Crone Partners and Urbis Landscape Architecture have won the competitive bid tender to design the Rhodes Community Centre in Sydney’s Canada Bay.
Canada Bay Council called for expressions of interest in July-August 2013, with four teams – Crone Partners, FJMT, Tony Caro and Cox Architecture – selected to tender for the project, with the winning concept announced in December 2013.
Located on the Parramatta River at Homebush Bay, the Connection Rhodes is to be community-focused precinct incorporating a small-scale elements and public facilities that creatively engage with the foreshore, and integrate outdoor spaces. Included will be:
A creative centre
A digital gallery and information boutique
Multipurpose spaces
An e-resource centre
Cafe/restaurant
Council operational space
Public amenities.
Crone’s winning design started with a rethink of the traditional community building/civic space typology. “Instead of a large public building, we separated the programs to generate multiple public spaces, each with their own unique style and space,” says Niall Durney of Crone Partners.
“The arrangement of these spaces allows for each building to have multiple interfaces. The composition of separated volumes creates an intimate central events space – a public square in continuous dialogue with all programs of the community centre and the water. This rich network will work to create an optimistic and playful public open space for the Rhodes community.”
Durney joined Crone Partners in 2012 to help re-establish the firm as a design-focused practice by targeting smaller projects that help evolve and refine the firm’s aesthetic.
The public realm design integrates the built form with its surrounding landscape, says Mark Kuhne, director of Urbis Landscape Architecture. “It emphasises the value of the pedestrian scale, gives special consideration to sustainability and the importance of thermal comfort in urban spaces in Sydney and offers opportunities of interpretation of the rich layering of history and the cultural diversity of the community.”
Design Team Crone Partners – Niall Durney, Ashley Dennis and Tom Chan. Urbis Landscape Architecture – Mark Kuhne. TTW Structure – Barry Young.