Central Park Public Domain Design

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  • 2019

  • Architectural
    Place Design

Designed In:

Australia

The site offered immense possibilities; at the heart was the former C&U Brewery, surrounded by a built fabric of some of Sydney’s oldest workers’ cottages, terraces and warehouses. As landscape architects and urbanists, how could we reimagine and build on the site’s unique story and make a new Sydney place?


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  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT
  • MORE
  • JAAA+Turf were commissioned by Frasers to re-imagine the public domain of the C&U Brewery site. Their first task was to work with Foster + Partners, AJN, JPW, TZG and Tzannes Associates to review and refine the original masterplan inherited with purchase of the site. A large public park was always central to the masterplan intent. Orientating the park’s long axis with the frontage of existing Chippendale terraces proved vital in creating a place of meaning and connectedness for the community. The parks is set back from Broadway - creating an intimacy rarely achieved by a park of this size within a CBD.

  • Central Park’s public domain exemplifies how a well-considered and legible public domain framework can both unite a site and restitch a city. At the heart of the site is Chippendale Green; a north-facing park of terraced, sun drenched lawns tucked away from the frenetic pace of the city. A new city precinct delivered via an expanded and interconnected network of new places; streets, lanes, parks and plazas - breathing new life into what was a baron and desolate stretch of Broadway; while adding to the energy and vitality of inner city Chippendale.

  • Central Park’s public domain design meets the challenge of forging a robust and intelligent public domain that serves the local community and the city as a whole. Since opening in 2012, Central Park has quickly become a much loved new addition to city life. From the everyday dog walk or yoga class, to hosting bi-monthly markets and numerous annual major events, Central Park has been embraced by the community at all levels. Its precious family heirloom; the C&U Brewery will be completed this year, transforming the north-western corner into a bustling mix of market, community, economy and creative work places.

  • There are many projects that begin with an objective for excellence that grow weary with time and produce outcomes that are a mere shadow of the initial intent. Central Park has stayed true to its original vision; to be an urban precinct the world looks to for inspiration. In its detailing, the Carlton & United Brewery’s sandstone and bricks feature in the terraced lawns and flow into the shared laneways. The old is celebrated and juxtaposed with new architectural forms, exuding a relaxed yet richly connected sense of place. Through-site links connect Broadway and the city to Central Park and onto the laneways of Chippendale once blocked by the Brewery operations.