Project: UOQ Cricket Club Maintenance Shed
Architect: Lineburg Wang | Steve Hunt Architect
Manufacturer: National Masonry
Masonry Collection: Other Standard Grey Block
Builder: Xenia Constructions
Contractor: Armstrong Bricklaying
Photography: David Chatfield

The University of Queensland Cricket Club Maintenance Shed champions uncommon approaches to common building materials. It is a celebration of cost efficiencies in an exploration of the standard grey block – an outcome driven by construction pricing and material supply constraints in 202021. As the cost of steel increased during the design process, corefilled blockwork piers replaced structural steel posts and enabled the reimagining of a typical breeze block screen. The shed breathes thanks to a mass of blockwork that appears as filigree. The building is reductive – without glass or internal lining. It highlights how structure and ornamentation can be one in the same.

Jury 2022: “UOQ Cricket Club Shed takes the use of blocks somewhere new. Installing blocks as a screen is an incredibly inventive way of putting a building together. Super creative masonry has been used structurally and functionally, as well as expressively. The way the shed rises out of the landscape is fantastic. This relatively small project is quite provocative and very singular in its vision.”