Aboriginal Cultural and Visitors’ Centre

All ProjectsPublicUrbanEducation

Jan 7

Written By Jennie Officer

Built on the land of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation.

ACVC at Walliabup (Bibra Lake) is designed as a safe place for the local Aboriginal Community to promote and strengthen culture and identity. The Aboriginal Reference Group identified a key design priority to adopt the shape of the south-western snake necked turtle (Chelodina colliei), which is endemic to the locality.

The Aboriginal Reference Group also expresssed a wish to minimise materials that hurt other people’s country, and to that end, OW designed to minimise use of steel, aluminium and concrete, with a timber framed and clad building which minimises embodied as well as operational carbon emissions.

The project spans from dryland to wetland, retaining all habitat and nesting trees with public spaces on the lowland lake side, more private spaces on the upland bush side, gallery and interpretive spaces in the middle, deeply shrouded in the belly of the building.

The planning is outward focused, providing walls to back up to and panoramas to edge, always connected to views and gathering spaces outside and beyond. People can come and leave from multiple directions along the ductile space of the perimeter deck.

The acupuncture-like substructure and efficient timber structure allow the project to hover above the ground and let life, ground water systems and ecologies continue. The turtle feet touch the ground - expressed on the low side, impressed on the high side, allowing us to read the fall of the land across the site

The ceiling steps to fill the volume of the shell, and under it the large spaces provide flexibility for a variety of activities, with places to spill out or be contained

The design considers ways of sharing the landscape, establishing a sense that the outside is always with us; that even deep within the building, one can orient oneself by view and propinquity to the landscape around.

Project info

Project Name: Aboriginal Cultural and Visitors’ Centre
Project Type: Public
Client: City of Cockburn
Location: Walliabup, Western Australia
Area: 1450m2
Completion year: ongoing