Construction is underway on an 18,000-square-metre expansion of Wollongong Central shopping centre, just south of Sydney.
The design, by Rice Daubney and GPT, improves pedestrian access and light penetration along the full length of the street frontage. The expansion will connect seamlessly with the existing complex and will deliver the first Coles supermarket to the city centre, as well as eighty new specialty stores and more than six hundred additional car spaces.
The architects commissioned Advance Narrative to undertake research that would give them a contextual understanding of the history of Wollongong and its people. Themes that emerged included the significance of the region as a corridor for trade, its history of dairy production and mining and the importance of shopkeepers in encouraging local identity and loyalty.
A new facade will reflect the natural environment and local history of Wollongong in both its form and the materials used. The building design evokes the layered form of the escarpment that dominates the Illawarra coastline. Variegated, weathered steel blades in the form of tall gums and tallowwood trees reference the local steel industry and history of Wollongong, while the unique shape of the Illawarra flame tree is found in the pre-fabricated, embossed panelling.
The expansion is expected to take two years to complete.
