Architect: fjmt, 2017.

Bunjil Place is the civic and cultural heart of Melbourne’s South East designed by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt). Since opening in late 2017, the City of Casey’s multi-award winning precinct has welcomed more than 3.7 million visitors.

Fjmt describes Bunjil Place as ‘an example of a new form of community and civic building. It is not a single use or single facility that tends to divide and separate a community by interest, education or culture, but an inclusive hybrid form of public building, reflecting and embracing our diversity.’

Bringing together a library, performance theatre, multi-purpose black box studio, regional gallery, function centre, civic offices and a public gathering space, it is a flexible and experimental space for events, lectures, debate, work, collaboration and celebration. Above all perhaps, it is a place where all of this overlaps and interconnects and at the centre is the interconnecting fluid form of the foyer gathering space, a nonhierarchical space that unifies the complex.

The $125m precinct is the City of Casey’s home of arts and entertainment and is one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by a local government.

Photos: John Gollings.