Doolandella Brickscreen is a 45m² artist-integrated façade developed for a new Woolworths precinct in Doolandella, northwest Brisbane. Five Mile Radius was engaged by Creative Road to lead design and fabrication in close collaboration with artist Jody Rallah, a Yuggera-Yuggerabul and Biri-bindal woman from Magandjin/Brisbane.

The screen began as a hand-drawn mural by Jody, developed through a consultative process centring First Nations perspectives, local ecologies, and cultural memory. Her work drew on natural abundance and seasonal change, with motifs including native species such as the Geebung fruit. Five Mile Radius translated the artwork into a modular brickscreen fabricated from bricks made with Brisbane-region clay by Brickworks.

Over 1,300 bricks were individually hand-cut, catalogued, and arranged to reflect our elevation drawings, enabling site installation via a detailed “paint-by-numbers” system. The final screen spans over 21 metres in length and stands over 2 metres tall. In addition to the brick relief, the surface is embedded with clay coolamons hand-formed by Jody using regional and site-dug clay, which was processed at our workshop into usable pottery clay.

The project showcases a model of collaborative making between artist and fabricator, grounded in place-based materials and deep cultural storytelling. With careful attention to local sourcing, durability, and interpretability, the brick screen reflects an architecturally integrated approach to public art.

Thanks to our collaborators: Creative Road, Jody Rallah, Cottee Parker, Hutchinson Builders, RRD Tiling Concepts and Brickworks.

Images 1 to 7 by Joe Ruckli.