Maggie Edmond Enduring Architecture Award

Buildings of outstanding merit that, considered in a contemporary context, remain important as high quality works of architecture. Open to buildings in Victoria of at least 25 years of age.

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Brambuk: The National Park and Cultural Centre by Gregory Burgess Architects

Eastern Maar, Gunditj Mirring and Barengi Gadjin Country

Brambuk: The National Park and Cultural Centre, has been a vital cultural focus for the surrounding communities of the Jadawadjali and Djab Wurrung people for more than 30 years. The Jadawadjali and Djab Wurrung people have lived around Gariwerd (the Grampian Mountains) in western Victoria for more than twenty thousand years. Brambuk: The National Park and Cultural Centre, formerly known as Brambuk Living Cultural Centre, was designed by Gregory Burgess who met and worked together with the local people and camped on-site to sketch the building’s general form.

Since its opening in 1990, Brambuk has become a powerful symbol of the many ways in which architecture might be a productive tool of reconciliation. Brambuk incorporates a ceremonial ground and the totems of the five Koorie communities who have links with Gariwerd, including the emperor moth and cockatoo. Conrad Hamann has written that its roofline seems to rise like a bird, settle to the ground like a falling leaf, and at the same time echo the undulating lines of nearby Boronia Peak.

Brambuk’s siting and alignment concentrate and extend this powerful surrounding landscape. Inside, a great rubble-stone fireplace is Brambuk’s welcoming heart. Ironbark poles evoke the sense of the bush outside, while a curving path from behind the hearth spirals to an upper gallery framed by eyelid windows. Around the building, earth berms protect an arboretum of edible and medicinal plants. With an extremely tight budget, traditional building techniques here have been married with advanced timber technology to create a responsive, organic building that seems to be alive. Today, for its visitors and its communities, Brambuk continues to speak convincingly across cultures, landscapes, and time.

Brambuk: The National Park and Cultural Centre (formerly known as the Brambuk Living Cultural Centre).

Practice team: Gregory Burgess, David Mayes, Deborah Fisher, Simon Harvey, Des Cullen, Peter Ryan, Anthony Capsalis, Ian Khoo

Consultant / Construction team: Alan Simpson (Project Manager), Jim Bell (Building Foreman), Peter Yttrup (Structural and Civil Engineer), Guy Walker (Colour Consultant)

Photographer: Trevor Mein