Within the Urban Space Context
200 George Street Sydney is located on the premier street of Australia, the ceremonial pathway of NSW and within the pedestrian heartland of Sydney. The site fronts George Street, with a significant secondary frontage to a newly created public space, Sydney Cove Square. The complexities and interactions of the site and its uses help develop distinctive architectural characters, tones and scales for the public space, pinned by the major commercial offering over. The building base is marked by an urban ‘breath’ on the bend of George Street, allowing the bunching of the unique patterns of use of this street, including vehicular, ceremonial, retail, commercial, pedestrian and public transport to collide and disseminate in multiple directions. The solution is to manage these collisions and the subsequent dissemination of such without destroying the larger contextual view of the continuity of the street wall. It bridges the surrounding commercial and public hubs of Sydney, interlinking the myriad of cross site links and lanes, proposing a new public space as a linkage. It creates an important amenity for the users of the city and building. It allows filtering and movement through and around the site, providing for and continuously activating the streetscapes. The facade, informed by its environmental response, creates a visually rich screen of constantly changing patterns of light and movement, expressing its internal functions, adding an ever changing layer of visual delight to the cityscape. The lack of applied decoration masking the design is clear. Decoration is applied through the layering of the light and shadow over the building form created from a simple palette of materials. A solution inspired by the creation of an efficient and appropriate workplace, defined by an environmentally appropriate response. A massing formulated with an understanding of streetscape and skyline, with a logical overlay of service and structure.
Fitzpatrick&Partners