Thuringowa Riverway, Townsville, North Queensland, Australia

Cox Rayner Architects completes new community arts centre
The Thuringowa Riverway Arts Centre and Lagoon project was activated by the Council to reunite the city with the river. Among numerous objectives were to build community spirit around a recreational cultural focus, Thuringowa having lacked such amenity despite being the State’s fastest growing city.

The concept of architecture as ‘land art’ was engaged as a means of both creating unique civic identity and to preserve the dominance of landscape over building. The concept resulted in a built form where in the water bodies and the cultural spaces are ‘interlocked’, and the roofscape is a bermed amphitheatre.

The integration of the recreational (lagoon) and cultural (theatre and art gallery) facilities has resulted in 340,000 visitations (compared to the city’s population of 60,000) and 217 indoor and outdoor events in the first six months.
source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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