Queen Victoria Gardens

DESIGNING FOR DECOLONISATION

MPavilion’s seventh annual BLAKitecture forum aims to centralise Indigenous voices in conversations about architecture, the representation of histories, and the present and future states of our built environments. For MPavilion 10, BLAKitecture is curated by MPavilion’s program consultant Bradley Kerr.
This BLAKitecture series explores the purposeful ignorance towards the architecture of Country that informed Terra Nullius. First Peoples’ sophisticated understanding of place, of narrative landscapes and mnemonic memory through song, dance and story telling were ignored, dismissed and First Peoples were dispossessed. Landscapes that supported First Peoples since time immemorial made way for colonial farming, First Peoples movement paths – following the land – were straightened, Cadastral plans restricted access to Country. Cities turned their backs to rivers, using them as dumping grounds.

BLAKitecture for MPavilion 10 will focus on the custodial relationship to Country as a means of furthering the conversation around First Peoples rights and perspectives around the impact we have to the built environment. Waterways are living ecosystems, with rights and agency. There are existing architectural vernaculars that relate to material, climate, sun, wind, seasonality etc and the Architecture of Country is embedded with memory, with traditional knowledge and fundamentally based on Care.

EVENT 3: ARCHITECTURE OF COUNTRY

Country holds embedded memory and narrative of place; landscapes hold knowledge, and we know that there is an interconnectedness of Country (Sky, Land, Water, Below). This architecture of Country is how we understand place. First Peoples in the industry share a commonality in appreciating and understanding that we are always on somebody else’s Country, and the work that we do primarily revolves around shaping places. So, how do we understand and respect the Country that we’re shaping? How has the Architecture of Country shaped the built environment, and where can we head if we all take the opportunity to care?

COLLABORATOR:

Bradley Kerr is a Quandamooka man and an architect living, working and learning on Wurundjeri Country. Bradley is Director of design studio Winsor Kerr, a member of the Australian Institute of Architects’ First Nations Advisory Working Group, Victoria Chapter Council, the AACA’s Accreditation Standing Panel and the 2023 Australian Architecture Conference Committee.

Matt Muir is a Wiradjuri man of Northern New South Wales. Having a background in Architecture Matt has a keen interest in exploring the ways in which the built environment can engage, reflect and enhance Country. Within his current role at Monash University, Matt is researching ways in which university campuses can understand Country and reflect Indigenous culture within the built environment.

BLAKitecture was created by Sarah Lynn Rees with MPavilion until last season.