Bridget Birtchnell

Interior Architecture

Throughout my degree, I have explored many design styles and topics that have enhanced my perspective on the importance of design. In particular, design has an incredible opportunity to create communities and reconnect us back to nature.

Growing up in a semi-rural area, I have always had a connection to the land around me. I have been fortunate enough to experience nature at its fullest including owning farm animals to travelling the world. The beauty of earth has never ceased to amaze me and I hope to one day help bridge the ever-growing disconnect between people and nature and design spaces that are considerate of our natural environment whilst pushing us to appreciate its beauty.

I have a deep passion for residential design and have found our sense of home has been lost in widespread development in which cheap and harmful alternatives are chosen over beautiful and sustainable designs. I want to create homes that feel homely and create a connection between people and the spaces they live in. Our homes should reflect our personalities and be a space in which we are proud to be individuals.

The projects I have chosen to display embody my desire to design for connection. My Capstone project “Within” focuses on intergenerational living and sustainable design, my project “Hawthorn House” focuses on preserving heritage and repurposing existing buildings into family homes, and my project “Hawthorn Corroboree Centre” focuses on reconnection with our Indigenous Community and protecting their relationship to the land. Please join me in connecting people to place and reconnecting with the wold we live in.

"Within" Intergenerational Living Community Playground

"Within" has a strong focus on reconnection with nature and community, to aid in this I designed a Community Garden which includes a dining space, playground (pictured), dome zone, pond, and vegetable garden. Rather than working against nature, the playground utilises natural elements such as grassy mounds and rocks to create surfaces for children to climb and interact with. The overhead shade functionally protects the children from harsh elements whilst being a symbolic reminder to connect to the nature which surrounds it through its leaf-like shape.

"Within" Intergenerational Living Family Hub

My Capstone project titled "Within" asks us to look inward at how we treat one another and our local environment. "Within" challenges our existing behaviors and provides an intergenerational living solution that encourages connection both within the family and with the wider community.

The Family Hub (pictured) exists as the family center in which all family members can come to connect with one another. The home is separated into four sections: Children's Hub, Parental Suites, Grandparent's Hub, and Family Hub. This allows each generation to have private spaces whilst still allowing for connection in the central family space.

Hawthorn House Courtyard

The project "Hawthorn House" explores heritage facade preservation and repurposing of existing buildings. Located on a busy Hawthorn street, the site can be viewed by public members passing by. The project asks us to create a family home that maximises green spaces and creates privacy from the street. The courtyard design, located at the entry, allows the front facade to remain intact whilst creating a sense of privacy between the public and private home. Furthermore, it allows natural light to seep into the lower levels and provides additional green spaces for the occupants.

Hawthorn Corroboree Centre Cafe

The Hawthorn Corroboree Centre aimed to create a space which the local Indigenous Community could use to perform traditional and sacred practices and educate and connect the wider community to Indigenous history. The cafe takes inspiration from Indigenous artwork and connection to land through rammed earth walls, earth tones, and circular designs. The cafe acts as an incentive to the public to come and experience the wide range of services the centre has to offer including performances, gallery, and education.

Hawthorn Corroboree Centre

Image 1: Corroboree Hall
Image 2: Reception

The Corroboree hall is the key hero to the Corroboree Centre acting as the main stage and hero architectural moment. The large beams rise upwards and form a sun-like shape overhead which casts incredible shadows onto the sand stage. The shadows move with the sunlight creating a further connection to the outer environment.

The reception desk is circular with an overhead lighting display which mimics the flow of light, water, air, and energy, symbolising a constant flow alongside both nature and communities.

Acknowledgement of Country

The School of Design and Architecture respectfully acknowledges the Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners and knowledge-keepers of the lands, waters and sky that surround us, where we work, learn, create, communicate and make place. We recognise that sovereignty has never been ceded and this always was and will always be Wurundjeri Country. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who continue to make a better world through design.

We extend our acknowledgement to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, students, alumni, real-life clients, and knowledge keepers, who have contributed to our own education diversity and growth. We will continue to ensure that staff and students respectfully honour ancestral connection to Country and Place in everything that they do.

We are dedicated to the notion of design to make a better world and we acknowledge that making tools, shaping place, sharing stories, making meaning, wayfinding and collaborating have long been and continue to be both central and integral to First Peoples' cultures. We recognize that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ cultural contributions have continued relevance to design practice and commit to: reconciling ancestries of design and contemporary practice as well as pursuing culturally and professionally appropriate ways to engage with a diverse population of colleagues, industries and clients. In a time of treaty-making and voice we understand that there are overlaps between caring for Country and the sustainable production of goods, services, experiences, products and buildings.

Guided by the principles of respect, reconciliation, and reciprocity we undertake to indigenising and decolonising design practice by dismantling colonial structures and challenging biases that have marginalised Indigenous voices and design.

As students of SoDA you will be given opportunities to both engage with and educate yourself in Indigenous creative practices and cultural protocols through a lens of inclusivity, diversity, respect, mutual understanding, inter-cultural dialogue in all aspects of design practice. Indigenous people have been telling stories, making tools, and connecting to Country through visual media, placemaking and place marking for more than 60,000 years and these practices are part of an ongoing, evolving and live tradition.