James Nixon
Welcome to a lovely new culture centre, close to the heart of Coburg, bordering the Merri Creek. The primary intent of this design is to facilitate the sharing of culture and knowledge through intangible artefacts, thus focusing primarily on song, dance, presentation, and social engagement. We have focused on specific refugee, asylum seeker and First Nation People’s cultures that are presently existing within Coburg. Through a demographics study, we have found that despite the wide variety of cultures present within Coburg, the desire to fit into the Australian community is leaving certain cultures in a state of disregard. Thus, the design intends to preserve these cultures and traditions.

Graphic depicting the exterior qualities of the Performance space.

The performance space allows for a variety of intangible heritage activities to take place. From Aboriginal traditions, such as Tanderrum or Welcome to Country, which were used as a foundation for the design of the structure, to various foreign cultural traditions, all are facilitated within this space. To provide the audience and performers with a more intimate experience with each other, there is no specific seating area, in which the audience is funneled into, instead the viewing area surrounds the performance space, allowing for stronger connections to occur between Hosts, and Guests.

Urban Plan depicting the existing residential and educational environment.

This image depicts the surrounding urban qualities of the site we have chosen. Adjacent to the Coburg Highschool, and surrounded by residential buildings, the site is situated in the heart of the community, allowing for a natural transmission of the knowledge and wisdom of culture to occur.

Detailed Axonometric defining the multi function and performance space.

The following axonometric depicts the structures and overall qualities of the main site space from an elevated position, thus ensuring clarity when analysing the site planning of the design. The two structures exist on either side of the revealed underground river, thus drawing a natural hierarchy to the water element. The land in which the project resides played a large role in the design. The structures were designed in tandem with the land, thus ensuring that they are a benefit to its reconstruction and repopulation of native plant life, as well as connecting more of the community to its underlying heritage.
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