Project Overview

Darling Quarter is a true integration of urban design, architecture, and landscape architecture toward the creation of a public place within the City. Darling Quarter is where the western edge of the City and the Park meet and is celebrated in a series of defined public spaces, including a pedestrian boulevard, parklands, gateway, children’s playground, and activated edges lined with cafes and restaurants.

Commonwealth Bank Place is a very different type of office building in a very special location. It is an architecture of human scale, natural materials and warmth of character. The long gently curving facade defines and enhances the public realm with a warmth and transparency unusual in any commercial building.

The different scales of the east and west wings of the project respond to and reflect the varying scale of the park and city, united and resolved through the curved roof that draws natural light to the interior. These long forms of timber and glass, capped by the gentle curves and the scalloped apertures of the roof, create a background to the parkland and a foreground to the rising city beyond, uniting the two in a new public place, Darling Quarter.

Project Commissioner

Lend Lease

Project Creator

Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt)

Team

Architect
Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp (fjmt)
Richard Francis-Jones, Jeff Morehen, Johnathan Redman, Sean McPeake, Adam Guernier, Peter Russell, Sahar Koohi, Martin Hallen, Stephen Pratt, Soenke Dethlefsen, David Haseler, Annis Lee, Karina Kerr, Simon Lee, Samuel Faigen, Gareth Morgan, Ian Brumby, Joey Cheng, Prudence Ho

Landscape architect: Aspect Studios
Interior Designer: The E.G.O. Group; Davenport Campbell
Structural Engineer: Arup
ESD consultant: Arup
Mechanical services consultant: Arup
Electrical services consultant: Aurecon
Hydraulic services consultant and fire services: Warren Smith and Partners
Quantity surveyor: Lend Lease
Fire engineering: Defire
Developer, Builder, Project Manager: Lend Lease

Project Brief

Darling Quarter and Commonwealth Bank Place is the winning scheme in a competition held by the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority (SHFA). The scheme was successful for the urban design principles that reconnect the Sydney city centre to the site and the wider precinct, a focus on community initiatives to ensure precinct vitality and sustainable initiatives that far exceeded the competition criteria.

Following its transformation from disused docklands, Darling Harbour rapidly became one of Sydney’s key entertainment and most popular tourist precincts. However, the south-eastern part of Darling Harbour — the Darling Quarter precinct — remained underutilised.

The new development required an innovative mix of commercial and retail functions, public domain improvements and sustainable architecture to enliven the precinct. Through considered integration with the city, the project emphasises the area’s viability: not only for tourist and leisure purposes, but as a key part of an expanded CBD, offering a diverse range of experiences.

Project Innovation / Need

An important aspect of the project’s innovation and sustainability in design is not simply in the highest levels of sustainable accreditation, but the focus on occupant well-being and the creation of an enabling, supportive, and inspiring place to work.

Innovations include:
•The volume left between higher and lower blocks is enclosed by a curved glass canopy creating an atrium space, with the roof of the front block used as a terrace. Triangular leaves in the canopy produce a constantly alternating light and shadow display. The atrium also breaks up the deep office floor plates.
• The glass on the western facade, with irregularly spaced timber mullions, strengthens the visual transparency and connection to the park outside. On the roof, overlooking the community green and the trees, the informal terraces supply a focus for informal social gatherings.
• Between the deep, profiled mullions are adjustable timber louvres that control heat and glare automatically adjusted in relation to the position of the sun to create a comfortable office environment.
• Virtually clear glass is used for west facing facades with 62% Visual Light Transmittance (VLT).
• Landscape: The bespoke interactive water play area is the first of its kind.
• Lighting: The LED digital façade lighting is one of the largest interactive canvases in the world. Façade lighting is offset by solar panels.
• Blackwater system implements a fixed film biological treatment process, consisting of a moving bed bioreactor process combined with a membrane bio-reactor.

Design Challenge

A key challenge was how to place a large office building adjacent to one of the most loved public parks in Sydney. The approach taken was to develop a building which, through its geometry, its form and its materials sat softly and actually helped to define the park, thereby creating strong connections back into the city whilst moving backwards and forwards into Darling Harbour South. From Tumbalong Park it is impossible to register the size of the 59,000m2 buildings that accommodate over 6,500 employees. The buildings are equivalent to some of Sydney’s tallest office towers laid on their side.

Another challenge was that the new development required an innovative mix of commercial and retail functions, public domain improvements and sustainable architecture to enliven the precinct. The solution was to reconnect Darling Harbour South to the city through a bold new eastwest pedestrian gateway that dissects the commercial buildings and opens views to Tumbalong Park. A pedestrian link is established connecting the site from Chinatown to the Sydney Harbour foreshore.

Sustainability

Commonwealth Bank Place was designed to address a number of environmental initiatives — to reduce energy demand, increase indoor environmental quality, promote a more efficient use of water and resources and ultimately minimise the environmental impact from the whole-of-life
of the building.

The building has been recognised as a world leader in environmentally sustainable design and achieved the following Green Building Council of Australia’s (GBCA) ratings:
• 6 Star Green Star — Office Design v2 rating
• 5 Star Green Star - Office Design Interiors v1.1
• The first building to achieve 6 Star Green Star — Office As Built v3

The building and fit-out achieve a 72% reduction in carbon emissions in operation compared to the average performance of typical existing office buildings in Australia.

See the project innovation section above for a list of sustainable innovations provided by Darling Quarter.

Urban Design

This award recognises the process of designing and shaping cities, towns and villages, and is about making connections between people and places, movement and urban form, nature and the built fabric. 

Consideration will be given to giving form, shape and character to groups of buildings, streets and public spaces, transport systems, services and amenities, whole neighbourhoods and districts, and entire cities, to make urban areas functional, attractive and sustainable.

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