Woodcroft Centre

Woodcroft Community Centre delivers more than a functional sports and recreation hall. It is a civic building designed to instil community pride and bring people together for shared cultural expression, sport, and family and community functions.  Its rolling roofline signals a new wave of community-focused facilities in the Western Sydney city of Blacktown. The Council’s community outreach showed a strong local attachment to Woodcroft Lake as a recreational area, so the Centre embraces the water and park with an uplifting architectural form. A government-funded project, Woodcroft Community Centre is designed to work at many scales and serve different user groups, from 1-on-1 counselling in the community room to functions or games for hundreds of people in the main hall, as well as the 2,000-plus people who gather on the nearby commons for the annual Woodcroft festival.  Three core zones gather under the signature serpentine roof, with offices, an internal courtyard and a community room aligned towards the street, connected through a tall central foyer to the main hall, which opens to Woodcroft Lake.  Brick construction references the site’s history as a former brickyard, while the timber linings and steel roofline represent an investment in enduring quality. By night, the roofline is expressed by the warm white glow of its opalescent polycarbonate apron, tracing the squiggly line. Photography: Brett Boardman