Glenroy Community Hub by DesignInc | Image: Dianna Snape

DesignInc

This month, we speak to BEC member DesignInc about their Glenroy Community Hub.

The multi-award winning building boasts many sustainable design features and offers the Merri-bek community a warm and inviting space influenced by nature, where they can learn, grow, celebrate, and heal.

Please tell us about DesignInc and how you create healthy buildings and people-centric environments.

DesignInc is an Australia-wide architecture and design practice. Our method for creating healthy buildings embraces sustainability, biophilic design, resilience, and respect for Country.

We start with the premise: How can architecture improve people’s lives? Our role and obligation as designers is to add value to projects by innovating with integrated architecture that is visually enriching, socially responsive and ecologically restorative.

DesignInc works across many different sectors. Which project have you submitted, and what is your favourite aspect of it?

DesignInc are leaders in community projects. We set a new benchmark for sustainability standards, and Glenroy Community Hub is an inspired convergence of health, nature, and community with a sense of place. Through biophilic design, the Hub provides the community with meaningful, restorative, uplifting connections with nature. Creating a building that welcomes, uplifts, and inspires the community is a highlight.

Our favourite aspect of the Hub is the glulam structure. Expressed externally, it creates an entry, event space and identity to the adjoining park. Internally, the diagonal structure of glulam beams evokes a forest canopy integrated with clerestory windows that introduce dappled daylight to the building.

How do the Glenroy Community Hub’s facilities cater to the City of Merri‑bek residents?

Glenroy Community Hub provides the community with a welcoming, nature-inspired environment to learn, grow, celebrate and heal. Both DesignInc and Merri-bek shared a vision for the project as a strategic intervention to break the cycle of generational disadvantage. We envisaged the project as an opportunity to imagine what a new model community building might be and do.

The Hub’s centrepiece is the new contemporary library, collocated with Glenroy Memorial Kindergarten, maternal child health, a community health provider, neighbourhood learning and childcare co-located with the library. By collocating services, we increase the community’s awareness of the Council’s services and encourage new intergenerational connections.

This project demonstrates how community buildings can stimulate social transformation and support community resilience. Over time, we hope to see Glenroy's new heart foster a healthier, more capable and more cohesive community.

Glenroy Community Hub features some serious sustainability credibility. How is the building enhanced by achieving Passive House Standards and being built for Living Building Challenge Petal Certification and Zero Energy Certification?

Globally, few buildings, if any, seek to achieve all three of these credentials. The achievement and aspiration toward multiple certifications reflect progress from business as usual in Australian architecture and construction. Designed as an energy-positive building, we achieved high environmental performance by implementing stringent passive design and Passive House principles. Glenroy Community Hub shows what can be achieved if you are willing.

Were there any new products or construction techniques that have been used in this project that you have not used previously?

From a technical perspective, we had to be innovative with our construction detailing to meet the strict performance requirements demanded by the Passive House standard while using construction materials and methods currently available in Australia. We developed a high-performance and well-constructed, airtight building envelope integrated with high efficiency equipment selections and building services. We included high performance insulation and glazing with minimised thermal bridging. The building performance achieved at Glenroy Community Hub represents a significant leap forward from current typical standards in Australian construction.

DesignInc was an early adopter of Built Environment Channel. What’s been your team’s experience engaging with the content on Built Environment Channel screens.

DesignInc is a practice that welcomes collaboration with other practices, so we find the BEC screen is helpful for keeping in touch with the work of our peers. As well as enjoying seeing our colleagues’ projects, we value keeping up with new product releases and other industry news.