch room
6 Conference room
7 Laboratories
8 General work area 10 10 10 10 10 10
9 Coolrooms
10 Seed cleaning room
11 Workshop
12 Harvester store 8 9
13 Driveway
14 Carpark
15 Evaporation pond
16 Chemical store
17 Rainwater tanks 2
18 Irrigation tanks 7
19 Fire tanks 3
20 Controlled growth 1
facility
21 Controlled environment
6 4
facility 4
4
22 Site for proprietary 4
4
glasshouse 5
4

Floor plan
01 5 10 m
1:1000

Section
0 1 2 5 10 m
1:500

90 Architecture Australia
 Screens and battens
modulate light without
obstructing views of the
landscape.

In the general work

area, smaller workspaces
are organized along the
northern edge. High ceilings
and clerestory windows
enhance the experience
inside the shed.

Jan / Feb 2019 91

AGT Southern Crop Breeding Centre

“new mechanical solutions, robotics, computer science,
GPS, tissue culture, and the latest biological and
genetic theory on a daily basis.” If there is a built
vernacular that houses such activities, it would likely
be closer to the anodyne office parks of Silicon Valley
than to the rustic buildings of the Barossa Valley.
This contemporary vision of rural enterprise
inspires Halliday. A former principal at Hassell,
Halliday established his own practice in 2011 and
has been steadily building a profile in South Australia
with a portfolio encompassing domestic, educational
and commercial projects. Halliday’s architectural
language is symbolically dry and geometrically crisp,
with a direct expression of materials and a predilection
for the laconic clarity of industrial structures. These
qualities are evident in his carefully crafted domestic
projects for city clients, but it is in his regional and
rural projects that they find the most authentic
expression. Halliday regards the AGT project, which
entered his office within a year of its establishment,
as a formative one.
Based in Adelaide, in a state with one of
the most highly centralized populations in Australia,
Halliday says South Australia’s sparsely populated
but economically important regions are underserved
by the profession, yet they provide great opportunities
for architects willing to look beyond the capital cities.
The resilience and adaptability of rural
businesses hold great appeal for Halliday. “These
clients are right at the leading edge of strategic
thinking,” he enthuses. “They are at the front line
of change – market change, organizational change
and climate change. They are incredibly savvy and The formal simplicity
connected. They are aware of regional identity and of the industrial shed
is in keeping with Halliday’s
differentiation, and the need to work harder to attract restrained, geometrically
and retain the best people.” The architect, in Halliday’s crisp architecture.
telling, is well placed to contribute to this effort.
Halliday’s rural imagination is pragmatic rather
than romantic, his aesthetic rational rather than poetic.
This makes his precisely calibrated architecture a
fitting complement to the contemporary agricultural
landscape of Southern Australia.
— Julian Worrall is an Australian architect, educator and critic with
a particular expertise in Japanese architecture and urbanism. In January
2019 he moves from the University of Adelaide to take up the position of
professor of architecture at the University of Tasmania.
Footnote
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics, “Value of Agricultural Commodities
Produced, Australia, 2016–17,” released 21 May 2018,
abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/7503.0 (accessed 22 November 2018).
Architect Ashley Halliday Architecture Interiors; Project team Ashley Halliday, Jane DuBois, Rupert Lindon,
Todd Oliver, Kate Colligan; Structural and civil engineer PT Design; Landscape Aspect Studio; Services
engineer Lucid Consulting; Acoustic engineer Resonate; Builder Kennett Builders

92 Architecture Australia
 /&84

130+&$54 13"$5*$& "8"3%4

1&01-& 130%6$54 3&7*&84

Informed, authoritative, quality content.

1VCMJTIFE
CZ
Architecture Media Pty Ltd
/FXTMFUUFS
TJHO
VQ
architectureau.com/newsletter
architectureau.com
Level 6, 163 Eastern Road,

South Melbourne VIC 3205 &EJUPSJBM
TVCNJTTJPOT
+61 3 8699 1000 aau@archmedia.com.au
Project

Lismore Regional Gallery

Architect

Dominic Finlay Jones Architects

in association with Phil Ward

Review by Ashley Dunn

Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones

In the regional city of Lismore

in northern New South Wales,
Dominic Finlay Jones Architects in
association with Phil Ward has paired
a modest, thoughtful intervention
with community-minded thinking
to design a thoroughly successful
civic space.
94 Architecture Australia
Lismore Regional Gallery

Location Arriving at the street address of the Lismore Regional
Lismore, NSW Gallery, I am met by a carpark at what feels like
the building’s back door. A low-slung agricultural
Local Government Area roof is festooned with solar panels, while underneath
Lismore
it a couple of people move through a yoga routine,
Region type
undisturbed by my presence. On approaching the entry,
Regional city however, I am given a clear axial view through the
building, which suggests a public path that connects
Aboriginal nation to a grassed quadrangle beyond and is a clue that
Bundjalung, Widjabul people
all is not what it seems.
The Lismore Regional Gallery is an adaptive
Distance to nearest
state/territory capital re-use of “C-Block,” a nondescript 1960s red-brick
152 km (Brisbane, Qld) building that was part of the former Lismore High
School. C-Block forms the north-eastern face
Population
of a three-sided courtyard or quadrangle, open to the
2016 census 27,569
2011 census 27,474 south-east. The remaining sides of the quadrangle
growth 2011–16* +0.3% are provided by two heritage-listed buildings designed
*national average +8.8%
by the New South Wales Government Architect’s Office.
These grand three-storey brick buildings, also formerly
Top employment sectors Lismore High School buildings, are now home to the
(2016 census) Lismore Library and the Northern Rivers Conservatorium
6.3% Hospitals and set the tone for this regional town’s thriving
3.8% Other social
assistance
cultural hub.
services Standing in the quadrangle, you can easily
3.4% Aged care make out the main pedestrian connection to Keen
residential
services
Street to the north-west. This connection stitches the
3.4% Supermarket gallery and its surrounds directly into the heart of
and grocery Lismore’s town centre, and from here it is clear that
services
this face of the building is the main public entry.
A pedestrianized street leads visitors in through
a grandly scaled colonnade that supports a new fly
roof above. Cafe tables sit under this roof and look
out onto the quadrangle, encouraging occupation
of the new civic space. A landscaped garden
adjacent to the colonnade catches rainwater from
the fly roof above.
This project has been a long time in the
making. The need for a regional gallery in the area
was first raised in an article in the local newspaper
in 1901, yet more than fifty years passed before
Lismore Regional Gallery finally began in 1953,
as a result of the formation of the Lismore Arts Trust.
In 1954 Lismore City Council granted the Trust the use
of the lower floor of the Trench Building in Spinks Park,
a c.1908 building that initially served as the Lismore
Branch of the Government Savings Bank of NSW. The
building was well used but presented many challenges
to successive curators and seriously limited the types
of works that could be shown due to its domestic
scale and a lack of climatically controlled spaces.
It took a further sixty-two years to gain sufficient
momentum and secure funding for a facility that could
match the aspirations of the community, gallery
director Brett Adlington and the local council.
The pursuit of a new gallery space has been an
exercise in dogged persistence led by Jenny Dowell,
arts patron and Lismore City Mayor from 2008 to 2016.
The success of the project is in no small part due to
the architect listening carefully to the client,
respecting the existing building and the site and being
clever with the relatively small budget. These are the
skills of thoughtful and creative architects, but rarely
are they applied as successfully as they have been
in this project. Careful and incisive questions that
asked which resulted in key decisions being reached
early on in the project: keep the existing building, do
not mess with the form and allocate the money saved
by retaining the building to the development and
improvement of the public realm. The result is a
quiet, thoughtful and very successful building that
is appropriate for, and belongs to, the town. The
locals have thoroughly embraced this building.
It has strengthened the community and has allowed
Adlington and his curators to reach a wider audience
across all ages and demographics. Adlington reports
that the gallery has received more than 100,000 visits
in the first year (three times the number of the previous
year in the gallery’s old building).

96 Architecture Australia
 A pragmatic retrofit
of a former high school
building provides a much-
needed new home for the
Lismore Regional Gallery.

The new work is clearly

articulated off the side of
a 1960s red-brick building.
A fly roof and colonnade
encourage occupation
of the outside space.

Circulation has been

“plugged onto” the exterior
of the long, narrow original
building, freeing up the
full width of the plan for
exhibition space.

Lismore’s subtropical
climate exposes the city
to frequent floods. Because
of this, all of the gallery’s
fixtures, fittings and valuable
contents are on the first
floor, elevated above the
flood level.
Lismore Regional Gallery

Site plan key

1 Lismore Regional
Gallery
2 Lismore Library
3 Northern Rivers
Conservatorium
4 Substation

4 Floor plan key

1
1 Southern covered
outdoor space
2 Foyer
3 Reception
Keen Street

4 Cafe
5 Kitchen
6 Copy
7 Library admin
8 Meeting
9 Workstations
10 Office
11 Dock
12 Bins
3 13 Workshop
2 14 Lift
15 Northern covered
outdoor space
16 Studio
Magellan Street 17 Utility
18 Multi-function
19 Foyer gallery
Site plan
0 5 20 m 20 Gallery
1:1500
21 Plant
22 Gantry
23 Conditioned store
24 Store

21
14

22

20 24 20 20 20 23

First floor plan

1:500

12
15 13
14 11

5
3 7 10 10

16 17 18 19 2 6 9

4 8

Ground floor plan Section

0 1 2 5 10 m
1:500 1:500

98 Architecture Australia
 The building sits in a flood zone and in 2017, In every aspect of this project, the collaborative Through careful planning,
enough of the project
as the project was awaiting the installation of its lift, team has shown inventiveness, pragmatism and budget was freed up to
floodwaters rose to a staggering three metres above a strong sense of driving the community dollar hard. enable new landscaping
ground level. The lift was carried off in its packing Shading roofs are drawn from the original pitch and, work in the adjacent
quadrangle, improving
crate, finding a berth somewhere in the quadrangle. on the south side, hover above the existing building connections with the
Luckily, in every other way the building was prepared to allow hot air to escape and permit views out to the neighbouring library and
for such an event and the opening was only delayed quadrangle. Existing windows and the gable ends conservatorium.

by two months. have been filled in with a brick that is similar to the
All of the valuable fixtures, fittings and contents original but has a subtle fish-scale pattern to show
of the building are located above the ground floor that it is new work. Old hardwood joists have been
and therefore above the flood level. Gallery spaces repurposed as the soffit in the public areas of the
and art storage are on the first floor and the air ground floor. The detailing is simple and picks up
handling plant is housed in the roof space. The ground on the 1960s institutional aesthetic. There is much
floor contains the entry foyer, office space, community to like in this building: little has been wasted, it is quiet,
rooms, artist-in-residence space, loading dock and it has provided a much-needed catalyst for the local
cafe. Most of the valuable equipment and contents arts community to thrive and it is civic in its ambition.
within these spaces can be quickly moved up to the Only a few would recognize the old terrazzo toilet
first floor if there is a threat of a flood. partitions now being used as the reception desk,
The existing 1960s school building had but those who do will know that this building shares
a relatively narrow and long plan. To maximize the some history with the people visiting it.
plan area for the galleries, the circulation has been
plugged onto the outside edges of the building, — Ashley Dunn is the co-director of Dunn and Hillam Architects,
adjunct professor at the University of New South Wales and the jury chair
freeing up the full width of the plan. These glazed of the 2018 NSW Country Division Architecture Awards.
circulation spaces hang delicately off both sides
Footnote
of the first floor and fit neatly under the extended
eave of the pitched roof. Passers-by can see gallery 1. The federal government committed $2.85 million toward the project
in 2015 as part of the National Stronger Regions Fund. The remainder
visitors moving between rooms and those inside are of the $5.8 million project cost was covered by $410,000 from the NSW
able to look out to the quadrangle between exhibitions. state government, $500,000 from the Margaret Olley Arts Trust and
The really clever bit is that these appendages form the remainder from Lismore City Council and other public donations.
See northernstar.com.au/news/58-million-gallery-ready-to-open-its-
an integral part of the air handling strategy for the doors/3244015/ (accessed 24 October 2018).
gallery. Keeping a constant temperature and humidity
level in a gallery is vital in order to be able to exhibit
borrowed works and the circulation spaces form
a buffer or airlock between the outside and the
open-plan gallery spaces. The main gallery space
at the eastern end of the building can be completely
isolated and therefore controlled within the required
parameters. As a result, the gallery has been able
to show works by significant international artists
such as Anish Kapoor, Katharina Grosse and
Wolfgang Tillmans.
A stark reminder of the floods that affect
the Northern Rivers region can be found in two places.
The first is a series of lines marked on the brick wall
in the north-west corner on the ground floor, noting
the high-water mark from past floods (the 2017 flood
is at the top, just below the soffit of the floor above).
The second is slightly less obvious. At the eastern
end of the first-floor corridor above the loading dock
is a large glazed casement window that can open
outward. This is the emergency escape in case
someone is caught in the building during a flood
and requires rescuing by a passing boat.

Architect Dominic Finlay Jones Architects in association with Phil Ward; Project team Dominic Finlay-Jones,
Phil Ward, Daniel Mann, Amber Garde, Fraser Williams-Martin; Structural engineer Westera Partners;
Electrical engineer Webb Australia Group; Mechanical engineer Hawkins Jenkins Ross; Hydraulic
consultant Glen Monteith; Landscape architect Plummer and Smith; Planner Newton Denny Chapelle;
Energy assessor Partners Energy; Compliance and accessibility BCA Check; Quantity surveyor QS Plus;
Certifier Techton Building Services

Jan / Feb 2019 99

Student work
Regional learning
Essay by Chris Knapp
urbanization and the rise of the city.
But, as Chris Knapp discusses, several
Australian architecture programs also
acknowledge the pedagogical lessons
to be found when working beyond the
borders of the city.
100 Architecture Australia
Just as in practice,
architectural education
continues to be
influenced by inexorable
In 2009, for the first time in the history of
human civilization, more people inhabited
1
cities than rural settings. In Australia,
this was the case even earlier. In 2006
more than two-thirds of Australians lived
in major cities2 and presently, Australia
is considered one of the most urbanized
nations on the planet with approximately
86 percent of the 2018 population living
in urban areas. 3
With this intense growth in our cities, Triabunna Gatehouse, which won a small
most Australian architects – most
architects globally, for that matter –
are concerned with the rise of the city.
Increases in the population, area and
density of urban centres are driving
economic growth, development and
opportunities for architects and the
construction sector. Teaching in
architecture schools reflects this
professional emphasis, with curriculums
that focus considerable energy and
attention on the role of architecture
in city-making – reinforced by international in the hinterland outside the Gold Coast.
studios, study tours and partnerships
in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Seoul and
New York, to cite a few recent examples.
However, Australian architecture
programs also acknowledge that
a significant proportion of the continent
is populated by smaller cities and towns
that face distinct, different challenges
to the major capitals. Several of these
programs place a continuing focus on
the ways in which studio-based education
can contribute to regional communities.
Australia’s international reputation
architecturally was forged with an almost
mythical idea of Murcutt-esque pavilions
in bush settings, which pay close attention (the project awaits funding for realization).
to environment and landscape. The work
of Health Habitat founder Paul Pholeros
demonstrated the significant opportunity
for architecture to make fundamental
improvements to the health outcomes
of communities living in underserved,
remote areas of the continent. By creating
opportunities to work beyond the borders
of the city, a number of regionally based
architecture studios offer pedagogical
lessons that are rather unique within
a ten-semester professional stream
and are critical to ensuring the profession
remains relevant in the future.
At Monash University, two recent
studios led by Ross Brewin, Anna Gilby
and Laura Harper illustrate a range
of successful outcomes in the Tasmanian
coastal community of Triabunna and the
gold-mine legacy community of Stawell
in western Victoria. Brewin explains
that the approach taken in these studios
emphasized immersion in the local
site and direct contact with the towns’
inhabitants. Students generated
architectural responses informed by the
needs and ideas raised in interviews with
community members. The studios lead to
exhibitions and reports that “arm the local
council” with propositions for community
enhancement that ultimately can spur
acquisition of funding and mobility for
real projects, as was the case with in the
project award at the 2018 Tasmanian
Architecture Awards. Through these projects,
the design studio becomes a vehicle
to create beneficial impact through both
speculation and built work.
Scenic Rim Council partnered
with Bond University’s Abedian School
of Architecture in 2016 to develop studies
and proposals for community assets –
namely a community hall, sports field
and recreational programs – to benefit
local residents of Tamborine Mountain,
This second-year undergraduate studio,
coordinated by Justin Twohill and Vanessa
Menadue and design-led by gold medallists
Kerry and Lindsay Clare with landscape
architect Marianne Carter, generated a rich
sampling of propositions that studied and
activated architecture in its landscape
context. In a manner similar to that of the
Photography Joti Weijers-Coghlan, Nick Frayne
Triabunna project (see Architecture
Australia March/April 2018), this studio
exemplified the importance of students
experiencing first-hand discussion with the
community in order to develop responses
in active dialogue and ultimately lead to
a “real” outcome that can be implemented
At the University of South Australia,
architect and educator David Morris
established the design/construct program
in 1993 in response to an identified
 community need – infrastructure and
assets for underserved regions – and
a pedagogical imperative for students
to learn through making. The design/
construct format teaches students
about materiality, detailing, budgets
and management and exposes them
to a myriad of other benefits that are
impossible to replicate through the
distance imposed by the representational
limits of common disciplinary practice.
Projects in the Design In recent years, Joti Weijers-Coghlan joined
Construct program at the Morris as co-director in the development
University of South Australia of what today is an extremely robust
rely heavily on prefabrication,
allowing students to
program, operating in regional locations
participate in remote across the country. The program operates
projects such as the ranger’s like an office, with students primarily
station at Fish River Station
in the Northern Territory
from architecture but also other allied
While we are living in the century
of the city, these architecture studios are
a timely reminder of the foundations of the
discipline: architecture is fundamentally
about establishing connections to place
and to the communities that inhabit them.
– Chris Knapp is chair of architecture at Western
Sydney University, a brand new program based in
Parramatta, one of Australia’s fastest growing urban
centres. He is a co-director of Studio Workshop and
was an educator and researcher at Bond University’s
Abedian School of Architecture from 2011 to 2017. He is
a member of the executive committee of the Association
of Architecture Schools of Australasia.
Footnotes
1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social
Affairs, Urban and Rural Areas 2009, un.org/en/
development/desa/population/publications/urbanization/
urban-rural.shtml (accessed 4 December 2018).

(2016–18). disciplines accessing opportunities to 2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Social Trends

The Groundbreaking
fundraise, write grants, develop briefs with 2008, 23 July 2008, abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/
Lookup/4102.0Chapter3002008
studio at Monash University clients and custodians and build the work
(accessed 4 December 2018).
(2017) explored ideas for through activities that are led by both
repurposing a disused gold 3. Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook:
undergraduate and postgraduate cohorts.
mine in Stawell, Victoria into Urbanization, cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
a visitor’s centre allied to an One recent project, a ranger’s factbook/fields/2212.html (accessed 4 December 2018).
underground physics station run by an Indigenous community at
laboratory. Image from folio
Fish River Station in the Northern Territory,
by Will Kendall.
has an incredibly well resolved and tectonic
A Bond University studio expression. Typical to the UniSA approach,
at Tamborine Mountain
(2016) tasked students to the majority of the work capitalized on the
work with local residents and logic of prefabrication, with students
propose concepts for making the project in the university shop
community facilities. Image
from folio by Sam McLintock before transporting it 3,000 kilometres for
and Harrison Stallon. assembly on site.

Jan / Feb 2019 101

Student work
Social practice Inspired by US
Essay by Deepika Mathur precedents from
the 1960s that provided
technical and design
services to marginalized communities,
a partnership between the University
of Newcastle and Tangentyere Design
in Alice Springs reframes architecture
as a social enterprise.
As managing director of Tangentyere
Design, a small architectural practice
in the remote town of Alice Springs,
Andrew Broffman wanted the practice
to go beyond the conventional “fee-for-
service” model. Tangentyere Design
is the social enterprise arm of Tangentyere want to work for their practice.
Council, an Aboriginal-owned organization
providing services to residents of Alice
Springs Town Camps. Town Camps
are discrete living areas for many within
the Aboriginal community of the town.
Tangentyere Design’s role is to advance
the interests of Aboriginal people in central Environmental Design (CPTED) guidelines.
Australia by supporting the building needs
and aspirations of Town Camp residents
and remote central-desert communities.
Most of Tangentyere Design’s time
is spent working on conventional fee-
for-service projects, leaving little time
for speculative projects that do not bring
in money for staff wages. As Broffman
explains, this is “the dilemma of social
enterprises: how to survive in a commercial The outcomes from the studio are further
environment.” Broffman was aware of
the American Community Design Centers
(CDCs) of the 1960s, which emerged in
the USA against the backdrop of the civil
rights and women’s liberation movements
to provide technical and design services
to marginalized communities, and he
wanted to follow a similar path. CDCs
were often affiliated with universities
such as Yale and the Pratt Institute and
their projects combined teaching with
practical experience in order to explore
the transformational potential of ethical
interventions on communities that could
not afford the services of an architect.
While Broffman and his colleague
David Havercroft were investigating
alternative forms of architecture practice,
a student from the University of Newcastle
contacted them, wanting to work with
Tangentyere Design. That first phone
102 Architecture Australia
call and subsequent conversations
with SueAnne Ware (Head of School
of Architecture and Built Environment
at the University of Newcastle) evolved
into an idea for an elective design
studio based in Alice Springs, which
commenced in 2016.
Broffman and Havercroft select
studio projects from various projects the
Town Camp residents have been
discussing but have no funds to execute.
They are chosen after extensive
discussions with the Tangentyere Council
executive and social service divisions and
the residents. Prior to commencing the
projects Tangentyere Design organizes
cultural awareness and safety sessions for
the students. By collaborating with
students, Tangentyere Design is able
to take on important pro bono work for
the local community while also engaging
with new design ideas the students bring
to the remote town and, in the long term,
increasing the pool of people who might
The projects selected for the 2018
studios ranged from renovating existing
community facilities to very complex
projects, such as designing for disability
and community safety in Town Camps
by applying Crime Prevention Through
In all projects, students were required
to visit the sites, talk to residents and
other stakeholders and prepare a detailed
project brief incorporating community
aspirations and functional requirements.
The collaboration works as a short-term
think tank, enabling Tangentyere Design
to focus on speculative projects and
research as products in themselves.
detailed by Tangentyere Design and
used as supporting documents to
strengthen funding applications made
by Tangentyere Council.
For students, this two-week
intensive studio “extends architecture
practice to where architects are required
but not often found,” says Chris Tucker,
studio leader for 2017–18. Students work
in a pop-up studio in the Alice Springs CBD
– an idea taken from the city of Newcastle,
which has a successful history of urban
renewal by allowing artists and creatives
to use vacant commercial spaces.
The fully-glazed walls of the studio in Alice
Springs create an open space that permits
regular interaction between students
and passers-by.
A public exhibition at the end
of the elective highlights the differences
between this and the more common
 campus-based studios. Students go beyond resident’s ideas. Some of these models will University of Newcastle
the usual schematic design and design be trialled by Tangentyere Design as tools students present to
Mpwetyerre Town Camp
details, instead engaging with Town Camp in future discussions with community residents, July 2018.
communities and developing a first-hand residents. The Making Room exhibition,
Students use a Google
understanding of residents’ needs for which also used the Room to Breathe
Earth view of Anthelk-
the future. Tangentyere Design is a critical program to explore how housing might Ewlpaye (Charles Creek)
part of this collaboration since constant be improved, has already taken place Town Camp to incorporate
landscape into a larger map.
interaction with its staff anchors each in Alice Springs, Darwin and Newcastle
project, allowing students to be entrenched with great success.
in the local situation. The growing popularity of this
Four projects from this collaborative elective among Newcastle students
studio have secured funding and at the – in 2018, sixty applications were lodged
time of writing are in different stages of for just fifteen places – reflects the appeal
completion, testament to the success of of this opportunity to work on real projects
this ongoing studio. Another project and make an impact on communities.
attempted to anticipate policy directions And for Tangentyere Design and its parent
of the Northern Territory Government’s organization, the student work has helped
Room to Breathe program to improve to initiate vital projects that would
housing in remote communities. The ordinarily have been financially unviable,
student project produced an 84-page in the hope that they can secure funding
document that has continued relevance in the future.
for a considered consultation methodology
for designing housing extensions to – Deepika Mathur is a research fellow at Charles
Darwin University’s Northern Institute. Her area of research
remote community houses. Tucker and examines ways the built environment can make regional
a handful of students further developed towns more sustainable and healthy.
this project after returning to Newcastle,
producing different physical models that
can be used during discussions between
residents and designers. The model pieces
can be moved around easily to reflect the
Photography Chris Tucker

Jan / Feb 2019 103

Platform

Source Architects

Photography Madeline Young

Based in Orange in New South
Wales, Source Architects delivers
work that is flexible, nuanced, robust
and resourceful. Ben Green finds
Source’s work to be an intelligent
extension to the tradition of
regional architecture in Australia.
104 Architecture Australia

David and Sally
Sutherland, directors
of Source Architects,
a practice that works
across the Central West
region of New South Wales.
The graphically
distinctive Montoro Wines
Cellar Door in Orange (2017)
counters the archetypal
expression of the cellar
door as a rustic shed.
Photography Tom Ferguson
With a diverse portfolio spanning public buildings,
houses, retail, commercial, masterplanning,
industrial and alterations and additions, David and
Sally Sutherland, founders of regional New South
Wales practice Source Architects, are clearly in
control of their craft. They have adapted their skills
to the culture of the place in which they work and,
in return, this place has shaped their distinctive
architectural practice.
After working in Sydney for fifteen years, the
pair set up their studio in 2014 in Orange, motivated
by a desire for a better quality of life for themselves
and their growing family. Leaving secure employment
to start a practice in a new town, with few connections
and no guaranteed work, is not for the faint-hearted.
However, it proved a wise move – the duo has now
grown into a successful practice of seven. The
experience they both gained in practice in Sydney
gave them the skills and confidence to pursue the
broad variety of projects that a regional practice
is often presented with. As a result, Source takes on
a range of projects beyond straight architecture and
interiors work to also include masterplanning, detailed
heritage conservation and graphic design.
Early work, such as small alterations and
additions to family homes, allowed the architects
to understand the culture of the region. In Orange
in particular, a breach of planning controls would
put a project into the remit of the council and
Jan / Feb 2019
local politics rather than planning staff, making
it challenging to deliver contemporary architecture.
As a consequence, the practice’s urban work is often
discreet, tucked behind freestanding heritage cottages
and barely glimpsed from the public domain. Adapting
their architecture to the skills of the local trades,
the architects know when to push hard, driving the
development of new skills, and when to collaborate
with trades and take advantage of local knowledge.
This is exemplified by its cellar door project
for Montoro Wines, which received a NSW State
Architecture Award for Small Project Architecture
in 2018 and the top prize at the 2018 NSW Country
Division Architecture Awards, the James Barnet Award.
A superstructure of wide-span steel portals with steel
roofing reads as a piece of typical rural architecture
from the road, yet is graphically distinctive enough
to operate as a symbol for the vineyard as you pass
by at eighty kilometres per hour. The openness
of the roof allows the structure to engage with the
surrounding landscape, creating both a great place
for a relaxing drink and a cricket pavilion for the
impromptu paddock games that take place alongside.
The bar, a storage area and a small office are enclosed
in an elegant black box, which also screens off the
road. Again, a minimalist sensibility underpins this
project: the idea of doing the smallest amount to make
the biggest impact.
105
Platform

Wide-span steel portals

support an oversized steel
roof, revealing Source’s
minimalist sensibility:
the idea of doing the
smallest amount to create
the biggest impact.

The building’s broad

platform is intended to
encourage patrons to linger,
its edge also serving as

Photography Tom Ferguson

informal seating from which
to view the landscape.

Key

1 Tasting table
2 Tasting bar
3 Office
4 Storeroom

2
3
4

Montoro Wines Cellar Door site plan

0 5 10 m
1:750

106 Architecture Australia

 Key

1 Verandah
2 Bar
3 Dining
4 Kitchen
5 Store
6 Function room
3 7 Cool room
1
8 Outdoor dining
8 6
2
4

7 5

Sweet Sour Salt site plan

0 1 2 5 10 m
1:400

Sweet Sour Salt in

Orange (2017) converted
a 1920s house into a dining
space. Testament to their
resourceful approach, the
architects saw the tight
budget as a generator of
ideas and architectural
Photography Tom Ferguson

character rather than a

constraining factor.

The project included

strategic internal replanning
and striking colour and
graphic art, produced
in collaboration with
Wingtip Design.

Jan / Feb 2019 107

Platform

In its design of the
G.A.T.E Agritech workspace
in Orange (2018), Source’s
interventions were delicate
but decisive.
The 500-square-metre
office, an agricultural
innovation hub, was
completed within four
months. The commission
reveals some of the
challenges and advantages
of regional practice.
Formerly a veterinary
morgue and laboratory,
the building now features
a landscape of spaces
to suit activity-based
working and collaboration.
Source’s work reflects a nuanced response
to this context and an inherent flexibility. These
are notable in Sweet Sour Salt, which reworked
a house into a modern Asian restaurant. As with
much of its work, the practice took familiar things,
retained their quality and reinvented them,
seeing the tight budget as a generator of ideas
and architectural character rather than a constraining
factor. The bones of the home were retained but
reimagined. Once axial and cellular, the interior plan
is now a series of connected rooms. Striking colour
and graphic art, designed in collaboration with
Canberra designer Wingtip Design, were used to
transform the spaces. Light fittings are reconfigured
Acapulco chairs – inverted, brightly coloured and
randomly but carefully arranged by the architects.
The G.A.T.E Agritech workspace is Source’s
first public building, one that underscores the
challenges and the advantages of working in a regional
and methodology. Source’s interventions were delicate
but decisive. The character of the original architecture
by the NSW Office of Public Works has been retained
but carefully reconsidered. Previously cellular rooms
were opened up to create a varied landscape of spaces
to suit activity-based working and collaboration.
The old loading dock became the entry, the coolroom
the locker room and the operating theatre an open-
plan workspace, while a new north-facing kitchen
and breakout space opens onto north-facing gardens.
Source Architects’ open-minded and enquiring
approach to architecture is built on the place, the
brief and the tools at hand, and in this way it can be
seen as extending the tradition of regional architecture
in Australia. The practice’s work is at once intelligent,
nuanced, flexible, robust and resourceful – a valuable
addition to the lexicon.
— Ben Green is a director of Tzannes.

community. A public project of this scale and ambition

would be a dream for most practices Source’s age
and scale. However, the client wanted to move quickly
and decisively and backed Source to do it. It was
completed four months after it was commissioned –
a timeframe that included a fast-tracked, three-week
design and documentation period.
The brief was to convert an existing veterinary
morgue and laboratory into an agricultural innovation
hub, a place where researchers come together
with industry to develop new agricultural technology

Photography Tom Ferguson

108 Architecture Australia

AUSTRALIAN Call for entries
INTERIOR Entries accepted
DESIGN 12 Nov – 15 Feb
AWARDS
2019

australianinteriordesignawards.com
info@australianinteriordesignawards.com

      

Platform

People Oriented Design

Based in the regional city

of Cairns, People Oriented
Design combines architectural
practice with advocacy,
education and community
engagement to address pressing
issues of social justice in the
built environment.
Andrew Broffman
discusses
Photography BlueClick Photography

the practice’s
diverse and agile
practice model.
110 Architecture Australia

Photography Sarah Lebner
L–R: Ellen Buttrose,
Quentin De Botte,
Belinda Allwood and
Shaneen Fantin of POD.
Absent: Maija Cawley
and Karyn Lawson.
The Least House
Necessary workshops
are both an innovative
architectural service
and a broader philosophical
investigation into the
nature of place and being.
Photo of workshop in
Canberra, hosted with
Light House Architecture
and Science (2017).
There is an enigmatic quality to the pen-and-ink
sketch of a black bean seedpod that represents
the identity of People Oriented Design (POD),
an architectural practice based in the tropics
of Far North Queensland. With echoes of Gaston
Bachelard’s musings on shells whose creatures
“come alive in the dialectics of what is hidden and
what is manifest” (The Poetics of Space), the
seedpod represents multiple qualities, at once
both inside and outside.
This ambiguity encapsulates POD’s diverse,
technically adept and socially engaged practice.
Drawn to working with and empowering communities,
architects Shaneen Fantin and Belinda Allwood –
POD’s directors – met in Cairns in the aftermath
of Cyclone Yasi in 2011, when they both worked with
Emergency Architects Australia to help in the recovery
effort. A professional partnership formed shortly after. building inspired by dharis (distinctive Torres Strait
Allwood characterizes the collaboration as the
“perfect storm” of skills. Also an accomplished furniture a five-star NABERS rating.
maker, she brings a technical expertise to the practice,
with interests in furniture design, boatbuilding,
model making and the craft of architecture. Fantin’s
passions lie in teaching, research, writing, community
engagement and project management.
Architecture is only part of what the practice
does. POD has developed its own trademarked
engagement tool called The Least House Necessary
(TLHN). The practice has done research on
homelessness, conducted post-occupancy evaluations, Synapse SAIF was developed in association with
prepared a case study on tropical sustainable
design and published extensively. POD’s work also
includes teaching responsibilities and coordination
of the Social Outreach Studio at the University of
Queensland’s School of Architecture. POD’s diversity
and agility are essential for the commercial viability
of a small firm in a regional location. They also make
for insightful contemporary practice.
In North of Nowhere, South of Loss, Australian
novelist Janette Turner Hospital wrote of Cairns,
“beyond the spider, beyond the louvres, she can see
the tired palms that bead the beaches together,
filing south and south and south to Brisbane,
reaching frond by frond by a trillion fronds north
to Cape York.”
Jan / Feb 2019
While Cairns’s horizons may appear to be
vast, its economy – based on tourism and agriculture
– is fragile, subject to the climatic whims of the tropics.
In spite of its lush vegetation, “the softness of the
landscape,” Fantin notes, “does not always translate
socially and politically. The legacy of Queensland
politics and the trauma of Indigenous dispossession
continue to affect this regional city.”
The Yidindji Bama people are the traditional
custodians and descendants of Cairns’s original
inhabitants. While the cultural history of the
Yidindji is recognized in city council governance
and interpretive information, Indigenous people
are behind the general population in socioeconomic
status. Furthermore, conservative rural values
remain strong in northern Queensland.
As a female-run practice, POD has struggled
and built a successful business in this conservative
and male-dominated industry. “We are women,”
Fantin observes. “Articulate, capable and determined,
and people see that. They either love it or it scares
them away.”
“Yes, we are women,” Allwood adds, “and
I am very happy that we run our regional practice
successfully, but I think it is the diverse nature
of our skills and experience … that makes us a less
conventional regional practice.” Where convention
sees specialization within larger firms, smaller
practices by necessity are more eclectic.
POD’s portfolio includes current work
on Thursday Island, where the team is developing
a commercial building with the Torres Strait Regional
Authority for the Land and Sea Management
Unit. When complete, the project will provide an
environmentally sustainable and culturally responsive
Islander headdresses) and pearl lugger sails, with
Another project is noteworthy for its community
involvement in developing the project brief and for its
culturally appropriate design response. The Supported
Accommodation Innovation Facility (SAIF) for Synapse
in Cairns was designed in close consultation with
the client, a peak advocacy organization, to address
the accommodation needs of Indigenous people with
acquired brain injuries.
Characteristic of POD’s interest in collaboration,
Indij Design, an Indigenous-owned and -managed
architectural practice, and Abriculture, an ecological
land management group advocating for native food
ecosystems. The work is a series of self-contained
accommodation units arranged around a courtyard
of native rehabilitative gardens. The design references
traditional rainforest dwellings and forms and responds
to the unique needs of its occupants.
Fantin notes that the use of curved elements
may be considered condescending shorthand for
“Indigenous architecture,” but the collaborators
and users were not so concerned. The rounded
corners are a culturally appropriate design response
to a strongly held belief that malevolent spirits can
reside in square corners. The curved roof forms
111
Platform

Photography Nic Granleese

Big Small House in
Cairns occupies a small
suburban lot but generously
embraces the tropical
garden. The project builds
on the “less is more”
principles of The Least
House Necessary.

Synapse SAIF,
a series of self-contained
accommodation units,
is characteristic of POD’s
interest in collaboration.
This project was developed
in association with Indij
Design and Abriculture.

Units are arranged

around native rehabilitative
gardens. Fantin says of their
role in projects like this,
“We offer expertise as
architects, but we try not to
influence how people want
to represent themselves
and their culture.”

112 Architecture Australia

 Key

1 Entry
2 Living/meals
3 Deck
4 Bedroom

Section
1:200

3 3

2 2
4 4

1 1

Typical floor plan

0 1 5m
1:200
Photography Michael Marzik

Jan / Feb 2019 113

Platform

POD is currently were requested to reflect the local Bulmba
working on a commercial or ethno-architecture of the region.
building with the Torres
Strait Regional Authority Understanding cultural imperatives and
for the Land and Sea how they might translate into design is key to POD’s
Management Unit, to be work. “You have to look for opportunities,” Allwood
built on Thursday Island.
insists, “to embed narrative more deliberately in
architecture. Design must respond to site in both
the building and the place. This is what provides
meaning for people.”
POD’s philosophy is exemplary. “In design
we are agents and translators,” Fantin states. “We do
not push or lead Indigenous clients in relation to how
they choose to express their identity in design. We
offer expertise as architects, but we try not to influence
how people want to represent themselves and their
culture. What we offer is education about architecture
and what it can do, and then we work with people
to make places with them, on their terms.”
In response to the nationwide spread
of so-called “McMansions,” POD developed TLHN
in 2011 as an alternative way of thinking about the
home. “Part lecture, part psychoanalysis and part
workshop,” it is aimed at those who are considering
buying a house or building their own.
TLHN has been run as an educational
workshop in Brisbane, regional Queensland and
Canberra. It asks participants to question their
understanding of the home and the essential
elements of sustainability, privacy, security and
weather protection. What can go outside? What
can go in? TLHN is both an innovative architectural
service and a broader philosophical investigation
into the nature of place and being.
As a result of the workshop, POD has been
engaged to design a number of small houses aligned
with the TLHN philosophy. POD has also begun
to scale up the methodology for larger public projects
and is investigating ways of trialling it in medium-
density residential developments and in tropical
commercial buildings.
It seems odd to think of architecture
as anything but “people oriented,” but by drawing
attention to what should be self-evident within
the discipline, POD has shone a light on what may
indeed be lacking in architecture today: a practice
that is fundamentally connected with community
and that, through work and advocacy, addresses
the challenges of social justice in the built environment.
In an age of disruption, architecture as it
is commonly practised may have a limited future.
Increasingly, the pressing issues are social equity,
cultural agency, urban inclusiveness, housing
affordability, ageing in place and universal access.
These should be architecture’s concerns as well.
It may be that the more agile nature of regional
practices like POD can lead the way in showing
the profession how best to manage these challenges.
— Andrew Broffman is the managing director of Tangentyere
Design, a remote-based, Aboriginal-owned architectural practice
in Alice Springs. He has written a number of articles on social enterprise
and architecture in central Australia.

114 Architecture Australia

Subscription

Subscribe Now

Photography (left to right) Adam Gibson, Michael Nicholson, Brett Boardman.

Architecture Australia Jan / Feb 2019

Vol. 108 No. 1

A$14.95
Community and contribution
Architecture in regional, rural and remote Australia

Architecture Australia —
championing the work
of Australian architects

Order your print and digital Architecture Australia issues at architecturemedia.com/store

Annual digital subscription (supplied by Zinio): Six issues 1 year

Instant delivery anywhere in the world A$52

Australia, New Zealand and the

rest of the world subscriptions:
Phone: +61 3 8699 1000 Annual print subscriptions: Six issues
Fax: +61 3 9696 2617
subscribe@archmedia.com.au
Region 3 years 2 years 1 year
Publisher:
Architecture Media Pty Ltd Australia/New Zealand A$226 A$157 A$82
Level 6, 163 Eastern Road
South Melbourne Rest of the world A$381 A$262 A$135
Victoria 3205 Australia

Jan / Feb 2019 115

It’s the cool roof
that’s smarter up top.
COLORBOND® Coolmax® steel roofing may help to keep your

building cooler and may earn you a Green Star point under the
Urban Heat Island Credit*. Reflecting 77% of the sun’s heat and
with a Solar Reflectance Index of 95, it’s a cool roofing product
for a better built environment.

To learn more about COLORBOND® Coolmax® steel

visit steel.com.au/coolmax or call 1800 064 384

*The extent to which a building is cooler will depend upon the particular circumstances of your building.
COLORBOND®, Coolmax®, BlueScope and the BlueScope brand mark are registered trade marks of
BlueScope Steel Limited. ©2018 BlueScope Steel Limited ABN 16 000 011 058. All rights reserved.