Postal Hall_Description — Trower Falvo Architects

Postal Hall

Perth, Western Australia
2022

Project Team
Dayne Trower, Simona Falvo, Alessio Fini

Photography
Ben Hosking

Installation Photography
Duncan Wright

Model Photography
Garry Smith

The Postal Hall is the grand space at the heart of Perth’s State Buildings complex. There are inherent programmatic requirements of the space; it is reconfigured regularly for large events, with all arrangements necessitating a readily accessible flexibility in use.

To address this, our ambition for the project was to redefine this civic gateway through the design of a centralised, demountable bookshop. Respecting existing alignments, the bookshop is conceived as a central hub in the hall’s atrium, creating a moment of pause within its generous context.

Designed as small scale, mobile elements and informed by ‘kite’ componentry, a series of independent modules connect to form the bookshop as a legible ensemble, with each module contributing to the necessary functional requirements of the space.

Its construction and material expression suggest permanence and temporality, a bookshop operating as a part of a commercial reality that is equally grounded in the public realm.

Selected Awards

Australian Institute of Architects (AIA)
National Awards
Small Project Architecture
Commendation
2023
Australian Institute of Architects (AIA)
WA Chapter Awards
Small Project Architecture
Iwan Iwanoff Award
Winner
2023

37th Dulux Colour Awards
Commercial Interior, Retail and Workplace
Winner
2023

37th Dulux Colour Awards
Commercial Interior, Public and Hospitality
Finalist
2023

Australian Interior Design Awards (AIDA)
Retail Design
Winner
2023

Australian Interior Design Awards (AIDA)
Best of State Commercial Design
Winner
2023

Australian Interior Design Awards (AIDA)
Retail Design
Shortlist
2023

Australian Interior Design Awards (AIDA)
Installation Design
Shortlist
2023

Selected Press and Publications

‘The Graceful Symphony of Perth’s State Buildings and the Postal Hall Project’
The Architect
Essay: Dr. Emil Jonescu
2023

‘Beauty in Impermanence: Postal Hall by Trower Falvo Architects’
The Local Project
Essay: Joseph Brown
2023

‘Crafting the New Civic’
UNION
Essay: Belqis Youssofzay
2022