The new Marrickville Library by BVN is a strikingly beautiful adaptive reuse of an existing hospital building, which was originally built in 1871 and is heritage listed. BVN won an invited design competition for their scheme, which favours a community-first approach with a heavy emphasis on sustainable building practices.
“Incorporating a building as historically rich as the old Marrickville Hospital, and developing it into a piece of contemporary architecture, to meet the needs of Marrickville’s diverse community, was a truly rewarding project for us,” says BVN Project Director Brian Clohessy.
The landscape design is by ASPECT and features a publicly-accessible garden that sits below the surrounding road levels. A café and community facilities Pavilion open out to the sunken lawn, creating a porous space for the community to gather.
The central interior atrium is filled with natural light, with a large staircase with auditorium seating acting as a focal point in the space. The library’s collections, along with a series of different reading and study spaces, are situated on the top floors, with the ground floor reserved for casual seating, computers and periodicals. From the balconies on the upper floors, the view is of a large, sweeping space with ample light and a warmth brought to the interiors by a combination of finishes including timber, bricks and upholstered furnishings.
The building features a floating, canopy roof that folds like a concertina. New library floors connect to the old hospital building via a suspended glazed walkway on level one. The old hospital building has been retained and restored to form the library collection and office spaces, with many of the original features retained, including tiling, floorboards, terrazzo flooring, brick, window frames, and ceiling beams.
Sustainable features of this project include:
- Natural ventilation and mixed mode system for cooler or warmer weather.
- Raised floors to allow ducting of cool/warm air delivering energy savings and future flexibility.
- Controlled solar gain through roof overhangs (eaves) augmented by external sun shading.
- Sculpted roof apertures to allow natural light into the library whilst minimising direct sun.
- Rainwater collection via the library roof and four above-ground rain tanks in the children’s garden will be used for landscape maintenance
- Low maintenance planting includes Jacaranda trees, Xanthorrhoea and Australian natives
- Renewable and recyclable materials used wherever possible including 27,000 bricks from the old hospital grounds cleaned and reused in the new building.
- Adaptive re-use of existing hospital heritage buildings.
- 10km of timber is all is either recycled or is FSC certified.
Over 4000 people participated in a open call by the Inner West Council to contribute to the vision for a new library and community hub and the response was clear: they wanted a diverse and accessible community space that demonstrated leadership in technology and sustainability.
This vision has been deftly served by this new building. Congratulations to BVN, ASPECT and all who contributed to the project.
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