Architect:

JWP Partnership

Builder:

Manufacturer:

National Masonry

Products Used:

Designer Range, Honed Face - Alabaster

Building Contractor:

Photography Credits:

Gary McCarthy

Tallangatta has a unique history that not too many towns can lay claim to. The original town, in northern Victoria, sunk and was then relocated 8 kilometres down the road, due to the Hume dam expansion in the mid-1950s. This project, an iconic new library with a much-needed early learning centre, has the same walls extending internally and externally, with a curved roofing showcase that was designed to be sympathetic to the town’s 1950s heritage.

The architects chose the block because it “provides a warm, subtly natural aesthetic that works well with the overall concept of the building, like a newly planted seed.” The block is a tactile material that reveals itself to be more beautiful on closer inspection; as the blockwork was to be exposed internally as well as externally, this was important. The contrasting darker brown roofline has a “friend,” with the brown polished stone of the honing process emerging on the face, subtly uniting the two main building elements.