Urban Community

“Make a welcome of each door and a countenance of each window.
Make each place, a bunch of places of each house and of each city, for a house is a tiny city, a city a huge house. Get closer to the shifting centre of human reality and build its counter form.”

Aldo van Eyck
Place and Occassion, Right Size, The Interior of Time, Forum 1962-3

FRANK BARTLETT LIBRARY
& MOE SERVICE CENTRE

LITTLE BAY
APARTMENTS

FRANK BARTLETT LIBRARY & MOE SERVICE CENTRE

Frank Bartlett Library and Moe Service Centre

Situated in a sweeping valley surrounded by prominent mountain ranges, the small regional town of Moe in Victoria’s Gippsland is viewed as the poor cousin of its neighbours. Unemployment is high and there has been no recent development with residents having to travel for key services. There was a real sense of expectation when the hoarding came down at the old car park site on the rail line as the new library and community building were unveiled.

A gently curved and stepped platform of landscape and concrete follows the line of the railway, shielding the noise and impact of the trains while opening up to the town centre to create a new sunlit public square and community focus. Suspended above this curved podium and dramatically cantilevering over the pubic space are two timber clad volumes oriented directly down the main street, and forming a focus for this civic vista.

These wooden portals that frame views to the mountains, placed carefully on a landscaped platform that form the public square have created a new civic heart and identity for the town of Moe. It is truly a place for everyone to feel welcome and included, a place that brings the community together and that marks the shared aspirations of the town.

LITTLE BAY APARTMENTS

Little Bay Apartments

This pair of related apartment buildings forms an entrance to a new residential community located on the historic former Prince Henry Hospital site, a site that includes many heritage buildings and overlooks the beautiful waterfront of Little Bay.
The design proposals for these two buildings have been drawn from an analysis and reading of the particular qualities and characteristics of their locality and context.
Their sinuous forms compress and then open out in a strong entrance sequence to the Prince Henry site, reinforcing the corners at the intersection of Pine Avenue and Anzac Parade, then stepping down and peeling back to reveal a new public space and the elegant facades of the historic Flowers Wards, the heritage landscape and coastal vistas beyond. The new north-facing open space and ground level retail accommodation create both a communal focus and commercial heart for the Prince Henry community.