PCYC Northern Beaches | FJMT

Designed by FJMT, Located on the edge of the Dee Why town center, the new PCYC Community Centre provides an entertainment hub for the peninsula’s youngest residents. It is conceived as a cloud-like a form settling on a pedestal that emerges from the ground. The counterpoint achieved by these two form types express in built form the dual program of community center over the car park.

photography by © Rodrigo Vargas

The roof form is cloud-like in nature as it is a free-form object defined by the internal program (functional spatial requirements) and the external constraints (solar access to neighboring apartments). It also possesses the quality of a gradual revealing of the internal content as the roof form drops and dissipates over the smaller spaces.
In its urban context, the plan is centered on a through the link from the town center. In consideration of the town center master plan and the existing context, the center comprises two entries. The South entry is directed toward the civic precinct and town center while the North entry provides access to the immediate surrounding suburban context connected by a ceremonial stair to the ground plane below.

photography by © Rodrigo Vargas

Internally this through connection is juxtaposed with the cross axis path between the sports hall and the multi-purpose rooms forming an intersection of pedestrian streets which defines the foyer. This, in turn, defines the ‘Pods’ – discreet units that house various functional spaces including the ‘Drop-In’ center and support spaces.
The through link also initiates a continuity between internal and external spaces. This is expressed both in form and materiality as the envelope reveals its content.

photography by © Rodrigo Vargas

Project Info:
Architects: FJMT
Location: 40 Kingsway, Dee Why NSW 2099, Australia
Design Team: Richard Francis Jones, Elizabeth Carpenter, John Perry, Damian Campanella, Iain Blampied, Richard Tripolone, Duncan Shrimpton, Chris Roberts-Brewer
Area: 13655.0 m2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Rodrigo Vargas
Manufacturers: ALPOLIC, Lysaght, Knauf
Project Name: PCYC Northern Beaches