Engineering Construction And Architectural Management Magazine
The $19 million hybrid public building combines a library, resource centre, community neighbourhood centre, and childcare facility, and is being heralded as setting a new benchmark in sustainable design for public buildings.
Solar panels provide power for the building for up to six hours a day, a 62,000 litre storage tank collects water from the roof to be treated and used for 100% of flushing toilets and landscape irrigation, geothermal bores use the earth’s temperature to cool water and air, and air quality is improved by being passed through an environmental atrium filled with plants selected for their filtering properties.
The Changing Face of Libraries
In a preview tour of the building, the Surry Hills Library and Community Centre architect, Richard Francis-Jones of Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp told Suite101 libraries have changed enormously over the years, which is reflected in the new building.
“Libraries are becoming more important, not less important. Previously one may have thought of a library as just a storehouse of books, but now the use of a library is much broader. It’s more about equitable access to information and technology.
People can access free internet, they can use their computers on wireless connections. It doesn’t matter whether you can afford a computer or not, you can get the same access to information as everyone else; and that’s a fundamentally important principle.”
New Library Members Joining by the Hundreds
Thousands of people turned out on the 13th of June 2009 for the opening of the Surry Hills Library and Community Centre, with many signing up to become new members. They joined hundreds of others who joined even before the library had officially opened.
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