Marni Reti has become the first candidate to secure a new full-time role for Indigenous students created by Kaunitz Yeung Architecture in an effort to help increase the number of Indigenous architects.
The firm’s director and co-founder, David Kaunitz, noted that only 28 of the approximately 12,000 registered architects in Australia are Indigenous. “The current number of registered Indigenous architects is a shocking figure and in urgent need of attention,” he said. “Kaunitz Yeung Architecture is committed to making a meaningful contribution to help address the issue.”
Now in her fourth year at the University of Technology, Sydney, Reti grew up in Redfern with strong cultural connections to her Aboriginal heritage.
“I am very excited to join Kaunitz Yeung Architecture,” she said. “To be working for a firm that puts community consultation at the forefront of their design process is a dream and allows me to work on projects that directly affect both my immediate community and the wider Indigenous communities.”
Kaunitz Yeung has worked on projects in more than 30 Indigenous communities around the country. “Many of our projects are created to place health and wellbeing at the centre of Aboriginal communities and we believe it is important to provide Aboriginal people with the support they require so they can then advance themselves and progress as they choose,” he said. “This is why we have created the role.”
Kaunitz Yeung has been recognized locally and internationally for its projects in Indigenous communities, including for the Biripi Aboriginal Health Clinic, which won three awards at the 2018 New South Wales Architecture Awards and the Healthcare category in the 2018 Architecture Masterprize.
The firm completed two Aboriginal healthcare clinics for the Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Service (PAMS) in the East Pilbara, Western Australia in 2018, and has since been awarded the architectural and project management contract for the PAMS healthcare hub in Newman, WA.
Reti said, “Kaunitz Yeung have built a strong reputation for collaborating with communities,
stakeholders and end users to produce award-winning architecture and it is an incredible
opportunity to be part of a firm who are continuously looking at how we can integrate Aboriginal ways of thinking and culture into modern architecture.”
