ArchShowcase Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Pinnacles Desert Discovery Centre in Nambung National Park, Western Australia by WoodheadMarch 22nd, 2012 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Woodhead Woodhead designed the Pinnacles Desert Discovery Centre to experience the unique role of fire, both culturally and environmentally, as part of its design and construction process. The evocative gesture of ritual burning introduces this specific practice into contemporary Australian architecture. The burning and the burnt remains are integral to the scheme and highlight the relationship between fire, the land and its inhabitants.
Located 250km north of Perth in the Nambung National Park, the Pinnacles is made of thousands of protruding limestone formations spread over a vast dunal landscape, a dynamic and ever changing landscape. The design principle for the desert discovery centre is embedded in the mutable narrative of that landscape. The discovery centre becomes another element of the landscape, specifically ‘of the place’, with the podium walls constructed in limestone. The timber façade is a direct reference to the nearby grove of vanishing tuarts, disappearing under a shifting sand dune. The planting interventions include species endemic to the region. During in the construction process the vertical timber elements were deliberately set on fire enabling the architecture to become a registration of the role of fire in the landscape. The Pinnacles Interpretive Centre marks a shift in architectural response to landscape, as an understanding place. Contact Woodhead
Tags: Australia Category: Research & Development Centre |