Designing with Respect for Country
Great design starts with listening to people, place, and Country. We are committed to honouring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. This respect informs our belief in reconciliation and shapes how we design for communities. We value First Nations perspectives as vital to creating grounded, meaningful, and lasting places.
Embedding Cultural Knowledge from the Outset
As custodians of the built environment, we ensure Traditional Owners are respected and heard from the beginning of each project. Every site is an opportunity to create a respectful relationship with Country, acknowledging its stories, sacred places, and deep cultural significance.
Our design philosophy nurtures a close connection between people and place. We seek Indigenous guardianship and leadership to guide our understanding. This process is grounded in humility, learning, and shared purpose, inspiring us to deliver work that reflects and honours Country.
Our long-standing ‘Connection to Country’ approach invites deep engagement with local Indigenous communities and cultural practices. Through ongoing dialogue and collaboration, we design places that support cultural continuity, land stewardship and mutual understanding.
Learning from Country: Project Partnerships in Action
Bilbergia Development in Sydney
GroupGSA Director Lisa-Maree Carrigan and Daniel Michal partnered with Yerrabingin and local Aboriginal community members on a Bilbergia development. The team undertook a walk on Country and hosted a collaborative design workshop to identify areas of cultural significance. These insights are actively shaping a design that reflects and respects Country.
Westmead Health and Innovation Precinct
Located on the lands of the Burramattagal clan of the Darug Nation, the Westmead precinct was shaped through continuous consultation and workshops with Indigenous stakeholders. This inclusive process identified four key design themes: flora, fauna, landscape, and community.
Our design responds by integrating water, sky and Country as primary connectors between people and place. We used local materials and a native landscape palette to anchor the project in its environment. Endemic planting, organic forms and expressions of Country are incorporated to preserve ecology, improve biodiversity and enhance community connection. Visual and physical links extend through and beyond the precinct, strengthening ties to the surrounding landscape.
Lake Jindabyne Foreshore Redevelopment
Designing with Country principles were applied throughout the Jindabyne Foreshore project. These included inclusive design processes, best-practice environmental care, endemic plant use, and local material sourcing.
Public spaces were designed to celebrate and share culture in partnership with the Monaro-Ngarigo community. Two Indigenous artists are creating integrated artworks for the public realm. These elements enrich the lakeside environment, ensuring Monaro-Ngarigo culture is visible, honoured, and experienced.
These are only a few instances of how we embed cultural understanding into the lifecycle of our projects. Authentic collaboration with First Nations communities brings richness, relevance and deeper meaning to the environments we create.
Designing for Reconciliation
Reconciliation lives in the detail. Whether protecting sacred sites or weaving traditional knowledge into form, we aim to preserve cultural heritage and strengthen our shared connection to place. Our designs foster inclusion, awareness and respect, going far beyond aesthetic value.
Creating Meaningful Workplaces
Across our projects, we engage Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consultants, artists and creatives to inform and enrich our work. Workplace design is no exception.
These environments must reflect the communities they serve, telling stories of history, Culture and identity. Our partnerships with Indigenous design agencies such as Blaklash, Gujaga, TCWK and Balarinji have enabled us to infuse Country-led principles into major workplace projects.
Our collaborations with Microsoft, Salesforce, EY, KPMG and Westpac (below) demonstrate the possibilities when design meets purpose. From curated storytelling to integrated design strategies, we help create workspaces that acknowledge Indigenous heritage and offer places of cultural reflection and engagement. These environments support business and foster respect, connection, and pride.
Empowering the Next Generation
As NAIDOC Week reminds us, the future belongs to the next generation. At GroupGSA, we continue to listen, learn and grow alongside our First Nations partners. By embedding Indigenous knowledge, stories and values in our projects, we help create a more inclusive and thoughtful built environment.
Let’s honour the past, embrace the present and build for tomorrow, together.
Claire is an Associate on our landscape architecture team and has experience across Australia and the United Kingdom. With a background in Cultural Anthropology and Fine Art, these disciplines underpin her approach from thorough research on context, people and culture to design’s creative and explorative nature.