fjcplace
fjcplace leads our work with Country, community and public art. We start each project on Country, working from the outset with First Nations Elders, Knowledge Holders, artists and consultants. Their knowledge shapes the first design ideas and carries through to completion, informing planning, form, landscape, materials and art.
Our work spans Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, across cultural institutions, schools, civic centres, workplaces, residential precincts and urban masterplans.
Auckland War Memorial Museum Te Ao Mārama
Te Tatau Kaitiaki by Graham Tipene, within a South Atrium shaped with the He Kōrahi Māori stakeholder group and the Taumata-a-Iwi.
Bunjil Place
A civic and cultural centre whose name and form reflect Bunjil, the creation spirit of the Kulin Nation.
ngarunga nangama: calm water dream, 200 George Street
Judy Watson’s sandstone work, created with Gadigal Elder Uncle Allen Madden, recalls the Tank Stream beneath the site.
Darlington Public School
A school designed with its Aboriginal Art Group, open to its community and grounded in culture and landscape.
Our Approach
Designing with Country
Our work commits to finding pathways to truth telling, healing of Country and bringing benefit for First Nations people, always with the aim of reconciliation. We avoid token gestures, such as an artwork added at the end of a project. Country guides the first design concepts and carries through to completion.
Listen, acknowledge and learn
We start on Country, with immersive visits led by Knowledge Holders, and engage First Nations Elders and communities from project inception. Early workshops, deep listening and a review of local Country plans and cultural heritage studies set a foundation of respect that continues through design and delivery.
Map and understand Country
We map the physical and intangible layers of a place: topography, soils, water, ecology, cultural landscapes and seasonal cycles. With our collaborators, we identify the themes and stories that guide each project from inception to completion. This shared understanding gives every design decision a clear reference back to Country.
Co-design with Country
Knowledge Holders, Traditional Owners and Elders join the design process as key collaborators, not as reviewers at the end. Country is treated as a living stakeholder, and its values of custodianship, continuity and reciprocity inform spatial and material choices, from the arrangement of a site to the selection of plants, materials and details.
Embed and translate
Narratives move into architecture, landscape, interiors and spatial programme. Decisions at every scale, from site planning to detail, respect ecological and cultural values, drawing on our multidisciplinary studio. Because our disciplines work as one team, the stories identified with Knowledge Holders are carried consistently through buildings, public spaces and interiors.
Reflect, steward and continue
We design for adaptation and regeneration, so Country can evolve with the place. Cultural protocols for care, seasonal use and storytelling support First Nations participation in the life of each place beyond completion. Planting, water and landscapes are planned to strengthen over time, so the health of Country continues to grow.
Art strategies
We develop art strategies that place First Nations artists at the centre, from curated selection processes and public art committees to commissions integrated into the architecture and public domain. Artists are engaged early, so their work shapes each place from the first concepts rather than being added once the design is fixed.
Connecting with Country
Our process aligns with the Government Architect NSW Connecting with Country framework, working towards healthy Country, healthy community, the protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage, cultural competency and better places. The framework gives clients, Knowledge Holders and design teams a shared language, and helps each project show how Country has shaped its outcomes.
Selected Projects
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki
Extensive consultation with Haerewa, the Gallery’s Māori advisory group, with Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei and with senior Māori artists informed every phase. Kauri canopies recall the forest, and integrated carved columns and threshold works welcome visitors. The gallery was named World Building of the Year at the 2013 World Architecture Festival.
Auckland War Memorial Museum Te Ao Mārama
Fortnightly meetings with the He Kōrahi Māori stakeholder group, and guidance from the Taumata-a-Iwi, shaped the South Atrium. A respected Kuia gifted its name, and new works by Māori and Pacific artists are part of its narrative. The atrium won the INSIDE Public Buildings award at the 2022 World Architecture Festival.
Darlington Public School
The school’s Aboriginal Art Group of executive, Aboriginal staff, parents and grandparents guided the design. A minimal boundary, a Casuarina screen, creek interpretation and native and edible planting support the teaching of culture inside and outside the classroom. The school was named World Building of the Year at the 2024 World Architecture Festival.
The Cutaway, Barangaroo
fjcstudio codesigned the competition-winning scheme with Bangawarra, led by D’harawal Knowledge Keeper Dr Shannon Foster, and artist Jake Nash. The design acknowledges a headland cut away from Country and draws on the forms of saltwater shelters to create a place of welcome, gathering and healing.
200 George Street
Waanyi artist Judy Watson, in consultation with Gadigal Elder Uncle Allen Madden, created ngarunga nangama: calm water dream for the lobby. Carved from sandstone quarried beneath the building, the work wraps around four sides of the lift core and recalls the Tank Stream, with light moving across its surface after dark.
Eora, King and Phillip Residences
fjcplace developed an art strategy with a public art committee including Sydney Living Museums, the City of Sydney and curator Emily McDaniel. Three of four shortlisted artists were Aboriginal, and all were paid to develop concepts. Jake Nash’s Eora faces the Hyde Park Barracks precinct and begins to change its colonial narrative.
Blackwattle Bay (Tjerruing) Masterplan
A Connecting with Country framework by Bangawarra, with input from Murawin, shaped a softer and more organic masterplan. It reflects the original shoreline, reintroduces local ecologies through planting and coastal restoration, and makes space for welcome and performance. The response has broad support from First Nations and wider communities.
Child of the Rocks, The Harrington Collection
Artist Jake Nash conceived the plaza element as a contemporary midden: a slice of ground holding stories of the past, present and future of The Rocks. The work sits within a public domain that expresses the sandstone of the site, alongside the restored and extended pathways and stairs of The Rocks.
Bunjil Place
Engagement with Elders through the Koorie Heritage Trust, and with Boon Wurrung Elder Aunty Carolyn Briggs, informed the project’s name and form, which reflect Bunjil, the creation spirit of the Kulin Nation. Interiors draw on First Nations art, including upholstery designed by Minnie Pwerle. The Kulin peoples opened the centre with a smoking ceremony.
Nunawading Community Hub
fjcstudio led a public art process with a shortlist of four artists, two of them First Nations. Brian Robinson’s Windswept: Aquila Audax, which responds to the Bunjil creation story, was selected and installed in the hub, connecting a new civic building for the community with the creation stories of the Kulin Nation.
SBS Headquarters
Interior finishes draw on an Aboriginal craft colour palette and natural materials, with weaving by Suzanne Connelly-Klidomitis informing colour and texture across the workplace. The approach brings First Nations craft into the everyday experience of the organisation, so that culture is present in the materials people see and touch each day, not displayed as a single feature.
Port of Sale
Paving interprets the seasonal journey of the Gunaikurnai people from the mountains to the coast. Six seasonal stops, one for each season of the Gunaikurnai calendar, offer seating in the form of canoes or coolamons, with interpretation of local produce and traditions. Moving along the waterfront, visitors follow this journey through the year.
Experience Matrix
| Project | Elder and Knowledge Holder engagement | First Nations co-design | Connecting with Country framework | Integrated First Nations artwork | Art strategy and curation | Language and naming | Landscape and ecology | Materials and interiors | Truth telling and interpretation | Gathering and ceremony | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||
 | Auckland War Memorial Museum Te Ao Mārama | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |
 | Darlington Public School | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||
 | The Cutaway, Barangaroo | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||
| 200 George Street | • | • | • | • | • | • | ||||
| Eora, King and Phillip Residences | • | • | • | • | ||||||
| Blackwattle Bay (Tjerruing) Masterplan | • | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||
| Child of the Rocks, The Harrington Collection | • | • | • | • | ||||||
 | Bunjil Place | • | • | • | • | • | |||||
 | Nunawading Community Hub | • | • | ||||||||
 | SBS Headquarters | • | |||||||||
 | Port of Sale | • | • | • |
Awards
Projects with fjcplace Connecting with Country and art strategy input have received the following recognition.
| Project | Name | Year | Organisation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki | World Building of the Year | 2013 | World Architecture Festival |
| Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki | New Zealand Architecture Medal | 2012 | New Zealand Institute of Architects |
| Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki | Jørn Utzon Award for International Architecture | 2012 | Australian Institute of Architects |
| Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki | International Award | 2012 | RIBA |
| Auckland War Memorial Museum Te Ao Mārama | INSIDE Public Buildings Award | 2022 | World Architecture Festival |
| Auckland War Memorial Museum Te Ao Mārama | Public Architecture Award | 2021 | New Zealand Institute of Architects |
| Auckland War Memorial Museum Te Ao Mārama | Supreme Award | 2021 | Interior Awards |
| Darlington Public School | International Award for Excellence | 2026 | RIBA |
| Darlington Public School | World Building of the Year | 2024 | World Architecture Festival |
| Darlington Public School | Educational Architecture Award | 2024 | Australian Institute of Architects (NSW Chapter) |
| The Harrington Collection | International Architecture Award, Urban Planning / Landscape Architecture | 2024 | Chicago Athenaeum |
| Nunawading Community Hub | International Architecture Award, Community Centres | 2023 | Chicago Athenaeum |
| Port of Sale | Public Architecture Award | 2019 | Australian Institute of Architects (Victorian Chapter) |
| Bunjil Place | William Wardell Award for Public Architecture | 2018 | Australian Institute of Architects (Victorian Chapter) |
Annie Hensley leads the Country and Place Discipline at fjcstudio. For further information about our Country and place capability, please enquire by email. You can also browse our art strategies.