Warriewood Valley Community Centre

The new community building sits at a key intersection of Pittwater Road, the main road heading to Palm Beach, distinguished by a stand of trees at the edge of a reserve featuring large grass areas and sporting fields. The trees anchor the edge of this reserve and provide a “place” in the midst of a large green area.

The centre has a complex brief, resolved by the siting of different areas in and amongst the trees, avoiding tree removal. Each functional space has a warm interior that is almost domestic in scale. The result is a highly functional and legible community centre that contains a series of destinations for different activities. The exterior is clad in metal sheet, a raincover that brings these multiple elements together as a whole and which is peeled back at key moments to let light into the interior. A foyer unites all elements and works with an outdoor garden to create a series of “third spaces” that are formally unprogrammed but invite occupation in different modes by the large cross section of community that visits and uses the building.

TYPE Public
LOCATION Northern Beaches | AU
YEAR 2020-

APPROACH

Organisation

Program

Refinement

To achieve a coherent outcome from such a diverse set of requirements, each function was allocated its own “box” and placed among the trees in a way that maximised the relation between each function and its immediate context. To connect these boxes, an array of additional rectangles provides foyer spaces, verandahs and entry. Unlike the functional boxes that are fully enclosed for privacy and acoustic reasons, these additional rectangles remain open and become a “web” that bring the disparate collection of activities together in a cohesive whole. A new garden provides additional community gathering space and further locates the building in a landscape oasis at the edge of the park.

Warriewood Valley Community Centre

APPROACH

GALLERY

DRAWINGS

MODELS