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Four key storytelling spaces punctuate the site, each designed for different styles of gathering and exchange.

Translucent channel glass softens the light and blurs the existing, transforming it into a gentle abstraction that draws attention away from each leaf and to the greater rhythm of Country.

Carving Space

The Gadigal Centre of Excellence explores the convergence of sorrow, resilience, and storytelling, and considers how architecture can create spaces that honour the Gadigal people while engaging diverse communities. It is not only a building for learning but a source of learning itself; a cultural landscape that holds memory and story. At its core, the project acknowledges Australia’s violent history and recognises the need to create space for sorrow. The exhibition hall is tall and open, carved within heavier surrounding masses, providing a fluid space for art as Indigenous activism. A draped steel mesh embedded with Ashfield shale filters light and rain, evoking the weight of history. Through form and material, the Centre holds sorrow, honours story, and fosters connection.