Product

Eco-Cert Rock Maple FSC, Crown Cut, Bookmatched

Architect

Francis Jones Morehen Thorpe (FJMT)

Project

The Concourse, Chatswood

Photography

Fretwell Photography

Building

AW Edwards

In the heart of Australia’s third largest retail centre, The Concourse stands as a deliberate act of civic generosity as a public place devoted entirely to creativity, learning, and the performing arts, born from over a decade of community consultation and a popular vote. Designed by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp, it is one of the most significant pieces of public architecture delivered in Sydney in recent memory.

The complex weaves together a 1,000-seat concert hall, a 500-seat theatre, rehearsal spaces, exhibition rooms, and one of Australia’s largest municipal libraries within an organic sculptural form, shown as ribbons of polished aluminium wrapping timber-lined performance venues, opening outward to a new public square raised on a stone platform.

At the heart of the concert hall, conceived as a boat-like interior of timber floating in a darkened, spot-lit space, Briggs Veneers’ eco-cert® Rock Maple, crown cut, brings warmth, coherence, and acoustic integrity to one of the building’s most celebrated spaces. Pale Blonde, and quietly luminous, Rock Maple was specified across multiple areas of the complex, its clean consistent surface as well-suited to a civic foyer as to an acoustically engineered performance hall. Sourced to eco-cert® standards, it reflects the project’s broader commitment to responsible material specification throughout.

Recognised at the Sydney Design Awards in the Interior Design: Public or Institutional category, The Concourse is a building built for the community, lined with materials built to last.