We acknowledge that the Country now known as Waterloo, is Nadunga Gurad (sand dune Country) known for millennia for its nattai (sweetwater/freshwater) wetlands. We pay our respect to all of the people connected to the kinship system of this Country including the Dharawal, the Dharug, the Eora, the Gaimaragal, the Gundungurra and the Guringai.
New South Wales
The Field Rooms are mobile cultural infrastructures created to support community life throughout the long redevelopment of a major urban renewal precinct in South Sydney. Developed through nine years of collaboration between the MAPA, local residents, Indigenous knowledge keepers, government and landowners, the project challenges conventional development models by placing public participation at the centre of city‑making. Two adaptable, lightweight structures move across the precinct as construction unfolds, ensuring that civic space, cultural activity and community presence remain visible and active throughout the transformation. Through the Placeholder Residency Program, the Field Rooms provide free space and support for artists, carers, gardeners, scientists, students and others often excluded from formal planning processes. Their flexible design enables workshops, performances, meals, conversations and forms of public research that strengthen social connection. The Field Rooms demonstrate how architecture can nurture community agency and create inclusive cultural infrastructure within complex development environments.
The Field Rooms re-conceives the role of community in urban development by making space onsite for community to use, from before construction through to after the development is complete.
Rather than commissioning artwork at the end of the process, the Field Rooms enable collaborative, evolving dialogue between artists, surrounding communities, and the place itself, shaping the identity and cultural value of the precinct from the ground up.
As developers and builders who deeply care about the places we make, we are thrilled to be supporting this new way of involving community in development.
Hugo Moline, Design Architect
Heidi Axelsen, Artist and curator
Peter Begg, Graduate of Architecture
Paris Perry, Graduate of Architecture
Gizelle McKinnon, Graduate of Architecture
Denham Callanan, Graduate of Architecture
Simon Muigg, Graduate of Architecture
Bangawarra, First Nations Consultant
Brushwood, Engineer
University of Newcastle, Fabrication and material research
Coolfix electrical, Electrician
Urban Art Projects, Public Art Consultant