Central Place Sydney
Fender Katsalidis and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) have collaborated to win the City of Sydney Design Excellence Competition for Central Place Sydney.
The design delivers a new public domain and dynamic workspace experience with cutting-edge technologies, seamlessly integrated into its urban context.
Sydney’s ‘third square’ will feature two commercial towers encompassing approximately 155,000sqm of office and retail space, as well as a landmark sculptural building that will anchor and activate the precinct surrounding a redefined Henry Deane Plaza.
The two curving towers extend vertically into a fine-grained skyline, reflecting the flow and movement below at ground level. Their unique forms are expressed individually but read as a family. The breathing buildings are articulated by wintergardens and are wrapped in a climate-responsive facade. This environmental consideration results in naturally ventilated workspaces with generous light-filled atria between the sculpted forms, defining the buildings’ village typology.
Central Place Sydney’s sculptural building will be a dynamic urban marker, connecting it with Railway Square, Central Station and beyond.
The proposed design features brick curved forms that respond in scale and materiality to the surrounding heritage precinct and different urban orientations.
The ground floor will be highly permeable, accommodating a retail experience that flows out into the plaza. Meanwhile, the upper commercial levels will be linked to the new towers to create campus-style floorplates at the southern edge of the plaza. Combining workplace with community space presents a truly cultural and commercial building with a vibrant and diversified experience.
Workspaces have been designed to afford maximum flexibility to technology and innovation businesses, bringing activity through the plaza and pedestrian laneways. This network provides new and future civic pedestrian links connecting the east side of Central Station to the city’s west with additional north-south connections.
The commercial development is a joint venture between Dexus and Frasers Property Australia that will sit as the focal point of the new Tech Central precinct and civic space that is set to incorporate Atlassian’s new headquarters.