Allen Jack+Cottier (AJ+C) has beaten three architectural firms to win the design competition for a Community Clubhouse in the new township of Googong.
Googong is a $1.6 billion CIC Australia development located on a 780 hectare site 16 km south-east of Parliament House in Canberra.
The new self-contained township is set to establish the benchmark for urban development and community creation.
The Googong community will consist of five connected neighbourhoods with a variety of housing styles, parklands and community facilities. The Neighbourhood 1A Community Clubhouse is the first of these community facilities to be designed and built.
"CIC Australia had a vision for this building to become the hub of this new neighbourhood in Googong, to be an integral part of establishing a community on a green-field site. This vision was foremost in our mind as we embarked on the design process," says project director, Jane Johnson.
"The site itself was the other primary design cue. Our competition scheme grew out of both the natural landscape - a predominantly horizontal field with gentle undulations and proposed built landscape — characterised by a network of intersecting boulevards and open spaces."
Lindsay Hunter, project manager at CIC Australia, says it chose the firm's design because it best captured the essence of the original brief and vision for Googong.
AJ+C’s competition scheme was a building which featured a simple, predominantly horizontal roofline and a floor plan which takes advantage of panoramic views.
