Maroc - TIMBERBIZ.COM.AU - A La Une - 07/Feb 00:53

Gathering together – Berninneit’s architectural awards

Berninneit, the Cowes, Victoria cultural centre, whose internal design is dominated by Gippsland native hardwood timber, has won yet another award – the Public Building category in the 2024 Sustainability Awards. Source: Gippsland Times, Philip Hopkins The building defeated entries from the City of Sydney, upgrades to Redfern station, the Northcote Aquatics and Recreation Centre and an animal rehoming centre in Blacktown. The Sustainability Awards is described as Australia’s longest running and most prestigious award program dedicated to acknowledging and celebrating excellence in sustainable design and architecture. ‘Berninniet’ – ‘Gathering Together’ in the Boon Wurrung indigenous language encompasses a 260-seat performing arts theatre, a cinema, gallery, library, historical museum, events spaces and community meeting rooms. Sitting at the heart of it is glue-laminated timber (MASSLAM) huge beams 5.9 metres long and columns 4.2 metres high, all 42cm wide from Australian Sustainable Hardwoods at Heyfield. There were more than 250 entries submitted to the 2024 awards from all across Australia. This was the fifth award for the building. Others were: The 2024 National Architecture Award for Public Architecture. The William Wardell Award for Public Architecture Awards at the 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards and was shortlisted in three other categories: Regional Architecture, Sustainable Architecture and Interior Architecture. Bass Coast Shire Council and the Bunurong Land Council Aboriginal Corporation received an Excellence in Geographic Place Naming award at the 2024 Victorian Geospatial Excellence awards; and The Australian Interior Design Award for Public Design. MASSLAM 45 is the proprietary strength of ASH’s uniquely strong hardwood glulam. “Vic Ash glulam timber is the essential structural element for the building,” Thom McCarthy, an interior designer with Jackson Clements Burrows, the project architects and designers, told the Gippsland Times last year. “They formed the Grand Hall, the spine of the building connected to all the rooms – the artistic and library at each end, and the function rooms in the centre. They were the three major tenants of the community facility. “Glulam columns are very striking; we have had tremendous experience with them in student residential projects. We were keen to express them as much as possible. They formed a lot of the internal pallet, and at the library end.” The award for Berninneit was one of three won by Jackson Clements Burrows, who won ‘Best of the Best’ and the award for Commercial Architecture for their T3 commercial building in Collingwood. ASH’s Masslam was also extensively used in the T3 building. Design work on Berninneit began in 2015. Several schemes followed before JCB took on the job in 2020.