The Visitor Center in Karijini National in the sparsely populated Pilbara region of Western Australia is located in the most extraordinary landscapes of ancient weathered hills, cliffs and gorges of black ore and deep red ochre. The Visitor Center is so well integrated into the landscape of this place that it is possible to miss it. The purpose of the project is to create a self effacing setting for the interpretative experience for the park, its geology, flora, fauna, people and history.

The design is intended to introduce through the built form respect for the objectives and pre-occupations of the aboriginal stakeholders and to stimulate interest in the reappraisal of the collective past, the land and the relationship between aboriginal and non aboriginal people. Local aboriginals chose the Kurrumanthu (goanna) or monitor lizard as a culturally significant symbol and this became abstracted to the goanna-shaped building houses an interpretative display which talks about the history of the park and its inhabitants.

Mr. Unger from Woodhead International describes the Karijini Visitor Center as an endeavor to interpret its setting and give expression to Aboriginal culture through modern architecture. “It is sensitive to the environment and uses the unique opportunities it provides to be creative. The result is an ambiguous form that sits unobtrusively in the landscape open to interpretation on a number of levels,” Mr. Unger said. Its image was abstracted and extruded into a series of simple curved walls that symbolize the footprint of European settlers on the Australian landscape.

The design concept was to take a visitor out of the vastness of the landscape, to confine their thoughts, and then tell them about the place. The Aboriginal story is a major part of the display. The assembled collection of free standing is derived from its context, a powerful ancient landscape of high plateau, rugged hills and spectacular gorges that has been occupied for over 20,000 years by aboriginal people and in more recent times by pastoralists and miners.

The Karijini Visitor Center is made of an assembly of freestanding, overlapping, pre-weathered steel wall panels in response to the landscape, same deep red-black as the gorges. At every point the primacy of the wall is paramount. The building’s steel wall panels were prefabricated off site in large panels and welded together on site. The 6mm steel plate wall panels blend into the landscape, capturing the irregularly shaped interior with frameless windows set between the walls.

Entry into the building is through glass doors fitted between two of the steel wall panels. Once inside the visitor is drawn back into the landscape at every turn by the large frameless glass windows which capture the irregularly shaped interior between the walls. Roofs sit below the walls and frameless glazing allows windows and doors to dissolve between them. The relative darkness of the interior creates a contemplative atmosphere for interpretative displays and represents the landscape to the visitor in a framed and more intimate manner, underpinning the ambiguity of the building and its place in the landscape.

Infrastructure consists a solar powered ground water supply, diesel power generation and a low tech zero impact wastewater treatment system. The Karijini Visitor Center was cost-effective in its production and continues to be with its maintenance. The project has received two prizes in the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA) national awards for 2001. The judges gave it the BHP Colorbond Award for the innovative use of steel and a commendation in the public buildings section.

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