A strange twist to a story

Architecture owns the story. That’s not necessarily a good thing!

There are comments online about the use of William Barak’s image for the side of a new apartment block in Melbourne. click here

I agree that this architectural use of his image may not have been the most thoughtful given the history of how he was treated. However on the positive side, maybe this will be a reminder of these complex issues of how the indigenous peoples have been treated.

I do hesitate in the use of his image on this particular building, being a more expensive apartment building. Is this recognition or appropriation of the man? The same applies to many of the naming exercises whereby local governments have re-named suburbs and parks after local indigenous peoples. There is no easy answer here.

In this case I tend to think that the architects and developer have been inappropriately opportunistic.

Here’s the article in question – click here

for more on architecture – click here