The newly opened Sydney Metro Waterloo Station, designed by John McAslan and Partners, features a design that celebrates the diverse history of Waterloo, including its First Nations and industrial heritage.
The three-storey station, which opened on Monday 19 August 2024, is part of the Sydney Metro City line. It will service high-frequency, driverless trains that will arrive at the station every four minutes during peak times.
Director of John McAslan and Partners (JMP) Troy Uleman said the design emphasises a connection to place. At the platform level of the station, the design nods to ancient heritage, while at street level, it reflects Waterloo in its post-colonialist condition.
“Waterloo is a dynamic, multicultural community with a rich Indigenous, social and industrial history,” Uleman said. “Through consultation with Indigenous advisors, Yerrabingin, we learnt the phrase ‘the past is in the earth and the future is in the sky.’ That became the conceptual framework for our design, which takes passengers on a journey shaped by Waterloo’s layered heritage.”
Upon entering the station’s concourse, rail passengers are greeted by a 9.7-metre image of a young local Indigenous dancer named Roscoe. This artwork, created by Indigenous Australian artist Nicole Monks, celebrates First Nations living and thriving culture. Also on the concourse level is perforated panelling with a depiction of the endemic banksia scrub.
The southern station box connects to place with a perforated aluminium facade that has been overlaid with an image derived from early maps of Waterloo when it was marshland. At the subterranean platform level, rust-colored wall linings reveal abstracted imagery of a stone blade fragment, in reference to a fragment that was discovered on site during archaeological excavation.
“In collaboration with artists and design consultants, the incorporation of Indigenous themes grounds the station in the area’s deep history while symbolising a robust future for the nation’s first people,” said Uleman. “I cannot imagine Waterloo without Roscoe, that great, smiling, friendly boy, telling us the future is bright.”
In the street-level entrance hall, materials and textures pay homage to the suburb’s built history. This space features a coffered aluminium ceiling and granite flooring.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
