In my second year of architectural studies at Curtin University, our course coordinators took myself and fellow students on a trip to Gnaraloo Station, a coastal camp-site in northern Western Australia. The task was to investigate site and occupancy, and upon return, propose an expansion of the existing camp site;
The over-riding concept driving my design is the understanding of Gnaraloo as a temporary site from both an indigenous perspective and also a western architectural perspective.
When Australia was first colonised they didn't build permanent architecture immediately - they used tents. Which unbeknownst to them was the most vernacular way to approach the land and also the way in which the aborigines approached site.
The idea of temporary is also reinforced through the aboriginal understanding of Gnaraloo - a space not to be inhabited but to be visited. Which is not unlike the way it is used today, as a popular camping and vacation site.
So rather than adopting the mantra of “Touch the Earth Lightly”, I approached with the intention of “Don’t Touch the Earth for Very Long”.
With all this in mind I allowed the spatial arrangement of site to inform itself. I mapped the existing vegetation and nominated the least dense areas for construction opportunities.
I explored my understanding of the building life-cycle in each of my formations:
The Cabin was considered as a completely temporary space, designed for dismantling. It functions simply to house several occupants for short periods of time and so to provide the physiological necessities. Its simple modular form allows it to respond immediately to the user and on a larger scale the climate. Additionally, the Cabin design responds to the inherit need for innovative water collection and waste disposal within an isolated, volatile environment. The "skin" of the cabin collects the moisture from the air at night and guides it down into a water catchment area where it is stored and filtered for use. Human waste is disposed of in a composting chamber. By allowing the occupants these freedoms it assists in relieving the pressure on local resources as well as the local facilities which are even now facing overloading issues.
I came to realise however that when you attempt to leave nothing behind, as I had tried, sometimes small things remain. Evidence of the event is left behind in the form of locally sourced rocks delineating camp spaces and forming camp fires; leaving markings the ground and so on.
My communal space reflects this second extreme on the building life-cycle scale. I learnt that permanent architecture is possible to exist in these circumstances provided their design is functional and site sensitive, and produced out of vernacular materials. The proposed communal area is merely an extension of a fire pit, with additional structure providing escape from the sun during the day, as well as prevailing winds. Views of Gnaraloos' infamous dark sky reserve are permitted through the opening in the centre.
The reception acts as the device which anchors these two opposing ideas, consisting of a combination of both construction approaches. Each aspect of the program was considered according to the its intended use;
The areas used by staff, such as the entrance and kitchen, where their intended function is percieved as permanent were designed accordingly. Similarly the areas reserved for public use are constructed from a series of modular structures (like the cabins) with the intention that they can respond to the needs of climate and users, now and in the future.
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