Figure 52 - uploaded by Elizabeth Grant
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Decks on Girrawaa Creative Work Centre (Architects: Merrima Indigenous Design Unit) provide Aboriginal users a place to sit in the sun and observe the surroundings and provide a podium for other events (Photograph: Grant). A cultural area should be developed adjacent to the community room. This should include a fire pit and Indigenous plants.
Source publication
This report was commissioned by the Department of Transport, Energy and Infrastructure (DTEI) South Australia as part of the preliminary design process for the Whyalla Aboriginal Children and Family Centre. This report aims to provide deeper understandings of the Indigenous design issues for the design team including preliminary comments to inform...
Citations
... Consultation was conducted with potential users and the Aboriginal community prior to the design process and a brief on Indigenous design considerations prepared for the architects. The FRQVXOWDWLRQQSURFHVVVGHÀQHGGDD community vision which saw the centre as being a beautiful exemplar design which was culturally welcoming, a showcase for Aboriginal cultures, values, traditional and contemporary customs, child friendly and focused, an Aboriginal community meeting place imbued with legend, a place of healing, wellbeing and relationship building with culturally appropriate design that was closely connected to country (Grant 2011). The centre consists of two buildings. ...
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are proud, living cultures. The survival and revival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures relies on cultural identity being an integral part of their children's educational environment and providing environments that respects the ancestral ways, family, cultural and community traditions. Architecture for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children Family is at the core of $ERULJLQDOOVRFLHW\\DQGGZHOO being. Complex kinship systems are central to how the culture is passed on and society is organized with families having the primary responsibility for the upbringing, protection and development of their children. Providing a communal setting of loving, caring and safety with opportunities for children's growth, development and self empowerment not only has dramatic impacts on the overall welfare of the child but is also pivotal in the survival of the culture and addressing the disadvantages experienced by the Aboriginal children. It is crucial to the success of Aboriginal children's centres that they be designed as a place for welcoming and engaging with the Aboriginal families and community. Creating a 'place' with a uniquely Indigenous identity is essential to this process. This may include designing environments for the behavioural and cultural norms and health requirements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people so that spaces are easy to use. Place making may also involve providing new readings and layering Indigenous meanings to projects through the use of appropriate signs, symbols and representations. Building centres that provide a physical focus for the community and the family and a place of strong cultural identity along with family support, good health, SRVLWLYHHVHOILGHQWLW\\DQGG engaging in shared activities may lead to resilience and higher self esteem of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. ,QQWKHHODVWWÀYHH\HDUVWKHUHHKDVV been a focus on the design and provision of early childhood HQYLURQPHQWVVVSHFLÀFDOO\\IRUU Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. This has been orchestrated under the 'Closing WKHH*DS··VWUDWHJLHVVZLWKKVSHFLÀFF Aboriginal Family and Children's Centres being constructed across Australia. These centres are JHQHUDOO\\GHVLJQHGGDVVRQHVWRSS shops' for services for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children aged 0 to 8 years and their families. This chapter examines three centres, Taikkurendi Children's and
The design of specific buildings to house Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' activities and organisations has become important in Australian Architecture since the 1960s. A growing number of buildings—and new architecture types—have been devised to support, display and safeguard Indigenous cultures and to accommodate Indigenous organisations that have become more prevalent since the self-determination era of the 1970s. These new institutional, public and community building typologies provide an architecture that often speaks to the public—both Indigenous and non-Indigenous—and raise the issues of how buildings represent Indigenous identities and how architecture may meet such a challenge through design.
Historically, Australian court architecture layout, design and details are intimately tied to the physical aspects of British imperial institutions. Displaying the visual features of the Empire’s institutions has the effect of alienating Indigenous people within courts. This is compounded by design that is oblivious to the needs of Indigenous users and consequently places these users in situations that threaten their privacy, safety and wellbeing. This article contends that architectural design that seeks to accommodate Indigenous cultural and socio- spatial needs brings into sharp relief the barriers and harms otherwise confronting Indigenous people in courts. This article discusses three court complexes designed in collaboration with Indigenous communities to accommodate Indigenous connections to the environment surrounding the courthouse and to enhance access to justice. Indigenous collaborations in the design of the Indigenous-inclusive court complexes at Port Augusta (South Australia), Kalgoorlie and Kununurra (Western Australia) produced spatially distinct courthouses that eschew some historical court design principles and attempt to introduce features relevant to local Indigenous nations. This illustration essay discusses the emergence of Indigenous design principles that may inform courthouse redesign, the application of some of these principles in new courthouse designs and the need for local Indigenous oversight in the design processes. It provides a framework for further research into how Indigenous architectural collaborations in courthouse designs may promote safer and fairer environments for Indigenous court users. It also raises some potential disjuncture between court design and use of court space that may undermine the vision embedded in cultural design principles.
Historically, court architecture has reinforced colonial relations in settler societies. Their layout, design and insignia are intimately tied to the physical aspects of colonial institutions. Transmitting the visual features of the Empire’s institutions has the effect of alienating Indigenous people within courts. This article contends that architectural design that seeks to accommodate Indigenous cultural and socio-spatial needs brings into sharp relief, the colonial legacy and barriers otherwise confronting Indigenous users of courts. This article discusses three court complexes designed in the collaboration with Indigenous communities to enhance Indigenous connections to place and access to justice. Indigenous collaborations in the design of the Indigenous-inclusive court complexes at Port Augusta (South Australia), Kalgoorlie and Kununurra (Western Australia) produced spatially distinct courthouses that eschew historical court design principles and attempt to introduce features relevant to local Indigenous nations. This descriptive piece discusses the emergence of principles that may inform courthouse redesign, while identifying the need for local Indigenous oversight in the design processes. It provides a framework for further research into how courthouse spaces may move away from colonial markers of authority and enhance Indigenous peoples’ interactions with the judicial process.
