Northern Memorial Park Depot is this year’s Sustainability Awards co-winner in the Commercial Architecture – Large category, sponsored by Network Architectural.

Timber’s natural warmth and connection to nature contribute to a biophilic design, improve acoustics in an industrial setting and enhance overall staff well-being. Reflecting the client core values to design infrastructure for longevity and sustainability.

Rethinking the traditional industrial truss, 20 unique glulam timber trusses span up to 35 meters across ground floor garage, workshops, and storage rooms. Lifting incrementally the trusses rise to 6m high intersecting with first-floor offices, lunchroom and meeting spaces housed between the lower and upper chords.

CLT walkways linking interstitial collaboration zones creating dynamic visual and spatial connections throughout. Spatial connections between levels are centred around the north facing CLT amphitheatre stair, which provides social spaces for training, lunchbreaks, and watercooler chats between GMCT’s horticulture, burial, and operations teams.

Porosity in the screen façade subtly reveals the timber structure behind, punctured openings intersected by timber trusses, offering light-filled framed views that connect the interior to the treed landscape beyond.

Sustainability was a design priority from the project outset for the Northern Memorial Park (NMP) Depot - reflecting the core values of the client the Greater Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (GMCT) to design infrastructure for longevity and sustainability.

Sustainability underlies the clients core values of perpetuity – designing long lasting and valued infrastructure. This allowed the project to rethink a typical industrial workplace and embed it with sustainable principles that included material choices, spatial generosity, and empathetic design principles.

Client conversations in the initial design stages revolved around the importance of NMP Depot being designed as lasting and low carbon infrastructure to reflect these values. Timber as a key structural material was chosen to reflect these principles of longevity and sustainability.

The two-storey mass-timber operations hub rethinks the traditional industrial truss, featuring 20 uniquely shaped glulam timber (GLT) trusses. Its natural warmth and connection to nature contribute to a biophilic design, enhancing overall well-being of occupants.

The design of the Northern Memorial Park (NMP) Depot is centered around creating a workplace that promotes human connection while fostering a sense of calm and renewal. While the building follows an industrial typology, the ethos behind the design is to provide a supportive environment for employees who work in emotionally challenging roles, dealing daily with grief and loss. The design responds to this by incorporating spaces that prioritize well-being and a peaceful atmosphere.

Dissections:

Finishes: Rubner-Theca, Recycled Brickworks,
Furniture: Nomi, Dowel Jones

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