Challenge

We were approached by Blacktown City Council to design a new building for the Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre as part of a design competition. Part art gallery, part performing arts space, the new building was to become the new cultural centre in the heart of Blacktown. Presented with a tight budget and central site flanked by high-rise and residential developments, the design works within the tight constraints to create a generous public interface.

Response

The building is the stage, not the performance; the canvas, not the painting; the rice, not the rendang.

We proposed a thoughtful, flexible building that could facilitate and inspire the community of Blacktown to create, perform, gather and share. We considered all spaces - inside and out - to be multidisciplinary, capable of accommodating whatever artists and performers could imagine.

The building comprises two primary volumes - the art gallery and performance space - set beneath a large “hat” roof. From afar, the building glows like a lantern, projecting art outward as a civic beacon for the community. Super-sized eaves control heat gain while creating shaded park-side public rooms where exhibitions and performances can spill outdoors. These generous spaces are a value-add to the requested brief and support informal gathering, performance and public art, contributing to the civic and community value of Alpha Park even when the building is fully locked up. The building sits on the site of old tennis courts ensuring no further Country was disturbed and remediation was built into the budget.

Alongside the building, we reimagined the park as a whole; an Art Park with making and exhibiting integrated with landscape. We prioritised open green corners to ensure Alpha Park remained an open and welcoming green space even when hosting significant buildings.

Congratulations to Andrew Burges Architects on winning this competition. See also our Alpha Park Masterplan project that grew from ideas presented in this competition.