Concept designs for the arcade site were revealed when the City of Adelaide recently announced its partnership with Woods Bagot’s client ICD Property.
The arcade site adjoins the Adelaide Central Market, one of the world’s largest and most visited undercover fresh produce markets. The mixed-use redevelopment will connect the arcade to the market and serve as a cornerstone of the broader market district.
Woods Bagot associate principal and the project’s design leader Alex Hall describes it as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to consolidate Adelaide’s market district as one of the world’s most vibrant.
“As part of a broader vision to attract the best and brightest people, the city’s intent is to transform the market precinct into one of Australia’s most recognised lifestyle destinations,” says Hall.
“The Adelaide market dates back to 1869, when a group of local gardeners sold their wares without any structure other than gas lights and a fence. A century and a half on, we’re looking to sensitively create a space that can carry that local entrepreneurial spirit forward,” said Hall.
Reinstating the arches sympathetic to the former Grote Street façade (partially demolished in the 1960s), the design adds a new social and commercial precinct supported by publicly accessible spaces on the ground floor and podium roof terraces.
Biodiverse roof terraces are planned as a green hub for lifestyle and hospitality experiences.
“This is a design exploration of the market’s heritage beyond just a facade treatment and makes its brick arches – which have always been emblematic of the market – part of the whole experience,” Hall said.
The Woods Bagot proposal includes potential connections from the existing public car park over the market and 260 new parking spaces to provide much needed relief to the currently overloaded car park.
Image: Supplied
