Marsden Park Neighbourhood Centre

In 2019 AJC were engaged by Stockland to design a town centre for the new suburban community of Elara in Sydney’s north-west growth corridor. This town centre comprises a neighbourhood centre, medical centre, early learning centre, supermarket, specialty stores and a casual dining precinct. Our scope was for architectural design services up to and including lodging a Development Application.

The neighbourhood centre forms an edge to the town centre. It enjoys proximity to the town plaza, supermarket, dining and retail area and parkland: the playground of this infant suburb. The vision for the neighbourhood centre was to establish, at this important corner site, at the heart of the suburb, a small civic building to become a friendly gathering place for the community. A place to congregate, celebrate, share ideas and participate in the life of this new suburban community.

The design seeks to imbue this modest building with a sense of play and personality. A continuous wall element wraps the building, defining the edge of the town centre. The wall is clad externally in matt-finish steel with a striking diagonal profile. A series of wonky arched windows give life to the street elevation, a nod to a recognized civic language but also geometrically unique. The deep window openings are infilled with vertical shading blades of bright copper, establishing a material and linear dialogue with the cladding and providing protection from the harsh western sun. This wall extends past the building entrance and kicks up high, providing a clear architectural expression of ‘entry’ which we felt was important.

Internally the layout is compact and efficient: a core of utility areas wrapped by offices, meeting rooms, a foyer and a main hall, all of which enjoy views out of generous windows. The entry sequence naturally follows the line of the distinctive boundary wall, leading visitors past a series of windows and into the main hall. The interior design is bold, fresh, bright and youthful. Materials are natural and hardwearing. Our hope is that this building will provide more than just amenity and utility to this community, but that it will also provide joy and delight.

A key part of the process for the neighbourhood centre was a close collaboration with Blacktown City Council in developing the brief and resolving key issues. We were also asked to provide a comprehensive package of interior design concepts which is the fruit of our close collaboration with Council. The design was executed by Leffler Simes Architects and built by Parkview.