London firm David Chipperfield Architects has won the commission to design a tower on the last piece of developable land in Barangaroo, together with Durbach Block Jaggers, Smart Design Studio and John Wardle Architects.
The Central Barangaroo development on Hickson Road will sit to the north of Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners’ three International Towers and Wilkinson Eyre’s controversial Crown Barangaroo tower.
The Australian Financial Review reports that David Chipperfield Architects and the three Australian firms will each design their own building as part of the development.
Developer Aqualand says the project will link the “natural beauty of Barangaroo Reserve” with “the bustling commercial district of Barangaroo South.”
“More than 50 percent of Central Barangaroo will be public space and parkland – most of it adjoining Sydney Harbour,” the developer says. “Central Barangaroo will feature diverse, mixed-use cultural and civic spaces, restaurants, a retail centre, apartments and office space.”
David Chipperfield told AFR that, while it was still early on in the design process, “clearly, we want to make an architectural project which belongs there, enjoys its site and climate, and we’ll endeavour to make a building that seems to be right for the site.”
“To one side of us is the more robust commercial development, and on the other side is the slightly lower density and more cultural and social part of the site, and we’ve been seen as a bridge between those two things.”
The project will be Chipperfield’s first in Australia, after his firm previously missed out on the commission to design Circular Quay Tower, which went to Foster and Partners. It also lost out in the Adelaide Contemporary International Design Competition, won by Woods Bagot and Diller Scofidio and Renfro.
SOM completed the Central Barangaroo masterplan in 2012. The precinct is expected to be finished by 2027.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
