Season 5, Episode 7 - “When Architecture is the Agent for Positive Social Change" with Ka Wai Yeung

Season 05, episode 07

“When Architecture is the Agent for Positive Social Change"
with Ka Wai Yeung

Ka Wai Yeung (Director & Co-Founder of Kaunitz Yeung Architecture Firm)
@kaunitzyeungarchitecture

More often than not, we walk in and out of our community buildings with little thought as to why it was built, or even how it was built. Sometimes it’s a cement box simply designed for function and practicality, but then there are designs that started with a seed of greater intention, collaborating creativity with community and creating something that stands for so much more than the materials that it was made with. Kaunitz Yeung Architecture Firm is internationally renowned for nurturing positive social change in multicultural communities with their designs and builds. And when talking to the co-founder, Australian-Chinese Architect Ka Wai Yeung, it’s quite remarkable to come to the realisation that when someone who values heritage and history, ties their expertise with purpose and intention what is actually possible. The buildings become not just structures, but connectors of history, culture, respect and functionality. In Ka Wai’s career she has experienced building for wealth and financial gain, but it was the values instilled by her grandmother and a life changing trip to India where she decided to redirect her career and build so much more than just buildings but considered designs in areas and communities that need it the most.

“The difference between a good design and a bad design has immense outcome”

RESOURCES

WEBSITE

kaunitzyeung.com

Kaunitz Yeung Socially Considered Projects

Yutjuwala Djiwarr – Nhulunbuy Flexible Aged Care Facility

Yutjuwala Djiwarr – Nhulunbuy Flexible Aged Care Facility is a 32 bed aged care with 1 palliative care bed and a 4 chair dialysis unit. Located in Nhulunbuy on Yolŋu Country in North East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. The site is located 1042km from the nearest city, Darwin, by road, most of which is dirt. The road is cut off 6 months of the year by wet season flooding, leaving the only access to Nhulunbuy via a 1hr flight from Darwin or a two-day barge for materials from Darwin.

Wanarn Clinic

Wanarn Clinic is a treatment venue operated by the Ngaanyatjarra Health Service, which provides professional and culturally appropriate healthcare to the Ngaanyatjarra people in Western Australia. The service is a community organisation with an Indigenous board. The clinic is located in the Gibson Desert, one of the most remote places in the world – almost 900 kilometres west of Alice Springs and more than 1,500 kilometres northeast of Perth – and services a population of about 200 in the immediate vicinity and approximately 2,000 largely nomadic Indigenous Australians in the surrounding Ngaanyatjarra region.

Wellbeing Pavilion