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Architects: fjmt
- Area: 13655 m²
- Year: 2017
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Photographs:Rodrigo Vargas, Barton Taylor
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Manufacturers: ALPOLIC, James Hardie Australia, Kingspan Insulated Panels, Austral Plywood, Australian Sports Floors, Granosite, James Hardie, Knauf, LOCKER GROUP, Lysaght, Natural Image Group, Optima
Text description provided by the architects. Located on the edge of the Dee Why town centre, the new PCYC Community Centre provides an entertainment hub for the peninsula’s youngest residents. It is conceived as a cloud like form settling on a pedestal that emerges from the ground. The counterpoint achieved by these two form types express in built form the dual program of community centre over the car park.
The roof form is cloud like in nature as it is a free form object defined by the internal program (functional spatial requirements) and the external constrains (solar access to neighbouring apartments). It also possesses the quality of a gradual revealing of the internal content as the roof form drops and dissipates over the smaller spaces.
In its urban context, the plan is centred on a through link from the town centre. In consideration of the town centre master plan and the existing context the centre comprises of two entries. The South entry is directed toward the civic precinct and town centre while the North entry provides access to the immediate sur- rounding suburban context connected by a ceremonial stair to the ground plain below.
Internally this through connection is juxtaposed with the cross axis path between the sports hall and the multi-purpose rooms forming and intersection of pedestrian streets which defines the foyer. This in turn defines the ‘Pods’ - discreet units that house various functional spaces including the ‘Drop-In’ centre and support spaces.
The through link also initiates a continuity between internal and external spaces. This is expressed both in form and materiality as the envelope reveals its content.
