Fender Katsalidis and Skidmore Owning and Merrill (SOM) have won a design competition for a $2.5 billion, two-tower development in central Sydney.
To be located on the southern edge of Henry Deane Plaza, on the land of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, Central Place Sydney will sit adjacent to the proposed headquarters of Atlassian by Shop Architects and BVN. It will be part of the NSW government’s mooted technology precinct adjacent to Central Station.
The first competition in the City of Sydney to be conducted entirely online, it included six participants from around the world.
The development will accommodate 150,000 square metres of office and retail spaces, as well as civic spaces wrapped around its edges.
The design team said the project will be “a dynamic urban marker” with curved sandstone forms that respond to different urban orientations and the scale and materiality of surrounding heritage precinct. The two towers – 37 and 39 storeys respectively – will be expressed with three distinct forms but read together “as a family.”
“The building anchors the southern edge of the Plaza and combines creative workplaces, collaborative and community spaces, and active ground level retail along an internal pedestrian laneway,” SOM design partner Scott Duncan said.
“The design delivers a powerful narrative by establishing a new civic place that extends into the workplace, blurring the lines between public and private, while producing a highly vibrant and diversified experience.”
The design of Central Place Sydney by Fender Katsalidis and Skidmore Ownings and Merrill responds to the scale and materiality of the surrounding heritage precinct.
Image: Courtesy Fender Katsalidis
The buildings will run on 100 percent renewable energy and utilize natural daylight and ventilation with a computer controlled facade system that will mitigate direct sunlight and minimize heat gain.
Fender Katsalidis design director Mark Curzon said, “The sculptural towers are shaped by the movement and civic connections at ground level and extend vertically into a ‘fine-grained’ skyline, orientated to address key vistas in a gateway configuration.”
Workplaces inside the buildings will be designed to be flexible both horizontally and vertically to accommodate a range of technology and innovation business. Each floor will be connected to non-workplace spaces such as wintergardens, atria and external terraces.
The is an unsolicited proposal from Dexus and Fraser Property Group, which was approved to proceed by the NSW government in April 2020.
SOM and Fender Katsalidis are also the architects of a 40-storey office and hotel tower planned for 600 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
