Wurundjeri
Victoria
The Sunbury Community Arts & Cultural project is situated within Jacksons Hill, a large heritage precinct. This project adapts a former Female Refractory Ward and 1960's outbuilding into a vibrant, diverse arts & cultural precinct accommodating an art gallery, community theatre and work spaces for creative community. Our design response could be described as surgical, working closely with heritage advisors, Heritage Victoria, community and stakeholders to ensure interventions are sensitive and nuanced, adding layers to the already rich base. The original refractory building is anchored by large corner rooms and its axial plan pivots around four large courtyards. Corner rooms are adapted into larger public programs, such as a new art gallery and potters workshop- while smaller rooms are converted into studios and workspaces. The adaptation of the original dining hall sees it become a flexible performance space that provides a flat floor venue for the community to programme into.
The John George Knight Award For Heritage
A fine balance is required when a building designed to restrict and remove persons from society becomes one that celebrates community coming together. That community is Sunbury. Architectural associates with openwork are the enablers.
To let the buildings story unfold… sometimes directly, sometimes by shadowing the past… is a skill that has many facets. The architects utilise all these skills. There is still a veil of the past, a trail still to be read. The weight of history still resonates but there is a new narrative, playful, inviting, embracing. A meandering of stories visually unfold as you move through space to place.
But the true success of this project lives in its very gentle weaving into the built fabric, of the community that has inherited and embraced these spaces over the last 20 years. There are constant nods to the family of creatives and craftspeople that have graced these spaces since its first re-invention as a community orientated place. The potters, the theatrics, the craftspeople, the gallerists. Their story is now part of the built fabric. Their ownership however fleeting is recognised in built form and so the story continues
The John George Knight Award For Heritage
A fine balance is required when a building designed to restrict and remove persons from society becomes one that celebrates community coming together. That community is Sunbury. Architectural associates with openwork are the enablers.
To let the buildings story unfold… sometimes directly, sometimes by shadowing the past… is a skill that has many facets. The architects utilise all these skills. There is still a veil of the past, a trail still to be read. The weight of history still resonates but there is a new narrative, playful, inviting, embracing. A meandering of stories visually unfold as you move through space to place.
But the true success of this project lives in its very gentle weaving into the built fabric, of the community that has inherited and embraced these spaces over the last 20 years. There are constant nods to the family of creatives and craftspeople that have graced these spaces since its first re-invention as a community orientated place. The potters, the theatrics, the craftspeople, the gallerists. Their story is now part of the built fabric. Their ownership however fleeting is recognised in built form and so the story continues