Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Kakadu National Park - Australia

Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Kakadu National Park - Australia The Aboriginal people in Australia are the first population living in the country, for approximately more than 60,000 years. After the colonisation, the aboriginal people¬have been struggling with Intergenerational Trauma, generated by the disadvantage and dysfuntional experiences through the time. Nowadays, Australia is making new reforms that helps the aboriginal people to heal from this disadvantages, starting to acknowledge and respecting their cultures and way of living. One of the many ways to search for this aim, is with Cultural Tourism. This research study is about a Cultural Centre in Kakadu National Park, located in the Northern Territory of Australia, because it could be a way to sensitize the visitors about the culture of the local aboriginal people and how important they are in the context of Australia and land, because they have been protecting the country since the beginning. There are many clans of aboriginal people in Australia, they are divided depending on their language. In Kakadu National Park, the aboriginal people are called Bininj/Mungguy. Their culture and language have been existing since 20,000 years ago. It is very important to consider the social, environmental and economical aspects for the design decisions. In a social way, because the land is managed by the aboriginal people. In an environmental way because it is extremely important to harm as less as possible the land, also because the land is part of the identity of the aboriginal people. And the economical aspect, because the land is managed by the Bininj/Mungguy, and this could help them by creating new employments to generate new opportunities. The main theme of this thesis is to study the environmental, social and economic performances that should be considered in the design approach of the Cultural Cen¬tre. Following diverse operational process, such as historic and site analysis, defini¬tion of the programme, case studies and also considering sustainable principles, in order to analyse the innovation and subsequently make comparisons of the results of the economic, social and environmental analysis of the building. To verify the analysis, it is going to propose a possible project taking into account the components to study it in an environmental, economical and social points of view. The environmental result of the Cultural Centre has higher im¬pact in the project because it was considered as a premise of design concept, as the land is the most important part of the culture of the aboriginal people, because it is considered to be the identity of being an aboriginal person. The form of the project is shaped with the geometry of the existing trees, and the main idea is to respect the natural environment and to have the minimum impact on it. The social aspect has the second higher impact on the project. The building takes in consideration the local aboriginal people culture when it considers the nature as the premise of design. Also, the openings can be controlled with the use of louvres to manage the control contacts with visitors. And the economic aspect is in the third place of the graphic. The construction of the structure of the project, is thought to be pre-fabricated in Steel, I beams, because in this way it can reduce costs of time of construction, in this way, it may reduce costs and energy.