Translated Territories

The brief seeks to address contemporary issues through the development of new heterotopian spaces. Drawing on the writing of Foucalt, a new heterotopia should create ‘worlds within worlds’ where alternative ideas and new spatial experiences can arise. In the article ‘Des espaces autres’ (1967), Foucault calls for a society with many heterotopias, as they recognise and enable difference. How can this notion bring forth more nuanced conversations around key contemporary issues? Projects will seek to spatialise a key perspective or current cultural question to present a vision for the future.

This thesis explores the Australian conceptualisation of Territory and discusses the long-term impact of the colonial project on perceptions of culture, land use and place. Cultural difference and misunderstanding lie at the centre of multiple tensions between Indigenous, non-Indigenous and multicultural Australia. This project considers the role of architecture in developing cultural competencies and progressing reconciliation. The impetus for this project was threefold: a strong passion for celebrating Australian landscape, a strong interest in National Parks architecture, and a deep sense of frustration and sadness resulting from the 2023 Australian Indigenous Voice referendum. This failed referendum prompted deep reflection on the importance of cultural understanding and knowledge-sharing to foster empathy and cohesion across a decolonising society. The project asks: how might a series of layered architectural encounters enhance personal connection to place, and create immersive knowledge sharing experiences to strengthen cultural literacy? The National Park is used as a territorial heterotopia to analyse and explore ideas of place and culture. The project draws on two existing typologies; the Visitors Centre and the Hikers Hut; to understand current approaches to placemaking that communicate cultural ideas, and their embedded limitations. The proposed Cultural Learning Precinct in Kamay Botany Bay National Park (Sydney, AUS) uses a socio-architectural exploration of place and culture to create a new, productive way of viewing the conflicting knowledge systems of Settlement and Country. Rather than allowing these knowledge systems to remain in tension, the proposed Precinct aims to bring the two together to develop a more nuanced understanding of place.