Holdmark Innovation Award

PHIVE delivers much needed community space for Parramatta. It is the new cultural and civic heart, providing world-class community and cultural experiences, state-of-the-art library and council chambers. Engaging and connecting with Parramatta Square, it is an urban living room – a place to meet, exhibit and explore. The design has a social and sustainability agenda at its core.

PHIVE’s distinctive playful shape is sculpted within a shadow plane, protecting solar access to the public square. The building’s envelope opens to views and light; a sustainable three-dimensional skin protecting the interior from heat and glare by self-shading its windows .

The building features facilities for local First Nations communities, managed by the local Traditional Custodians. The Dharug community manages the ‘Dharug Room’, ‘Keeping Place’ and research laboratory. The laboratory is humidity controlled for storing artefacts.

Construction of PHIVE followed the Waste Minimisation and Management Act 1995 to manage waste at the site during excavation and construction works. The design used strategies to improve resilience and adaption to climate change events through the Climate Adaptation Plan (CAP), which was created by LCI Engineers to address climate context, projections and the relevant risks to the building (flood, drought, fire).

The project includes strategies to protect, support and regenerate the site’s ecology including internal and external planting areas irrigated with harvested rainwater and using WSUD strategies.

PHIVE cantilevers into the square, providing protected areas which fulfill the Parramatta Square masterplan and pedestrian strategy to provide all-weather circulation areas through the Square.

PHIVE has been designed for passive thermal comfort with the use of small spaces, study pods, natural ventilation, blinds, actuated louvres. Renewable energy technology has been used to reduce the operational carbon footprint of PHIVE resulting in a low reliance on traditional heating and cooling methods.

The distinctive roof form optimises natural ventilation and disperses daylight throughout the building’s interior. Louvres screen the west facing façade and shield the building against solar gain in summer.

The selection of materials and processes considered a wide range of environmental impacts, including but not limited to environmental degradation, embodied carbon and supply chain slavery. PHIVE was subject to a BCA JV3 Report and was designed to qualify for a six-star Green Star rating.