Quay Quarter Lanes

This porous city precinct in central Sydney layers different kinds of public activity to create a generous urban experience. Comprising a sequence of places connected by a pedestrian-focused public domain, Quay Quarter builds upon the existing network of streets and laneways to create new platforms for public activity. The project stitches together the redevelopment of two heritage buildings and three new mixed-use buildings at Circular Quay. A new continuous ground plane, fixed furniture, high-quality materials, new artworks, and a rich planting palette have transformed the space into an engine of activity. Concurrently designed with the new mixed-use buildings that surround it, the public realm responds to the articulated frontages of those buildings by carving out miniature plazas and squares in the space left by setbacks and recesses, creating a mix of semi-defined spaces that invite people to linger. The centrepiece of the project is Loftus Lane, once a service lane used only by delivery drivers and the odd taxi. The lane has been returned to public life by rationalising the vehicular building entries into a single basement entrance – sweeping the cars out of the laneway and replacing them with a lively civic space. The project has experimented with ways to create commercial elements that are sustainable for both the operators and the community they service. Rather than offering several large tenancies, care was taken to ensure that a finer-grain selection of spaces with small floor plates is available. This has resulted in a denser, more interesting mix of retail and food and beverage offerings. The project exemplifies a synergistic relationship between architecture and landscape architecture. Constructed in tandem with the surrounding mixed-use high-rises, Loftus Lane and Quay Quarter and the new buildings that populate it, have each been designed to draw out the best qualities in each. For example, following an assessment of the proposed designs for the buildings, the landscape architects worked with the architects to adjust the massing of their towers to carve out corridors for light to travel into the laneway. The result is a green, sunlit space that stimulates activity throughout the day. Materially, attention was lavished on small details. Filigree brass elements will weather as time passes, with the changing patina a reminder of how this space belongs to the public. The planting throughout the space is rich and stimulating and enmeshed within the landscape are artworks by an Indigenous artist which invite inquiry and reflection on the interplay between the city’s First Nations and colonial heritage. These artworks play an important role in reconciling the contested history of the site. Quay Quarter sits in a historically resonant and culturally important area for the Gadi people, and the integrated artworks illustrate these stories and themes. Several of these works reference Arabanoo, an Aboriginal man captured by settlers, and the site’s marine history. The area’s colonial past has been preserved and revealed in a pair of sandstone buildings, which bookend the laneway’s social spaces.