Location: Wukalina, Australia.

Architect: Taylor and Hinds.

Krakani lumi is a standing camp located in the Mount William National Park in Tasmania, owned and operated by the Aboriginal Land Council. The camp serves as a two-night stopover for a 4-day guided walk through the cultural landscape, from wukalina – Mt William, to larapuna – Eddystone Point. The camp accommodates 2 guides and 10 walkers and is the first walk of its kind in Tasmania. The individual structures of the camp are clad in charred Tasmanian timber and appear as a series of discrete dark pavilions, merging as shadows into the surrounding dense banksia. The exterior of the structures is robust, tautly and economically detailed, and resilient to the sea air and tampering. When the structures are opened, a warm half-domed blackwood-lined interior is exposed. The proportion and materiality of these vaulted interiors are derived from the siting, form, and qualities of the traditional seasonal shelters of Tasmania’s first peoples. The open spatiality of the half dome form amplifies the experience of dwelling within a larger landscape room. The camp is entirely off-grid, and water is harvested on-site. The materiality is limited to robust timber and metal finishes. All timbers have been locally sourced from sustainably managed Tasmanian supplies. There is no glazing at krakani lumi. Small hollows are made into the residual space of the walls of the standing camp to provide nesting locations for hollow-dependant marsupials and birds, including the endangered New Holland Mouse. Within the sleeping huts, the bedding is supplemented with quilted wallaby furs, known traditionally as ‘reore’, and the space is scented with the essential oil of the local maleleuca ericifolia: a flower that has traditionally been used to aid sleep. The Standing Camp is steeped in the sensibilities of a 40,000-year-old culture and maintains a deep sense of environmental awareness and custodianship. The siting considers both the mild climate of the North East, but also positions the project in the lee of existing vegetation, which reduces the impacts of localised changes in diurnal temperature from sea breezes.

Photo credit: Adam Gibson.