Archinect - News

Australia allocates $228 million towards new Indigenous cultural center in Canberra

2022-02-07T12:15:00-05:00

A new Indigenous cultural precinct where repatriated ancestral remains will be cared for, and where Indigenous Australia’s history will be unfurled through a large but little-known collection, is set to become a reality in four years on the shore of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison and the minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt made the joint announcement on January 4th. The precinct, named Ngurra, which means home, will receive $228 million from the federal government for its construction. A national architecture competition for its design is set to be launched this month.

Sitting in the heart of Australia’s capital, Ngurra will house a National Resting Place for Indigenous remains that have been repatriated from overseas collections, and it will serve as the new home for the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS). While there have been decades-long calls for a National Resting Place, reactions to Ngurra have been mixed, with critics believing money would be better spent alleviating the poverty that Indigenous communities face.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Woods Bagot reveal updated plans for the new Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre in Adelaide

2021-08-10T18:16:00-04:00

New renderings of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Woods Bagot's forthcoming Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre (AACC) have been released following a consultation by the Aboriginal Reference Group (ARG) that updated an original plan released by the firm earlier this year.

The improved scheme was submitted to a State Commission Assessment Panel in Australia last week, bringing the project one step closer to realization in the hopes of providing the city of Adelaide with a new platform for First Nations artists that is both forward-looking and “wholly connected to the landscape,” according to the architect.

Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Woods Bagot

The design team worked together with the ARG to produce an updated plan that includes a new outdoor primary exhibition space, a more pronounced and environmental envelope, and upgraded water features inside the same 124,000-square-foot Lot Fourteen footprint featured in the original design.

“This project is a path to reconcilia...

Australian architects mourn the loss of Paul Pholeros, renowned housing equality advocate for Aboriginal communities

2016-02-03T21:05:00-05:00

[Healthabitat, the non-profit Paul Pholeros co-founded,] developed a model called Housing for Health...working with Aboriginal communities, conducting a survey of all housing and completing urgent repairs using mainly local Indigenous contractors, and adding whatever upgrades or repairs they can afford until the money runs out. The organisation has improved more than 8,000 houses – a third of Australia’s Indigenous-controlled housing stock – and with them the lives of 55,000 people.

Allan Teramura, FRAIC, named President of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada

2016-01-15T19:31:00-05:00

Allan Teramura, FRAIC, of Ottowa is known for his advocacy work for Aboriginal communities, as well as his contribution as one of RAIC's representatives at the COP21 Conference in Paris. He has also worked to form collaborations between the RAIC and multiple Canadian and international architectural organizations.

In his inauguration speech, delivered today, Teramura stressed how architecture can be as strong of a cultural support as language. “As architects," he said, "I think we would all agree that losing traditional building crafts and knowledge of ways of organizing physical space can be as corrosive to a society as the loss of a spoken language.”

He also stressed collaborative design processes when working with Indigenous communities: “At a time when talk of reconciliation is growing, our profession is in a position to – and, therefore, is obligated to – look at ways to help address injustices, not by imposing our ideas, but by listening and promoting the professional competencie...

New study suggests Aboriginal collective memory reaches back more than 7,000 years

2015-09-22T19:53:00-04:00

Aboriginal society has preserved memories of Australia’s coastline dating back more than 7,000 years [according to] Professor of Geography Patrick Nunn... [His] study looks at Aboriginal stories from 21 places around Australia’s coastline, each describing a time when sea levels were significantly lower than today... present sea levels in Australia were reached 7,000 years ago and as such any stories about the coastline stretching much further out to sea had to pre-date that time.