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Mootwingee Research Centre

Part 1 Project 2007
Leonard Wong
University of New South Wales | Australia
Mootwingee National Park Research Station The idea seems almost absurd to build on this site. Heritage protected, delicate soil bed, searing outback sun and scarcity of water.
No urban scale, no building regulations and no local complaints. What does one decide?

Ten occupants, one roof, work, play, the individual and collective.
How to create diversity within a collective program?

Fractured spatial elements half sunk into the ground create a ‘ruins’ like environment creating a perpetual spatial experience from dark to light almost as if the occupants inhibit a found artefact building emerging from the ancient landscape.

Leonard Wong


A red desert landscape "Mootwintji," two hours from the nearest town, has limited water,
extremely high and low temperatures, difficult 4WD access and no services. Fragile, with
almost alpine vegetation it is of cultural (aboriginal) and physical significance.
An architectural response is demanded: a research facility for the National Parks and Wildlife
Service. This project constructs a new horizon of activity at an aptly ambiguous scale,
absorbing and reframing the physical limits of the program as opportunities.
Disappearance and concentration are exploited as strategies of response to extreme limits
in an environment where the beginning of architecture is a question.

2007
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