Preface

P R E F A C E

“On almost every front, our world is under enormous stress. We are not at ease with each other, or our planet.”2 UN Secretary-General António Guterres

In 2020, during COVID-19, I returned from university, to my home in regional NSW to undertake my studies and find comfort and solace, in what I knew and what was known, amongst the societal chaos and growing uncertainty for the future. I was able to experience nourishment, an intimate spatial experience of place, drawn from my memories and fragmented moments of conscious and unconscious being, carried from the relationships I had formed over time. Relationships with all matter;

My family, the sentience of their nearness in all forms of manifestation; a consolation. My garden, constancy in the abundant supply of odd shaped vegetables and ripened fruits; the intertwined branches of the plum tree just beyond the house- a playground to the wrens, providing hours of screen time, whilst I stretched my still legs beyond the boredom boundary of my bedroom window.

Sweet orange syrup cake, handmade gnocchi and the family tradition of secret sauce making.

Cockatoos screeching in the late afternoon, worn, chipped tiles on the fire hearth; scars of familiarity

And images of my grandfather preparing for a wintery night. Then, the sunlight that perches at the edge of my bedding, edging toward my pillow on the crisp, frosty mornings of July.

Amongst these moments during COVID-19, I peered in to view the reckoning across our globe, our nation; an interlude to a moment in time that united all humanity temporarily within a space, for just a breath. Here, vulnerability to nature within our shared ecological sphere was apparent. Within that sphere, it was, as it has been, the marginalised, who were most impacted and continue to be

impacted by the economic and health implications of that crisis, in the short and long-term. Whilst COVID-19 may have provided an awakening for some, our global community has been a silent audience to divisions and inequalities throughout time and continues to do so.

It was at this time that I began to reflect deeply on the role “architecture has played in this production,”3 and to question how we arrived in this socio-cultural and socio-political space. My own personal experiences of family and domestic violence and growing up in regional NSW, consciously and unconsciously, had anchored my interest in architecture, for its propensity to create a spatial justice ambition focused on inclusion, accessibility and experience.

And so, in the wake of COVID-19, in 2020, I began my journey to seek knowledge and understanding about our beginnings in order to understand our future, through an architectural lens. In this process, I undertook research, which contributed to the beginnings of my Honours Thesis: Then, now, next, rediscovering future design: Rediscovering opportunities for ultimate design & Realigning human centred design through the construct of the womb. 4 Triangulating of Philosophy, Science and Architectural Theory, which as a speculative theory, became a catalyst for further personal research focused on the ancient knowledge of Aboriginal peoples and culture to inform sustainable design practices. This research postulated that the creation of inclusive design manifests through collective relational experiences, between all matter, in the common space between our differences, The Space In Between. This previous research has informed this Master’s Thesis and is a continuation of knowledge sharing and relationship in a codesign space, to create a new architectural narrative.