Located in the heart of the Salisbury City Centre, the Salisbury Community Hub project by Hassell Studio alongside builders Hansen Yuncken, acts as a catalyst for future commercial growth in the area. Given the location of the project, and expected number of users throughout the day, the building needed to be robust and look as contemporary in 20 years as it does the day it opened. The brief required the team at Hassell Studio to design a new facility for the community and staff of the City of Salisbury which would deliver a new approach to customer service and facilitate gatherings across a range of multipurpose spaces and services within the building. The building was required to embody the spirit and history of the City of Salisbury, whilst also reflecting the strong sense of community inherent, hence the use of bricks as a strong, robust, and timeless building material.
Liam Short, Senior Associate at Hassell Studio specified the Balmerino Blend Linear bricks from PGH Bricks & Pavers’ Dry Pressed Architectural range to achieve both a contemporary and timeless look and feel in the project.
“A brick, we felt, was contemporary yet timeless, and was therefore specified for the project, hence the use of Balmerino Blend by PGH” said Short.
When designing the floor of this project, the functional suitability of the specified material was incredibly important given the high foot traffic that the community hub experiences. Hassell Studio set upon specifying a safe material whilst also achieving a seamless continuity throughout the internal spaces. They chose to specify the Balmerino Blend Linear bricks as flooring, as well as the internal walls.
“Tests were conducted to confirm the suitability of the brick for both loading and mitigation of slips and trips. The brick was deemed suitable” Short continued.
The Salisbury City Centre contains an eclectic mix of built form with consideration to scale, geometry, landscape, transparency, and materiality. A key characteristic within the City Centre is the use of masonry in architectural and landscaped settings. It is therefore extensively referenced and reinterpreted homogenously in the architecture, interior design, and landscape of the Salisbury Community Hub. The Balmerino Blend Linear brick that Hassell Studio specified for the walls and flooring evoke the warmth, tactility and robustness demanded for public spaces such as the Salisbury Community Hub. The extruded linear profile of the bricks themselves, provides a contemporary feel for the building, supporting the notion the Community Hub is catalyst for future development within the City Centre.
Having recently been awarded the winner of the esteemed Jack McConnell Award for Public Architecture at the 2020 South Australian Architecture Awards, the project has quickly been recognised as “the social heart” of the Salisbury Community by Mayor Gillian Aldridge OAM.
“Since it opened late last year, the Salisbury Community Hub has quickly become the social heart of our community, with more than 150,000 people visiting this fabulous building since opening” Mayor Gillian Aldridge OAM said.
“These awards celebrate what we already know – the Hub is an innovative, modern and stylish building. But most importantly for us, it has been designed in a way that promotes the community coming together” he continued.
Representing PGH Bricks & Pavers’ highest pinnacle of luxury and style in Australian-made clay brick products, the Dry Pressed Architectural range presents with exceptional consistency of strength, dimensional accuracy, and colour all the way through the brick. Further reading on this fantastic range is available through the Zuster House case study.
For more information, visit www.pghbricks.com.au or call 13 15 79.
Images by Lillie Thompson
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