Bendigo Library / MGS Architects

Architects: MGS Architects
Location: Bendigo VIC, Australia
Design Architect: Joshua Wheeler, Eli Giannini
Project Architect: Chantelle Chiron, Ryan de Winnaar, Rob Compagnino, Kit Kietgumjorn, Babak Kahvazdeh, Gary Yeoh, Sue Buchanan
Area: 4,010 sqm
Year: 2014
Photographs: Andrew Latreille

Contractor: Contract Control
Project Manager: Pavan Consulting
Co Gb Architect: Don Goldsworthy
Original Architect: (1982) Robinson Loo Wyss & Schneider Pty Ltd
Acoustic Consultant: Marshall Day Acoustics
Building Surveyor : Building Issues Pty Ltd
Civil Consultant : Iriwinconsult
Civil Consultant : Rider Levett Bucknall
Electrical Consultant: Irwinconsult
Environmental Consultant: Irwinconsult
Hydraullic Consultant: Irwinconsult
Mechanical Consultant: Irwinconsult
Landscape Architect : Rush\Wright Associates
Library Consultant: KEWS Consulting
Graphic Design: Hofstede Design
Client: Bendigo City Council and Goldfields Library Corporation.
Total Project Cost: $9.5m
Total Construction Cost: $7.8m
Gross Floor Area (M2): 4010m2 (280m2 Extension, 3730m2 Refurbished)

From the architect. After four years of design and development, MGS Architects has delivered the New Generation Bendigo Library, offering state of the art library and community services including spaces to meet and for quiet reflection, a café, a volunteer resource centre, a children’s library and “cubby house”, gallery spaces, upgraded research facilities and extended internet access for the community.

The library, now Victoria’s second largest after the State Library, has been fitted with the latest radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for seamless borrowing services and is home to the Goldfields Library Corporation.

The redevelopment comprises 4,000 square metres of functional areas over two levels, designed to offer a flexible and inclusive library that allows people to meet, exchange ideas and interact with each other through both programmes and chance.

The project incorporates the pre-existing 1984 building with frontage to public gardens in the historic centre of Bendigo in a contemporary architectural and interior design responses maximising the opportunities to engage with the public realm. The building’s design demonstrates the City of Bendigo’s commitment to enacting council’s environmental sustainability policies by incorporating a Building Management System, which tracks energy use and transmits this information in real time to the occupants, allowing visitors the opportunity to understand and interact with how much energy is used.

Directors Eli Giannini and Joshua Wheeler led the project team at MGS Architects. “Our projects are recognised for creating places for people,” Mr Wheeler says.

“We’re extremely proud of this project. We’ve provided high quality architecture and interior design for the Bendigo Library, and we look forward to its continued success in the community.”

“The thing I am most proud of is the community response” said Project Director from the City of Bendigo, Marg Allan.