Carmel Village Shopping Centre delivers a bold, origami-like facade across a 10,000 sqm retail precinct in Box Hill, NSW. LYSAGHT® LONGLINE 305® cladding and roofing define the building's angular geometry, combining strong linear rhythm with thermal performance and low-maintenance durability for a growing master-planned community.
Opened in May 2023, Carmel Village Shopping Centre anchors the growing Box Hill community in Sydney's north-west. Designed by GroupGSA and constructed by Quasar Constructions, the centre delivers 35 retail, food, beverage and commercial tenancies, including Coles and Aldi, across a 10,000 sqm footprint. It sits within The Hills of Carmel, a $1.3 billion master-planned community, and was a finalist in the People's Choice Award at the 2025 Lysaght Inspirations Design Awards.
What distinguishes the project architecturally is a bold, origami-like facade, a series of folded steel planes that give the centre a sharp geometric identity against the open terrain of Sydney's Hills District.
Facade concept: Folded geometry meets landscape
The surrounding mountain ranges informed the building's sculptural form. Rather than defaulting to flat-panel curtain walls, GroupGSA developed a facade strategy built around angular folds that catch and deflect light throughout the day. The result is a building envelope that reads differently at every approach from sharp and linear from the car park, to layered and kinetic from the central plaza.
LYSAGHT® LONGLINE 305® was specified extensively across both roofing and upper-level walling applications. The profile's tall, slender ribs (48 mm nominal rib height) and broad, flat pans at 305 mm cover width produce a pronounced linear rhythm that reinforces the building's directional geometry. Across the origami folds, this rhythm intensifies. With each change in plane angle shifts the shadow pattern, creating depth and movement without applied decoration.
Profile selection: Why LONGLINE 305®
LONGLINE 305® sits within Lysaght's ZENITH® range and is engineered for both roofing and walling. Its concealed fixing system eliminates visible fasteners across the facade, which was critical here: any exposed fixings would have disrupted the clean fold lines that define the architectural expression.
The profile's capacity to be manufactured tapered also offered the design team flexibility in handling the complex roof geometry. Where conventional profiles might require additional flashings or compromise at junctions, LONGLINE 305® accommodated the angular transitions between roof planes and wall surfaces with greater precision.
For a commercial project of this scale, with long, uninterrupted facade runs and prominent roof canopies visible from surrounding roads and the central piazza, the profile's dimensional consistency and clean sight lines were decisive factors.
Thermal performance and colour strategy
Light-coloured LYSAGHT® LONGLINE 305® roofing was used extensively to maximise solar reflectance and reduce heat gain across the centre's large roof area. In western Sydney's climate, where summer temperatures regularly exceed 35°C, this approach contributes directly to the building's energy efficiency strategy and reduces cooling loads for tenants.
The muted steel colour palette across the upper levels serves a dual purpose. It provides a restrained, cohesive backdrop that allows individual tenancy shopfronts to read clearly at ground level, while unifying the building's overall form when viewed from a distance, particularly from the aerial perspectives that define first impressions in a master-planned estate.
Material integration
At ground level, patterned precast concrete panels establish a robust, tactile base. The prefinished LYSAGHT® steel cladding on upper levels contrasts with this heavier material which is lighter in visual weight, weather-resistant and low-maintenance over time. The interplay between concrete mass and steel precision gives the building a layered materiality that reads well at both pedestrian and vehicular scale.
The central public plaza and 'eat street' are framed by dramatic steel canopy structures, where LONGLINE 305® panels fold overhead to create covered outdoor spaces. These canopies, supported by steel columns with radiating strut connections, demonstrate the profile's versatility beyond standard wall and roof applications.
Sustainability
Carmel Village integrates a range of environmental strategies, many of which work in concert with the steel cladding system:
- Solar orientation and rooftop photovoltaics - the building's massing and large roof planes are optimised for energy generation
- Rainwater harvesting - on-site tanks and bioswales capture and manage stormwater
- Natural cross-ventilation - the open piazza design draws airflow through common areas, reducing mechanical cooling demand
- High-performance glazing - balances daylight access with thermal control across tenancies
- Recyclable steel cladding - LYSAGHT® steel is fully recyclable at end of life, supporting circular material objectives
From a construction perspective, the steel cladding system's prefabricated efficiency contributed to reduced build timelines and minimised on-site waste, practical advantages on a project of this complexity.
Carmel Village Shopping Centre was a People's Choice Award finalist in the 2025 Lysaght Inspirations Design Awards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Carmel Village Shopping Centre is a 10,000 sqm retail precinct in Box Hill, NSW, comprising 35 retail, food, beverage and commercial tenancies anchored by Coles and Aldi. Opened in May 2023, it forms part of The Hills of Carmel, a $1.3 billion master-planned community in Sydney's north-west.
LYSAGHT® LONGLINE 305® was specified for its ability to support the building's distinctive origami-like facade. Its concealed fixing system delivers clean, uninterrupted lines across large facade runs, while its capacity to be manufactured tapered allowed the design team to achieve the complex angular roof geometry central to the architectural concept.
The profile's tall, slender ribs and broad, flat pans produce a strong linear rhythm that intensifies across the building's folded planes. As sunlight moves across these angled surfaces throughout the day, the shadow patterns shift — creating depth and visual movement without applied decoration or additional detailing.
Light-coloured LONGLINE 305® roofing was used extensively to maximise solar reflectance and reduce heat gain — an important consideration in western Sydney's climate. Across the upper-level cladding, a muted steel colour palette provides a cohesive backdrop that allows individual tenancy shopfronts to stand out at ground level while unifying the building's overall form.
Prefinished LYSAGHT® steel cladding on the upper levels is paired with patterned precast concrete panels at ground level. The contrast between the lighter steel envelope and the heavier concrete base gives the building a layered materiality that reads clearly at both pedestrian and vehicular scale.
The centre incorporates rooftop photovoltaic arrays, rainwater harvesting, optimised solar orientation, natural cross-ventilation through the open piazza, and high-performance glazing. The steel cladding is fully recyclable at end of life, and its prefabricated efficiency contributed to reduced construction timelines and minimised on-site waste.
