Ngarrindjeri
South Australia
The Moorundi Health Centre brings together Ngarrindjeri health services into a highly functional facility with state of the art health facilities including infection control treating clients holistically underpinned by three pillars of care:
Ngarrindjeri culture and art are used extensively in the design and landscape to ensure an inclusive facility where everyone feels welcomed and comfortable.
The new clinic building has been integrated with the landscape to accommodate opportunities for meeting, healing and consultation within a natural outdoor setting.
The clinic offers a wide range of services catering for acute presentations, chronic disease, mental health conditions and Ngangkari clinics providing traditional healing.Â
Artworks were developed collaboratively with Ngarrindjeri artists, Harley Ngrakani Hall, Jordan Lovegrove and Mardawi Sister Weavers and promote a culturally immersive experience for patients, visitors and staff.
The Keith Neighbour Award for Commercial Architecture
On the site of a former Post Office Depot in Murray Bridge, the Moorundi Health Centre brings together Ngarrindjeri health services into a facility that is culturally grounded and reinforces a sense of identity.
Phillips/Pilkington Architects engaged in genuine co-design with the Ngarrindjeri community, defining three pillars of care (Cultural & Country, Spiritual & Mind, and Physical & Body) to underpin the design. Modest in stature, the result is a welcoming and inclusive clinic, deeply connected to people and place.
Ngarrindjeri artists, craftspeople, and businesses contributed throughout, with artworks woven into brickwork, paving, glazing, lighting, and graphics. This ensures culture is not applied as ornament but embedded as a foundation.
The boomerang-shaped footprint generates a central foyer from which administration, consulting, and infection control functions are discreetly separated. Healthcare operations are carefully resolved while promoting connections to the outdoors and fostering a calm, supportive environment.
External spaces for meeting, waiting, reflection, and healing are afforded equal priority to their internal counterparts, with landscape and building form integrated to offer respite and connection to Country at every turn.
The resulting facility transcends its clinical brief by reinforcing identity, encouraging visitation, and meaningfully improving health outcomes for the Ngarrindjeri people it proudly serves.
Commendation for Interior Architecture
Moorundi Health Centre is commended for interiors shaped through genuine collaboration with the local Ngarrindjeri community, allowing community voice to be embedded within the architecture. Culture is expressed through light, colour, texture, woven elements and crafted detail, creating a calm, grounded and welcoming environment.
In a clinical setting where people may feel vulnerable, the project demonstrates how thoughtful interior architecture can foster dignity, trust and a sense of belonging from the moment of arrival.
Moorundi Health Centre’s success lies in its simplicity. It masters the fundamentals: thoughtful planning, orientation, solar control, local and recycled materials, performance glazing, insulation, and a mix of indoor and outdoor consulting spaces. While featuring a substantial solar array, the building doesn’t rely on "bolt-on" technology.
Instead, Moorundi Health Centre stands as a testament to the co-design model. Ngarrindjeri design elements are integrated throughout, strengthening identity and connection whilst cultivating a welcoming, non-institutional environment that invites people in.
SA Creative Collaboration Prize – Winner
The Moorundi Health Centre unites Ngarrindjeri health services and stands as a powerful expression of cultural self-determination and creative collaboration, more than 20 years in the making. Driven by a consistent co-design process between architect and community, grounded in Ngarrindjeri authority, the centre redefines architectural practice beyond conventional boundaries.
Elder and community-led, the project reflects a strong exchange of cultural knowledge and collective contribution, with trust and leadership established from the outset. Deep engagement with Ngarrindjeri culture shapes the conceptual framework, creating a culturally safe and inclusive place where all feel welcomed and respected. The integration of art within the building and landscape fabric is central to asserting Ngarrindjeri identity, while shared knowledge outcomes strengthen both public and professional understanding.
This culturally led collaboration has increased episodes of care by 23%, while elevating the visibility and impact of Ngarrindjeri knowledge holders and artists well beyond the project. The jury commend all involved for demonstrating how a creative, collaborative process built on cultural respect can transform a utilitarian brief into a place of public significance: one that fosters deep belonging, cultural continuity and connection.
The Keith Neighbour Award for Commercial Architecture
On the site of a former Post Office Depot in Murray Bridge, the Moorundi Health Centre brings together Ngarrindjeri health services into a facility that is culturally grounded and reinforces a sense of identity.
Phillips/Pilkington Architects engaged in genuine co-design with the Ngarrindjeri community, defining three pillars of care (Cultural & Country, Spiritual & Mind, and Physical & Body) to underpin the design. Modest in stature, the result is a welcoming and inclusive clinic, deeply connected to people and place.
Ngarrindjeri artists, craftspeople, and businesses contributed throughout, with artworks woven into brickwork, paving, glazing, lighting, and graphics. This ensures culture is not applied as ornament but embedded as a foundation.
The boomerang-shaped footprint generates a central foyer from which administration, consulting, and infection control functions are discreetly separated. Healthcare operations are carefully resolved while promoting connections to the outdoors and fostering a calm, supportive environment.
External spaces for meeting, waiting, reflection, and healing are afforded equal priority to their internal counterparts, with landscape and building form integrated to offer respite and connection to Country at every turn.
The resulting facility transcends its clinical brief by reinforcing identity, encouraging visitation, and meaningfully improving health outcomes for the Ngarrindjeri people it proudly serves.
Commendation for Interior Architecture
Moorundi Health Centre is commended for interiors shaped through genuine collaboration with the local Ngarrindjeri community, allowing community voice to be embedded within the architecture. Culture is expressed through light, colour, texture, woven elements and crafted detail, creating a calm, grounded and welcoming environment.
In a clinical setting where people may feel vulnerable, the project demonstrates how thoughtful interior architecture can foster dignity, trust and a sense of belonging from the moment of arrival.
Commendation for Sustainable Architecture
Moorundi Health Centre’s success lies in its simplicity. It masters the fundamentals: thoughtful planning, orientation, solar control, local and recycled materials, performance glazing, insulation, and a mix of indoor and outdoor consulting spaces. While featuring a substantial solar array, the building doesn’t rely on "bolt-on" technology.
Instead, Moorundi Health Centre stands as a testament to the co-design model. Ngarrindjeri design elements are integrated throughout, strengthening identity and connection whilst cultivating a welcoming, non-institutional environment that invites people in.
SA Creative Collaboration Prize - Winner
The Moorundi Health Centre unites Ngarrindjeri health services and stands as a powerful expression of cultural self-determination and creative collaboration, more than 20 years in the making. Driven by a consistent co-design process between architect and community, grounded in Ngarrindjeri authority, the centre redefines architectural practice beyond conventional boundaries.
Elder and community-led, the project reflects a strong exchange of cultural knowledge and collective contribution, with trust and leadership established from the outset. Deep engagement with Ngarrindjeri culture shapes the conceptual framework, creating a culturally safe and inclusive place where all feel welcomed and respected. The integration of art within the building and landscape fabric is central to asserting Ngarrindjeri identity, while shared knowledge outcomes strengthen both public and professional understanding.
This culturally led collaboration has increased episodes of care by 23%, while elevating the visibility and impact of Ngarrindjeri knowledge holders and artists well beyond the project. The jury commend all involved for demonstrating how a creative, collaborative process built on cultural respect can transform a utilitarian brief into a place of public significance: one that fosters deep belonging, cultural continuity and connection.
Phillips/Pilkington have been instrumental in ensuring that the design of our building is steeped in Cultural Integrity and is a fit for purpose Health and Well Being Service.
From the moment you walk onto the site you are captured by the combination of brickwork and woodwork which expresses the essence of Culture and Country. Entering the building you are immersed in a spiritual connection by  artworks and colour scheme which is calming.Â
The new build has seen an increase in Client numbers and a 23% increase in episodes of care.
The Community response to the design has been overwhelmingly positive.
SUSAN PHILLIPS, Design Architect
GAETANE ZUFFEREY, Graduate of Architecture
MICHAEL LAMEY, Graduate of Architecture
WEI HSU, Project Architect
CPR ENGINEERS, Structural Engineer
CPR ENGINEERS, Civil Consultant
BESTEC, Services Consultant
RLB, Quantity Surveyor
JENSEN PLUS, Landscape Consultant
JENSEN PLUS, Town Planner
TRENTO FULLER, Building Surveyor
FRANK SIOW, TRAFFIC CONSULTANT
TRENTO FULLER, DISABILITY & UNIVERSAL ACCESS CONSULTANT
GREENCAP (WSP), ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTANT
DSQUARED, SUSTAINABILITY CONSULTANT
BESTEC, Acoustic Consultant
GARRY COFF CONSULTING, HEALTH CFACILITY PLANNER