Lewin, Wendy
Lark, Reginald
The role of the Arthur and Yvonne Boyd Education Centre is to make an important contribution to the Bundanon Trust’s mission to provide access to creative and educational opportunities through the development of the Bundanon properties as a living arts centre. The centre offers the Trust the opportunity to extend to young people and students of the arts the creative opportunities now available to artists through their existing artist-in-residence programme. The Bundanon Trust’s residential programmes are designed to favour process rather than product which interestingly parallels Arthur Boyd’s method of working at his “Riversdale” studio. Here he would make his esquisse for a work and return to England where he executed the finished painting. The Trust’s programmes are concerned with developing sensory and perceptual awareness, observational and interpretive skills, divergent thinking, insights into the lives and works of practicing artists and an understanding and appreciation of the meaning and purpose of the images in the “Bundanon Collection”.
The broad objective of the centre is to provide living accommodations for up to 32 students at a time with a range of other facilities suitable for workshops, rehearsals, indoor performances, a future outdoor amphitheater to seat 350 people and other activities with an educational focus, such as field studies in environmental sciences.
It was important that the planning of the new centre engaged comfortably with the community buildings organized in the landscape which the Boyds had developed for their own use in 1974. The placement and design of the centre recognizes the importance of the physical and cultural landscape during the Boyd’s occupation of the site and in particular that created by the Boyds where both the native Australian and cultivated picturesque European landscapes co-exist where their immutable differences reinforce and clarify the other.
The new work is sited at the mid rise of the hill and at the interface of the native and exotic landscapes. Both are retained and legible from all areas of the new centre. The accommodation wing has been sited to work along the contours and take advantage of the prospect east to the longreach of the Shoalhaven River with it’s massive rock outcrops. Not only does this ensure young students wake up early, more importantly it offer’s each student an unforgettable introduction to the subject matter of Arthur Boyd’s work in his “Shoalhaven Series”.
The entry level to the Education Centre is set at that of Boyd’s studio and is 7.00 metres above the 100 year flood level of R.L. 15.00. The outdoor amphitheater has been designed to the west of the main entry courtyard and is sited in existing hollows in the hillside. It provided the opportunity to shift the established regular geometry – defined by the existing buildings – to one which offered greater freedom to work with the site’s immediate and distant topography, vies, wind and sun and the differences in scale of the various elements. The rise of the hill to the west also offers protection from late afternoon, mid summer sun and inclement weather along the open access verandah and further, provides a sense of refuge for young students not accustomed to the insecurities often generated by the native Australian landscape.
The sleeping accommodation is organized into 4 units, each separated by a roofed verandah area. Eight students are accommodated in one unit with all units having near access to a bathing space comprising of a separate basin, shower and toilet. The bedrooms are small and are ‘related’ to camping / bunkrooms. The bed alcoves on both the main level as well as the lower level at the southern end are set .5 meters above the floor level and are cantilevered one meter beyond the external concrete wall face. Affixed to both the bed bays and the external concrete walls are white painted plywood and timber fins. These provide privacy between bed bays, increase the reflected light levels to bed rooms, frame the view from each bed alcove to the Shoalhaven River and a richly modeled façade. The verandahs separating each bedroom unit provide covered outdoor studio / workshop areas and are important as places for students to meet. The siting and physical design of the centre also provides ease of access to all facilities by disabled persons.
The centre was designed to enable it to be self-sufficient in terms of water collection, storage and distribution and for all waste water and sewage generated from the facility to be treated on site. Plantation plywood and recycled timbers have been used throughout.
In speaking of their ‘gift’, Arthur Boyd said that “it should be used… but not used up”. We hope this project is, in part, part of a process of replenishment.
ASSESSMENT:
Bundanon Trust
1. Provide accommodation for our education program. And a venue for occasional concerts and special events.
2. Complement and draw attention to areas with high landscape values that have inspired many artists in all art forms, including one of Australia’s most important painters, Arthur Boyd, without dominating a group existing buildings associated with Arthur Boyd and Riverdale’s nineteenth century pastoral heritage.
3. Exhibit exemplary design and contribute to the sense of a special place dedicated to creativity and appreciation of landscape.
At a practical level the Centre provides living and working accommodation of exceptional quality. It has a beautiful hall with very good acoustic qualities and successfully integrates inside spaces with immediate outdoor areas and a site that is vast in physical and visual terms.
As Director of the Bundanon Trust I initiated and developed the concept for the Centre. The Centre frames and excites a response to the riverline landscape in away that has exceeded my expectations.
Through inspired design and a rare sensitivity to landscape and the natural environment the Centre encourages an outward looking attitude. It fits perfectly with our aim to expose visitors to landscape in a way that encourages a creative response through music, writing and visual and other arts.
The centre is an outstanding example of design responding perfectly to its physical, historical and cultural context.