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design
mag
A recent project in Townsville is equally
playful but with a very serious objective.Act
for Kids is a Queensland charity tasked with
preventing and treating childhood abuse
and neglect. James Cook University
donated a small site on the edge of their
campus to allow the construction of a Child
and Family Centre of Excellence, providing
treatment, education, training and research
in child protection.
For children at risk, a domestic architectural
style can be threatening. Home for them is
not necessarily a place of safety. So, what
architecture denotes safety and security to
a child? The answer: a castle, a place where
the dragons are on the outside and the
good guys are within.
Concrete masonry has a long history on the
JCU campus. It was originally used with
creativity but later in a more mundane
manner, to the point where its use was
being actively dissuaded in new
construction. However the m3 team thought
it was an appropriate material for their
castle walls, it simply needed to be
implemented with imagination and in a
manner reflecting the approach of the
original campus buildings.
The solution was to create walls using
concrete bullnose blocks laid horizontally,
nose to nose, to form a tapered void
centred over an underlying unit. On the
north wall, the centre is accessed through a
series of portals, each capped with a
precast arch.
Once inside, the three pavilions that
constitute the centre are grouped around a
walled garden, what m3 call a “landscaped
oculus”, with extensive use of familiar
treated pine to create fencing and
screening.
“It’s a place of safety, a place of joy, and a
place of fun, a place of learning, and a
place of healing,” says Mike Lavery.
“Blockwork lends itself to all of those notions
and that’s where materiality and an idea
come together.”
Project:
Act for Kids Child and
Family Centre of Excellence
Location:
Townsville QLD
Structural engineer:
Bligh Tanner
Builder:
Hutchinson Builders
Blocklayer
CN Jeffrey Blocklaying
Featured products:
Grey concrete
masonry bullnose units
Photography:
Peter Bennetts