Geelong Arts Centre

The new building of the Geelong Arts Centre in South Australia reveals a small, once hidden, historic church from the nineteenth century. The striking building combines a theatre with other performance spaces and several artists' studios. It has become a cultural hub in the city centre and, since its completion in 2019, has been a visual landmark in the port city of Geelong. The building's shape and façade represent the self-confident new identity of the cultural and arts centre. 
 

The architects designed a structure made of concrete, steel and glass, the shape of which originates from the profile of the church and simultaneously expands it upwards and outwards. The two-storey glass façade cantilevers over the church roof, mirroring the church in an oversized form as it were, into the sky. The striking façade is shown off to its best advantage by the low-iron profiled glass and appears even more visually light when the building is backlit. The glass was sandblasted on the inside, creating a soft, whitish hue that makes the building envelope even more attractive.