C/06

Heart Spirit Home:
Creating culturally safe aged care for Aboriginal Elders

Rob Nerlich and Kate McMahon

Ballot Video

Studio Description

The need for culturally safe homes for Aboriginal Elders has never been more urgent! How can architecture create living places for First Nations Elders that embeds them in community and Culture, connects them with Country and fosters agency? How can we critique models of aged care to deliver culturally safe places for Aboriginal Elders and their families?

The studio investigates ways that architecture can interweave culturally and climatically responsive design, tectonics, topologies, and forms to anchor memories and enrich Aboriginal Elders lives.

Students listen to understand cultural and care needs of Aboriginal Elders, to develop housing that enhances independence and provides culturally safe places that foster Aboriginal community.

The sites are located along Moonee Ponds Creek an ecologically denuded watercourse. Repair will be explored through Care for Country. Deep investigation of the environmental context is required, engaging with First Nations knowledges and designing with Country.

Studio Outcomes

Cultural/social justice issues will be explored through stories and histories shared by senior cultural consultant Jason Tamiru, and elders Aunty Reio Ellis and Uncle Herb Patten. Students must investigate how architecture can contribute to culturally safe, dignified and delightful places for Aboriginal Elders.

A sensitive response to site will be developed through investigation of climate, topography, orientation and landscape characteristics with a focus on Country and First Nations Knowledges. Students will learn to interpret data to gain an understanding of the setting. Projects will need to respond sensitively to Care for Country.

Students will be challenged to learn about Indigenous understandings of Country through engagement, research and design to understand how these relate to Elders.

Iterative massing studies will be undertaken before detailed planning to understand form and landscape potential.

Environmentally sustainable design will consider operational and embodied carbon, and methodologies explored to guide construction techniques and material selections.

Studio Leader

Kate McMahon is a registered architect in Victoria and the United Kingdom and is an experienced Studio Leader in the Master of Architecture at the University of Melbourne. Kate is a co-founding director of mcmahon and nerlich architects a design and research led small practice in South Melbourne. Having worked extensively on a wide range of education and residential buildings here and in the UK, Kate designs iteratively using 3d spatial explorations including a combination of physical and digital modelling, and is interested in how quality design can enrich communities.

Rob Nerlich is a registered architect in Victoria and is an experienced Studio Leader in the Master of Architecture at the University of Melbourne. Rob is a co-founding director of mcmahon and nerlich architects. With considerable experience in projects across many scales, here in Australia and abroad, Rob is interested in housing in all its forms - from individual houses to inner urban apartments and believes that all members of society deserve a dignified and appropriate place to live.

Readings & References

Alison Page and Paul Memmot – Design, Building on Country

Daniele Hromek (Guest ed.), Dossier - What can non indigenous designers do? Architecture Australia - July 2023.

Yim Eng Ng, Country, Family, Kin and Community; Architectural considerations for indigenous aged care in Architecture Australia, September 2021.

Robert McCarter and Juhani Pallasmaa – Understanding Architecture.

Peter Zumthor, Thinking Architecture.

Christian Norberg- Schulz – Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture.

Rachel Hurst, St Albans Housing , NMBW Architecture Studio with Monash Art, Design and Architecture in Architecture Australia, May/April 2022.

Schored, Monash University, XYX Lab Gender+Place, A Design Guide for Older Women’s Housing.

ABPL90437 Design Studio C is an Early start subject. The Studio Ballot will be held online at the beginning of O-week, opening at 9am on Monday 15th July and closing at 9am on Tuesday 16th July. The outcome of Studio Allocation will be announced on Canvas before the end of Thursday 18th July. There will be preparatory online learning work to be completed during this period. Teaching begins with an all day, in person, compulsory Symposium Day in Laby Theatre (L108), David Caro Building at 9am on Friday 19th July.

Schedule:
Monday 3:15pm-6:15pm in MSD 226
&
Monday 6:30pm-9:30pm in MSD 226

Off-Campus Activity:
Site Visit @ Moonee Ponds Creek

Contact Handbook