University of Melbourne students recently showcased their vision of what it means to be Aboriginal in an urban environment as part of the Inaugural Hon. Evan Walker Design Studio Exhibition.

Thirteen Masters of Architecture students were asked to come up with a location and final designs for an Indigenous community and cultural centre to be based in Melbourne. The final exhibition features designs for community centres to museums and landscaped urban precincts, on a range of sites from Birrarung Marr, to the north bank of the Yarra and Gurtrude Street in Fitzroy.

Led by alumnus Jefa Greenaway, the director of Greenaway Architects and a Project Architect at SJB Architects, the studio looked at ways that the architecture and design industry could better represent Indigenous identity in city constructions.

“Students were asked to consider exactly what constitutes the notion of ‘Aboriginality’ and how it could be best represented through built forms,” said Mr Greenaway. “It’s a particularly acute issue, given the dearth of Aboriginals directly involved in the key design profession of architecture. The lack of an identified architectural tradition responding to the majority of urbanised Aboriginals is significant.

“The notion of an Aboriginal gathering place is gaining great momentum. While an important area of engagement, the prospect of representing a diversity of people, languages and cultures requires balance.”

“The students really engaged with these issues that face urban construction. One suggested a location opposite Government house as a commentary on power, with the site bordered by the parliament building, the city grid and the church.”

Greenaway, a descendant of the Wailwan/Gamillaraay people and the only registered Indigenous architect practicing in Victoria, said the students work showed just how powerful architecture could be in representing cultural identity. “The need to question, engage and dissect the notion of the urban context as it relates to a people who have confronted issues of cultural discontinuity, contested histories and the erasure of important places of identity, memory and meaning was central to this studio.

“The final designs were all quite unique, and students were encouraged to design from the inside out. You have to make sure that something like this works from within first, that’s the living breathing aspect of the cultural centre.”

“While architecture symbolically can be an agent of change and offer the potential for re-asserting a sense of self-determination and identity, the studio tackled the challenge of avoiding ‘primitive’, ‘traditional’ or ‘bush’ connotations that fall within the realm of cliché, kitsch or patronising references.”

Cyber Dreaming No. 4, by Aroha Groves, was shortlisted for the NSW Aboriginal Art Prize (Image: University of Melbourne)

Architecture & Design Team

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