Blacktown Animal Rehoming Centre awarded with prestigious global accolade

Sam Crawford Architects received a gold medal at the World Design Awards Public Utility Category for Blacktown Animal Rehoming Shelter (BARC).

Blacktown Animal Rehoming Centre (BARC) is the largest building of its type in the Southern Hemisphere, housing up to 380 spaces for dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, and goats. 

"For Sam Crawford Architects, BARC is the culmination of almost a decade of research, design, documentation, and, above all, collaboration with a large team of consultants, clients, academics, industry professionals, and builders,” Gabrielle Pelletier, Associate Director SCA, Project Director says.

“For us, this award not only acknowledges this hard work but also recognises the incredible courage of our client, Bill Tsakalos, City Architect of Blacktown City Council, in entrusting us with this important commission. At that time we were just emerging into the public works space.

“We believe this award underscores the value of investing in design excellence for public infrastructure—an investment in people that is fundamental to fostering thriving communities."

As a council-operated facility, BARC must accept all animals - strays or surrenders – brought in by council rangers or citizens. Each is first quarantined, given health checks, vaccinated, desexed, fed, washed; and then nursed back to physical and mental health – ready for adoption. Animals often arrive sick, injured, mistreated, or poorly adapted to human or animal company. Some – typically dogs -are extremely dangerous.

As architects and lead consultants, it the practice’s role to design a centre that facilitated the rehabilitation of animals, promoted their adoption, excited and educated its visitors about pet ownership, and promoted the mental health of the staff.

The design is underpinned by research and is benchmarked against the world’s best practices in animal welfare. This project balances the highly technical requirements of animal welfare with the need for a safe workplace and welcoming adoption centre in an elegant series of buildings that celebrate the local landscape.

BARC comprises a set of separate, elongated buildings; of ‘fingers’ reaching toward the woodlands of the Western Sydney Parklands, and a landscape design with species selection to interlock with these buildings. These ‘fingers’ maximise cross-ventilation and solar access, and prioritise proximity to nature, reducing stress and improving the health of staff and animals.

Each building is drawn together and linked via a bold colour scheme and a 120m long, 4.5m high, multi-coloured artwork – a collaboration with artist Lymesmith – that evokes the plumage of native birds, and unifies, screens, and protects the street from the activity within.

The facility sits lightly in an extensive landscaped area, with drought tolerant, shade-giving, and low-maintenance planting that also serve as habitats for the local birds depicted in the art. The landscape acts as biofiltration at multiple points, promoting stormwater intake across the site. Two large rainwater tanks capture the roof water which is reused for the extensive cleaning needs of the facility.

Hygienic, durable, robust, low maintenance and easy-to-clean materials were chosen. Sustainable features include passive thermal comfort through maximising cross ventilation, solar access, and water retention, together with sustainable technologies such as a 99 kWh solar PV array, EV car chargers and heat exchange air-conditioning.

Nominated projects in the World Design Awards are chosen from winners in the regional and sector BETTER FUTURE award programs.

Images: BARC by Brett Boardman