Craig Baudin from Fender Katsalidis is living out his passion for ambitious and complex urban design as the lead Australian architect behind Central Place Sydney.
Central Place Sydney is part of the Central Precinct Renewal Program transforming the land in and around Central Station into a new space for business and community. Baudin describes Central Place Sydney itself, which will take the form of two large commercial towers, as “a project that allows Central Precinct to happen by giving it a frontage and a key logistical connection to Haymarket and Lee Street”.
“That’s the exciting thing for me about it, it’s about transforming the way people experience that part of the city and creating new linkages that don’t exist,” he said.
Baudin said those who will be working at Central Place Sydney can be guaranteed a next-generation, leading-edge workplace.
“Central Place has got some really ambitious sustainability and wellness credentials. We are aiming for a Six-Star Green Star Buildings Rating as well as a Platinum WELL rating, a wellness rating tool globally accepted around health and wellness aspects of workplaces”.
He said in a post-pandemic world people want to feel inspired by where they work and that their designs are not about “chasing a rating” but are about creating the best outcome for workplaces. This will be achieved by integrating natural greenery, natural ventilation, a connection to the outside world and green outdoor breakout spaces and terraces.
A key design goal for Central Place has been considering how to create a hierarchy of spaces. While some elements will be purely functional - like spaces to run for a train - there will also be spots carved out for placemaking where people can pause and dwell.
“That’s the fundamental power of the scheme we came up with, trying to create a variety of public realm experiences that wasn’t all just major thoroughfare space,” he said. Baudin added that being right on a transit hub was a big value add to their site
“The key that thing we’re trying to avoid is just having Henry Deane Plaza and this Central Precinct be a series of transitory spaces”.
He said he believes that the City of Sydney is doing the right thing in the way it’s approaching the polycentric nature of things, making the city liveable at street level and looking at placemaking and vibrancy to make it a great place to be.
“When cities get to a certain scale: if you can’t figure out how to break them up into manageable neighbourhoods that are great to be in, it collapses under its own weight,” he said.
If you’d like to find out more about Central Place Sydney listen to the whole episode of the podcast here.
