119 Redfern Street

This project began with a relatively simple brief – to address and meet accessibility compliances in a heritage-listed Post Office building in Redfern that was being converted into a community centre for the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. While undertaking a comprehensive analysis of the building’s social, material and cultural histories, however, we realised the project required a far more holistic approach to accessibility: one that also addressed its colonial heritage. How can a place feel culturally safe and inviting? Could this site’s multiple histories be acknowledged and embedded in its fabric?

These questions were explored through collective conversations with an assembled project team, who brought together heritage expertise, Indigenous knowledge, community connections and design know-how that turned a formerly hostile environment into a place with deep connections to Country.

The design approach responds to the Indigenous theory and practice of “enoughness”, which Indigenous Designer Dr Danièle Hromek of Djinjama describes as “never take more than you need.” Working alongside Hromek, Heritage Architect Jean Rice and architectural historian Dr Noni Boyd, the project reconnects visitors to Gadigal Country in both physical and spiritual forms.

Colonial symbols are removed, former additions stripped back, systems restored, and natural light invited in throughout. As an alternative to the busy formal entrances that were originally on George and Redfern Streets, visitors of the Facility are now directed through a new entry that recalibrates what it feels like to enter a building, offering instead a walkway through a shared path between.