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.