Connection to Country
The storytelling in and outside the museum context and the openness of Boola Bardip’s spaces are a tribute to the design transformation and cultural engagement process.
Key moments of connection to Country include featuring Indigenous stories and embedding physical artefacts; playing soundscapes overlaid with frog songs, crackling fires, seasonal sounds; using mist to recall the cleansing smoke of ceremonial gatherings; and reinstating specific native plantings. These connections allow Whadjuk elders to feel a renewed sense of belonging to their Country while inviting elders from other Nations to be aware they’re entering a culturally significant location. They also become moments of implicit education for interstate and overseas visitors where it is easy to sense the importance of the Whadjuk’s connection to the land.
Through respect and inquiry, the project team has reconciled the century-young built history of the site with the 60,000-year Indigenous significance of the Country that Boola Bardip sits on, transforming it from a heritage archaeological redevelopment into a culturally-enriched community space.
“Our biggest contribution in terms of cultural significance was to transform a sorry place (with the Old Gaol at the centre of the development) into a place in which Indigenous communities would meet and gather. One of the proudest moments on the project was when Reconciliation Action Week chose its meeting point as the Museum.”
— Peter Dean, Principal
Sustainability
Our sustainability principles encompasses place, systems, carbon and social aspects of every project.
For the WA Museum Boola Bardip, a holistic investigation of the site, ecosystem and Indigenous culture informs the entire project (as outline above).
Embracing nature and connecting to Country is central to the success of the project, resulting in spaces where visitors can see, hear, feel, and experience the atmosphere in a comfortable and meaningful way.
The design informs a high-performance building envelope, where daylight floods public circulation areas and shaded, external verandas maximise natural ventilation (within the constraints of exhibition design).
The deeply shaded façade is a deliberate response to Western Australia’s often harsh climate, as is the use of thermal mass to encapsulate heat by day and allow it to dissipate slowly through the galleries and City Room of an evening.
Energy performance is enhanced through the integration of a central energy plant on the adjacent City Library. That new central plant has diminished the carbon use or footprint of the cultural precinct by 40%. Significant material technology advances are also harnessed throughout. Interstitial glass features an internal mesh for high performance thermal buffering.
More than 70% local materials have been used on the project and water-wise, local native planting has been prioritised around the site.
Awards
The WA Museum Boola Bardip took out top honours at the Australian Institute of Architects 2021 WA Architecture Awards, scooping the pool in three categories
The museum picked up the John Septimus Roe Award for urban design, the Jeffrey Howlett Award for public architecture, and the coveted George Temple Poole Award, which is given to the project deemed by the jury as the most worthy of all the winners.
The jury also commended “the connection of the highly significant existing buildings to new volumes, assisting the museum to unfold in a series of exciting spatial experiences”.
The WA Museum Boola Bardip is “a superb facility for Western Australians to both understand and celebrate their special place in the world”
— Australian Institute of Architects WA Awards Jury
More on the awards
Media
ArchitectureAU: Many stories: WA Museum Boola Bardip
“Through careful sculpting of new program into an uncoordinated existing context, collaborating architects Hassell and OMA have delivered a civic precinct that is uniquely Western Australian.”
AFR: WA Museum Boola Bardip enlivens Perth city centre
“Perth’s new $400 million museum dominated this year’s state architecture awards, both for the role it has taken in enlivening the WA capital’s main cultural precinct as well as for showing the way museums can evolve to tell Indigenous as well as imported cultural stories.”
The West Australian: WA Museum Boola Bardip wins George Temple Poole Award at 2021 WA Architecture Awards
“The layout of the building — located in Perth’s Cultural Centre on Whadjuk Noongar land — was praised for the way it unfolds in a series of exciting spatial experiences. The win has prompted speculation the project will soon be recognised globally as a design of national and international significance.”
Architecture&Design: Multiple gongs for Hassell+OMA’s WA Museum Boola Bardip at WA Architecture Awards
“The WA Museum Boola Bardip designed by Hassell and OMA was the most awarded project at the 2021 WA Architecture Awards announced recently… 2021 WA jury chair Dr John Taylor, who also served on the George Temple Poole Award jury said, “The WA Museum Boola Bardip provides an extraordinary solution to a complex brief, and a superb facility for Western Australians to both understand and celebrate our special place in the world.””
