Studio C/06

Holding Place

Grant Divall

Studio Description

Holding Place envisions a new typology of Indigenous-led healing centre at the Royal Children’s Hospital at Travancore that is replicable and scalable elsewhere.  Accommodation for Elders, children and their families, and associated health facilities, will provide environmentally responsive, safe and culturally appropriate spaces and places.

This studio foregrounds Indigenous voices and scholarship and allows non-Indigenous students to educate themselves and be open to Indigenous knowledge systems.  Students will explore how to contribute to Indigenous-led co-design/participatory processes asfacilitators.  Design proposals will consider Indigenous placemaking practices and their relationship to health.

Studio activity includes urban and site mapping, and walking will be explored as a radical creative and critical tool for architectural inquiry and architectural proposals.

How can architecture be a part of holistic responses to recommendations of the 2021 Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System? This studio acknowledges VACCHO’s belief that embracing Aboriginal culture and identity is essential to strengthening health care access and inclusion, leading to improved health and wellbeing outcomes.

The studio name and underpinnings are taken from A ‘Holding Place’: An Indigenous Typology to Mediate Hospital Care co-written by Uncle Herb Patten, Alasdair Vance and Janet McGaw.  The authors of this paper, and others engaged in this ongoing MSD research project, will provide studio input and guidance.

Studio Leader

The studio leader, Grant Divall, is a non-Indigenous architect who lives and works on Wadawurrung Country, in Djilang (Geelong).  He is an established and experienced studio leader at both Monash Art, Design and Architecture, Monash University and Melbourne School of Design, Melbourne University.  The areas that frame his studio teaching activity are social and public space, affordable housing, self-build housing, suburban transformation, spatial practices, walking, and Indigenous focuses.

Readings & References

• Map of Indigenous Australia https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia
• Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (VACCHO).  ‘Balit Durn Durn – strong brain, mind, intellect and sense of self: Report to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System’ (2020) https://timhwb.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/VACCHO-Balit-Durn-Durn-Report-2020.pdf
• Paul Keating’s Redfern Park Speech https://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/paul-keatings-redfern-speech
• The various writings of: Carroll Go-Sam, Sarah Lynn Rees, Dillon Kombumerri, Kevin O’Brien, Daniele Hromek, Victor Steffensen, Carey Lyon and Paul Memmott
• The art of Judy Watson, Yhonnie Scarce and Brook Andrew
• Supply Nation https://supplynation.org.au/
• Government Architect, NSW.  ‘Connecting with Country, Designing with Country’ https://www.governmentarchitect.nsw.gov.au/projects/designing-with-country

Schedule
Mondays and Fridays 15:15-18:15 in MSD Room 139

Off-campus Activities
Weekly visits / Travancore Campus of Royal Children's Hospital

Contact Handbook