Marrickville Library is a public library and civic community hub located on the site of the original Marrickville District Hospital in Inner West Sydney. The project combines the adaptive reuse of the heritage-listed 1897 hospital building with a new contemporary extension, housing a library collection of 85,000 books, community meeting spaces, children's garden, youth space, dedicated community languages area, café and garden. The design creates a new civic precinct that acts as both library and hub for the Marrickville community.
The building has gone on to win numerous awards, including the 2021 National Architecture Award for Public Architecture and the 2020 NSW Architecture People’s Choice Award.
Timber is used across the structure, facade and interior of the new building, with large circular glulam columns that support the building's distinctive sawtooth roof among the most prominent timber elements. Five locally-sourced Australian wood species, along with three imported species, were needed to meet the Inner West Council's requirement for 100% FSC-certified timber throughout.
The building's most striking features are the sawtooth roof canopy and the large circular timber columns. The roof's zigzag profile referencing the pitched roofline of the heritage hospital building behind it, while the columns sit in an irregular grid determined by the roof geometry rather than structural conventions.
Inside, the three-level timber atrium is organised around a large auditorium stair that draws visitors up through the building and doubles as a gathering space.
The building features abundant natural light, mixed-mode natural ventilation, recycled bricks from demolished site buildings and an overall 25% reduction in energy use compared to traditional construction. The selection of timber throughout references the site's original use following colonial settlement, with the proximity of local species harnessed for construction.
