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The latest transformation of the Bennelong
Restaurant create a rich yet restrained
sequence of dining spaces that honour and
complement the design principles of Utzons’
Sydney Opera House.
The restaurant is arranged as three distinct
dining areas, rectilinear in form and ordered
across three levels. Through creative
and innovative internal planning, the
architects have doubled the capacity of the
restaurant and for the first time in its history
accommodated wheelchair access.
Detailing is subtle and considered, following
a playful interpretive approach to the
architecture and materiality of the original
building. The involvement of the architects in
the design of furniture and fixtures results in
a sophisticated, integrated interior; of note
the arrangement of Tom Dixon glass lamps in
reference to the original Peter Hall designed
lights used throughout the Opera House.
The result is a seamless dining experience
overlooking Sydney’s most magnificent
panorama. The new Bennelong finally provides
what Lloyd Rees described as Sydney’s “Great
Outdoor Room” – the harbour and the urban
panorama that surrounds it – with a “Great
Dining Room” to match.
Photo: Brett Stevens
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURE AWARD
Bennelong
Tonkin Zulaikha Greer
Nestled into the upper ground floor of the
iconic 1940s heritage-listed Paramount
Pictures building in Surry Hills, this project
comprises twenty-two carefully detailed
timber office suites catering to niche and
small businesses.
Paramount delivers a new shared work space
concept that combines a luxurious approach
to materials with an inclusive approach to
program, balancing individual offices with
shared meeting rooms and communal areas
to encourage an office community.
The architects have conceived the design
conceptually as one large piece of joinery, a
single piece of timber with individual spaces
notionally carved from the whole. The interior
detailing and curved, staggered arrangement
of the office spaces creates a unique
spatial experience, full of surprises. Internal
arrangement of each office and meeting room
is carefully considered with bespoke door
handles, door signage and numbering, and
individual art pieces from some of Australia’s
most significant artists.
The overall quality of the space is one of
warmth and calm; a sumptuous cocoon. It
delivers a new typology for the commercial
office market and a new standard of
workplace in Sydney.
Photo: Trevor Mein
Paramount by The Office Space
Woods Bagot
At the intimate scale of a single apartment,
this project by Architect Prineas illustrates
the transformative power of good design. The
existing, commercially driven layout suffered
from a range of problems; poor connectivity
to its extraordinary harbour setting, prosaic
detailing, flimsy construction and low ceilings
all worked together to create a sense of dull
claustrophobia.
The refurbishment flips each of these
challenges to its advantage. Like a glossy black
magic box with golden brass fittings, the new
interior opens up or closes down to connect or
divide rooms, views and uses, expanding and
contracting ones sense of the space available.
The use of shiny finishes generates an
ambiguity between inside and out through the
reflection of light and image. Subtle shifts in
level further act to draw the inside out and the
outside in. All come together in a beautifully
detailed and experimental manner to create
this small architectural gem.
Photo: Chris Warnes
Apartment. Finger Wharf
Architect Prineas
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
COMMENDATION
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