The Desert Peoples Centre represents the culmination of many years of effort by Indigenous organisations, individuals and leaders whose vision was to create a campus where Aboriginal students could learn and share knowledge in a safe and comfortable environment. Tangentyere Design - in collaboration with Hassell and MKEA Architects - developed the masterplan and building designs for the campus which opened in 2009.

Set in the delicate Central Desert landscape surrounded by ancient Corkwoods and Spinifex undergrowth, the campus provides administrative offices, teaching classrooms and training facilities for the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education. The buildings are constructed of simple vernacular materials but sensitively sited in response to existing vegetation and optimal solar orientation. Building forms and colours are drawn from the surrounding MacDonnell ranges. Detailing includes generous eaves overhangs, linked undercover walkways, ventilated walls on the east and west facades, and vertical sun baffles protecting windows from summer heat gain and glare. The Desert Peoples Centre forms a focal point for important collaborative partnerships in the campus itself and within the larger Desert Knowledge Precinct, including CSIRO's Sustainable Ecosystems, Yirara College and Desert Knowledge Australia.

DESERT PEOPLES CENTRE, OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS
ALICE SPRINGS

The Desert Peoples Centre campus is collaboration between the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education; and provides the setting for a number of outdoor teaching classrooms set within an enigmatic desert landscape.

Constructed of steel columns and corrugated metal roofs, the classrooms provide sheltered outdoor teaching areas to complement the nearby educational and administrative buildings.

The architectural form of the outdoor classrooms is derived from a translation of the traditional Aboriginal shelter called the wiltja. The bent steel columns, rusted finish, and anthropomorphic form could also be mistaken for alien space junk – Laugier-like Primitive Huts from classical antiquity touched down in a more ancient landscape. Recalling at once the past and portending the future, they blend comfortably with the surrounding scabrous corkwoods and Spinifex undergrowth.

The spare architecture of the classrooms challenges conventional notions of habitation. But in a vast desert landscape a simple roof is all that is needed to create a place for living and learning.

INSTITUTE FOR ABORIGINAL DEVELOPMENT,
ALICE SPRINGS

The Institute for Aboriginal Development is an Aboriginal adult educational institution located along the banks of the Todd River in Alice Springs. It provides a variety of vocational and educational training for Aboriginal people; and cross-cultural education and training between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. Tangentyere Design (in association with Susan Dugdale Architects) has provided architectural services in support of IAD's site development over a number of years. A master plan was prepared in 1994; a detailed brief for the Stage 1 cafeteria, library, classroom and office spaces was completed in consultation with IAD staff and management in 1998; and Stage 1 construction was finished in 2004.

In 2005 the Institute for Aboriginal Development project received the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Public Buildings Award, Commendation.