Woolloomooloo Apartments
Country / Gadigal
Located along what would have been a sandstone escarpment leading down to Woolloomooloo Bay, the Woolloomooloo Apartments form part of a larger mixed-use precinct proposed in collaboration with Bangawarra, Studio Bright and fjcstudio. One of six buildings, the Tribe Studio building draws on the rich stories of place and existing context to find its language, materiality and form.
Rising out of the ground, the building’s solid public base recalls the weathered sandstone escarpment while activating the edge of a new central public park with several dining options. The park contributes a much-needed green space to the area, working hard to serve as a gathering space for the local community and restore a balanced micro-ecology to the site.
Along the south side of the building, a new series of sandstone stairs connect the park to the street, mediating the steep escarpment, and tying into the local network of existing stairs. This dramatic cool gully in the escarpment landscape is flanked by the southern façade of our building - a folding 7 storey wall of glittering recycled glass tiles enlivening the passage recalling snapper scales, fishhooks and the intricate Sydney-specific dilly bag stitch, ‘djuguma’.
Currently occupied by several commercial and warehouse buildings, we consider the site as an abundant mine of materials ready for reuse. Bricks, steel trusses, rubble and stone are planned for use throughout the precinct, banking the embodied carbon debt.
