04 MELBOURNE TURNING A NEW PAGE

Due to be completed in 2020 is a Dhs248 million redevelopment of the State Library Victoria by Schmidt Hammer Lessen Architects and local partners Architectus and Andronas Conservation Architecture. The project will return 40% more space to public use with new areas for children, families and youth being created to nurture creative learning, literacy and play. The design also includes new technology-enabled spaces for entrepreneurship and innovation. The building, the busiest public library in Australia, is more than 160 years old and attracts some 1.9 million visitors, as well as more than four million online users, each year.