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Design Principles

Design Principles

Sectional Perspective

Sectional Perspective

Plants that "love" Fire

Plants that "love" Fire

Interior Render

Interior Render

Traces of Fire

"Traces of Fire" treats fire as living knowledge, not just a symbol. A real bonfire at ground level forms a yarning circle for sitting, storytelling, and ceremony, with galleries and public circulation arranged. A tall fired-clay chimney carries smoke and heat through the section, keeping the building's centre warmer. This gradient of temperature, sound, and social activity follows Indigenous understandings of fire as a tool for care, orientation, and seasonal change. Through its massing, materials, landscape, and separated movement paths for performers and visitors, the project responds to and protects fire as a cultural and spatial organiser.

May Xuemei Ding

Traces of Fire

"Traces of Fire" treats fire as living knowledge, not just a symbol. A real bonfire at ground level forms a yarning circle for sitting, storytelling, and ceremony, with galleries and public circulation arranged. A tall fired-clay chimney carries smoke and heat through the section, keeping the building's centre warmer. This gradient of temperature, sound, and social activity follows Indigenous understandings of fire as a tool for care, orientation, and seasonal change. Through its massing, materials, landscape, and separated movement paths for performers and visitors, the project responds to and protects fire as a cultural and spatial organiser.

May Xuemei Ding

We recognise and pay respect to the Elders and communities - past, present, and emerging - of the lands that the University of Sydney's campuses stand on. For thousands of years they have shared and exchanged knowledges across innumerable generations for the benefit of all.

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