Customer Reviews

Gunyah, Goondie & Wurley: The Aboriginal Architecture of Australia

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Aboriginal Australia is often perceived as a hunter-gatherer society without a built tradition. `Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley: the Aboriginal Architecture of Australia' dispels this myth and explores the intricacies of Aboriginal designed structures, space and territorial behaviour from minimalist shelters to enduring houses and settlements. It presents the rich diversity of Aboriginal architecture from early forms to recent innovations and engagements.
`Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley: the Aboriginal Architecture of Australia' draws together and synthesises formerly widely spread studies of the ethno-architecture, socio-spatial structures, domiciliary practices and more recent developments in the architecture of Aboriginal Australia systemically conducted over a 35 year period by Paul Memmott and others from the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre (formerly the Aboriginal Data Archive) at the University of Queensland. Memmott maps the history of Aboriginal architecture into four distinct periods; pre-contact or classical ethno-architecture, the acculturated architecture of the 19th and 20th centuries, outstation ethno-architecture and collaborative projects from the 1970s onwards and the new architecture of the late 20th and early 21st century completed by Indigenous architects with western qualifications.
Ten chapters are devoted to pre-contact or classical Aboriginal ethno-architecture across Australia ranging from explanations of the intricate nature of campsite behaviour in arid Australia to socio-spatial arrangements of customary camps and lifestyles of the southern Gulf of Carpentaria and the elaborate structures constructed in the Torres Strait Islands. The extensive design wisdom embedded in the regional styles of ethnoarchitecture becomes evident and the diversity and exquisite nature of Aboriginal ethno-architecture is illustrated through extensive use of photographs, maps, drawings and diagrams. Importantly, space is devoted to the distinct post-contact architecture forms found in pastoral camps, government settlements, mission villages and outstation camps. Memmott illustrates the importance of the vernacular architectural styles in maintaining identity and cultural well-being of the user groups, suggesting that appropriate and culturally supportive design approaches to settlements and housing design may be distilled from understandings of these distinct architectural forms. He notes that "There is a large amount of Indigenous knowledge locked into the customary architecture which has yet to be examined and followed through in terms of its potential applications."
The latter section of the book presents an overview of the collaborative post 1970s work between non-Aboriginal architects and Aboriginal clients, as well as an introduction to the work of the first Indigenous architects with western qualifications. This section demonstrates that through the practice of these groups, three architectural design paradigms have evolved. Memmott suggests that the development of the cultural design paradigm, the environmental health paradigm and the housing-as-process paradigm have contributed to the distinctiveness of Aboriginal architecture as a separate field of practice, study and research. Examples designed within the various paradigms are given providing some insight to the complexities and variety of professional engagement in the field. Memmott concludes with a dialogue on the ethical issues, challenges and potential for designers of including Aboriginality into architecture.
`Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley: the Aboriginal Architecture of Australia' is a landmark publication that will no doubt stand as the leading reference of Aboriginal architecture. It lays a framework for on-going research and will appeal to a range of readers including architects, anthropologists and archaeologists, human geographers, historians, environmental psychologists, the lay reader and Aboriginal people. Its publication should encourage more Australian architecture schools to include studies of the architecture of Aboriginal Australia into their curricula. It should also encourage the revision of indigenous studies programs at school and tertiary levels to include understandings of the unique nature of the built environment in Aboriginal Australia. The potential for architectural designers working on current housing and settlement planning issues to be informed should not be understated. There are important lessons to be taken from ethno-architecture and other forms of Aboriginal architecture that can be applied to the future design of housing and public architecture across Australia. Most importantly, this book clears up the historical record of the built environment in Aboriginal Australia and provides important understandings and positive messages on Aboriginal cultural heritage. `Gunyah, Goondie and Wurley: the Aboriginal Architecture of Australia' includes two hundred specially-drawn sketches, maps and photographic illustrations in a generous, large book format. A remarkable publication.

Dr. Elizabeth Grant
Centre for Australian Indigenous Research and Studies
The University of Adelaide

Great book, only one on this under studied topic. Beautiful photos, illustration and passionate text.
a must for any Australian Architect.