Caroline Chisholm Community Centre
Client: The Society of St Vincent de Paul
Location: Mt Druitt, NSW (Darug Land)

The project supported an existing service providing educational, personal and material assistance programs. It prioritises educational programs as a means of awareness raising and skills development, though which clients address personal issues. The development of the brief began with an extended time spent participating in existing programs and a visioning workshop for 30 staff and volunteers. The outcome was a project designed to be an oasis in an industrial area, designed around a courtyard with a range of flexible learning spaces. Key features included:
- providing a series of highly insulated pavilion buildings that are flexible to a range of programs
- integrating sliding joinery doors to allow rooms to expand and open to a network of gardens
- creating a communal kitchen at the heart of the building
- achieving low energy cooling systems through an earth pipe system
- heating utilising a combination of solar cells and gas channelling water through a hydronic slab