Wynyard Walk and Tonsley Main Assembly Building featured in “The Material City”

The two sites, which were reviewed by a panel of architects and complemented by a series of 18 essays, are Wynyard Walk in Sydney, Australia and Tonsley Main Assembly Building in Adelaide, Australia.

Covering a range of scales and project types, “The Material City” covers the ingenuity of the profession. Its case studies span contemporary issues such as the melding of historical and contemporary constructions, renovations, multifamily complexes, building density, affordability and transportation. The subjects were reviewed and selected by architects Andrew Benn, Mel Bright, Adam Haddow, Michael Heenan, Bob Nation, Rachel Neeson and Stephen Varady.

Sydney’s Wynyard Walk—which was dubbed a work of “infrastructural significance” when it won the 2018 Australian Interior Design Awards’ Best Public Design category—is a public transportation intervention has managed to cut a previously 15-minute-walk into just six. Its sinuous forms and wayfinding strategies help as many as 20,000 commuters to travel through it on an hourly basis.

“Wynyard Walk satisfies our human desire to follow the most straightforward route and in a memorably wonderful way. Your journey flows uninterrupted underground and into the light-filled gateways of the Clarence Street and western portal entrances. The integrated digital art combines art, culture and technology to create a series of visual experiences – it’s a thoroughly beautiful encounter,” Domenic Alvaro, Global Design Leader and the project’s Design Director, said.

The Tonsley Main Assembly, designed in collaboration with Tridente Architects, in Adelaide repurposed a retired an automobile assembly site into an open-air community space. Its role helped to promote the ongoing development of a 61-hectare innovation district in the city. To support a sustainable agenda, the architects avoided a typical industrial approach and pursued a community with multiple offerings, such as a public space and food and beverage amenities. The outcome is a project that has multiple, positive impacts on the city’s economy, environment and culture.

“A critical issue of contemporary culture and our profession is the role architecture can play in repairing and developing the built environment for great community benefit,” Thomas Masullo, Director and Tonsley Project Director, said.

The publication will be released at a launch party on February 5, 2019, at Brickworks Building Products’ Sydney studio—which sponsored the project. It is curated and edited by writer and historian Ron Ringer and published by Smithfield, Australia-based Dry Press Publishing.