Jury citation
Darling Square has been carefully designed to embrace the challenges of urbanization and a diverse and growing community. Anchored by a new landmark public building with a green market square as its focal point, the project comprises a network of pedestrian-focused streets and laneways that function both as destinations and thoroughfares. New canopy trees provide shade and contact with nature, and are a welcome addition to the city’s urban forest. The Indigenous culture and language of the Gadigal people is brought to life through the inclusion of custom furniture and intricate fish scale paving that abstractly represents the area’s once-present water and its narrative of flood and water flow.
Darling Square celebrates the everyday and the opportunity to meet, eat and socialize in a new and diverse community. Local residents, international tourists, office and construction workers, nearby students and a growing nomadic workforce are seeking alternatives to the traditional office environment. The square has been carefully curated, through a series of meticulously designed, intimate public spaces that are deeply cognisant of the myriad ways people inhabit and experience space. The project fosters a new urban community and creates a “backyard” where daily life can extend into the public realm and where public life can unfurl.
Location: NSW
