Portrait of a country town

The significant need for purposeful and appealing public spaces in regional towns has emerged as a key component in defining civic relevancy. There is therefore a need for the agency of architecture within these settings to have the ability to attract interactions and conversations as the spark to re-energise and reinvigorate communities. In this project a series of small yet carefully grounded architectural interventions are intended to entrench themselves within the selected riverside site, sympathetically yet provocatively to excite the power to creatively respond to and gender a connection to place. By acknowledging that every place has its own unique and specific narrative then the process and realisation of a new framework evokes a range of possibilities. Single large interventions masquerading as a meaningful solution for the entire community has had a history of inadequacy.

Here on the Mitchell River, an area which has had a strong undercurrent of both indigenous cultural stories and remnants of its past colonial heritage this project articulates and positions researched locally sourced design choices which have been interwoven into the natural surroundings and community to present a more inclusive and varied understanding of how a variety of architectural interventions can stimulate regional relevancy.