Moving beyond the hypothetical situations of the typical architecture classroom, Bower Studio offers an opportunity for University of Melbourne students to collaborate with Indigenous communities and build meaningful, useful and often long-awaited facilities.
This year’s project took place in the remote Indigenous community of Wakathuni, located between Tom Price and Paraburdoo in Western Australia.
With a population of approximately 150 residents, Wakathuni’s new Gumala 0-5 Studio has been designed to improve the education outcomes of Wakathuni’s growing young population.
16 Masters students from the University of Melbourne’s Melbourne School of Design, led by Dr David O’Brien and Grant Divall, embarked on a mammoth 21-week studio that included build prep, research projects, the all-important 10 day build, and finally finishing with a housing design project.
We’re delighted to announce that on the 30th of June, the last dust was swept from the deck, the swings were installed and the keys were handed over at the official Gumala 0-5 Studio Opening Ceremony. With over 100 in attendance, the Bower 2011 crew were delighted to see their hard work come to fruition!
While the building work is completed, the relationship between the University of Melbourne and the Gumala 0-5 Centre has not stopped there. Led by Professor Collette Tayler, staff and students of the Graduate School of Education will be implementing an education and care program based about the principles of the Abecedarian approach to Early Childhood Education.
The Gumala 0-5 Centre was the biggest Bower project to date and could not have been completed without the generous assistance of several groups and individuals. Please take a moment to visit our Thanks page to meet the organisations and people that helped make this vision a reality.