Sustainability highlights
Our design for Darling Harbour is ‘green, global and connected’, taking its lead from the city’s ‘Sustainable Sydney’ vision.
Highlights include water-sensitive urban design solutions, better transport and pedestrian connections, and 30% more public space – earning the precinct a 6 Star Green Star Communities rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.
All up, we incorporated 650 new trees and 9,000sqm of green space. Our selection of drought-tolerant plants and unique soil composites – along with the integration of elements such as permeable paving and stormwater harvesting tree pits – ensures this precinct needs minimal irrigation.
Precinct
- A drawcard for events – one major, integrated venue (ICC Sydney) within three exceptional public buildings, plus Tumbalong Park serving as a high-capacity, open-air event space with staging facilities
- A connected precinct – an enhanced network of lanes and streets including The Boulevard – a 680m-long, Eucalypt-lined promenade that anchors the entire site
- A dynamic destination – lively, flexible urban spaces such as the Chinese Garden Square – a forecourt to the existing Chinese Garden of Friendship, with shallow water pools for play that switch off to make way for markets and event installations
- A greener harbour – 9,000sqm of extra green space, featuring plenty of native species to make this a better urban habitat
- A very Sydney ‘story’ – a program of public art and landscaping inspired by Darling Harbour’s history, ecology and waterfront location
Awards
- 2019 Singapore Institute of Planning Awards – Best Urban Design (International Category) – Gold
- 2019 Singapore Landscape Architecture Awards – Silver Award – Parks and Recreational Landscape
- 2019 International Federation of Landscape Architects (IFLA) – Award for Excellence – Cultural and Urban Landscape
- 2019 Good Design Award – Gold Winner – Architectural Design: Urban Design
- 2019 The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies, International Architecture Awards – Urban Planning / Landscape Architecture Award
- 2019 WLA Awards (World Landscape Architecture) – Merit Award – Built Large Category
- 2018 Australian Institute of Architects National Architecture Awards – The Walter Burley Griffin Award for Urban Design
- 2018 Australian Award for Urban Design – Commendation for built projects: city and regional scale
- 2018 Australian Institute of Architecture (New South Wales) Awards – The Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design
- 2015 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (New South Wales) Awards – Award for Urban Design in Landscape Architecture