Kevin O’brien

AMONG AUSTRALIA’S SPARSE COHORT OF INDIGENOUS PRACTITIONERS, THE ARCHITECT BRINGS A RESPECT FOR COUNTRY TO PROJECTS OF ALL SIZES

A relationship to land based on kinship and reciprocity — the connection to what many Indigenous communities across Australia refer to as Country — characterizes Brisbane-based Kevin O’brien’s approach to architecture. This often arises from “a curiosity and a desire to understand Country better,” he says. Belonging to the Meriam and Kaurareg peoples of the Torres Strait, O’brien is one of only a small number of Indigenous architects practising in the nation today. His distinct perspective stems from a deep listening to Country combined with a sensitivity to people and place; the result is an aesthetic that isn’t easy to anticipate or classify.

Conceived as an Indigenous storytelling space, Blak Box is a temporary structure designed in 2018 for the New South Wales theatre company Urban Theatre Projects. Lit from within, the lightweight aluminum-framed box clad in translucent polycarbonate is a striking presence, especially against the sky at dusk. Inside, the softly illuminated oblong space has no floor, providing a continuous and unbroken connection to the ground beneath it. Typical of O’brien’s work, Blak Box resists easy categorization, moving beyond totemism and simple artistic motifs toward a genuinely contemporary Indigenous architecture. “As architects,” he says, “we’ve still got to define and articulate space in a meaningful way. If that’s not calibrated as a setting for culture, then in my view it’s pointless.”

After running his own firm for more than a decade, O’brien joined global studio BVN Architects as a principal in early 2018. Becoming part of a larger practice was not only an opportunity for greater influence, but also offered the possibility of integrating the land-based philosophy central to his own work within large-scale projects. The firm’s hybrid timber Atlassian Tower in Sydney is one example of an extensive commercial endeavour that has benefitted from these Indigenous perspectives, embodying a regenerative approach that seeks to improve environmental outcomes through design. “If you value Country, then you stop damaging her,” says O’brien. More than that, he adds, “we start reversing the damage that has been done.” _JADE KAKE

Blak Box, a transient venue for Indigenous storytelling, features an illuminated interior without a floor. The lack of one creates a visceral connection to site.