Design: Building on Country

Aboriginal design is of a distinctly cultural nature, based in the Dreaming and in ancient practices grounded in Country. It is visible in the aerodynamic boomerang, the ingenious design of fish traps and the precise layouts of community settlements that strengthen social cohesion.

Alison Page and Paul Memmott show how these design principles of sophisticated function, sustainability and storytelling, refined over many millennia, are now being applied to contemporary practices. Design: Building on Country issues a challenge for a new Australian design ethos, one that truly responds to the essence of Country and its people.

A major step forward in building a deeper understanding by all Australians of what ‘Country’ is: that everything is part of the same continuum – nature, land, sea, sky, humans and what they design and build and how they learn about and respond to Country. Design and architecture are not nouns, they are verbs. To understand Country, its Songlines and knowledge has never been more important.