Architectural Culture: New Perspectives 2016

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G R A D U AT I O N S T U D I O 6

MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE

MARC 5001

Sydney Square David Burdon

Semester 2 2016

UNIVERSIT Y OF SYDNEY ARCHITECTURE 2016

Students: Ali Basim Abass Arif Imran Bin Isman Mary Trisha Gomes Dongdong Ju Ioannis Karmaniolos Matilda Wilhelmina Leake Dong Ho Lee Victor Xian-Hao Li Zhai Ling Stephanie Marian Boulden Longmore-Dodd Glenn Mcintosh Mehmet Ali Semerci Mei Lian Wan Hong Yin Matthew Yun

The project, Sydney Square, focuses on the urban possibilities that lie at the heart of great cities. The project calls for an investigation into the growth and development of a central part of the city focused on Town Hall and St Andrew’s Cathedral, and the long-called for establishment of a public square in this area. By coming to a thorough understanding of a place, its history and context, a series of individual programs will develop. As early as 1812, Governor Macquarie proposed a “Great Square” with a noble church in the centre, and on 1 September 1819 he laid the first stone of the new cathedral.1 Almost two-hundred years later, Sydney still awaits Macquarie’s square, and the opportunities afforded by the new light rail in George Street give pause to reconsider the merits of such a scheme in a city where the Council estimates that congestion is estimated to cost Sydney residents and businesses $7.8 billion annually by 2020 if nothing is done.2 Core to this project will be the integration of transport links, both the existing underground railway and the proposed light rail. Connected with this, a building of a public nature is to be delivered within the vicinity that speaks both to its location and beyond through the sharing of knowledge. As Ken Woolley has observed, “in old cities the market place, the cathedral, the town hall and the rulers’ palace were the sites of major civic spaces. The interaction between them forms the fundamental communication structure of the city.”3 This project affords Sydney the opportunity to communicate not just with itself, but beyond.

Model of 1960s project with 22 storey office tower D AV I D B U R D O N

1 2 3

Morton Herman, The Early Australian Architects and Their Work, (Sydney: Angus and Robertson, 1954), p.70. Bridget Carter, “Vision splendid for Sydney civic square and boulevard” The Australian, April 12, 2012. Ken Woolley, ibid, p.95.

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