In cities around the world, developers and governments are recapturing big swaths of centrally located real estate from industrial areas—now that many of those industries have long gone defunct. For Sydney, much of that activity has been focused on Darling Harbour, where the government has invested $3.4 billion in a decades-long transformation of a once-bustling industrial harbor, turning it into a mixed-use district. Within this area-in-transition, property developer Lendlease has begun work on what it calls Darling Square, a new neighborhood set to accommodate 4,200 residents. If Sydney has its Opera House, then Darling Square, not to be outdone, will now have its own icon: the Darling Exchange, designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.
The project, Kuma’s first in Australia, will be a six-story building clad in glass and wrapped in a series of concentric ribbons of wood. Inside, it is slated to house a new library with a coworking space, restaurants, shops, and a ground-level market. A rooftop bar will offer views of the surrounding land and Cockle Bay.
The new building will offer views of downtown Sydney.
Kuma called the design “as open and tangible as possible to the community,” likening its form to a hive, in reference to the harbor’s history as a hive of economic and industrial activity. The building, which is scheduled to open in 2018, will sit amid a new public square, to be designed by Aspect Studios, an Australian landscape architecture and urban design firm. Since the building will be situated in an open public space, its circular geometry, as Kuma explained, will make it “accessible and recognizable from multiple directions.”
