Designed as a new cultural hub for the Gunaikurnai community, the Wangun Amphitheatre strikes a beautiful balance between the natural environment, community needs and cultural heritage.
The project evokes an immediate sense of calm, groundedness and deep connection to place.
The use of natural and locally sourced materials creates a restrained palette that mingles the structure within its context, with steel columns echoing the tall eucalyptus trees that form a dense backdrop.
Representing the shields of the five Gunaikurnai tribes, the soft PTFE canopies provide shelter and playfully capture the movement of the filtered light through the trees.
The Wangun Amphitheatre demonstrates a considered response to the site integrating architecture and landscape, allowing access for all. The strength of the design lies in its collaborative design process, extensive research and deep community engagement. The outcome of years of effort, this humble project is an extraordinary example of cultural sustainability, where architecture becomes part of the story telling. The jury unanimously recognised the Wangun Amphitheatre, the design team and its community of collaborators, a deserving recipient of this year’s ArchiTeam Medal.