Fitzgibbon Community Centre

The Urban Land Development Authority was Queensland Government agency that’s now part of Economic Development Queensland.

Their role was to facilitate the development of declared Urban Development Areas, move land quickly to market, and achieve housing affordability and urban development outcomes.

One of their projects was the Urban Development Area known as Fitzgibbon.

It was 295 hectares in area and spanned several suburbs on Brisbane City’s northern outskirts.

Due to its location and size, the project proposed the co-location of a new busway and railway.

In 2010, the ULDA commissioned Richard Kirk Architect (no known as Kirk) to design a community building for the neighbourhood.

This was to act as a mixed-use cultural centre, incorporating offices, meeting spaces, retail, and community halls, and serving as a centre point for the community.

The Fitzgibbon Community Centre, completed in 2012, is a response to the common suburban landscape in which it is located.

The regenerated bushland fringe had been previously used as a dumping ground for vehicles and refuse, degrading the landscape over time.

The centre directly responds to this by redefining and redeeming its relationship to the environment and establishing the building as an artwork within the landscape.

The building sits back from the street, with its facade line modified to incorporate the remaining trees on site.

The ‘heart’ of the scheme is a large open covered space, which forms a gateway on the axis from the new commercial centre of Fitzgibbon to the bushland tracks and trails to the north.

This gateway acts as a starting and finishing point for the trails, with essential amenities and a retail outlet.

While formally abstract and demure, the centre makes provocative use of materials, which highlight it as a landmark in the community.

The building is fringed by sculptural blades of weathering steel, a material that responds to the corroded car bodies once found on site.

These blades form a rippled screen to the street which reveals glimpses through the building when approached by vehicle.

Behind this oxidized screen, the building is clad in stained plywood with ample operable glazing to allow natural ventilation, and large overhangs to provide natural lighting without overheating.

Glass and plywood rooms are set on either side of the passageway, under the shelter of the metal structure.

The large windows give views onto the maintained gardens that stretch out from the base of the centre and into the streets that run towards the neighbourhood or park.

This use of naturally weathering materials and passive climate controls allow the Fitzgibbon Community Centre to evolve and respond over time to its suburban landscape.

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