Galup Office

Neil’s client, a syndicate of property owners and builder asked Neil to explore the possibilities for development of this site. While yield from the site was a consideration, the fact that some of the client group were seeing the building as their future office premises, there was further depth of exploration in the possibilities of providing a concept for a building that would provide the buildings occupants with credibility through their existence in a building that did the right thing by the local community and was based on ‘best practice’ sustainability.

The area around Lake Monger was known to the Whadjuk Noongar people as Galup, meaning ‘place of fires’ and the wetland was used for food gathering, camping and for meetings and ceremonies. The mythology of the Lake links it with the Swan River mythology. Waugal is said to have formed Lake Monger by deviating from his route and rising from the ground at that point. On re-entering the ground, he cut a subterranean tunnel from the Lake to Melville Water – a tunnel which, according to tradition, still exists today. 

The area was valued for its food resources – kangaroo, emu, snakes, tortoise, mudfish, gilgies, waterbirds and their eggs. In the 1860s Aboriginal camps were recorded on the rising ground to the south and west areas of the lake, in the vicinity of present day Harborne Street, Kavanagh Street and Lake Monger Drive. A bush camp, although not in its original state, was still in use in 1923, near Dodd Street and Powis Street.

Stone artefacts and skeletal material have been found in the vicinity, and four Aboriginal heritage sites have been registered under the Western Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act (1972).

(Source: Cambridge Local Studies).

1829 – 1870: Initial settlement was by private settlers William Leeder (after whom the suburb was named) and John Monger. Monger bought 200 acres close to Lake Monger, whilst Leeder acquired some 288-acres. By 1838 Leeder had established the Leeder Hotel in Perth and was leasing out his estate. His house was on the south-east corner of Lake Monger. Between the years 1850 and 1868 the colony experienced an increase in the population due to the arrival of 10,000 convicts. This in turn resulted in demands for extra food production. The local wetlands and surrounding areas were largely used for market gardens, dairy farming and poultry farms.

1871 – 1890: Living conditions were difficult due to the problems of poor drainage, cesspits and the continual flooding. Several of the lakes north of Perth were drained. Lake Georgina on the Leeder lands, located just south of the Leederville Oval, was drained which then permitted Newcastle Street to be extended westward. 

With the completion of the Fremantle to Guildford railway line in 1881, the direction of the colony shifted away from the Swan River and promoted settlement to the west, north and east. Residential development in the north, however, was not rapid before the 1890s. To the north of Vincent Street, the district remained an area of large acreages with the majority belonging to the Leeder family.

1891 – 1919: The gold boom marked a significant period of development in Perth. In 1884 the Perth district population was just over 6,000. By 1911, the population had expanded rapidly to around 87,000 and Perth was experiencing problems with overcrowding. The demand for housing led to the Monger Estate being subdivided in 1890. In 1891 the Leeder Estate sold 19 blocks of land, with five between the railway, Vincent Street and Monger’s Lake being sold later that year.

A government reserve was created between Vincent and Richmond streets. The western section of the reserve became the site of the Leederville Oval, Leederville Post Office (1897), Leederville Primary School (1894), Town Hall and Police Station. The 1897 PWD sewerage plans suggest that the predominant buildings were located along the western end of Newcastle Street and the area near Carr (then Leeder Street), Oxford, Vincent and Loftus streets, including the Leederville Hotel (1897). In May 1895 the suburb became officially known as the Leederville Road District. (Source: Town of Cambridge ‘A Brief History of the Suburb of Leederville’).

The wetlands during this period were being cultivated by Chinese market gardeners. Some of these gardens were located along Oxford Street on what had once been Leeder lands. By the early 1900s market gardening in Perth was done almost exclusively by Chinese people. Many of the Chinese gardeners were from the Guangdong Province which was predominantly a rice, fruit and vegetable growing area. They were familiar with small scale, intensive and communal agricultural labour practices. (Source: Western Australian Museum ‘Reimaging Perth’s Lost Wetlands’).

Lake Monger (Galup) in pre and early European times extended eastwards bordering oxford Street adjacent to the site of Galup Office. In 1911 it was recorded that a number of market gardeners of Chinese heritage had market gardens in this location which included: Wing Yung, Chong You, Wing Yock, Sin Loong and Sue Wing.  (Source: Western Australian Museum ‘Reimaging Perth’s Lost Wetlands’).

Fast forward to 1973 and the district of Leederville was cut in half through the construction of the Mitchell Freeway. The Wetlands of Galup (Lake Monger) also made way for the Mitchell Freeway as the freeway brough permenant separation of the lake and wetlands from the Oxford Street precinct.

Recently there has been a growing awareness of the 1830 massacre of Noongar people that occurred around Galup (Lake Monger) with calls for information about the massacre and the per-European existence of Noongar people in this place to be on permanent display at the Lakeside. In August 2024, The Town of Vincent officially recognised the dual naming of Galup / Lake Monger.

The original vegetation of the wetlands of the area comprised rushes, grass trees, wattle, tea trees, swamp paperbark, swamp banksia and flooded gum. However, by the 1890s, introduced couch grass (Agropyron sp) had become established around the Lake Monger, and in the early 1900s when the lake became a popular recreation spot, large areas of rushes were removed to create open water. The Mounts Bay drain was constructed at this time, to drain excess water from the lake to the Swan River in winter and assist with rush removal. In the 1920s and 30s, when the lake’s popularity was at a peak, much of the remaining indigenous vegetation was removed and lawns planted.

The design of the building itself was intended to reflect the vegetation of the wetland that once existed on the site. Landscaping was proposed to be integrated into elements of the building and deep soil planting for paperbark trees was provided at the pivotal street corner, where the building stepped back to allow the landscape to take prominence.

The scheme proposes that the concrete street canopy upturns at its perimeter to contain soil to a depth of 450mm over drainage and waterproof membrane. This non-accessible landscaping is within the public realm where the entire community will benefit from the amenity that such landscaping brings. Responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of this landscaping would remain with the property owner.

Neil sought to design a building that is based on best practice sustainability standards, a building that reinforces and celebrates a ‘memory of place’, a building that provides texture and fine grain detail, and a building that reintroduces the native landscaping of the area to the town centre. 

Neil and the syndicate of the client group are not seeking to obtain ‘maximum yield’ from the property, but rather to find a happy balance between yield, an economical scale of development and appropriate scale. In doing so, the intention is to provide the property owners and the general community with a responsible new building with long term relevance.

ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT – PART ONE: CONCEPT CUES. The site has three street frontages and therefore demands a building form and design that is considered more as a ‘sculptural element’ than a would otherwise be the case within the middle of a streetscape. 

The underlying concept for the design of the building takes its cues from the precinct's native vegetation and from its immediate neighbour, being the limestone corner building that was opened by the Premier John Forrest in 1896 to the southwestern corner of the junction of Oxford Street and Richmond Street. 

The native Paper Bark trees that would have once been prolific in the in the seasonal swamplands of the area inform the buildings layering, transparency and texture. Like the Paperbark tree, the building has a textural base (tree trunk), a thin or negative zone (branches) and a canopy with the structure visible through the perimeter enclosure (leaf canopy with branches visible). This layering is deliberately exaggerated in the design of the building through a series of solids and voids articulation the mass through its height.

The two-storey limestone building across the road from this site dated from 1896. The building presents as a rectilinear ‘box’ that hugs the corner without a truncation. The most obvious feature of the building is the limestone itself and the very textural nature of the limestone. The hand carved markings of the stone mason are very visible in every block. It is the textural nature of the stonework in this building and the textural nature of the flakes of the paperbark tree bark that forms the quality of the proposed buildings base.

In our proposed new building, texture will be prominent where human contact is made with the building at ground level. The base of the building is intended to have a ‘primal’ quality. While the final selection of the material used to achieve this ‘primal’ textural quality is yet to be made, we have a number of options that will all successfully deliver the intended outcome.

ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT – PART TWO: CREATING MEMORY OF PLACE

1. FORMER ‘GREAT LAKES’ & GALUP

The proposal for this new building includes a concrete awning as the street canopy within the public realm. The underside of the concrete canopy shall contain abstract stories of about ‘memory of place’. 

One such story is that of the former ‘Great Lakes’ district where the water bodies of Herdsman Lake, Lake Monger, Hyde Park Lake and a string of others all worked together as one for the Noongar nation and for the native flora and fauna. This abstract story expresses the disconnect that we have now created between the former swamplands.

Impressions within the underside of the concrete canopy will tell these stories. Importantly the entry to the office building will be marked by the name ‘GALUP’ being the Noongar name for the area of Lake Monger. 

B)            NATURAL VEGETATION OF THE SWAMPLANDS

Celebrating the former ‘swamplands’ and the native vegetation of the area with the use of original species to landscaping areas such as Rushes, Wattle, Tea Trees, swamp Paperbark trees, Swamp Banksia and Flooded Gum trees. It is intended that Paperbark trees will feature as the screening trees to the west side of the building and at the pivotal points at the corner of Richmond and Oxford Streets, along with the main entry. The textural qualities of the bark of the paperbark trees will also reflect in the ‘primal’ textural base to the building.

1. BUILDING INTEGRATED WITH THE LANDSCAPING

Our scheme proposes that the concrete street canopy upturns at its perimeter to contain soil to a depth of 450mm over drainage and waterproof membrane. This non-accessible landscaping is within the public realm where the entire community will benefit from the amenity that such landscaping brings. Responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of this landscaping would remain with the property owner.

ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT – PART THREE: CONSTRUCTION & SUSTAINABILITY 

One of the most noteworthy aspects of the scheme for this building is the proposed construction method, and its importance in achieving a very high standard of sustainability.

A conventional ‘masonry’ base is proposed to the building where the building deals with the changes in ground levels and accommodated vehicle parking. 

From the first floor and above, the structure is proposed to be entirely from Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) & Glue Laminated Timber (Glulam), which includes, floor slabs, walls, columns and beams. This will be the first time that Western Australia will see such a sustainable construction method used. Neil has researched the design and technical requirements of CLT construction with the design team responsible for Australia’s tallest engineered timber commercial building, which is located at 25 King Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.

The ultimate beauty of such a structural solution goes beyond the achievement in sustainability, as it creates a warm environment in which to work where one feels connected to nature. The honest expression of the structure as the finished surface is visible externally through the glazed walls. The services are exposed within the office space, again reinforcing the youthful and progressive nature of the Leederville town centre.

ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT – PART FOUR: ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS

SOLAR CONSIDERATION

The proportions and orientation of the site allow the building to be orientated along an east / west axis, thereby providing controlled access to sun along the northern side, a long wall of south facing glazing (preferable for an office building) and narrow length of walls facing east and west where sun shading devices screen the glazed walls.to allow full northern solar access to both internal and external living areas. The first-floor alfresco area has access to eastern and northern sun. 

The vertical void above the point of entry and the fact that the building has been setback along the northern boundary to the east and west, allows excellent and unexpected natural light to all toilet areas, to the escape stair and to the main ground floor lobby. 

The depth of the floor plates relative to distances form the windows sees a maximum depth of 12.5m, providing excellent access to natural light to workspaces.

VENTILATION

Cross ventilation also benefits from the planning and massing of the building as outlined under ‘Solar Consideration’ above.   All toilets, tea prep areas and the ground floor lobby are naturally ventilated spaces.

The parking levels also benefit from natural ventilation with the design providing opportunity for ventilation through the intended robust textured lower-level masonry wall with generous gaps and openings in the walls.

ARCHITECTURAL CONCEPT – PART FIVE: PRIVACY TO RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBOURS

The provision of deep soil planting along the Haley Avenue western side boundary at the upper ground parking level ensures that it is the landscaping that presents to the neighbours rather than the building. The building is setback form the western boundary by a distance of 7.0m and 3.5m, thereby ensuring that there is sufficient width for full grown tree canopies to flourish. The west facing office windows are layered with external sun and privacy screens that assist further in providing privacy to the residential areas.

One of the most noteworthy aspects of the scheme for this building is the proposed construction method, and its importance in achieving a very high standard of sustainability. A conventional ‘masonry’ base is proposed to the building where the building deals with the changes in ground levels and accommodated vehicle parking. 

From the first floor and above, the structure is proposed to be entirely from Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) & Glue Laminated Timber (Glulam), which includes, floor slabs, walls, columns and beams. This will be the first time that Western Australia will see such a sustainable construction method used. Neil researched the design and technical requirements of CLT construction with the design team responsible for Australia’s tallest engineered timber commercial building, which is located at 25 King Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, along with meetings with London based leaders in multi-story timber construction, architect Andrew Waugh, Director of Waugh Thistleton Architects and Philipp Zumbrunnen design director of the timber engineers and construction specialists Eurban.