Sunshine Coast University Library

Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia

The building acts as the most important focal point of information exchange for the Maroochy Shire. In the master plan by Mitchell Giurgola and Thorpe, the library or ‘information exchange centre’ was seen as a small ‘jewel’ or symbiotic centre in the great ‘Jerfferson’ avenue of the new Sunshine Coast University. With this as an idea it was hard to reflect the nexus between internal and external demands and in a sense implied an ‘internalised building’. The library building with a large proportion of of storing(stacks), acquisition, cataloguing and very individual work areas, is an introverted building needing to engage the public domain of the university. The architecture explores the form of life that the building develops, increases, interprets and reflects the manner of the buiding ‘Lawerence Nield referring to the ‘Poetics of Construction’. (Frampton)

Project Details:

Program: University Library

Design Team: John Mainwaring in association with Lawrence Nield, Jo Case, Annabel Lahz, Neil Hanson

Awards:

RAIA 1997, Sir Zelman Cowen Award

RAIA 1997, BHP Colorbond Award

RAIA 1997, Sir Zelman Cowen Award

RAIA QLD Chapter 1997, The F.D.G Stanly Award

RAIA QLD Chapter 1997, Regional Commendation