walumarra studio

The Yungkurrinthi Inparrila Cultural Gathering Space at Flinders University was an opportunity to create a place where culture could be practiced and celebrated, knowledge shared, and space provided for community gathering on campus. 

Flinders University engaged Samantha to design a wardli for the central space with Uncle Lewis and James Tylor as a Kaurna Cultural advisors for the structure. 

The wardli is based on a traditional Kaurna structure watu wardli; ‘branch hut’. The wardli concept is derived from this wardli, a semi dome structure used in the dry hot summer. 

The watto / worli (branch hut) have a different shape to some of the semi-dome structures. It has an asymmetrical shape which is determined by the characteristic of the branch form.

The cultural research provided by James Tylor (Kaurna) and ongoing sessions with Uncle Lewis throughout the design process provided the direction of the design. This was an important key to the process. Both James and Uncle Lewis were fundamental in providing local cultural guidance and direction of what the wardli should look like.