Jury citation
Waterloo Youth Family Community Centre is an extremely intelligent transformation of an unloved toilet block into a warm and secure community centre. Steel was the perfect material for this tough, inner-city environment, and it is employed with intelligence and sensitivity.
The project uses steel in various forms that exploit its essential qualities of high strength in minimal volume and affordable cost. Galvanized steel is used throughout, as sheet, mesh, perforated panels, tube and wire.
The shade structure is a dynamic triangulated frame with tensile cables, which captures a very large space with minimal means. The metal screens take advantage of steel’s high strength for maximum porosity and to support flowering vines, while the galvanized retaining panels in the ground are robust interventions that can cope with skateboard activity. Thin steel balustrades allow maximum visual porosity from the courtyard to the roof.
Read the project review by Olivia Hyde for Architecture Australia.
Credits
- Project
- Waterloo Youth Family Community Centre
- Architect
- Collins and Turner
Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Project Team
- Penny Collins, Huw Turner, Lucy Humphrey, Markus Bruenjes, Sam Carroll, Chris Thomas, Narelle Naumcevski, Marcia Morley
- Consultants
-
BCA consultant
Access Australia
Builder ProjectCorp
Certifier Private Certifiers Australia
Environmental consultant Team Catalyst
Hydraulics Whipps Wood Consulting
Landscape architecture and urban design Terragram
Lighting and electrical engineers Steensen Varming
Quantity surveyor Wilde and Woollard
Stormwater Whipps Wood Consulting
Structure Arup
- Site Details
-
Location
Elizabeth Street,
Waterloo,
Sydney,
NSW,
Australia
- Project Details
-
Status
Built
Category Public / cultural
Type Community centres
- Client
-
Client name
Weave
Website weave.org.au
Source
Award
Published online: 7 Nov 2013
Words:
National Architecture Awards Jury 2013
Images:
Richard Glover
Issue
Architecture Australia, November 2013
