Fairfield Gardens Shopping Centre, finalist in the Property Council of Australia 2019 Retail Awards
Fairfield Gardens has been named as a finalist in the Property Council of Australia 2019 Retail Awards for Excellence in Presentation. This newly refurbished sub-regional shopping centre has transformed into a bustling food and services precinct and looks fantastic.
Our Brisbane team were involved in Fairfield Gardens Shopping Centre as lead architectural designers and interior designers from concept sketches through to construction services.
Project Outline
The brief from clients; Retail First and Yu Feng Group was to upgrade the existing shopping centre façade and an extension to include an Aldi with carparks underneath. The facade design and upgrade were important to the process as not only would it improve the overall aesthetics of the building but draw in new customers by creating much needed street appeal. This element would also ensure the extension was cohesive with the existing centre as the client was afraid there was no unifying link between old and new and was becoming a patchwork of parts. The facade was also a way to design a hierarchy on the building and ultimately create a wayfinding element to draw the user to the key locations.
Stage 1 – New Aldi and under croft car park, pedestrian bridge and ramp from existing centre
Stage 2 – Main front entry and façade
Stage 3 – Outdoor dining precinct and mall connection
Stage 4 – Rear entry statement, existing amenities upgrade and façade painting
Approach
The designed focuses around a natural colour pallet with warm, inviting timber finishes that permeate into the surrounding natural atmosphere of the suburb. The concept and subsequent palette focused around the fun and playfulness of a treehouse. This concept was selected to align with the client’s desire for a new aesthetic and for the centre to serve not only the local community centre to serve but for it to become a destination. Real and synthetic greenery were utilised to bring the outside in and enhance the existing natural landscape around the shopping centre. The design also included making one of the existing trees a central focal piece by covering it with carefully placed fairy lights creating a beautiful impact.
Challenges
There were several challenges during the project, from the design stages through to construction. The new building extension for Aldi was proposed over a portion of land that was filled with existing services including a Telstra tower and sewage lines. The site is also located on a floodplain and had experienced devastating floods in the past. Designing on a site with these parameters was challenging for the team and required several creative solutions.
Outcomes
Fairfield Gardens shopping centre is an integral part of the community it belongs to and acts as a central hub bringing the inhabitants of the area together. Previously the centre didn’t command attention from the street, making it hard to locate and it wasn’t meeting the needs of the growing community it serviced. Throughout this project the end users and their needs were of paramount importance, driving the design and on site decisions.
All parties involved wanted to create a centre that local shoppers would be proud of and be a place to for them to come together to eat, shop and connect. This has proven to be successful and has resulted in the increase of turnover and the number customers coming to the centre.
i2C were involved in the project as lead architectural designers and interior designers from concept sketches through to construction services. We are proud to have been part of the team involved in this exciting project.
Feedback
The client was exceedingly pleased with the outcome asking for all their other centre designs to “look like Fairfield”.
Project Name: Fairfield Gardens
Client: Retail First and Yu Feng Group
Builder: Built and Beech
Location: Fairfield, QLD
Photography: Blake Brockdorff, ArchiShot