An innovative award-winning amenities block designed by Stanic Harding
Architects features split bricks from PGH Bricks & Pavers .
Commissioned by the City of Sydney, the amenities block turns the idea
of a humble toilet block on its head with an engaging piece of public
architecture.
Located in Foley Park Glebe, New South Wales, the amenities block is
part of an initiative by the City of Sydney to upgrade the park. Foley Park
Amenities celebrates design excellence as well as being an engaging piece of
public architecture.
Stanic Harding Director Andrew Stanic explained that they designed a
crisp little rectangular building in conjunction with the City of Sydney design
team, with the modest scale meeting the simple brief to accommodate single
male, female and all-access amenities.
The architects chose the PGH Mowbray Blue Dry Pressed Splits for their
durability and robustness, as well as their response to the brick buildings
surrounding the site. The low-profile of the split bricks complemented the
small scale of the project, with the bricks being laid in a stack bond pattern
to accentuate the building’s rectilinear form.
Presenting as a masonry and steel structure from the ramp side and as a
timber-screened building from the park, the new amenities building is
structured around an open circulation zone that houses a stainless steel shared
hand-washing trough mounted on a long timber bench, providing users of the park
with a place to rest. An ironbark screen that will accommodate planting, wraps
up and over to become a permeable roof above this space. Floating brick walls
create a shadow line and aid ventilation and maintenance.
Foley Park Amenities won two prestigious design recognitions
this year including Think Brick Horbury Hunt Commercial Award (Finalist) and
the Robert Woodward Award for Small Project Architecture as part of the AIA NSW
Architecture Awards 2014.
