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Emerald Tourist Railway Board

Puffing Billy Lakeside Discovery Centre

Puffing Billy is a much-loved historic steam railway in the Dandenong Ranges on Melbourne’s eastern fringe.

Our Lakeside Discovery Centre is a scheme for a space to celebrate the railway, the local landscape and the cultures, old and new, that exist there.

Puffing Billy’s rich heritage elements range from small signal components to the impressive locomotives themselves.

In traditional style, its heritage buildings are located on or above the landscape. By contrast, our Discovery Centre scheme is subservient to the landscape and embedded in it. The main structure is rammed earth and grows out of the land. The Puffing Billy heritage elements are then reinterpreted as the internal components of the Discovery Centre.

The Discovery Centre will be a new type of visitor experience where the steam-train journey continues through the building and celebrates a history of community, endeavour and relationship to Country.

Client
Emerald Tourist Railway Board
Location
Emerald, VIC
Country
Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung
Bunurong
Year
2017 – 2018
For
Emerald Tourist Railway Board
Sector
Public, Cultural & Commercial
Status
Competition
Year
2017 – 2018
Location
Emerald, VIC
Country
Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung
Bunurong
Puffing Billy Lakeside Discovery Centre · BKK Architects