krakani lumi

This Standing Camp - krakani lumi (‘place of rest’), located in the Mount William National Park - wukalina is for the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania. The location fringes the northern reaches of the Bay of Fires, and serves as a two night stop over for a 4-day guided walk through the cultural landscape, from wukalina – Mt William, to larapuna - Eddystone Point.  The brief required accommodation and communal facilities for 2 guides and 10 walkers.  It is the first walk of its kind in Tasmania that is entirely owned and operated by the Aboriginal Land Council. The approach to the site is made from a pristine dune, through open coastal heath that is rich in diverse flora and animal-life. Impossible to see until arriving, krakani lumi is enveloped deep within a grove of banksia marginata.  Clad in charred Tasmanian timber, the individual structures appear as a series of discrete dark pavilions, merging as shadows into the surrounding dense banksia, camouflaging the camp when it is not in use. The exterior of the individual structures of the standing camp are robust, tautly and economically detailed, and resilient to the sea air and to tampering.  When the individual structures are opened, a warm half-domed blackwood-lined interior is exposed.   The proportion and materiality of these vaulted interiors is derived from the siting, form and qualities of the traditional seasonal shelters of Tasmania’s first peoples. The open spatiality of the half dome form amplifies the experience of dwelling within a larger landscape room.  This context and the notion of the story-telling interior is an important parti pris for krakani lumi.  The telling of the creation is a speaking into being of country, and an initiation into the spiritual and cultural interior of the landscape.  Through the revelation of the interior, a story of concealing and revealing is told, which belongs to the privileged cultural experience.  This idea consolidated around a number of other requirements for the project: for seasonal occupation, and ‘lock and leave’ structures that are secure and discrete. The exterior charred ‘skin’, which conceals and protects the narrative of the interior forms, ensures agency to the Aboriginal community in the telling of their story. Rigorous legislative and environmental approvals processes required exhaustive and comprehensive consultant input as part of a Grade 2 Reserve Activity Assessment, including the staged approvals from key environmental and cultural heritage bodies, legislative authorities and all levels of Government. Detailed siting and procurement decisions were made to reduce the environmental impacts on the site – which holds sacred cultural meaning for the client. Existing stands of vegetation determined the siting of the project. Elevated boardwalks ensure that the delicate heath is not trammelled, and where possible only sustainably managed and sourced Tasmanian timbers were specified for the project. Steeped in the sensibilities of a 40,000 year old culture, this project maintains a deep sense of environmental awareness and custodianship. The siting considers both the mild climate of the North East, but also positions the project in the lee of existing vegetation, which reduces the impacts of localised changes in diurnal temperature from sea breezes. Artificial heating and cooling demand is reduced by encouraging guests to be weather-aware and dress accordingly. Traditional pelted wallaby shawls are provided for additional warmth. The Standing Camp is entirely off-grid. Water is harvested on site. The materiality is limited to robust timber and metal finishes. All timbers have been locally sourced from sustainably managed Tasmanian supplies. There is no glazing at krakani lumi. Small hollows are made into the residual space of the walls of the standing camp to provide nesting locations for hollow-dependant marsupials and birds, including the endangered New Holland Mouse. Within the sleeping huts, the bedding is supplemented with quilted wallaby furs, known traditionally as ‘reore’, and the space is scented with the essential oil of the local maleleuca ericifolia: a flower that has traditionally been used to aid sleep.