2023 ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact: Joint winner

Jury citation

The Puntukurnu AMS Healthcare Hub (the “Health Hub”), designed by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture for the Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Service, was undertaken in an extreme environment in one of the remotest communities in Australia, 1,200 kilometres north of Perth.

The collaboration and consultation with community, including the Nyiyaparli and Martu Elders, has led to a stunning, state-of-the-art health facility that is infused with the needs and wishes of the users. The Health Hub has had a profound effect on its community – both functionally, by serving as a significant meeting place; and also symbolically, by creating a visual narrative that emphasizes inclusion and the history of the local area.

The facility, which reduces the need to travel long distances for medical treatment and enables the types and extent of available services to be increased, has had demonstrable social benefits for the local community. Presentation rates for medical treatment have increased, facilitating preventative medicine.

The architect enriched the design outcome by adopting a conceptual framework that used rammed earth from the site, integrated local art in a culturally sensitive manner, used endemic plants, and valued sustainability through the use of rooftop solar power.

The ArchitectureAU Award for Social Impact is organized by Architecture Media, publisher of ArchitectureAU.com, and presented in partnership with the Melbourne School of Design and supported by Latitude, Peptolab, and NHO.