Projects

Dupain, King Street Wharf

Year Designed: 2005
Client: Multiplex
Location: Sydney, Australia

ARM won a City of Sydney design competition for a major new commercial and residential project on Sydney's renowned Darling Harbour (see also Leftbank, King Street Wharf). The competition brief asked to "stimulate imaginative architectural/urban design proposals". Through innovative technology the famous Max Dupain photograph "Bondi" is to be constructed on the façade of the 14-storey office building.

Our solution generates a large north-facing façade with balconies maximizing the harbour outlook. The image only gets clearer at a distance - like the view through venetian blinds, or squinting to see more clearly in bright sunshine, the image is as if recomposed, perfectly rendered in our minds, a kind of presence of the imagination. Meanwhile up close, the striations of the image which make the balconies are no longer tied to the photographic. The wobbly bands are highly sculptural balustrades - strange intriguing shapes up close, but at a distance, and especially to international visitors arriving by ship at Wharf 8, an icon for Sydney.

This theme of the blurred image is also deployed on the southern side of the tower now in the shade as if escaping exposure. The anamorphic forms are rendered from an oblique projection, as if walking in to the distance. The aluminium fins create an intriguing vertical pattern read against a conventional glazing system.

On the ground, the entry to the building enjoys a landscaped plaza, with paving reflecting the Bondi image of the façade, like reflections in water or ripples in beach sand.

The Dupain is currently in the marketing phase and has now commenced construction. For marketing enquiries please contact:

Dupain Display Suite
Suite 431 Level 4
5 Lime St
King Street Wharf
call 13 38 38 or visit
www.dupaincommercial.com.au

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