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Revered architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is attributed with saying, "Architecture starts when you carefully put two bricks together. There it begins."
More recently, a coven of architects, the jury at this year’s National Architecture Awards, said this of a building on Millowl (Phillip Island), “Berninneit is a beautifully crafted example of a multivalent gathering place. Its success in accommodating community needs and local cultural activity within a tactile and uplifting series of spaces makes it an exemplar of public architecture.”
The building – fondly known as Bernie, formerly known as the Cowes Cultural and Community Centre and formally titled the Berninneit Cultural and Community Centre – is one of the nation’s most acclaimed public buildings in 2024. It has won awards for its inventive use of brick and timber, as well as landing prizes and praise from the Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.
To which we at Gippslandia say, “About time!”
“...makes it an exemplar of public architecture.”
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In the spring of 2017, we penned ‘The dawn of Gippsland's Renaissance’. It highlighted the impressive investments being made in our region’s art and cultural centres and the benefits these redevelopments could bring in attracting tourism; reskilling, upskilling and employing a local workforce; encouraging collaborations with world-leading creatives in all fields, and stoking civic pride.
Work on the West Gippsland Arts Centre, the Frank Bartlett Library and Service Centre, Latrobe Regional Gallery, Latrobe Creative Precinct, Gippsland Performing Arts Centre and the Port of Sale Cultural Hub were all completed. And they’re terrific – check them out (and their materiality) next time you drive past! But then, it felt like everything went a bit quiet. Gippsland’s leading private projects reclaimed the architectural spotlight, and we sat wondering which had left us fastest: the aspiration or the money to embark on bold civic projects?
Berninneit, the Bunurong term for ‘coming or gathering together’, reinvigorates Gippsland’s architectural ambitions.
Bernie is full to the brim. Project architects Jackson Clements Burrows (JCB) have packed a heck of a lot into the building: a 260-seat theatre, an 11-metre high ‘grand hall’, a library, gallery, museum, community function rooms and offices. And, the building is designed to Passivhaus Standards, which, as University of South Australia senior research fellow Rachel Hurst explains in her piece on the building, “adds an estimated 10 per cent to construction costs, but this European methodology cuts anticipated heating and energy costs by some 80 per cent annually. Given the likely 50-year life span of the centre, this made it a ‘no-brainer’ for the council – though a challenge for architect and builder to apply scrupulously.”
With an upcoming certification, Berninneit will likely become one of Australia's biggest public Passivhaus projects (and the country’s only Passivhaus performance theatre), which Rachel says “demonstrates an ethical and judicious approach to public infrastructure”.
Kudos.
Call us superficial, but from the first impressions we sensed that Berninneit was rooted both in place and function, and that came via the brick facade and having encountered these colours on innumerable trips to the Island, often from the water.
JCB confirmed the intention is to “evoke the region’s natural geology and topography. Material choices also reflect the colours and textures of the island. Warm, pink-cream [locally manufactured and carbon-neutral] brick references nearby sand dunes, beaches and weathered granite rocks at the eastern end of Cape Woolamai, whilst [the] internal timber columns of the grand hall speak to the island’s jetties and pier structures.”
“The plan layout loosely echoes the bays and sweeping beaches of the island, while the undulations in section speak to the rolling dunes and cliffs of the island’s beaches.”
When quizzed on the apparent preference for brick in civic buildings, beyond the material’s versatility and energy efficiency, the team at JCB added, “Bricks have a civic quality that expresses durability, as well as sculptural and tactile qualities… Public and cultural buildings are important social and creative hubs for regional towns… [and we] acknowledge the great impact these building typologies have on their communities… Bricks connect the building to its place, and provide a sense of longevity and belonging.”
If Mies is right and two bricks placed together are where it all starts, then perhaps the mortar between each brick is our community, bridging the space between the building blocks of greater civil pride.
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To view more of Jackson Clements Burrows’s beautiful work, stroll on over to jcba.com.au.