The George Street Plaza and Community Building designed by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye and Australian Indigenous artist Daniel Boyd for the City of Sydney is now complete. Developed by Lendlease in partnership with the City of Sydney, these public spaces in Sydney Place will provide a place of refuge and also serve as a multipurpose cultural venue for the community.

Chosen by the City of Sydney in 2019 to create the structures by drawing design inspiration from Indigenous architecture, culture and gathering, Adjaye and Boyd referenced simple unitary forms and placemaking in Aboriginal culture, imagining “the new community building and plaza as a ‘found place’ based around the notion of the shelter, a symbolic respite away from the busy streetscape that is discovered and dissolves through light”.

The George Street Plaza and Community Building

One side of the large 27m x 34m perforated steel canopy suspended from beams rests on top of the pitched roof of the simple community building, which Adjaye says is informed by the primary silhouette of early settlers’ houses.

The canopy, positioned on a concrete-filled steel column cantilevers out into the streetfront, sheltering both the plaza and the building. Light filters through the canopy, which has perforations of various sizes, scattering dots of light onto the surface below – a scene described by Adjaye as “a cosmic journey of light that filters and refracts through multiple, randomly scattered, circular, mirror-lined canopy openings”.

Light streams into the community building through openings in the angular roof as well as the angled steel slats. The use of the wood-panelled space is expected to evolve based on community needs.

“Rooted in lost history, this is a project about the meaning of place, heritage and identity. An attempt to uncover, layer, and celebrate the Eora origins of this part of coastal Sydney, the project seeks the reconciliation of cultures and defining identity in an ever-changing world. This reconciliation of differences lies at the heart of the proposal and aims to articulate and establish dialogue around the complex relationship colonisers have to their Indigenous communities,” Adjaye noted.

‘‘My hope is that this new community building and public plaza will become a cherished destination in Sydney’s city centre, a generative place for people to connect, recharge, reflect, and take pause,” he added.

Image Credit: Trevor Mein

Branko Miletic

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