Sydney based firm Dunn and Hillam Architects has won a major contract to masterplan and design new facilities for a world-class camping facility in central Australia.
The facility will be located in the West MacDonnell National Park, near Alice Springs.
Dunn & Hillam were chosen from a pool that included high profile Northern Territory based firms and were chosen for their specific expertise in remote and regional work.
The park is of particular importance to the Arrernte peoplewhose ancestors ocupied the country and was first made famous in the 1960s, by West Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira.
MacDonnell National Park stretches for over 200 kilometres and contains some of the oldest exposed rock on Earth, including OrmistonGorge, together with diverse cultural sites and internationally significant plant & animal life.
Director Ashley Dunn said:
“As a practice, we believe that architecture is an important tool in shaping the way we interact with landscapes, in the creation of community, and the way people engage with each other. This project brings allthree together, in a very exciting way”.
“Here, the physical landscape is overlain by a rich cultural matrix of tangible and intangible qualities. It is both an immense challenge,and a privilege, to work within this context” he said.
“ This is a rare and exciting opportunity to design aworld-class facility that protects and maintains a national treasure, ensuring that people from all over the world can share and enjoy its riches, now and into the future,” he said.
The Northern Territory Government has committed to nominating the West MacDonnell National Park for World Heritage Listing.
Dunn and Hillam have announced that they will start designing and masterplanning immediately.
