A carpark next to a Parramatta university campus could be transformed into an $83-million Indigenous Centre of Excellence under plans now on exhibition.
Western Sydney University is proposing the centre at its Parramatta South Campus, 171 Victoria Road, on Dharug land.
It plans to build a four-storey education facility with 5543sq m of gross floor area (GFA), including teaching spaces, student amenities and research facilities.
The Indigenous Centre of Excellence would also include a cinema, gallery, arts spaces and a theatre.
Ground-level plans outline a dedicated arrival area and outdoor amphitheatre.
A third floor would feature a recreational sports court and an astronomy garden.
The site, 3km east of Parramatta CBD and 500m from the Parramatta Light Rail Corridor, is now a 284-space carpark to the north of the 20ha campus.
The new Indigenous Centre of Excellence is part of WSU’s goal to position itself as “a national leader in Indigenous higher education”.
Its application said that the project would aim to increase Indigenous participation in higher education and contribute to the preservation and sharing of Indigenous cultures.
The new Indigenous Centre of Excellence would represent a “world-leading example [of] harvesting a strong partnership with the Dharug People, the Traditional Owners of the lands, waterways and skies”, WSU’s application said.
The university undertook a voluntary, Indigenous-led Design Excellence Competition.
The winning design was awarded to a team including Jackson Clements Burrows Architects, Peter Stutchbury Architects, Jane Irwin Landscape Architects, Sarah Lynn Rees, Uncle Dean Kelly, Hills Thalis and Flux consultants.
The design team’s submissions said that the aim of the project was to empower Indigenous research and the transfer of Indigenous knowledges.
“Indigenous knowledges come from Country, and Country is the ultimate educator,” the report said.
“Architectures of the past have served only to remove this connection to place and therefore a connection to knowledges in place, leaving only memory.”
The architectural design responded to the central Melaleuca tree and the onsite dormant watercourse, it said.
The project has highlighted the move towards Indigenous-led design and Designing with Country, with the concept making its way into education facilities as well as retirement living projects, such as a First Nations seniors project launched in Adelaide.
