2011 New Zealand Architecture Awards Winner
Birkenhead Library Civic Centre
A bold urban strategy has created a distinctive and inviting civic building that provides a much-needed boost to the public realm in a North Shore suburb. The Birkenhead Library is both approachable, via a new corner park, and declarative, with its balcony cantilevered over the street and large-scaled, shaped timber screen. Internally, the building offers an impressive range of enjoyable and carefully delineated spaces. Textured surfaces and dappled light help to realise the Architect's idea that the experience of reading a book in the library might be akin to reading a book in a tree. A striking lateral panorama of the harbour and city skyline both celebrates the library's site and invigorates a sense of place in amorphous suburbia. Warm, light-filled, and materially interesting, the library is a rare opportunity that has been seized by client and Architect.
- Practice
- Archoffice Ltd
- Category
- Public Architecture
- Location
