ARM won a design competition for this building in suburban Perth. It is currently at schematic design stage.
It will house an 850-seat lyric theatre, a 200-seat black box theatre/studio space, an art gallery, and additional function, community and performance spaces. The building will help reinforce Joondalup as a creative and educational centre in Western Australia. It balances top-quality facilities with elements that are inclusive and inviting to the whole community.
Black box theatre/studio space
Lyric theatre
Ground floor foyer
Our role has involved considering the urban-design conditions of the new facility’s surrounding precinct, including connections from Central Park to the Joondalup city centre.
The building needs to be a landmark of civil and cultural significance. The site is surrounded by large institutional buildings including Edith Cowan University, the North Metropolitan TAFE and the Lakeside Joondalup Shopping Centre.
The building is a large eroded limestone block that has the scale and dignity of a significant civic building, yet is permeable. You approach it from Central Park then move from an open piazza through a cloistered entry plaza, among the limestone pinnacles, into the cove of the foyer and then through to the performance spaces beyond. Inside the building, there are gaps and erosions that offer views out and create entry courtyards, garden retreats and community enclaves. The whole exterior looks like both a stone building and a landform. It is reminiscent of an early settler’s remnant ruin, or the rocky outcrop of a beach head.