107 Victoria Harbour Promenade
Docklands VIC
Australia
2014
Overview
Library at the Dock is a three-storey public building constructed primarily from cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glulam, located in Melbourne’s Docklands precinct just west of the central city. Designed as a multi-use community hub, alongside library services the building accommodates a range of community and cultural functions through activity rooms, a performance space, a professional-grade recording studio, meeting rooms, and a small public gallery.
Widely recognised as a pioneer in sustainable design, the building achieved a 6 Star Green Star rating and was Australia’s first public building to be constructed of CLT. Central to the project’s sustainability goals, structural mass timber and the recycled ironbark and tallowwood façade significantly reduced embodied carbon compared to conventional concrete and steel construction.
In addition to its timber-based construction, the building integrates several environmental systems, including a 55,000-litre rainwater harvesting system and an 85kW rooftop solar array that supplies approximately 30 percent of the building’s operational energy demand. Passive ventilation, natural daylighting, and low-emission interior materials further contribute to its environmental performance.
Timber & materials
• Structure: beams, columns, CLT/LVL, hybrid systems
• Interior: floors, ceilings, joinery
• Exterior: cladding, decking, shading
Project team
Structure
The library at The Dock was the first major public building in Australia delivered using CLT. The primary load-bearing system consists of glulam columns and beams combined with CLT floor panels. The building core and central stair were also constructed of CLT.
The lightweight nature of mass timber was especially important because the building sits on a 75-year-old heritage wharf structure at Victoria Harbour. CLT reduced the structural weight by roughly 30% compared with conventional concrete construction, allowing the existing wharf substructure to be retained rather than heavily reinforced.
Exterior
Externally, the building presents as a restrained timber form that responds unobtrusively to its waterfront setting. Its façade is clad in recycled ironbark and tallowwood, materials selected for their visual connection to the reclaimed timber wharf surrounding the site.
This creates continuity between the building and the historic dock infrastructure, giving the project a strong contextual relationship with Victoria Harbour and the broader docklands precinct.
Interior
The library uses timber both structurally and atmospherically, with the natural material creating a warm and calm interior. Exposed CLT walls, glulam columns and beams, and timber-lined surfaces give a cozy and inviting feel to a building otherwise located in a dense urban setting.
The internal layout is organised around a central public stair, which connects the three levels and reinforces the building’s role as an open community space rather than a closed institutional library. The ceiling and floors are also lined with timber which adds to the cohesive and calm feel of the building.