[ad_1]
Castle Hill Power Plant/Lahznimmo Architects
Text description provided by the architect. Powerhouse Castle Hill is the repository for the Powerhouse collection, supporting research and conservation. It is part of the Museum Discovery Centre, run in partnership with the Australian Museum and the New South Wales Museum of History. The site houses six large collection storage sheds but is reaching saturation. Approximately 95% of the Powerhouse Collection is held in warehouses at any time, with the majority located in Castle Hill. Further items, as well as support functions such as staff and conservation laboratories, will be transferred to Castle Hill ahead of construction of the Parramatta power station.
In 2018, CreateNSW engaged lahznimmo Architects to design a new 9,000 m2 facility for:
- Powerhouse collection and archive storage
- Flexible space for educational and public programs, seminars, lectures,
- Exhibitions and events.
- Protect laboratory and collection workspaces.
- Photography, digitization and collection documentation facilities.
- Work space for 50 employees and visiting researchers.
- Areas for item and exhibition preparation, packaging, quarantine and storage.
Known as Building J, the new facility provides an important public-facing interface to Showground Road and integrates into the wider campus, including neighboring TAFE. The 130-metre-long new building is oriented north-south, with an east-west passage separating the storage facilities from the exhibition and staff areas and opening up the entire site to pedestrians.
The facilities within the building are multi-faceted and cater to the needs of a variety of user groups, including staff, volunteers, educational groups, researchers, artists, scientists, industry partners and the public. It expands the site’s capacity to host public exhibitions, providing much-needed museum facilities for people in north-west Sydney; including a 10-metre high flexible exhibition space in front of the main entrance.
The Collection Shop is permanently visible in the main entrance vestibule, where a 3.5 meter high and 9 meter long frameless glass opening allows public viewing of the 3000 square meter Very Large Object (VLO) storage area, which houses the Powerhouse Museum VLO Objects such as airplanes, trains, and automobiles.
Storage facilities must maintain a constant temperature range of 200C+/-20 C and a relative humidity of 50 +/- 5% to protect the collection, the design is essentially like a large esky – with reflective aluminum cladding and ultra-insulated layers of precast concrete wall panels protecting the interior for thermal mass.
The material palette throughout is minimal and basic, showcasing the raw expression of materials to showcase their natural properties – including polished aluminum, profiled concrete walls and polished concrete floors. The color palette continues the range of cool tones from white, gray to black.
Corrugated aluminum skin offers a unique expression of pragmatism within the tradition of the industrial shed. It sits on a corrugated precast concrete base that protects the aluminum from vehicle movement on site. Openings within the aluminum skin are formed by folding in and out, responding to movement within.
Electricity usage is supplemented by a 100 kW roof-mounted photovoltaic system. Rooftop water is collected for greywater purposes, including flushing toilets.
[ad_2]
Source link