Sydney Visitors' Center
Sydney, Australia
UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
AWARD OF MERIT, 1997 AIA HONOLULU STUDENT DESIGN AWARDS
1995-96 ACSA DUPONT INTERNATIONAL STUDENT DESIGN COMPETITION
 The
design of the Visitors' Center revolves around several major themes:
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The site is developed to create a connective fiber between the old and the new. Following the traditions of "The Rocks" weekend street market, the new "The Rocks Market Extension" is envisioned to accommodate leisure activities that revolve around an open and festive "street" market. Trees are arranged to follow the linear motion of the Sydney Harbor Bridge, while a series of sculptures along the edge of the harbor, contrasted with modern-day leisure boats that are moored nearby, commemorates the eleven convict ships that first arrived in Sydney. The Visitors' Center becomes the backdrop of this experience and, as its location on the site suggests, the Center becomes a destination--an anchor point--for "The Rocks". |
| One end of the Center "grows" from the water to form an infallible kinship with the surrounding water, while its orientation to the cityscape, the Sydney Opera House, and a lookout (Welcome/Media Room) that strategically frames the grandeur and enormous prowess of the Sydney Harbor Bridge establishes a visual link within a larger composition. |
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As a gesture to Australian aboriginal culture, the Center rises from a reflecting pond that symbolizes the importance of water, in the form of billabongs or waterholes, and as a place that has important meaning. Along one edge of the reflecting pond, an exposed concrete wall, etched or carved with aboriginal rock art, tells the history and significance of the place and its people. Here, within the confines of the reflecting pond and aboriginal rock art, visitors also experience a movement of time--from the old to the new. As they climb the stairs under the building, they emerge to witness a spectacular view of one of the world's most precious architectural icons, the Sydney Opera House. |
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revealed.
The maritime history of the place reverberates in the subtleties of the details and the architecture of the Visitors' Center. Like the Sydney Harbor Bridge, the Center strives to celebrate its structural system and makes a clear statement to the fast-paced and forward-looking attitude of Australia. Functional components are magnified and articulated to emphasize meaning while establishing a hierarchy to the overall composition. |
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| Exploration
of fifth and sixth facades.
Jorn Utzon, in his Sydney Opera House, proved that a building located along the busy Sydney Harbor solicits a thoughtful articulation and expression of the roof--the building's fifth facade--as much as its side elevations. The elongated orientation of the Center evolved from the notion of a continuos movement, a reference to the movement of traffic along the nearby bridge and a synthesis to Sydney's robust and youthful spirit. On the other hand, a sixth facade is explored to become a backdrop to the movement of time, as visitors approach the Center to a serene reflecting pond, made even more meaningful by the presence of aboriginal rock art, and as they emerge out of such interpretive experience and faced with the grandeur of modern Australia beckoning from strategic vantage points within the Center.
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