Emerging City - Visions for Parramatta
An Exhibition of Architectural Design |
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Architecture’s next generation of designers explore novel techniques to expand the horizons of human habitation. Graduate students of the Faculty of Architecture, the University of Sydney present an architectural vision for Parramatta – the emerging city within the Greater Sydney Area. Exploring digital possibilities in architectural form, media and philosophy, they present a fresh and young city that allows life, culture, work and community to find a confident identity beyond its borders. Studio Coordinator: Dr. Marc Aurel Schnabel |
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Design Proposals |
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Below are design proposal of "Parramatta's Lennox Bridge, Digitalics and Architecture". The Graduation Design Studio of the Faculty of Architecture, The University of Sydney. More info about this studio can be found here. At the dawn of the 21st century, “digitalics” (referring to digital- technologies, ~philosophies, ~cultures, ~arts, ~sociologies, etc) have enabled new techniques for the development of architecture and human habitation. In this studio, students developed an architectural design in which these digitalics have the potential to affect the wider architectural landscape in profound ways. They explored new architectural topologies that engage with context, form, function, material and understanding of an innovative high density urban life-style. This can allow new influences of architectural appreciation to be absorbed that may produce concrete effects on its users and its environment. At the end of this studio, the students presented both a philosophy and a specific architectural language for these digitalics and present a design solution that can catalyze architectural advancement. A - B - C - D - E - F - G - H - J - K - L - M - N - P - Q - R - S - T - W - X -Y |
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Title & Author |
Design | Description |
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Emmanuel Apostolakis |
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The Pemulwy Art Complex relates to all people of Parramatta and focuses on art education, production and sale. The concept of the eel evolved from the strong indigenous connection to Parramatta. The Lennox Bridge site provides the perfect scope for a vibrant art centre that concurrently pays tribute to “the place of eels.” Form is inspired by images of moving eels abstracted into two forms crossing over each other with the potential to create new spaces where they cross. Programme is divided into digital and traditional visual arts. The areas where these programmes and forms meet, is where the new space is created through the spatial knot, which is inspired by schools of eels migrating. These two spatial knots give circulation precedence over function and are the main connectors between different planes. The titanium skin with holes evolved from digital pixel and hole studies, also inspired by the eel. Holistically, the project merges form, function, programme, circulation, skin and concept in a building intrinsically tailored to Parramatta. |
Parramatta Centre for Digital Media Vivian Aversa
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The design for the Parramatta Centre for Digital Media, developed conceptually from a manipulation of the existing Parramatta urban framework. Through various digital investigation and experimentation the contorted and twisting generated forms provide magnificent spatial experiences. The building site placement, expressed structure and the building program all draw upon the conceptual re-invention of the Parramatta City grid. Ultimately the integrated program and the developed concept aim to draw greater attention to the Parramatta area, revitalising it and setting a benchmark for further area development. |
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Alicia Bayl |
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The Centre for the Arts establishes an arts precinct on the river’s edge at the northern entry to the city. It creates a dedicated home for the arts (both visual and performing) by providing areas for the stages of the artistic process. The idea for the dynamic form came from the dynamic nature of performance and art. Art is not a static condition, but a constant exchange of ideas and communication between people. The art community is a network of both professional artists and the public. An image representative of this network was used to generate the patterning of openings to the building, by digitally ‘mapping’ the pattern onto the skin. The resulting abstract array of openings provides glimpses of the stages of art, enticing the visitor to explore the world of art within. The external skin is a perforated aluminium cladding with different finishes (brushed, polished, painted), giving depth and a play of light to the façade of the building. The language of the pattern of openings also informs the landscaping elements: a variety of planted patches, pools of water, and different ground-coverings. At the rivers edge, the patterning creates staggered platforms down to the water level, where the public can sit for lunch, enjoy live music or food stalls. |
Digitalics Theodora Bowering |
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A dialogue between the digital and the analogue. |
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Jerome Cateaux |
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Architecture and Film Fragments and Its Reconstruction In wide arcs of wandering through the City I saw to either side of what is seen, And noticed treasures where it was thought There were none I passed through a more fluid city I broke up the imprint of all familiar places Shutting my eyes to the boredom of modern contours The existing fragmented condition of a city is most of time illusive to its inhabitants. The every day phenomenon is very much disregarded or unconsciously assimilated to our minds. However while experiencing a City, we choose to record whatever is significant and reject the images that seem banal to us. Our tale of the city is the reconstruction of these fragments. Analogously this process of reconstruction could be related to basic filmic techniques. The project uses these techniques as a way of reading and perceiving the city as a point of departure. The project examines the sensual digital boundaries of consumption and exhibition of images and the possibilities of the contemporary flaneur. |
Parramatta Aquatic and Leisure Centre Ken Chan |
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The intention of this project is to find a possible connection between two extreme worlds - the virtual space in digital architecture and the real world. The project was started by looking at how people ‘connect' their own virtual (or spiritual) world to the reality via different kinds of methodologies in order to escape from the cruelty of this materialized world to their own utopias. Eel, as a catadromous, was later selected to symbolize the connectivity between these two extreme worlds. This idea of extremities was further elaborated in terms of the ‘yin' and ‘yang' concept where ‘yin' and ‘yang' are being treated as a pair of complementing elements rather than opposing as we usually does. Nowadays in Parramatta, being a place of multiculturalism, it does require these aspects of ‘connectivity' and ‘complementary' in order to minimize the gaps and disputes between all cultural groups. Through this development, people from different backgrounds are expected to join together and experience something that they would have hardly ever imagine before – swimming in mid-air and enjoy the views of Parramatta River from different heights while the rock climbers will find people swimming above their heads! For those non-sporty types, this development will also cater you by providing a café along the river side and a retail shop along Church Street which connects you back to the retail precinct down the road. |
Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation, Parramatta Nian Chun Ken Choo |
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It started with me trying to look for a unique solution that would contribute to Parramatta's renewal project. |
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Nichole Darke |
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The concept of weaving was the underlining theme in my design. Weaving the senses became a dominant intent, which resulted in the development of 4 weaving strands or ‘fingers' each taking on a different program. That being: • Music studio's • Dance studio's • Art studio's and gallery • Café/restaurant Currently at Parramatta all the buildings turn their back towards the river which eliminates the great potential for Parramatta to be an attractive River City. Thus it was important for my building to open itself up towards the river creating a balance between built form and open space. The problem then lay in how I could successfully turn such a solid and abrupt streetscape into the softness the river required. This became a secondary concept in the forming of my building which coincided with the idea of the weave. The resultant building drew from the form of an unravelling braid, held together at the street edge and freed at the river. |
Parramatta Cultural Centre (from education to exhibition)
Andrew Davis |
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Basically the scheme was developed around the manipulation, blurring and juxtaposition of space and program to create intermediate and ambiguous space that allows informal and unexpected moments for the user. |
New Urbanism Paul De Sailly |
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Traditionally the city has been governed by the need to move capital. Infrastructure to accommodate transport and services creates boundaries within which the architect is constrained. The result is unsuitable for the needs of the people who inhabit it. The computer provides as opportunity to remove the restrictions of hierarchial scalar architecture by enabling us to design simultaneously from the macro to the micro. Architects can now consider detail and services within the landscape without resorting to figures such as 1:1000 or 1:5. This design attempts to instigate a new urbanism for the city of Parramatta that will incorporate a level of infrastructure to accommodate an increasingly urban population. It attempts to break down the hierarchy between city, building and people, and facilitate a future emergence of architecture designed at a personal scale. |
| Body Building: Parramatta Boxing Centre
Nathan Etherington |
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The Parramatta Boxing Centre denies the cliché “form follows function” by making form and function indistinguishable from one another. The building incorporates two programmes - a boxing centre and offices within the building envelope and an open air public gym in the vein of the muscle beach at Venice in Los Angeles which operates on the exterior surface. The result is that the external surface operates both as a “skin” for the building and a landscape for exercise. The external skin has a second function of providing access to a proposed boxing stadium across Church Street. A stair is folded out of the surface providing a grand entrance to the stadium and daylight to the training floors below. The building is located on the Parramatta River at Lennox Bridge. The programme was organised hierarchically and massed in response to site issues such as circulation. Parts of the surface were then smoothed to provide the functional skin while others remained orthogonal to provide a more conventional facade onto Church Street. |
| Museum of Food
Francesca Fava |
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Museum of Food evolved from Parramatta's heritage as a source of life for the communities that lived in the area. To the Barramatugal tribe it provided fresh water from the river, fish to eat and plentiful food from the fertile ground. To the Europeans who arrived in Sydney, its fertility made Parramatta perfect for farming land to provide produce to the new colony. Parramatta has become a place of significance to many cultures because of her organic richness. Sydney, in general has a reputation for offering authentic cuisine diversity because of our multicultural society. Today, Church Street is popular for this diversity in its restaurants. Food is about people and gathering. This Food Culture Complex aims to celebrate the different tastes, traditions and techniques of food within all cultures, open the kitchen and appreciate the activities as a performance and encourage the learning of the art of Cooking. |
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Leah Gabauer |
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An architectural experience brings the world into a most intimate contact with the body, and therefore the making of an architectural work should also incorporate the body. Pallasmaa believes that ‘a wise architect works with his/her entire body and self.’ (Pallasmaa:1996, p.12) An architectural work is not experienced as a series of isolated images, as on a computer screen, but in its fully integrated material, embodied and spiritual essence. It offers pleasurable shapes and surfaces moulded for the touch of the eye and other senses. The computer, today, has become a significant tool in the design and documentation of architecture. It is alleged to liberate human fantasy and facilitate efficient design work. However, computer imaging seems to ‘flatten our multi-sensory capacities of imagination by turning the design process into a passive visual manipulation.’(Pallasmaa:1996, p.12) The computer creates a distance between the maker and the object, whereas drawing by hand and/or model-making put the designer into a haptic contact with the object or space. Pallasmaa says that ‘Creative work calls for a bodily and mental identification, empathy and compassion.’ (Pallasmaa:1996, p.12). |
Lennox Bridge Community Tower Natasha Galvez |
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The ‘Lennox Bridge Community Tower’, is intended to represent a ‘new’ architecture for Parramatta – a landmark building, bold in form and aesthetic expression, an architectural experience – revitalising Parramatta, as a destination and reinvention of a local community building and landscape. The ‘tower’ is framed by 3 smaller scale retail and commercial buildings which create a porous edge to Church Street whilst simultaneously activating the riverfront. |
| Lennox Bridge Market Hall, Parramatta
Sara Gardhouse |
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Inspiration: Drawn from the geography of the local area. Primarily through river / meander and landscape / clearing. |
Lennox Park & Community Centre Luke Gerzina |
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The site is a natural meeting of the city and the park. The aim of the project is to capture this DUALITY, and the borderlines of digital and real. The use of a green layer- which provides an urban park as well as underneath parking and activities- allows the site to re-orientate itself towards the riverside. The intention of the scheme is to create social spaces that provide services for: -Mediation Centre, Arts and Media Community College, Youth Centre, Office and retail spaces, Riverside walks and cafe. This is achieved by the overlapping of these functions and the blurring of this meeting of park and city. |
| Parramatta Visual Arts Centre
Carlo Go |
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The Centre, a long slender box hovering over the Parramatta River exhibits a series of interweaving gallery spaces that at once oppose and complement each other as an expression of the digital versus the analogue. While conventional art is exhibited in the warm, bright traditional galleries, digital art and installations are experienced within spaces stunningly programmed by light. |
Riverside Amoeba Samantha Goddin |
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Inspired by the river, the motion of water has been mimicked within the buildings' floor plates. They are overlapped, twisted and rotated at different scales to create fluid, wave-like gestures. A single envelope engulfs the outer most edge of each floor and thus, each building form is transformed into an Amoeba. Both buildings have a cylindrical centralised core that penetrates each and every floor plate; this represents the nucleus of each Amoeba. Inside, a dramatic array of vertical spaces emerge, enabling one to look down onto the multiple levels of traditional & digital art galleries along with the digital library hubs. Digital & virtual reality devices and a multi-use electronic sports court dominate the lower two basement levels t aking advantage of a pedestrian link underneath Church Street to draw people in from the existing Brandsmart complex. As society moves into an era emphasising energy efficiency, there is an increasing push for buildings to become ‘Green'. To explore this desire for an environmentally friendly building an intellectual façade system has been incorporated into the structure of the envelope. Developed in the UK, this Fluidised Glazing system is a natural solution to heating and cooling by way of pumping an aqueous fluid around the building. Capable of maintaining an internal temperature of 22°C throughout the year, this system only uses approximately 2.5% of the total fossil fuels of that in a conventional building and has a saving of around 24% of the capital building cost. The benefit of this system is that it enables high light transmission, a low radiant energy reflection and a very low solar gain to penetrate the building. In addition this system dissipates all the internal heat gains from the building such as people, lighting and equipment. The colour can also be changed at will to create varied environments over time, so at night when the building is lit from within, the building will glisten with an array of colourful lights drawing people in from all directons. |
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Andrew J Hallihan |
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Continuos organic form wrapping over the gallery as a roof, morphing into the residential towers facade. Continuos organic form creates a central public forum that spills on to the parramatta river foreshore. Gallery: Open continuos pavilion space with organic floating gallery volumes within the main space. Residential: Orientated around 25 story trafficable garden atrium which naturally ventilates whole building, drawing air in through the private double height residential winter gardens. |
| Playscape
Joy Hardy |
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Play, often considered the activity of children, need not be abandoned when one reaches adulthood. A recreational facility would be ideal for Parramatta as it would bring the community together and keep the town active for extended periods. This facility is modelled on the 4 types of play recognised in childhood: active play, fantasy play, creative play and social play. It houses the following: Gym, pool, dance studios (active) Outdoor cinema, games arcade, virtual reality room (fantasy) Exhibition spaces, communal artist's studios, private artist’s studios (creative) Market spaces, meeting spaces, eateries (social) The main idea is that one approaches the complex as if it were a game offering many different activities. As one enters the building he/she is met with a forest of columns. Everyone's journey through the building is different depending on the path one takes through the forest. The internal folding landscape is reminiscent of the forms of a playground. |
| Community Centre
Neil Haybittel |
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Parramatta is a city expecting enormous growth of its CBD population within the near future. Learning from the lessons of Sydney’s urban sprawl, Parramatta aims for much greater density of its built structures, composed partly of a greater residential content distributed evenly throughout the CBD. With this view in mind, the project will secure a significant portion of the city as community accessible space. It could be argued that Parramatta already has sufficient public open space allowances, but I propose a distinction between by centre and the existing. The Centre offers space for activity and use with its own self sustaining. Within the folded maze of the community centre, endless possible activities are enacted and all are visible to the city inhabitants. Any form of play thus becomes an impromptu performance for passers-by, and a simple stroll through the centre becomes a viewing of the current community condition and its endeavours. |
Landscapes Prudence Ho |
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The reality of the digital advancements that have made an impact in an urban setting can be seen in technologically advanced cities such as Tokyo. Densely lit streetscapes exemplify this attitude, crowded by glowing neon signs, flickering television screens and endless electronic billboards. Together they compose a dense landscape of shameless spatial compositions and functional combinations that are unheard of in western cities. These components become a background setting for the human activity that occurs within the public domain, transforming these streets into boulevards of light. An urban fabric such as this provides an engaging surface for the building mass upon which they clothe as the graphic pulsing of neon signs corresponds to the pulsing of physical movement by the people that inhabit the city. Yet when this situation is compared to a suburban landscape such as Parramatta, which does not have the density mass to support such a surface or the population to make this surface viable, how is it possible to achieve an engaging surface that is responsive to a suburban context? |
| Digitalics and Parramatta
Mathew Howard |
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The site presented an opportunity to integrate traditional art forms (theatre, visual arts) with elements of existing Western Sydney culture (cyber culture, retail) through an architectural program – a digital art and exhibition space. An investigation into the nature of physical and virtual thresholds, and the role of Digitalics in blurring these thresholds was the basis for not only the formation of the brief and program, but also the creation of the architectural form. The building became a landscape. Specifically, a skin interacting with the ground, which is able to open and close in order to accommodate changing functional requirements. When ‘closed’, the landscape provides maximum enclosure for digital art exhibitions (inside) and forms an informal amphitheatre in the middle of the site (outside). When ‘open’, particular spaces are transformed to accommodate markets and exhibitions that interact with the adjacent land uses within the precinct. |
Lennox Bridge Library Lucy Humphrey & |
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The library is a place within the city that represents both space and culture. It is a site of information and exchange, where lives, buildings, and bodies connect. The building anchors itself at the crossroads of the two arteries of the site and Parramatta city, Church Street and the river. It stitches the city to the park, camouflaging itself by incorporating pools and gardens within its programs. In our increasingly digitised environment, reality slips between the physical and the virtual, and in the pool + library context the digital experience of information is made startlingly physical. Your journey and progress is interrupted by immensely physical spaces, in a labyrinth of information that pulses, expands, contracts, and opens up into distinct chambers where different experiences take place. The information's format and use is uniquely expressed in an infinite, dense, ephemeral web of hybrid media. Distinct zones are characterised by local conditions and affects, creating a place that allows a freedom to explore the spatial possibilities of the meeting of the real and the virtual. |
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Hallum Jennings |
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The Parramatta Tech Centre is a response to the fact that a large proportion of the Population don’t participate in traditional recreational cultural activities. The interest in the younger population is towards technology. The Parramatta Tech Centre would incorporate a Museum with retail attached, and also have a learning centre adjacent. It would be the leading place to go for hands on learning and experimenting, either by visitors to the Tech Museum or by paying students involved in classes dealing specifically with Careers and skills in Technology. |
Parramatta Digital Arts Centre Alissandra Johnston |
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The image shows my vison of a Digital Art Centre for the people in and arount Parramatta. |
| Parramatta Cultural Centre - flux
Hung-Yu Ko |
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The Parramatta River has been ignored, overlooked by the city of Parramatta where the spirit of Parramatta really is based on the river. Being neglected, the Parramatta River in desire to make a statement of its existence by transforming itself into an architectural gesture and reveal to people the story behind the river, the city. |
Lennox Digital Media and Dance Studio Centre Shu Fun Kwan |
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The Centre aims to unite current cultural organisations that are in need of space to work and function. ICE (information and Culture Exchange) & the WSDA (Western Sydney Dance Action) have been relocated in the one building where the two mediums can have the opportunity to experiment. The site has been organised so that the public and the private can come in close interaction and providing an urban space for the community. The design focuses on circulation and the articulation and relation between the landscape and architect. The pattern and geometry employed creates a walkscape where all elements are autonomous but also part of a whole. Architectural elements and landscape elements harmoniously co-exists within the same space and a total landscape starts to emerge |
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Katie Ledlin |
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This scheme explores a proposal for a new cultural centre in Parramatta. The island building was inspired by the organic shape of a smooth river pebble. A series of beautiful observations using river overlays provided a basis for generating program areas. The brief includes a number of facilities whose function is centred around the idea, use and interpretation of water. The mixed program consists of gallery / installation spaces, public pools and hydrotherapy spa, culminating in a rooftop jungle garden and lookout platform. |
| Parramatta Sports + Recreation Centre
Siddharth Mansukhani |
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The Parramatta Sports + Recreation Centre has the potential to attract people to the city of Parramatta with its architecture and function. With Parramatta Stadium so close by, it gives the public an opportunity to participate in the sport as well as spectate. 9 transparent, outdoor courts at different levels create the dense, urban environment that the suburb needs. 24-hour access helps people keep out of trouble and into an active life. |
Sculpture by the River Sally McCarthy |
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For Sculpture by the River, Parramatta the aim was to create a design that is both symbolic and different. Parramatta is a river city yet one's experience of the river is largely limited to the backs of buildings, carparks and an uninspired stretch of concrete pavers. Sculpture by the River will change the river experience. The concept evolved by thinking about the way scientists and computers see our world with sonar views of the ocean floor to aerial and satellite views of the land. This technological view was translated into sculptural forms and applied directly to the scheme inside and out. The project is not about depicting the landscape but engaging with it. The design is incredibly bound to the site and engages a strong relationship with the specific characteristics of its surroundings. The project is an architectural study on the relationship between nature + construction. The gallery consists of a concrete, timber and glass box resting on the earth beneath. Rather than perching on predictable supports, the typography of the site rises up to meet the elevated form. When seen from afar, the supports appear as a point of contact where two surfaces meet. The building seems to be in a precarious balance, hovering above the ground. This form will create a large outdoor shade room providing relief from the summer heat. The sculpture gallery and parklands is about providing public amenity. It is a gift to the people of Parramatta. |
| Parramatta's Alleyways
Claire McCaughan |
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The alleyways condition is continually overlapping which forces the entire building to redefine itself from day to night through the events occuring at the crosspoints. Therefore the building becomes a true alleyway, one that people and events can occupy transiently and then leave for the next secret or adventure. |
digital bauhaus_global vehicle for parramatta Ben Mitchell |
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"let us desire, conceive, and create the new building of the future together. It will combine architecture, sculpture and painting in a single form and will one day rise towards the heavens from the hands of a million workers as the crystalline symbol of a new and coming faith" walter gropius' bauhaus manifesto 1919. Gropius framed his bauhaus manifesto around the industrial economy that prevailed in the early 20th century. The digital bauhaus exists in the knowledge economy that proliferates the digital, or post digital age of the early 21st century. If indeed we are to form a digital bauhaus almost a century after the original, then we clearly need to separate those elements of the bauhaus experience that present value, from those that simply reflect the historical context in which it was formed. Having framed these elements, the project responds to the fundamental paradigm shift from the industrial economy to the knowledge economy. |
Dreamtime Arts Complex George Moon |
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Inspired by the Aboriginal concept of Dreamtime and the Dreaming experience, the design for Dreamtime Arts Complex was conceived by drawing forth a diagrammatical ‘story' latent within the existing landscape. |
Lennox Bridge Event Centre Huw Morgan |
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The Lennox Bridge Event Centre is an attempt to fuse three separate functions into a fluid, dynamic and continuous whole. Multi-purpose event spaces, cocktail bars/entertainment venues and mediatheque facilities are combined within the building in such a way that the circulation throughout the building forms a continuous pathway, weaving together different functions in unexpected combinations. The building was designed as an element that would integrate and link separate pathways across the site within the functional spaces of the building. In this way, the building was an attempt to 'layer' new uses over the site, retaining some of the activities already existing on Church Street, rather than replacing the existing site with a new development. Several means of enclosing space within the building further develop the theme of continuity, stitching together volumes to form one sculptural whole. This approach to manipulating form and surfaces in order to enclose space is a uniquely digital sensibility, inherently linked to the increasing capabilities of computer software to shape form beyond what would otherwise be limited by physical means. |
Living Digital Art Jesse Mowbray |
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dynamic cities present recognisable landmarks that support and encourage a vibrant culture. as the gateway to the western suburbs parramatta is searching for such an architectural intervention. digital art digital art means more than online collections of non digital artworks. it is art that uses digital technology in one of several ways product > art that is digital in the final form process > art that is produced by digital means subject > art that discusses digital technology digital art is a new media that embraces evolving technology. as such it needs to be exhibited in a progressive and innovative manner digital art exhibition currently digital art lives only on the internet. however, to fully experience the potential of this art form it must be viewed public spaces amid architecture that magnifies its beauty. given that digital art is a progressive art form that many people yet to experience it is essential that the built environment create a similar sensory experience, something that is unfamiliar to the majority of people. parramatta is seeking to reinvent itself. as a landmark digital gallery this scheme provides the means to achieve this. |
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Matthew Nelson |
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A hotel for travelers, right in the middle of the market, the event, the city, the neighbours. There are no seperations between inside and outside, or hotel and street. The place is as local as a market, as international as Parramatta and as light as a loose framework through the sky. |
CULTURAL/ART COMPLEX Du Hoang Nguyen |
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PARRAMATTA – a city of multicultural diversity. Each community brought together a colourful contribution that made the city the way it is today. Thus to celebrate the people and the place a Cultural/Art Complex to created to present informations, statistics of its people as well as providing an Art facility to serve the public. It provides recognitions, appreciation as well as training facilities for the people. |
Parramatta cinema Van Khoa Nguyen |
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The building complex is to provide facilities in order to promote the digital art of Parramatta city. It includes auditoriums for digital film productions, a gallery for digital images and sculptures exhibition of local as well as international artists. The key idea is "a pebble field on the river bank" - contribute a digital expression to the area, the building itself is the landscape for public space with the aim to create a community activities, building activities and Parramatta river relationship. |
Parramatta - Regenerating City
Theresa Pan |
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To consider contemporary methods of approach in pursuit of uncovering the complexity of relations for the urban condition of Parramatta, one must engage in the exploration of the existing fabric, experiential and ethnical culture and program to understand the city from a psycho-geographical perspective. The city becomes a pixilated landscape of experiences, in flux at different rates over time of day, month or years Consequently, the architecture must act as an instigator for enhancing the dynamic nature of public spaces, as Andre Duany states ¡§We are prepared to sacrifice architecture on the altar of urbanism, because all architecture is meaningless in the absence of good urban design. Behind six acres of parking, a true cantilever is no more ethical than a fake arch.¡¨ The Lennox Bridge site participates as a fragment of this new condition and a series of prototypes can be constructed to test its solution. |
Hub Parramatta David Parsons |
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Hub Parramatta is a new mixed development proposal that incorporates the Parramatta Digital Arts Centre along with commercial and retail program. The Parramatta Digital Arts Centre is to be cultural facility that will showcase emerging artforms that have arisen from the advent of digital technologies, and it will be a facility that will re-invigorate the Parramatta CBD. One of the key aspects of the design will be to give public access to the riverfront and central plaza, and to connect to the existing riverside walk to the east. |
Imagelog Phillip Pham |
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Imagelog is about the digital image and the part it plays in our lives. The concept behind this building design revolves around this digital image as a container for space and time and the digital image in the internet realm. The internet works under a packet technology strongly linking back to the concept of containers and the modular. As such the building sits as a series of primary function concrete containers and secondary support recycled shipping containers. These containers will float within an interweb of structure providing an array of both physical and visual links. The prospect of 'browsing' this building will hence provide for a similar experience to browsing the internet which provides the opportunity for discovery and learning. |
Soundscape - the visualisation of sound James Polyhron |
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When the adjacent weir overflows, the forceful sound of the escaping water overwhelms the site, overpowering all other sounds and noises, including heavy traffic. |
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Wenhao Qiu |
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This project is about seasons – seasonal spaces, and about a river that flows through this city. It is about a building that is activated by its context. A building that carefully sits itself in the existing, a building that quietly brings the best out of its surroundings. |
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Adele Rowland |
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A new home for ABC Television in the geographic heart of Sydney to mark the 50 year anniversary of ABC broadcasting in Sydney, and as a home for ABC2 the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s free-to-air digital only channel. |
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Kyal Sheehan |
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Using information extruded from the site analysis, the design began as a two dimensional sketch depicting a "thread" of movement within the site. It was then imported into a digital medium where it was given three dimensional qualities (x, y, z axis). this enabled the thread to be manipulated, generating the buildings form, which was then developed with the intent of directing a new circulation pattern within the site; drawing people through and into the building. The facade is a representation of the dominant movement past it. A system was devised by the speed in which a person, vehicle or river travelled along it. |
Parramatta Commercial Centre - The Urban Sponge Stefan Stanowski |
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The design paradigm does not follow any particular functional allocation. The building is a composition of structural elements forming `mesh', and closed spaces, `volumetrics', creating rooms to accommodate functions as required by potential tenants. The volumetrics are created on "as needed" basis, and the structural mesh follows providing necessary support. In this way the building provides flexible framework, permitting maximum commercial viability. The building reacts to commercial requirements/opportunities like living sponge to favourable for growth conditions of nature. It respects and embraces nature surrounding it. It sits on slender columns and "touches earth lightly". The bridge over the Church Street connects the complex with busy neighbourhood on the other site of the street, drawing from it the vibrant atmosphere of urban environment and providing way of refuge to the calm of the ground level garden. The building extends also across the river and engages with the Riverside Theatre on the other site, incorporating the river into the garden and bringing people closer to water. At the ground level, where columns are mixed with plants, the building is almost non-existent. Through the ground level garden people can cross the site freely, gentle hum of escalators and hydraulic lifts invites them to enter the complex. |
Carpark of the Future Sarah St George |
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“Optimum freedom of movement for all, compatibility and complementarity between the different modes of individual and public transport, universal access to urban facilities and services and if possible, quality in the times and loci of movement, increased autonomy, comfort pleasure, environmental quality and safety of movement for all…” “…to contribute to the dynamics of social, scientific and cultural innovation and thereby improve the match between the facilities for movement and the different urban needs” “…multimodality and intermodality…” “…articulate the activities and spaces that would offer more continuity to the territories of movement.” City on the Move Institute, 2003. Inspired by Archigram’s Instant City, the research of the City on the Move Institute and the boys and their cars of Parramatta itself, the Carpark of the Future is a continuos auto loop of parking, shopping and cultural artefact. It draws cars in off the street and introduces them into the internal spaces of the building from which the patrons can experience those spaces without leaving the comfort of their vehicle. It is an homage to the culture of cars worldwide and to the microclimate of Church St on a Friday night. |
Parramatta Performance Market Sufian Supa'at |
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Design of a future urban typology, the cultural centre is designed as a speculation for the future building. The digital world is defined in this project as a state where information are transmitted and received in excess. And most of these information are transmitted through the visual media. What if these information do more than just informing? What if these visual information determines what we do in the space that our activities are never constant. The visual state of someone is often in constant change when perceived in various conditions. This project uses this idea and explores the many possibilities when the condition of the environment is varied. The idea of a market and the theatre is used as a basis to this test to have a building that represents a fragment of the future digital world. There are no corners, but folded levels and surfaces that give visual information to the users of what will happen next. There are overlaps of activities and the roles of the users. Will the painting seller now becomes an art curator? Or the grocer become conducting a live cooking show? |
Digital Media and Cultural Centre Chauntelle Trinh |
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Within the last 20 years, we have seen Parramatta transforming into a Major Metropolitan Centre as more and more people live and work in Western Sydney. In a Global context, it is worthwhile to investing in developing Regional Cities like Parramatta - Diversity and Innovation are valuable attributes; Culture and Art are lucrative commodities. |
Western Sydney Virtual Offices Daniel Wong |
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Grown on the banks of the Parramatta River from a seed of relationships which, itself, develops organically and exponentially. In this digital genesis of The Parramatta Digital Media Centre, a parametric design system was conceived which generates on the Urban/River site a Programmatic interplay of + Transitory space + Archival spaces [digital library interspersed amongst other public spaces] + Consumption spaces [such as cafes, retail, gourmet dining places] + Event spaces [new media, exhibitions and installations] + Experimental studio spaces [supports local/international creative community] From these meshing of program spaces is derived the resulting structural envelope of the building, which holds the programs and is itself stabilised by the internal plates. Growing over land and water, alongside, overlooking existing buildings, and hugging the contours of the site, the many vantage points of the Digital Media Centre yield many vistas of the city of Parramatta, the very organism on which itself was planted. Based on Lindenmayer Systems, a formal grammar developed by biologist Aristid Lindenmayer that models biological growth, the Digital Media Centre explores the manifestation of Deleuze's "divergent actualization", the ability of topological forms to give rise to many different physical instantiations. It explores the hypothesis that a topological approach to designing an architectural generation tool and exploration of its potentials and limits will yield an Emergent Architecture designed bottom-up. |
Evolving Topologies: Parramatta Digital Media Centre Julian Wong |
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The Western Sydney Virtual Offices recognises the isolation that is suffered by Sydney's West due to the poor infrastructure and transport connection to Central Sydney. The proposed building reconciles the virtual and physical dimensions into a single space, giving telecommuters a flexible hybrid workplace that is close to their neighbourhood. |
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Runyuan Xu |
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A building form that maps out path of the wind as a museum maps out history; A museum for the future to showcase humanity’s visions of the future; A vision of architecture for a new era with intelligent building enclosure that adapts to fulfil its functions. |
| Strings that Bind the City Together
Martin Lu Hoong Yap |
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The City of Parramatta is a relatively small commercial and economic Center when compared to the City of Sydney. Its main problem lies with attracting the younger generation to move to Parramatta because it is not considered exciting enough. The challenge is to change this perception. The development of the city is progressing through various key initiatives. However, a largely forgotten strength of Parramatta lies in its location and the landscape it is built upon - alongside a beautiful river, which has a rich history and heritage. In many levels, the point where Parramatta meets the river is an important place - the fresh water gradually loses it purity and becomes sea water- it used to be a main settlement for the Aborigines + early settlement of the colonies+ abundant food + good irrigation. Metaphorically it is a focal point. It is a point of connection that binds everything together. The riverfront which has for so long been neglected has the potential to be reinvigorated - that the river axis perpendicular to the main city axis - can work as a connector between physical attractors along the axis- and forms a strong link that binds the city together - more a spiritual state than a mental shape - a form of cultural and social string that aligns itself with the shape of the river. |
Library of Beautiful Books Matthew Young |
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The library remains one of the biggest physical and virtual gateways to information in our community. Access to this information is what has made the library one of the most powerful social and cultural tools of modern times. |
Design Studio Tutors: Background Renderings: Design: |
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Marc Aurel Schnabel (Co-ordinator); Chris Abel; Matthew Chan; Dagmar Reinhardt; Huw Turner Ben Mitchell; Paul De Sailly © 2006 Marc Aurel Schnabel |
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