Phive Civic Center | Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia | 2023
Architects: Manuelle Gautrand Architecture
Lead Architect: Manuelle Gautrand
Associate Architects: DesignInc and Lacoste + Stevenson Architects
General Contractor: Built Pty Ltd.
Client: City of Parramatta
Photographers: Sara Vita, Brett Boardman, and Nils Koening
For us this project is much more than a library. Around this main piece of the program, so many other functions have been welcomed and added, to create an exceptional public and cultural facility: It will be the place where all inhabitants will be able to discover, learn and share. Around this multidisciplinary program, the design is infused with innovation and sensitivity.
The architects have dreamed an unexpected triangular shape, sculpted with the sun course in a smooth and polite way, to let the sun throughout the year brighten up the esplanade, which runs along their building. Inside this sculpted volume, the result is a cascade of levels facing the square in a sort of giant amphitheatre. All floors are stepped, one upon the other, so that each of them, like a balcony, gets a piece of the view on the esplanade.
The square becomes a stage itself, which fosters a strong relationship with all these inhabited terraces. And the whole building becomes a sort of theatre. The envelop, which is both a roof and a façade, is made of hundreds of folds that open successively to the square and the sky, to the west and the east views, expressing the uniqueness of this public and cultural building. It is a very sustainable skin, a sort of filter that gives a poetic atmosphere to the project, outside and inside.
The colthe is an important issue in their project, as it helps improving the actractivity of this public architecture. The architects have chosen a range of reds, an unexpected colthe which contrasts with the all-around buildings. The result is a large array, beginning with a dark red on the lower part and accompanying the vertical movement with paler colours, up to the sky. In fact, these colours are inspired by the Australian soil, plants, and animals. They are powerful and memorable colours which reinforces the magnet rule of the project in the city.
The ground floor is really the continuity of the esplanade, a sort of urban foyer or urban living room, a flexible place with a concierge, some visitor services, a café and cultural activities. In the interior distribution, the higher you climb the more the rooms become slender and intimate: progressively, when users will go up, they will find smaller spaces, cultivating a calmer atmosphere, dedicated to smaller groups or individual work in a quiet atmosphere. At the top, you can find the council chamber room, which seems to float above the townhall. A cantilever helps this magnificent program to reinforce the link with the existing townhall.