The Waterfront Centre is a new public building at the harbour foreshore for the Shellharbour City community. With its close connection to the harbour, the design is inspired by the curves and materials of boat hulls, with a relaxed style that has been designed to embrace diversity, flexibility and invite people to stay for long periods in this third space for the city.
Expand ContentThe community and visitor information centres at ground level are intentionally transparent, welcoming residents and visitors to explore the new community facilities. These rooms are designed for flexibility to accommodate a wide range of possible activities. With an outlook over the park and harbour, sliding glass doors open to the outdoor terraces and undercover walkways, facilitating the building’s connection to its environment. The clever design of the building’s amenities allow these to be available out of opening hours, further enhancing the public domain.
The 500m² first floor library is bright and open, with areas for reading, studying, talks, book readings and children’s story telling. The top lit space houses printed book and digital download collections.
Externally, the façade is inspired by the rounded hulls of the tugboats seen in the harbour. Mimicking boat construction methods, straight natural timber is used as external cladding, while large solid timber fins revolve around the façade on the diagonal, very much like the hull of a boat. These fins provide structure and sun shading to the façade while culminating in two complex parabolic curves at each end of the building. These irregular shaped timber pieces achieve a complex form, being both concave and convex, and give an iconic identity to the project.
In order for the building to generate its own power, the roof is clad with a large array of photovoltaic cells. The building’s embodied carbon is reduced through the extensive use of timber, which consumes more carbon than it generates in its production, treatment and delivery to site.
