A new timber community hub in a northern fringe suburb of Melbourne.

Located at the former Glenroy Primary School site, the Glenroy Community Hub is an inspiring new home for the Glenroy Library and the Glenroy Memorial Kindergarten, providing maternal child health, community health, neighbourhood learning and childcare services.

The City of Moreland has created an exemplar building, reflecting the sustainability ambitions of the council and their constituents. The development has achieved Passivhaus certification, the largest Passivhaus certified community building in Australia, and is targeting Living Building Challenge certification - both of which are recognised as some of the most stringent and difficult sustainable design standards in the world.

The form of the building breaks the usual box-like mould of Passivhaus buildings and introduces deep overhanging eaves, external balconies, and complex masonry details which required careful detailing to eliminate thermal bridging of structural elements. TTW leveraged our in-house facade and specialist Passivhaus experience to complement our structural team in developing a range of bespoke thermal break details to meet these challenges.

The architecturally expressive building, with balconies and roof overhangs, results in having a structure that penetrates the building’s thermal envelope. To avoid the reduction of efficiency that this causes, TTW has specified structural thermal breaks. They act similar to a bolted moment connection but with the benefit of an insulating plate placed between the two sections of the beam to allow for moments to be carried through but not the weather.

TTW contributed to the Living Building Challenge Beauty Petal performance category, which celebrates designs that uplift the human spirit, by providing considered detailing of the exposed timber roof structure within the library, inspired by reciprocal patterns found in nature.

Additionally, the stormwater management system was designed to meet or exceed best practice environmental guidelines, which required creative solutions to manage pre-existing site risks associated with overland flow paths and flooding.

Client: Moreland City Council

Architect: DesignInc

Value: $26M

Completion: 2021

Images: DesignInc

Sector: Government & Public

Services: Timber, Structural, Civil, Facade

  • 2022 - Winner, Best Sustainable Project, Master Builders Victoria Excellence in Construction Awards
  • 2022 - Winner, Excellence in Construction of Commercial Buildings $20M–$30M, Master Builders Victoria Excellence in Construction Awards
  • 2022 - Winner, Public Building, Sustainability Awards