Status: Completed 2024

Client: Shire of Dardanup

Builder: Perkins Builders

Photographer: Acorn Photography + Silvertone Photography

This project was a collaboration between Peter Hobbs Architects, Advanced Timber Concepts, and Intensive Fields

The Shire of Dardanup’s Library, Administration and Community Building showcases innovative mass timber construction, blending glulam columns and beams with a Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) upper floor. This approach offers unparalleled sustainability, enhanced structural performance, and a warm aesthetic. With reduced carbon footprint, quicker assembly, and fire resistance, mass timber sets a new standard for eco-conscious building practices.

The site sits between major sporting and recreational facilities and the proposed new town square, an extension of the existing Eaton Fayre Shopping Centre. This provides the opportunity for two different foci of activity within the building, including an active participant in the town square, and a more calm and discrete public space mediating between the civic building and the recreation grounds.

Locating the public areas of the building – the library and associated facilities and the council chambers on the ground floor provides for the library to interact directly with the town square on the west side, and with the protected children’s garden and event space on the east side of the building. The plan configuration also allows for the Council Chambers to open out directly into the eastern courtyard area for major events and for potential commercial use of the chambers as a conference venue.