Category: Institutional Projects
Honourable Mention

Category: Interior Architecture Projects
Honourable Mention

Jury Citation:

“The architect created a well-crafted civic object that remains open to its surroundings. The sharp detailing has achieved a lightness and screen-like quality to the building.

The cylindrical form is appropriately truncated to respond to the heritage buildings and to allow the northern sun to enter the cathedral plaza.

The interior spaces are clearly structured with a sense of hierarchy. As the cylinder opens up, the quality of light changes and imbues spaces with a variety of character.”

This competition-winning design was built on a complex urban adjacent to some of Perth’s finest heritage buildings.

Responding to this context, the building is cylindrical in form. The upper profile is defined by a diagonal truncation that allows winter sun to enter the public plaza and gives the library an appropriate scale as it addresses the heritage buildings. The cylindrical form allows a reading of the building as a discrete object and a building with a distinct civic identity.

The library façade, of glass panels and stone fins, is at once solid and transparent, reinforcing the civic qualities of the building while providing a lightness and delicacy to the form. At the ground level, this hybrid stone and glass skin peels away to reveal a transparent entry foyer.

The main public staircase wraps the perimeter of the cylindrical volume, between the building skin and main collection floors. At the core of the building is the triple-height reading room. This screened volume receives filtered sunlight across the collection floor galleries.

The children’s library occupies the fifth level and is arranged around a double-height winter garden. The interior is characterised by warm timbers and filtered light, reinforcing the atmosphere of quiet reflection.

KERRY HILL ARCHITECTS PTE LTD

  • Tel : 63235400
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  • Address :
    29 CANTONMENT ROAD 089746 SINGAPORE