MPARNTWE: First Regional Architecture Association Event in Central Australia Announced for 2025

The Regional Architecture Association (RAA) has announced its third event for 2025 – MPARNTWE: WHEN YOU COME TO ANOTHER COUNTRY — to be held in Alice Springs on Arrernte Country and representing the organisation’s first foray into Central Australia.

Established in 2021, the Regional Architecture Association (RAA) is a member-based organisation for architects practicing outside our capital cities, providing a vital support network for regional practitioners, and advocating for a better built environment.

The RAA produces three in person events each year and these have become widely known for connecting architects to communities, industry and decision-makers, while shining a light on the diversity of regional practice — its issues and its people. All RAA events are open to associated disciplines and community members as well as members.

THE LOCATION

Mparntwe (pronounced m’barn-twa), the Arrernte name for Alice Springs, sits close to the geographic centre of Australia – but on the metaphorical edge of many things. Around 500–600 million years ago, it was submerged beneath an inland sea.

The Arrernte (pronounced arrunda) people are the traditional custodians of Mparntwe and the surrounding region. Stories passed down describe how the landscape, including the MacDonnell Ranges, was created by their ancestors – the caterpillar beings Ayepe-arenye, Ntyarlke and Utnerrengatye. Culture and language remain strong and widely practiced across the many Aboriginal groups living in and around the town.

Mparntwe’s arid climate is defined by extremes and boom and bust cycles – from 40°C heat to sub-zero winters. Rainfall is sparse and unpredictable, averaging just 285mm annually, while evaporation outpaces it tenfold. Yet even a small downpour can bring a burst of abundant life. Across the NT, 90% of the water supply comes from groundwater – some of it hundreds of thousands of years old, predating the last ice age – aquifers are under increasing pressure from a growing population, meaning only 100s of years of water storage is left.

Like many parts of Australia, the history of Mparntwe is complex – shaped by stories of resistance, dispossession, inspiration and survival. Colonised in 1871 as a repeater station for the Overland Telegraph Line, it became a prohibited area for Aboriginal people in 1928. They were removed to reserves outside the town and barred from entering after dark – a restriction that remained until 1964.

Today, Mparntwe is a rich and compelling place – where architecture, environment, and culture collide in powerful, urgent ways. It is a place that invites thoughtful engagement, critical reflection, and deeper understanding.

The main seminar location on Thursday and Friday is the 1950’s John Flynn Memorial Uniting Church, 50 Todd St, designed by Arthur Philpott after an architecture competition and opened by Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

On Saturday delegates will travel to Tjoritja (West MacDonnell National Park) where the event will conclude at Kwartatuma (Ormiston Gorge) with an opportunity to camp under the stars of the Central Desert.

THE CONCEPT

When you come to another country, you pay attention. You listen before you speak. You learn to move with care, to read the signs — not just the ones written down, but the ones held in land, in gesture, in story.

Coming to Mparntwe asks for that same attentiveness. This is not a metaphor. This is another country.

Mparntwe sits at a fraught crossroads, where Country meets colonisation, and history folds over itself. Here, culture, climate, and community are entangled—stitched together with both tension and care.

This event is about the complexity of arid and remote places of Central Australia, the stories and ancient landscape that underpin it, and the design and thinking that happens there. It is about work that is culturally, ecologically and climatically driven. The remote and arid conditions amplify how Climate Change will and is, disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities of Central Australia. Yet, there is a rich culture alive, with diverse languages, deep knowledge, energised communities and inspiring visions for the future.

Visitors will gain more than a tourist’s view, coming away with a felt sense of Mparntwe’s layered Country—where design converges with story, land and reality—and a deeper reckoning with the intricate, often uneasy entanglements of community, climate, landscape and water in Central Australia.

Locals will gain a space to share grounded knowledge. Together, we create a forum to celebrate and ‘read’ the value of regional and remote places, to and to shape more thoughtful, responsive ways forward.

This is not just a gathering—it’s an invitation to understand places on their own terms.

The RAA event coincides with Desert Mob and the Kwartatuma Festival and will have the opportunity to attend associated events and exhibitions amongst the conference program.

THE EVENT

Bobbie Bayley, Owen Kelly and Tonielle Dempers, the creative directors for this RAA event, live and work in Mparntwe, where they are continuously shaped and reshaped by the unparalleled complexity and presence of Central Arrernte Country. Bobbie and Owen are co-directors of Dogspike Design & Architecture, working in ‘traditional’ architecture and with Healthabitat in remote NT communities. Tonielle is a Senior Architect at Tangentyere Design, an Aboriginal-owned architectural practice and a subsidiary of TCAC. Together as emerging practitioners, they bring broad experience across Australian-centric Architecture, Remote Housing, Research and Building, originally from the east and west coasts, respectively.

WEDNESDAY

As delegates arrive in town, there will be a soft launch and tour at the recently awarded Akeyulerre Healing Centre, by local firm Susan Dugdale & Associates followed by a Community Dinner (Buy Your Own) at Epilogue Lounge.

THURSDAY

The event will officially open on Thursday with a guided sunrise tour of the Olive Pink Botanic Garden before we convene at John Flynn Memorial Church for a Welcome to Country. The morning will continue with presenters sharing insights into how they navigate the forces of the remote places they practice in.

Speakers include Elliat Rich & James B Young along with Vanessa Napaltjari Davis and Michael Klerck.

The morning is followed by site visits to two of Mparntwe’s most notable built landsapes; firstly, 8 Hele Crescent, a mixed-use, landscape focussed, site-wide development; secondly DunnHillam’s Desert House.

Thursday will conclude with the opportunity to attend and celebrate the opening of Desert Mob.

FRIDAY

On Friday we gather at John Flynn Church to hear from speakers intimately connected to the Central Desert. These will include Trent Woods, founding Director of Officer Woods Architects, Troy Casey of BLAKLASH and David Donald of HEALTHABITAT.

Attendees will also participate in an activity led by Kumalie Riley Kngwarraye, an Arrernte woman from Alice Springs, passionate about teaching her culture and language.

The day will conclude with a Bush Food dinner by Reality Bites, under the stars at Olive Pink Botanic Gardens. Here speakers, attendees and locals will mingle and enjoy a Pecha-Kucha style event that is sure to spark conversation.

SATURDAY

On day three, delegates will travel to Tjoritja (West MacDonnell National Park) for an immersive experience, fostering a deeper connection with the landscape, local culture and stories of place with the Susan Dugdale & Associates Ormiston Gorge shelter as backdrop. Marni Reti Warrane-based, First-Nations architect and associate with Kaunitz Yeung will discuss their remote practice, with Miriam Wallace and Susan Dugdale closing the conference with their decades of Mparntwe knowledge and thinking. The day, and event, will finish with an opportunity to camp out under the stars and be a part of the Kwartatuma Festival.

MPARNTWE – ONLINE LEAD-UP EVENTS

In the lead up to the MPARNTWE, RAA will hold two online events to introduce the themes being explored and set the scene for the in-person experience.

• WEDNESDAY 23rd JULY 1–2PM ONLINE – Reflections: 30 Years of Bush House Design in the NT | Simon Scally – More information and booking.
• WEDNESDAY 13th AUGUST 1–2PM ONLINE – Taking Flight – The Larrakia Cultural Centre & Emerging in the Top End | Maiya McKenna – More information and booking.

More information: regionalarchitecture.net.au/mparntwe-landing-page

Booking via Humanitix: events.humanitix.com/mparntwe-alice-springs