Craigieburn Library
Craigieburn Library
A library for a growing community
Incorporated in 1994, Hume City is a fast-growing municipality north of Melbourne. This rapidly expanding community required a library, learning centre and gathering space to serve as a public community focus. The selected site was open in character and surrounded by an expanding series of new housing projects and retail development.
We envisaged the project to become the built focus of public life for the Craigieburn community and also sought to connect the architecture with the landscape that is being rapidly transformed by residential expansion.
Built from local earth
The project utilises locally sourced earth as the primary building material, establishing a high-sustainable, green agenda and setting a new benchmark for the growing township of Craigieburn.
The cruciform circulation through the building ties these functions together in a highly legible, simple geometry. The primary reading room consists of a double-height volume with excellent access to natural light, with reading areas positioned along the glazed northern façade, protected by high-level, directional roof louvres.
Rammed earth and a light roof
The lightweight steel and timber-trabeated roof structures are complemented by the heavy rammed earth walls that form the enclosure and connects the building with the earth upon which it sits. Through the rammed earth, we are seeking a direct transformation of the ground of the site into built form, in a sense wrapping the earth of the site around the lightweight verandah like pavilions that open out to this extended horizontal landscape.
Within the shade of these louvered verandahs, community activities such as markets and music functions occur, as well as the natural spill of activity from within the library. In addition to the core library services, the project includes an integrated local art gallery, café, childcare centre, computer training centre and meeting and function spaces.
Explore the interiors of Craigieburn Library.
Read more in Insights: IFLA LBES Mid-Year Seminar – Building Excellence: Global and Indigenous Trends in Library Design.
Awards
| 2014 | Danish Agency for Culture | schmidt hammer lassen architects Public Library of the Year Award | |
Press
| 26 Aug 2014 | ArchDaily | Craigieburn Library / Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp | |
| 22 Aug 2014 | Star Weekly | Craigieburn centre wins International Public Library of the Year gong | |
| 22 Aug 2014 | Inhabitat | Rammed Earth Walls and Louvered Canopies Protect Craigieburn Library From the Intense Australian Sun | |
| 20 Aug 2014 | Dezeen | Rammed earth walls surround Craigieburn Library by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp | |
| 19 Aug 2014 | designboom | FJMT surrounds craigieburn library with shading louvers in australia | |
| 15 Aug 2014 | IFACCA | Best new public library of the year is Australian | |
