Shaping the future of remote Aboriginal housing in partnership with Wilya Janta

SHAPE partnered with Aboriginal-led organisation Wilya Janta to deliver the first of five ‘Explain Homes’, creating culturally safe and climate-appropriate modular homes, co-designed with residents in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Engaged under a two-stage Design and Construct contract, the Modular by SHAPE team led the early design and costing phase, adapting the existing reference design for modular construction. This approach offered a cost‑effective, rapid solution to the financial and logistical challenges of building in Tennant Creek’s remote location, 500km north of Alice Springs, while respecting cultural priorities and responding to local environmental conditions.

Guided by Warumungu Elders and residents in collaboration with OFFICE and Troppo Architects, the design addresses long‑standing housing challenges in remote communities, including poor thermal performance, energy poverty, overcrowding, and cultural disconnect.

Positioned on the hills of Crow Dreaming, the three‑bedroom home features a large kitchen, wide shaded breezeways, two verandas that create separate spaces designed specifically for men and women, and two bathrooms to respect cultural practices. The outdoor kitchen ensures hunting and cooking does not cut through indoor living areas, while wide doorways and flat access points suit elders and people with disabilities. The home is also oriented east–west in keeping with Warumungu custom.

Achieving a 7‑star NatHERS rating, the home includes sustainability and energy-efficiency measures, such as an underfloor rainwater tank for fresh drinking water and rooftop solar panels and battery storage. Additionally, high level louvre windows and breezeways were implemented to maximise cross-ventilation to allow heat to disperse in the summer and for fire smoking practices. The mud brick cladding used on the walls was made locally by Warumungu people using Tennant Creek’s termite mounds to regulate indoor temperatures. CSIRO modelling and advice informed the energy and thermal efficient design, reducing reliance on air conditioning while keeping interiors cool in summer.

During construction, the team completed site preparation works in parallel with the manufacture of the five modules in SHAPE’s Adelaide facility. Once complete, the modules travelled over 1000-kilometres to Tennant Creek, where they were installed on site in just three weeks. With Explain Home 1 now in place, community‑related scope items, including mud brick installation and external landscaping works, are due for completion in May.

This milestone project has created a new model for Aboriginal housing, demonstrating how collaboration, cultural respect and modular construction can quickly deliver high‑quality, affordable and scalable housing solutions in remote areas that are culturally safe and sustainable.

This project was made possible through the collaboration of multiple people and teams including Professor Paul Memmott, CSIRO, Original Power, Trident Plumbing, Reece Plumbing, Gabriel Waterford, and our Modular by SHAPE team. Also, Simon Quilty, Norman Frank Jupurrurla, Serena Morton Napanangka, Linda Turner Napanangka, Patricia Frank Narrurlu, Diane Stokes Nampin, Jimmy Frank Jupurrurla from Wilya Janta.

Find out more about this project here: SHAPE partners with Wilya Janta on pilot project to revolutionise remote Aboriginal housing – SHAPE

Photography by Andrew Quilty.