The finalists have been announced for the East Darling Harbour Competition. This ain’t one of them.

My entry presented an urban strategy rather than an architectural solution. It acknowledged the significance of the site through a singular urban intervention.

The proposal was to cut a new fingerwharf out of the site creating a public park 50% larger than the brief called for. Buildings were placed along the edges of these waterways at a consistent height that matched the height of the adjacent sandstone cutting.

Sydney is a contained city - the CBD is held in place along its edges by the harbour, its parks and arterial roads. It is not a gridded city, it has edges and this scheme builds on this urban morphology.

The presentation boards:

Board 01 - Site Plan

Board 02 - Site Strategies

Board 03 aka The Weak Board - Typical Plans and Sections.

Board 04 - Perspectives. As supplied and required in the competition brief.

The Model

Thankyou to Andrew Cortese (who, incidentally, was the registered entrant) and Matthew Bennett for their help and input.

And to Rose Jiminez and her rotating team of model makers - Hannah Tribe, Valeria Zalin, Matthew Bennett and Antoinette - for making the world’s fastest, sharpest model of Sydney in a day.

Rose, Hannah and Valeria trashing my tiny flat.

I may be bitter about the piecemeal entries that got selected but, gosh, we had fun.