The National Centre of Indigenous Excellence
learning°
The National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) is located in Redfern, Sydney. The project was commissioned by The Indigenous Land Corporation, with architecture by Tonkin Zulaikha Greer.
The NCIE was opened by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in 2010.
Size: 11,000m2
Budget: $32,000,000
Scope: Masterplan, Concept Design, Community Consultation, Site Remediation, Detail Documentation, Construction, Post Occupancy Evaluation
The National Centre of Indigenous Excellence has been recognised with the following awards;
2011 AIA National Commendation for Urban Design
2011 AIA Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design
1. Main entry (above left)
2. Through site steps and communal landscape (below left)
3. View to communal landscape (right)
An interplay of paths, seating and planting revolves complex levels
Ceremonial and outdoor learning space
Twilight Markets
The campus landscape and Playing Field incorporates extensive site remediation and environmental restoration
‘This centre is about building hope for the next generations.’
- (NCIE) CEO Jason Glanville
1. The former school playground reimagined (above left)
2. YMCA swimming pool (below left)
3. Timber seating terraces integrated with existing Tallowood trees (right)
The former bitumen playground is invested with new life and purpose
Playing field terraces with formal and informal seating
Multi-sports courts are built over remediated landscape
YMCA Swimming Pool lawn with spiral pandanus
Walkway to entry forecourt using recycled site sandstone
‘NCIE is a world-class facility that symbolises a new era in Indigenous education, engagement and leadership.’
- Prime Minister Kevin Rudd
New terraces, seats and planters in the former school playground
Redfern Public School historical image
Landscape Masterplan
Softfall beneath existing spotted gums
2011 AIA NSW Award Citation
The National Centreof Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) provides a place for building bridges and confidence while demonstrating a connection to the past and a direction for the future. The adaptive reuse of the heritage-listed Redfern Public School buildings was a catalyst for the reinvention of this large site in Redfern as a new public place.
At the centre of this transformation is an open space on the former school playground that has been developed as a multi-level public forum, alternating hardscape and softscape elements as it negotiates the level changes of the site. The complex needs of providing for secure and open areas are skillfully woven into the design of the public domain so that all spaces contribute to the overall success of placemaking here.
The largest intervention on the site is the Eora Sports, Arts and Recreation Centre, a large volume that needed to be carefully modulated to sit comfortably adjacent to the smaller scale of the nearby terrace houses and more finely scaled details of the heritage school structures. The addition of smaller scaled colouring elements to the facade of this facility serves as a counterpoint to the size and scale of the facility itself.
The schools themselves have been reconfigured to provide for a much more complex program than originally envisioned. They now provide for study space, living space, dining space and community spaces, which ultimately tell the story of new life that the NCIE represents.
