Inspired by simple unitary forms and placemaking in Aboriginal culture, the George Street Plaza & Community Building is centered around the meaning of place, heritage, and identity. The new public plaza, multifunctional community building, and artwork experience serves as a cultural anchor point and respite from the busy streetscape in Sydney’s Central Business District, while paying homage to the Eora origins of the region and addressing the complex history between settlers and Indigenous communities.

The project’s key feature is a 89x112-foot perforated canopy that defines the rectangular perimeter of the public plaza and is suspended from a series of trusses supported by a singular steel column. A collaboration between architect Adjaye Associates and Daniel Boyd, a renowned contemporary artist of Kudjla/Gangalu Aboriginal descent, the canopy shelters and unites the community building and plaza under a poetic layer of light and dark, solid and void. Boyd’s artwork is experienced as a cosmic journey of light that filters and refracts sunlight through multiple, randomly scattered, circular, mirror-lined openings. The plaza features paving with circular detailing that echoes the canopy above and a zone of seating with custom granite “pebbles.” Beneath the public plaza is Sydney’s first public cycling facility, with capacity for 200 bikes and changing facilities.

The community building itself accommodates a wide range of uses across 12,000 square feet, and will evolve over time based on the needs of the local community. Wrapped in a reduced, utilitarian steel form, its distinctive pitched roof refers to the primary silhouette of early settlers’ houses. Flexible interiors including an open plan gallery and indoor-outdoor viewing platform are defined by a warm, inviting timber material palette. The result is a hybrid form that merges Aboriginal origins with the legacy of early settlers and the industrial materiality and language of the nearby harbor.

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George Street Plaza & Community Building

Sydney, Australia

Other Projects by Adjaye Associates

Kwaeε

dot.ateliers

Abrahamic Family House

130 William

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George Street Plaza & Community Building

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Product Spec Sheet

Collaborating Firms

Team