Tony Owen Partners have just completed a transformation at Darling Island, in the public areas attached to the prominent apartment development.

The Darling Apartment development designed was originally completed in 2004 on a virtual island at the western side of Darling Harbour, but the architects said the lobbies and public areas were never up to the standard of the rest of the development.

Tony Owen was part of the original team that designed the project for PTW, and said coming back to the lobbies and public areas, seeing them as a blank canvas represented a great opportunity to complete the project.

The brief was to create entry spaces with a sense of exclusivity, but at the same time the design had to be efficient and work to a tight budget.

“We used luxurious materials such as stone, bronze mirror and unique Italian geometric tiles to create the feel of an exclusive boutique or hotel.

“We designed special 5m long fractal light sculptures as the feature element for each lobby - a sort of a 21st century jelly fish. At night these jelly-fish glow and are a beacon for the project. We used rhino scripting to generate the geometry which became the template for the manufacturing process.

“The lights were built by Yellow Goat who specialise in unique lighting installations. We also used laser cut screens to mark the entries of each lobby in a unique way.

“The design was created by artist Gary Dermeidjian and is based on the maritime artifacts found at the site. So they also contribute to the public art for the development.

The project was constructed by Join Constructions.