Redesigning a suburban library with a connected new community hub presented an opportunity to respond to our changing planet and social needs in sustainable, inspiring and nurturing ways.
The North Fitzroy Library and Community Hub is a three-storey, 2,040sqm facility incorporating a library, a Maternal Child Health Facility, and community-focused facilities, including a new home for the City of Yarra’s International House. The hub has become a cross-generational meeting place for people of different cultures and ethnicities.
Redesigning a suburban library with a connected new community hub allowed us to respond to our changing planet and social needs in sustainable, inspiring and nurturing ways.
We actively collaborated with the community team, driving the brief for the North Fitzroy Library and Community Hub project, resulting in an exemplary experience for all who visit.
The facility is designed to ease and augment user experience and embed future flexibility. We have achieved this by conscious distillation of cellular supporting spaces to the south and open flexible spaces to the north and a variation in sustainable materiality that stimulates the eye and embeds a historical aesthetic.
The library, set over two levels, occupies most of the building’s wedge-shaped floor plate. The first floor is divided between Maternal Child Health facilities, including two playgroup rooms and a library. The second floor provides community facilities with large divisible spaces, a commercial kitchen and a shared community office. An extensive rooftop garden connects the northern portion of the second and first floors with cascading planters and informal seating. This rooftop garden is an extension of community and library spaces, providing a protected external garden space for interaction and study and contributing to the complex’s 6 Star Green Star rating.
Lisa-Maree, a Director and multi-award-winning architect, is a design and thought leader with a global perspective. Her extensive industry knowledge from working in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Australia underpins her purposeful, visionary design excellence.
