Dairy Road Designer Maker Hub Stage 1
Commendation in the Australian Institute of Architects Awards (ACT) 2018 – Commercial Architecture Category
The first stage of Molonglo’s Dairy Road—a 14-hectare industrial site located 8km from the centre of Canberra with highly interwoven uses, includes artist studios, retail, light industrial, commercial, creative and cultural spaces.
This first phase of re-development retains the industrial form with architectural insertions made within the existing sheds. Small villages are being created within these sheds. ‘Laneways’ extend inwards from the exterior of the building meeting in a central ‘courtyard’. Off the ‘laneways’ are a series of doors and opening windows with a view into individual workshop spaces. There are a number of anchor tenants including a brewery, coffee roaster, printing press, distillery and tech company. It is a productive and public place. The workshops are framed with light, saw-tooth and pitched roof structures, evoking an urban scale.
Dairy Road is becoming a dense urban village—a place to make, see and do. Through a combination of architectural interventions and experimental tenanting, visitation has increased from 200 people per week to more than 10,000 people per week in just over six months.
Photography by Anthony Basheer
