Library Buildings around the World

night purge system, solar hot water collector, high performance glazing and a displacement air-conditioning system which allows the
cool air to be introduced through the floor grills. All of which create an efficient and peaceful environment for users. (Brewster)
Concord Library Centre, Concord (Strathfield, Sydney), NSW – Australia 2008
Physical Size: 2,300 m², Client: Canada Bay City Council.
The new library is set to become a new standard of excellence in community facilities. The building’s striking design is born from its
strong environmental focus with its prominent glass thermal chimneys and gently spinning stainless steel cowls glistening in the sun.
The new Library is arranged on 2 levels facing over playground and parkland, looking towards the river and bays. It includes an
internal café, community meeting rooms, youth area and business facilities. The internal graphics are strong and intended to work
with the building layout to produce an inspiring open light filled environment. The large thermal chimneys work as passive solar
powered engines to quietly draw fresh air through the building. Outside air is taken in by the large blue swan necked ducts
positioned in the landscape and their drawn through the underground labyrinth where the air is naturally cooled and then gently
vented into the public space through floor ducts. (Brewster)
University of Western Sydney, Campus Campell Library, Campelltown City (Sydney), VIC – Australia
2008
cost: $ 8.500.000, completed: June 2008
Major Adaptive Re-use and upgrades to the original Phillip Cox Campus Library building including a complete internal redesign.
The original building included exposed off form concrete waffle slabs with a complex triangular pattern. (Brewster)
University of Western Sydney, Campus Bankstown Library, Bankstown, NSW –Australia 2007
The Bankstown campus is situated in the suburb of Milperra in the Bankstown Local Government Area.
Costs: $ 4.500.000
Major upgrade of the Bankstown Campus library and student services area carried out while the facility remained operational
(Brewster)
In late November 2006, work commenced on refurbishing the Campbelltown library—in part to accommodate the new medical
collection and support the Medical School. Library staff were temporarily relocated to an adjacent area to ensure continuity of
services and to enable builders to create a state of the art library. Due to the goodwill of staff and building contractors, library
services were available throughout the refurbishment and the building was completed in time for the commencement of Autumn
Semester. Brewster Hjorth Architects, the successful tending architectural design company, worked closely with a Library and
Capital Works & Facilities project team to plan the client and technology focused refurbishment.
(http://library.uws.edu.au/FILES/report/2007/AnnualReport.pdf)
Wallisend Library, Newcastle-Wallisend, NSW – Australia 2006
Size: 1.750 m², Costs: $ 7.500.000, completed: February 2007
Awards:
RAIA Hunter Design Awards 2006: ESD, Civic Design & Major Design Award.
The new Wallsend District Library building is designed to act as a seed or focus for the growth of a sustainable community for
Wallsend. It provides exhibition, meeting, library and childcare facilities and links them to the neighbouring Wallsend Plaza
Shopping Centre across the street. Since the new Library opened in May 2006 the building has created a large amount of public and
industry interest. It also won all major awards for Design, Excellence, Civic Design and Sustainable Design at the Hunter Civic
Design Awards for 2006.
The design was evolved to create an open, light and light filled internal space, that provided a range of exciting locations for various
facilities, and uses, that could be accessed individually as separate addresses within a single simple structure. The form of the
building is created from two curved pavillions that are linked by a central linear atrium. The curves of the building flow from its
curved sheet frontage Each pavillion has a ‘skillion roof’ sloping down towards two large 1.5m high ‘v shaped’ curved steel box
gutters that define the central linear spine of the building.
The building’s site runs north/south along the curved sheet frontage; the Wallsend Plaza located behind a large open carpark
occupies the opposite frontage. A central walkway ‘spears out’ from the retail centre towards the new Library. To the north, south
and behind the site to the west lie a range of single storey residential scale cottages and a stormwater floor line bisects the site.
The sites flood level required a floor level that was elevated about 1.5m above the ground, this was used to create a large podium for
the building with a larger curved flight of steps running almost the full frontage of the building. The podium continues the level of
surrounding residential boundary fences forming a base above which rises the high glazed façade of the building to create a form
with a more civic scale responding to the intersection of the curved street with the new pedestrian cross axis.
The line of the Plaza’s walkway was continued as a cross axis over the road with a new pedestrian crossing and then as the line of the
buildings entry.
The intersection of this axis and the central atrium positioned the main public service desk and defined a quadrant of the building,
which became the exhibition and meeting rooms. (Brewster)
Swansea Library, Swansea (Lake Macquarie), NSW – Australia 2006
Physical Size: 800 m2 (Library), Cost: $ 5.600.000, Client: Lake Macquarie Council.
The project provides a home for a range of public facilities over 2 levels. The library on the upper floor sits under the saw-toothed
roof and overlooks the 50m long foyer to the community rooms below. Reading areas are located in pod-like balconies suspended
over the void. The 4 large meeting rooms are arranged under the library, they can be combined in different ways to suit various uses.
They are accessed either from the long foyer or from the large landscaped court running along the western façade. The linear
building with long eastern and western 2 storey glass louvre facades is designed to maximise its access to the prevailing north-eastern
cooling winds to reduce and eliminate requirements for air conditioning. The saw-toothed form of the building is inspired by the
rows of lakeside boat-sheds of the old village, their scale has been enlarged to be viewed at 80km/hour. The curved timber screens
along the east and western façade recall the sails on the lake and the waves along the beach. The building is constructed of raw
materials; off-form concrete, exposed steel structure, corrugated iron cladding and bleached timber screens with panels of unedged
plywood lining to continue the boatshed analogy. (Brewster)
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