Australian architects have won the World Architecture Festival Awards’ Future Project of the Year prize for a second year in a row. Allen Jack and Cottier and NH Architecture’s reference design for the relocation of the Sydney Fish Market was named the winner of the award at a ceremony in Berlin on Saturday 18 November.
The design also won the Future Projects Masterplanning award on the first day of the WAF Awards program.
The Future Project award was judged by a jury comprising Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham Architecture), Isay Weinfeld (IW Arquitectura) and Monica von Schmalensee (White Arkitekter).
The jury praised the design for the “great transformation it offers to the area.”
“Its success stems from the engagement and collaboration with politicians, developers and land owners.”
Allen Jack and Cottier and NH Architecture’s reference design formed the basis for an international call for registrations of interest by the NSW government for the final design of the new complex. More than 60 international and domestic practices responded.
Sydney Fish Markets reference design by Allen Jack and Cottier and NH Architecture.
Image: Allen Jack and Cottier and NH Architecture
Danish practice 3XN was awarded the contract for the design in June, leading a team that includes the practice’s innovation arm, GXN, in charge of sustainability, BVN as executive practice, Aspect Studios and landscape architect and Wallner Weiss as public art specialist.
The fish market will be relocated to a wharf in Blackwattle Bay on Bridge Road in Glebe, adjacent to the existing market in Pyrmont. The project will also restore public access to Wentworth Park, located opposite the proposed site for the new market.
It will more than double the size of the existing market, with 35,000 square metres of floor space, including 15,000 square metres of retail space for seafood and fresh produce. The new development will also include outdoor seating for more than 3,000 people, as well as wharves with mooring spaces for fishing and recreational vessels.
In the reference design, the architects explained, “The essence of our concept is to provide a seamless integration of Wentworth Park and Blackwattle Bay through the re-establishment of the Sydney Fish Market at the head of Blackwattle Bay.”
The win is the second by Australian practices in as many years, with Hayball winning the Future Project award last year for its proposal for a vertical school in South Melbourne.
Fitzroy Crossing Renal Hostel by Iredale Pedersen Hook.
Image: Peter Bennetts
Another Australian practice, Iredale Pederson Hook was also named a top award winner in Berlin, taking home the Best Use of Colour Prize for its Fitzroy Crossing Renal Hostel in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.
Elsewhere, the Chinese University of Hong Kong won the World Building of the Year award for the post-earthquake reconstruction/demonstration project of Guanming Village, which reinvented traditional building technologies in the wake of the 2014 Ludian Earthquake.
A strong showing by Chinese projects also saw the Landscape of the Year Award presented to Turenscape for the Recovered Archaeological Landscape of Chengtoushan, while the Inside World Interior of the Year award went to Neri and Hu Design and Research Office for The Garage: Beijing B Plus Automobile Service Center.
For other Australian winners from day one and day two of the 2017 WAF/Inside Awards, go here.
