Our concept for the Design Excellence Competition for 50 Macquarie aims to deliver the catalyst needed in the city centre to kick-start and reinvigorate a neighbourhood and a community ready for change. It has been well documented that Parramatta City has a unique opportunity to transform the current fabric of the centre into a more vibrant and commercially viable town centre. Our proposal aims to address firstly the urban ambitions and opportunities presented. The architecture is then a response to this urban situation.
The essence of our concept hinges on the identification of two distinct scales and how they are layered. At the smaller scale on the lower levels we propose a continuation, exaggeration and enhancement of the existing fine grain retail fabric across both sites. This finer-grain podium will work to activate and draw people through not just the site, but the complete city block.
Floating above this dense urban layer will be a commercial tower. The tower will be lightly animated through the addition on each level of a small enclosed balcony pop-out. The tower facade will be both reflective and transparent, mirroring it’s surroundings and forming a background to the dense clustering of life below.
