KYA Capability_Kaltukatjara

TJILPI PAMPAKU NGURA FLEXIBLE AGED CARE

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land within Australia, and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to Aboriginal people and their cultures, and to Elders both past and present.

A better understanding and respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures progresses an enriched gratitude of Australia’s cultural heritage and can lead to resolution. This is essential to the maturity of Australia as a nation and fundamental to the development of an Australian identity.

CARING FOR ELDERS ON COUNTRY

Tjilpi Pampaku Ngura is a 32-bed flexible residential aged care facility located on Pitjantjatjara Country in the remote community of Kaltukatjara (Docker River), approximately 670 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs.

Delivered for Australian Regional and Remote Community Services (ARRCS), the project responds to one of Australia’s most enduring healthcare inequities. For generations, Aboriginal Elders have often been required to leave Country, family and community to access appropriate support, spending their later years disconnected from the people, language, culture and landscapes that sustain health and wellbeing.

Tjilpi Pampaku Ngura restores the community’s capacity to care for its Elders on Country. Rather than treating aged care as a standalone institution, the facility was conceived as an extension of community life: a place where contemporary clinical care, cultural continuity and everyday social connection operate together.

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SHAPED BY COMMUNITY & COUNTRY

Developed through years of engagement with the provider, Elders, community representatives and local stakeholders, the project responds directly to the cultural, social and operational realities of delivering aged care in a remote Aboriginal community.

Located nearby the local art centre, Tjarlirli & Kaltukatjara Art, the residential aged care strengthens connections between residents, family members and community activities, recognising Elders as cultural knowledge holders and community leaders. Opportunities for family participation, intergenerational exchange and informal gathering are embedded throughout the development.

The project asks not simply how healthcare can be delivered to a remote community, but how architecture can enable a community to continue caring for its own Elders.

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BUILDING A VILLAGE

The facility is organised as a series of smaller, domestic-scaled residential clusters connected by shaded verandahs, landscaped courtyards and communal gathering spaces.

This village-like arrangement reduces the perceived scale of the development and replaces conventional institutional corridors with movement through landscape. Clear planning and intuitive wayfinding support familiarity and independence, while continual visual and physical connections to Country promote dignity, belonging and wellbeing.

Communal, clinical and operational spaces are woven between the residential clusters, allowing the facility to deliver contemporary aged care without losing the rhythms, relationships and informality of community life.

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Yutjuwala Djiwarr Aged Care, Yolŋu Country - Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory

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SEASONAL LIVING

The design recognises that life in the desert extends well beyond enclosed buildings.

Deep verandahs and outdoor gathering places create a range of comfortable environments that can be occupied throughout the day and across the seasons.

Covered external walkways maximise natural ventilation, reduce the extent of mechanically conditioned circulation space and reinforce continual connection with the surrounding landscape.

Long, protected verandahs also allow residents to sleep outdoors when desired, maintaining a relationship with Country through both day and night.

Yarning circles and gathering places for Men’s Business, Women’s Business and Sorry Business are positioned around retained trees and campfires, supporting cultural protocols and different forms of community gathering.

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ART, MEMORY & IDENTITY The relationship with the nearby art centre, Tjarlirli & Kaltukatjara Art, is embedded within the fabric of the architecture.

Artworks created by current and former aged care residents have been translated into galvanised architectural screens throughout the facility. The screens provide shade, privacy and identity while carrying local creative practice, memory and cultural expression into the building itself.

Rather than being applied as decoration, the artwork forms an integral part of the environmental and architectural performance of the project, allowing the facility to visibly express the authorship of the community it serves.

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GROUNDED IN PLACE

Material selection balances durability, thermal performance and cultural connection.

Locally sourced stabilised rammed earth provides thermal mass suited to the extreme desert climate while physically grounding the building in Country. Its weight, texture and permanence establish a civic presence that contrasts with conventional perceptions of remote or modular healthcare buildings.

The building footprint was carefully modulated to retain the majority of existing mature trees, allowing the landscape to shape the architecture rather than being cleared to accommodate it. Courtyards extend daily living beyond the building, improve local microclimates and support movement, reflection and social interaction.

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RESILIENT REMOTE INFRASTRUCTURE Reliable infrastructure is fundamental to healthcare delivery, particularly in a location where interruptions to power, water or communications can have serious consequences for vulnerable residents.

Operational resilience was therefore integrated as a central design driver. The facility incorporates a 312kW solar array, battery energy storage and standby generation, together with robust water, communications and servicing strategies designed to support continuity of care independently of constrained external infrastructure.

Building orientation, deep shading, natural ventilation and carefully controlled daylight reduce operational energy demand while improving comfort. Durable materials and readily maintainable systems were prioritised in recognition of the difficulty and cost of accessing replacement products and specialist trades in remote Australia.

Sustainability is understood not only as environmental performance, but as the longterm resilience of interconnected cultural, social, operational and environmental systems.

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RETHINKING MODULAR CONSTRUCTION

The project was delivered within an exceptionally constrained logistical context. Kaltukatjara is located more than six hours from Alice Springs by road, with limited local construction resources, complex servicing requirements and seasonal access constraints.

In response, Kaunitz Yeung Architecture developed an innovative hybrid delivery model combining 58 precisionmanufactured modules with in-situ stabilised rammed earth woven between. Prefabrication reduced site-based construction risk, improved quality assurance, minimised waste and shortened the remote construction program. Insitu earth construction provided thermal performance, permanence and a strong sense of place.

Rather than treating modular delivery as a purely utilitarian response, the project demonstrates that prefabrication can support architectural quality, civic character and cultural connection. The efficiency and control of modular construction are combined with materials and spaces that feel permanent, locally grounded and inseparable from Country.

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A NEW MODEL FOR AGED CARE AGED

Tjilpi Pampaku Ngura demonstrates Kaunitz Yeung Architecture’s capability to deliver highly complex health and aged care infrastructure in some of Australia’s most remote and environmentally demanding locations.

The project brings together cultural leadership, contemporary clinical care, passive environmental design, resilient off-grid infrastructure and an innovative hybrid construction methodology. In doing so, it establishes a benchmark for culturally responsive aged care that is operationally robust, environmentally responsible and fundamentally grounded in Country, culture and community.

Its significance extends beyond a single facility. Tjilpi Pampaku Ngura provides an adaptable model for enabling Aboriginal communities across Australia to care for their Elders on Country, demonstrating that the quality of healthcare should never be determined by geography, but by the dignity, identity and needs of the people it serves.

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