悉尼砖木文化综合体 | 双建筑师打造独特表演与展览空间

Phoenix Central Park is a gallery and a performance space in Sydney designed by Durbach Block Jaggers and John Wardle Architects.

The performance space, which was designed by architecture studio Durbach Block Jaggers, is shaped like a bell with stepped walls formed by curving horizontal timber louvres.

The brick facade was an architectural collaboration

Connected to the auditirium is a gallery space designed by John Wardle Architects as a stack of irregular boxes formed from concrete that has been left bare as a backdrop for the artworks.

Both studios collaborated to create the alternately jagged and undulating facade of long pale-brick facades that enclose the building.

Long pale bricks were washed with mortar to look like stone

"The facade was the result of equals involved in the back-and-forth serious play of architecture," Durbach Block Jaggers co-founders Camilla Block and Neil Durbach told Dezeen.

"Phoenix Central Park is an essay in the collaborative process," added John Wardle Architects founder John Wardle.

"Our two practices came together, frequently with the client in the room and discussed strategies that were both at variance to and orchestration of both practices and the interior strategies that were being employed."

Concrete galleries were cast in situ

The cultural venue was commissioned by Australian billionaire Judith Neilson as a place to bring together the visual and performing arts.

"One of the intrigues of this commission was the lack of any specific detail given by our client Judith Neilson, she was intent on the brief being as open-ended as possible," explained Wardle.

"This a private gallery space that would at times address public programs, this fuelled the idea of spaces that would contain single works and an audience of one."

Holes left from the casting process can be used to hang art

To execute this concept, the gallery volume contains a mix of rooms, with some designed to display a single piece of art in isolation next to spaces large enough to house whole collections.

Concrete floors, cast "painstakingly" in situ, are connected by a timber staircase with ridges that echo the puckered brickwork of the facade.

"The basement, ground and upper levels are all cast-in-situ concrete, the degree of difficulty was extraordinarily high as the footprint of this building is on a tight inner urban site," explained Wardle.

"The galleries were shaped out of hard walls of solid concrete and soft walls of plaster with deep background for fixing artwork," he added. "We developed a hanging system that utilizes tie rods holes used in the construction of the precast."

Skylights let in soft light to the upper galleries

Skylights allow softly diffuse life to permeate the upper galleries, while the floor below is left atmospherically gloomy.

Another oculus forms a focal point on the exterior wall, with the brickwork dimpling around the circular window and its smaller, slightly offset, twin.

Round windows appear to be pressed into the facade

This unique feature is designed to draw attention from passersby while reminding gallery visitors of the world outside its walls, said the architect.

"We were interested in using brick as a complete surface, as a fabric-like drape that abstracted and approximated the structural characteristics of the internal elements," said Wardle.

"The vast dimple suggests the weight of the two interlocking windows impressing upon the fabric of the brick surface."

Curving timber lines the performance space. Photo by Julia Charles

This sense of drama continues inside the performance venue, where Durbach Block Jaggers chose a layout informed by Elizabethan-era theatres.

The stage is designed to be seen in the round, so a balcony area of seating loops around the perimeter of the curving walls.

There are many different vantage points to view performances. Photo by Martin Mischkulnig

"The performance space is a billowing timber bell-shaped room, a carved 'clearing' that sits within a mute and enigmatic facade," said Block and Durbach.

"Crossing the threshold is an unexpected leap from the ordinary to a secret space of held peace."

Lifts between floors are a dramatic red. Photo by Tom Ferguson

The pale timber ribs provide a striking, tactile backdrop that serves an acoustic as well as aesthetic function. These timber elements were prefabricated in a factory and assembled on site.

Outside the theatre, the lobbies are dark and moody, punctuated by gold-lined arches and striking all-red lifts that spill blood-coloured light when the doors open.

Courtyard gardens are planted with succulents. Photo by Tom Ferguson

Planters in the courtyard garden have similar irregular outlines that echo the asymmetrical walls of the venue. The planters' thick rims double as benches, and inside hardy succulents and cacti are planted in a gravelly surface.

Phoenix Central Park has been longlisted for Dezeen Awards 2020.

John Wardle Architects was founded in 1986 by John Wardle and has offices in Melbourne and Sydney. Wardle won the Australian Institute of Architects Gold Medal earlier this year.

Founded by Neil Durbach, Camilia Block and David Jaggers, Durbach Block Jaggers is based in the city of Potts Point. A previous residential project by the studio is this clifftop house that was inspired by a Picasso painting.

Photography is by Trevor Mein unless otherwise stated.

Project credits:

Architects: Durbach Block Jaggers and John Wardle Architects.

John Wardle Architects team: John Wardle, Stefan Mee, Diego Bekinschtein, Alex Peck, Luca Vezzosi, Adrian Bonaventura, David Ha, Ellen Chen, Andy Wong, Manuel Canestrini, Meron Tierney

Durbach Block Jaggers team: Neil Durbach Camilla Block, David Jaggers, Simon Stead, Anne Kristin Risnes, Deb Hodge, Xiaoxiao Cai, Adam Hoh

Project manager: Aver, Colliers

Planner: Mersonn
Structural

Engineer: TTW

Civil engineer: TTW

Geotechnical engineer: Pells Sullivan Meylink

Building services engineer: Evolved Engineering

Traffic and pedestrian modelling: GTA Consultants

Fire engineer: Affinity Fire

Acoustic consultant: Marshall Day

Landscape Architect: 360º

Signage and wayfinding: Studio Ongarato

Building surveyor: Philip Chun & Associates

Accessibility consultant: Philip Chun & Associates


Facade engineers: Inhabit

Lighting design: Bluebottle

Custom bricks: Krause Bricks


Bricklaying: Favetti bricklaying


Architectural steelwork and art hanging doors: TILT; All styled, Active Metal

Off form concrete: Hi-Form

Gallery roof: ARC roofing with ARMA


Timber source: Dinesen

Timber and joinery: Top Knot Carpentry and Joinery 
GRP

Ceilings: Shapeshell with DDI

Stone seat: Sourced from Hendersons Quarry in Harcourt and worked by Studio 2

CLT performance space ceiling: Hess Specialty

Render: CoverUp Dynamics


Brass basins: Bespoke House

Brass linings: Bronzeworks

Tiling: Nash

Joinery: Debrich


Commercial kitchen: Austmont

Speciality glass: Ozsea; Definitive Glass

Emergencies and exits: Bluelab Design, Australian distributor of ETAP Lighting

Brass DBJ hardware: Chant


Hardware: Keeler

Joinery and upholstery: Infracraft

Contractor: Bellevarde Construction; FDC Group