National Commendation for Urban Design – 2021 National Architecture Awards
Traditional Land Owners: The Turrbal People of the Yuggera Nation
Campus to Country: Positioning Strategy is a masterplan overlay of a cultural, public, civic and urban design nature.
Campus to Country: Positioning Strategy establishes a spatial framework that seeks to inform future development through an evolving masterplan at QUT’s campuses by engaging with Turrbal and Yugara peoples’ Country.
The framework emanates from a deep understanding of the Aboriginal concept of belonging to Country and demonstrates how this can begin to inform an urban environment derived from colonial origins.
The framework ensures the underlying stories and local cultures are embedded in the campus environments and become an integral part of everyday life, encouraging a deeper connection to, appreciation of and engagement with Aboriginal culture and knowledge systems.
Prompts, Tracks, Typologies and Palettes are the key elements of the framework and establish Country as the origin for the design of the future campuses.
Client perspective:
How does the design benefit the way you live/work/play/operate/educate/other?
“When I started as QUT’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy), my observation was despite having one of the largest populations of Indigenous Australian students in the country, QUT’s campuses did not visibly reflect or recognise Indigenous Australian cultures in a welcoming or engaging way.
QUT has addressed this situation by developing a strategy which helps shape the physical environments of both campuses to reflect the culture & history of Indigenous Australians. This will create a sense of belonging & place for Indigenous Australian students, staff & community, & enable the QUT community to experience & appreciate Indigenous Australian cultures & history.”
Angela Barney-Leitch,
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Strategy)
Kevin O’Brien, Principal Architect
Brian Donovan, Principal Architect
Charlotte Canning, Graduate of Architecture
Bridget Tighe, Graduate of Architecture
Simone Wise, Urban Planning and Design
Keisha Thomason (Leon Design), Artwork
QUT Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor, Other, (Indigenous Strategy) and Facilities Management Department
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
