‘Barangaroo’, otherwise known as East Darling Harbour, is a prominent site in Sydney Harbour that used to house ports and contribute to Syndey’s ‘Working Harbour’. Currently it is used rarely and contributes little to the culture and livelihood of the Harbour. The proposal was for a precinct that interacts with existing key moments within the city.
The site is broken up into six smaller areas, with the scale of buildings increasing as one moves closer the centre of the CBD. The breaks in the land direct the gaze of passers by to critical elements that characterise our city – Observatory Hill, old stairways that link East Darling Harbour to the remainder of the city, terrace houses that were once occupied by the workers at the ports.
Each part is connected by public walkways and the foreshore has an area dedicated to the public. Within each sub-area is a low rise building dedicated to public uses, with buildings above that fit around each other, while opening up spaces for gardens and terraces for the occupants of the buildings to share and interact in.
At the northern end of the site is a park and waste management plant. This plant was a requirement of the brief, in order to address the growing amount of waste that would be generated from the use of the new development and the rest of the CBD. This plant is located below an elevated area of parkland, with the shape designed to facilitate a meandering walk from one level of parkland to another. As one moves either up or down the walkway, they are faced with numerous and varying views – the Harbour, the far foreshore, the CBD and the old housing.
