The adaptive reuse of the historic Kent Brewery in Sydney, undertaken by architecture and urban design practice Tzannes, has won the prestigious 2025 International Architecture Award for Restoration/Renovation.

The winning project transformed several significant early 20th-century heritage buildings into a single complex at the heart of Sydney’s Innovation and Technology Precinct in Central Park, the former site of the historic 6.7-hectare Carlton and United Brewery Yard in Chippendale.

The refurbished Brewery Yard complex has undergone a two-stage development, now featuring new commercial spaces, underground plant equipment, and a gas-powered tri-generation plant.

“The Brewery Yard Stage 2, commissioned by IP Generation, our client, is the precinct’s final component,” says Alec Tzannes, Director of Tzannes.

“It has involved restoring the original brewery’s facades and interiors for contemporary use, redesigning internal spaces, plus the creation of an outdoor plaza, opening up public areas and linking the entire precinct together.”

The completed, award-winning project has transformed the former Kent Brewery buildings, which now provide electrical power throughout the precinct and has expanded its commercial offerings to include offices, retail, and hospitality venues.

“Tzannes has been involved with this precinct for over two decades, which commenced with our involvement in the site masterplan,” he says.

“What was a large brownfield industrial site is now one of the city’s most important mixed-use neighbourhoods, a location of global significance.”

The disused and boarded-up Kent Brewery buildings have been transformed into the iconic centrepiece of this vibrant precinct, activating the heritage site and its surrounds while the distinctive tri-generation powerplant (installed in Stage 1) makes the precinct more sustainable, according to Tzannes.

“The Brewery Yard now stands as a powerful argument for adaptive reuse,” he said. “It is a reminder that sustainability is not just about systems and ratings, but about doing more with what we already have,” he says.

The Brewery Yard’s conservation has been internationally recognised and has received numerous accolades, including Stage 1 winning an award in the 2016 UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation and the recent shortlisting of Stage 2 for the 2025 World Architecture Festival Awards, which will be judged in November.

The annual International Architecture Awards are presented by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, in collaboration with the European Centre for Architecture, Art, Design, and Urban Studies, and Metropolitan Arts Press.

The International Architecture Award will be presented in September 2025 at an Awards Gala Dinner and Ceremony in Athens, Greece.

Image: Brewery Yard / Guthrie

Clémence Carayol

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