NEWS: QUAMPI Recognised at the 2026 Biophilic Design Awards
The Quandamooka Arts and Culture Centre (QUAMPI) has been recognised with two honours at this year’s Living Future Oceania 2026 Biophilic Design Awards, held in Sydney in July. The awards recognise projects across Australia and New Zealand that use biophilic design to create healthier, more resilient and regenerative buildings for people and the environment.
QUAMPI was named joint winner of the Building Scale Award – shared with Canopy House by Brett Hulley Architecture (NZ) – and received the inaugural Visionary Award. Judges described QUAMPI as “literally constructed of country with its rammed earth/sand walls; tactile and colourful in character,” and praised the project for its genuine engagement with the Quandamooka people as the current and future custodians of Minjerribah. This was reflected in a building open to community at all hours, with an artist reference group supporting economic self-determination – a result that could not have been achieved without the contributions of the Quandamooka community and Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC), and The Fulcrum Agency, who partnered with us on project inception and community engagement.
Cultural knowledge is embedded throughout the design, from rammed earth walls incorporating local sand, Quampi shell and artefacts – read by the jury as a living geological record – to a woven Blackbutt timber screen inspired by the matriarchal weaving traditions of the Quandamooka people. Judges also praised its environmental restoration, from site decontamination and soil remediation to rainwater-sensitive design and endemic planting chosen for its cultural meaning, already drawing parrots back to Country. The result, in the jury’s words, is a “calm, textural and deeply rooted work of ecological stewardship.”
The Quandamooka Arts and Culture Centre (QUAMPI), located at Deanbilla Bay, Gumpi (Dunwich) on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), is a new contemporary arts and cultural centre envisaged as a space for sharing Quandamooka culture through multiple artforms.
Named after the local pearl oyster shell totem, the project draws on the seafaring heritage of the Quandamooka people, with Deanbilla Bay remaining an important place of oyster harvest and community gathering. It is underpinned by the Quandamooka Design Philosophy – celebrating Healthy Country, Healthy People and Healthy Culture – developed with the QYAC Land and Sea Committee, with entry plinths acknowledging the Nunukul, Goenpul and Ngugui Peoples.
For COX, the recognition belongs first to the Quandamooka people whose knowledge shaped every part of this project.
