Gregory Burgess Architects

This modest building is sustainable, practical and poetic, embodying shelter and animated with life.

The forms of the building were conceived to be experienced from the moving viewpoint of motorists, pedestrians, cyclists etc, its various elements shifting in relation to one another, creating a robust civic convenience of delight, beauty and local pride.

The Middle Park Beach Amenities was a signature ESD project for the Council providing a bench mark of efficient design in public amenity buildings.

Located on a prominent foreshore site the amenities building responds both practically and poetically to its immediate site and to its wider context, reinforcing its stance of belonging and our sense of place. The building is seen against water, horizon and sky. Its forms resonate with the flux and dynamics of the coastal edge – the effects of wind, water and light – the walls softly rounded, the roof poises, skewed and stretching, as if tensing ready for flight in the face of sea breezes.

Designed to weather graciously, materials include recycled timber, perforated corten steel and low maintenance pre-cast concrete in colours in harmony with the bay side setting.