Adelaide’s Marion Cultural Centre is on a busy corner surrounded by arterial roads and next to Westfield Marion shopping centre.
Marion Cultural Centre is located on the lands of the Kaurna people.
Marion has been heritage listed!
In 2018, the Marion community fought a move to demolish the Cultural Centre and replace it with a multi-national hotel. Now it’s protected by state and national heritage listing.
Our client needed it to be a tangible civic landmark, reinforcing the heart of the City of Marion. Its location meant it had to be very vivid and distinctive in order to be noticed. The design also needed to communicate a vision of Marion as a technology-driven smart zone.
We have given it a very literal sense of place by incorporating the name ‘Marion’ into the façade and external features of the building.
The City of Marion also wished to establish a cultural precinct. The Cultural Centre has proven a catalyst for this, with other such buildings growing up around it.
Marion’s library, the information and technology hub of the centre, was intended as a branch library but its increase in loans meant it soon became the head office. For future-proofing, its floor plan is open and flexible. The Service and Information Desk is convenient to the main entrance. Natural light pours in through the verandah windows and the screened eastern façade.
Visitors to Marion’s library increased from 300 to 750 per day and attracted 800 new members per month.
Other elements
The energy-efficient design incorporates a stormwater retention system that allows surface run-off to be stored, filtered on site, then pumped into the ground to replenish the aquifer under Adelaide. There is also a solar hot water system, water-efficient fixtures and fittings, energy-efficient artificial lighting, low-energy evaporative systems and economy cycle air conditioning—even the external landscaping is low maintenance and water efficient.