Green Square Library and Plaza

Australian architects have reaffirmed their world class credentials with four of the five short-listed designs in the Green Square Library and Plaza design competition being home grown.

The top five designs hail from architects in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle, joining a firm from England’s West Midlands. They were drawn from the 168 entries that poured in from 29 countries and from around the nation.

The five finalists and their designs are (they can be viewed in the online library):

Sydney: Stewart Hollenstein in association with Colin Stewart (entry #124) This design sees the space as an ‘urban living room’ with activities distributed across a field of inside and outside spaces, e.g. storytelling in the garden, rolling hills and a sunken garden for reading and relaxing

Adelaide: JPE Design Studio (entry #171) Community gathering points in a plaza with terraced water features are an outdoor focal point, while the library interior features a dynamic and engaging community area and stimulating spaces;

Melbourne: John Wardle Architects (entry #172) Gentle arc-shaped design with amphitheatre, treetop reading spaces, an  outdoor room with a stream, bio retention elements and indigenous trees, plus library building with an atrium, mezzanine and double height spaces;

England: Flannery & de la Pole (entry #195) Proposed library has high thermal mass and natural ventilation in which public facilities are concentrated on a tall and transparent entrance level. Outside areas include long performance porch, a canopied community space and children’s soft play surface; and

Fremantle: Felix Laboratories (entry #197) Rolling landforms planted with local vegetation form a Sydney landscape of architectural forms which include the library building, a playground, reading room, game space learning surface, as well as water sculptures and a stream running through the site.