Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners celebrated the completion of the final tower at International Towers Sydney. This marks the conclusion of the first significant part of the practice’s masterplan for Barangaroo South.
The ongoing redevelopment, Sydney’s largest urban renewal project since the 2000 Olympics, unites the CBD with the waterfront, provides a new financial services hub, and will create a vibrant new carbon neutral district in the downtown area. The project was developed by Lend Lease.
The building of International Towers Sydney has been the driving force behind the Barangaroo project. Conceived as three sibling buildings, harmonious but with distinct details providing individual character, the towers are carefully positioned on a radial geometry to maximise sunlight and views.
Opening out over the western harbour, they now mark Sydney’s new front door. The towers’ design turns convention on its head, creating a workplace for the future. 23,000 office workers will be housed in approximately 300,000m2 of premium office space across the three towers.
The flexible 2,500m2 floorplates will enable occupants, who already include Gilbert + Tobin, HSBC, KPMG, Lendlease, Marsh & McLennan, PWC, Servcorp, Swiss-Re and Westpac to personalise and arrange their office spaces according to their unique needs.
Day-lit lift lobbies, panoramic prows, 100% fresh air, high ceilings and large open vertical spaces throughout the buildings all combine to promote a state of the art workplace.
The unconventional lobbies are transparent and inviting, weaving into Barangaroo South’s tight network of streets and lanes, enriching the development, adding a new dimension to Sydney’s outdoor culture, and helping to give the towers human scale and impact at ground level.
The facades are functional as well as elegant, utilising a combination of horizontal and vertical shading to protect from solar load, reducing the energy needed for cooling, whilst also providing a unique colour, scale, filigree and grain to the individual towers.
The towers have received the prestigious 6 star Green Star rating, and along with the shading utilise a wide spectrum of environmental features including harbour water heat rejection, solar panels, rainwater capture and recycling, blackwater treatment, and a basement housing three times more bicycles than cars.
Richard Rogers said: “One of the main aims of this project was to extend the CBD down to the waterfront, creating a new district of work and leisure, with 50% open space. Since the towers have been built, the area has been teeming with people, life and vitality, showing that this was absolutely the right response to the area.
Working on a project of this scale has been an incredible opportunity for the practice to undertake a high quality piece of placemaking.”Source and images Courtesy of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.
