Architects Herbert & Mason designed an intervention to enliven a series of under-utilised urban spaces in Sydney’s CBD.
The Meeting Place was created to encourage people to meet, linger, and engage with the physical surrounds.
The project was subject to a selective entry design competition for the City of Sydney which identified a need to improve the awareness and use of laneways within the CBD and promote civic amenity.
Herbert & Mason’s design included a vertical trampoline installed between two towers.
This created a civic interior which opens and closes as you walk through via the use of elongated curved walls, evoking the traditional narrow laneway and framing a place to meet.
The vertical walls evoke congestion.
However as pedestrians pass through the surface, it becomes transparent and mesh-like creating a sense of lightness and suggesting a place of relief or freedom.
The vertical surfaces create an interior environment which occupants can explore and play within.
They bounce off the vertical walls.
It’s a playful place for rest and relaxation within the public realm for city occupants.
At night the transparent walls light up to create a safe and occupied space.
This design feature was pertinent to the Council to ensure safe places be provided within the CBD.
Placemaking is a key theme explored in the project and a concept that H&M develop for all projects.
Project Details
Completion date – 2011
Building levels – 1
Project Team
Architecture
Herbert & Mason
Landscape Design
ASPECT Studios
ASPECT Studios is a design firm specialising in Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Wayfinding and Urban Strategy.
The practice is led by a team of three Directors and ten Studio Directors who guide our Adelaide, Brisbane, Dubai, Melbourne, Perth, Shanghai, and Sydney studios.
Photography
Simon Wood
Simon is a Sydney-based professional photographer. His extensive portfolio includes a wide range of projects specialising in architecture, landscape architecture, and design.
Photo Gallery
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Design © 2020 Herbert & Mason. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2020 Simon Wood. All Rights Reserved.
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