Location: Sydney, NSW

This challenging international design competition was sponsored by the NSW State Government.  The brief asked competitors to consider the future use and design of a 22 hectare linear strip of re-claimed foreshore land that had been used for port activities for many decades.  The site is highly significant for Sydney, forming a major edge and filter to the western flank of the principal north-south city ridge.

TCA’s strategy was to divide the site into two horizontal zones.  A lower, dense matrix of heavier masonry forms is limited in height by the three to four storey sandstone escarpment at the rear of the site.  Above this datum, higher, glassier forms at wider spacings allow visual permeability across the site from the old and new city behind.  The ancient shoreline is re-instated by penetration of fingers of water from the existing apron back to the historic line.

Fingers of stone building at a human scale give a traditional density and form to the public domain. Well scaled streets and water fingers alternate between the slim-line, east-west mixed-use quay structures. The water fingers were utilised as heat exchangers for the buildings HVAC systems, given the proximity of the site to a large water body.

A new “water square” was proposed at the base of the only existing street that cuts diagonally through the escarpment and connects the upper city to its foreshore.  This intimately scaled space re-calls at a diminutive scale the morphology of Circular Quay, aptly called Sydney’s “water room” by the renowned artist Lloyd Rees.