CHROFI and NBRS ARCHITECTURE, as Architects in Association, have been appointed to refurbish the Sutherland Entertainment Centre, partnering with Sutherland Shire Council and the broader community to create a performing art and cultural venue.
Designed and built in the 1970s primarily as a musical venue, the then ‘Sutherland Civic Centre’ relied on an inward focus on its auditorium and on a narrow public address to Eton Street.
This was a time when buildings like this relied on a separation between inside and outside and where spaces such as the foyer had only one purpose.
This was also long before the development of Peace Park to the building’s north.
Today, the architects are presented with a 40-plus-year-old building that’s in relatively good physical condition.
However, as a modern-day public venue, it must now cater to a diversity of cultural and technical needs with a more open outlook and offer more to its community, both in terms of its relationship with its immediate surroundings, but also in its spatial flexibility.
The architects’ proposal seeks to offer a new and more engaging address for the Entertainment Centre by virtue of a more friendly and integrated relationship with Peace Park.
This speaks to an opportunity to re-affirm Peace Park as the civic heart of Sutherland – a place with stronger connections not only to already established civic institutions but also with anticipated future developments within the Sutherland Town Centre.
The CHROFI and NBRS ARCHITECTURE design team propose an active interface with Peace Park – a ‘verandah’ – which serves as a connective threshold between park and building and between inside and out, where both the park and building benefit from each other.
This interface will help mediate the change in level between the park and building and provide an at-grade connection between Merton Street and Eton Street.
A new restaurant/cafe offering will activate the park’s southern edge and create a more visible and accessible entry for the Entertainment Centre.
The new foyer will be an extension of this ‘verandah’ space.
As the hardest working space within the re-imagined Entertainment Centre, it would serve its traditional role as a gathering place at performance times, but also be a ‘performance’ space in its own right – as a venue for a diverse range of community uses from banquets and exhibitions to intimate musical performances.
Just as there is abundant spatial potential between the building and the park, the design team has identified opportunities to re-use much of the building’s current fabric.
They propose to retain the existing black box space and administration building and re-purpose it to be a café, theatre bar, and foyer on the Ground Floor and a multi-purpose community room and rehearsal space on Level 1.
Likewise, the structure and facade on the north side of the building will be adapted for new uses such as restaurant, kitchen, and stores on the Ground Floor, Administration spaces on Level 1, and Green Room on Level 2, each with a view of the park and connected by the existing ivy-clad egress stair.
The auditorium also retains much of its surrounding envelope but will become an entirely new and lively space.
The existing flat floor will be transformed into a more immersive tiered seating arrangement and all acoustics, accessibility, and back-of-house functions revitalised to provide a venue with broad appeal for audiences and performers alike.
The new theatre will be designed to meet or exceed national benchmarks for Performing Arts Centres, achieving a four-star rating for theatres on the local, regional, and national touring circuit.
Project Details
Project Size – 6,000 m2
Project Budget – $42,000,000
Building Levels – 3
Project Team
Architects in Association
CHROFI
CHROFI is an architectural practice based in Sydney with a portfolio of international award-winning residential, public and commercial projects.
NBRS
Sydney-based architects NBRS believe the role of architecture goes beyond the physicality of the built environment. By meeting the needs of people in new and unexpected ways, they see architecture as having the power to shape social culture.
Architectural Illustration
Doug and Wolf
Doug and Wolf is an architectural visualisation firm based in Sydney, with offices in Kyiv and Paris.
Photo Gallery
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Design © 2022 CHROFI and NBRS. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2022 Doug and Wolf. All Rights Reserved.
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