New South Wales Sites
Sydney
Olympic Park, Homebush Bay, Sydney
artilce published Landscape Australia no 22 (3- 2000)
Station Square Homebush Bay
by Ross de la Mott
The design and delivery of transportation projects have seen a worldwide renaissance over the past decade, along with renewed vigour in the adjacent public domain.The Homebush Bay Rail Link is part of this resurgence.
There has been a welcome renaissance in the design and delivery of transportation projects in Europe over the last decade. The Bilbao Metro and London's Jubilee Line Extension are exemplars of the vision of enlightened governments who have embraced design excellence as a catalyst of urban renewal. Significantly these landmark projects are strategic initiatives in the marketing of rail travel to a public more attuned to the sexy imagery of fast cars and even faster jets.
At the same time a new imperative, manifest in seminal works such as the Sants Station Square in Barcelona by the late Enric Miralles and the Placa de la Constitucio in Gerona established the profound importance of the public realm around transit facilities.
Station Square
The Homebush Bay Rail Link in Sydney, commissioned by the Olympic Co-ordination Authority and constructed by Leighton as the sun set on the twentieth century, has also proven to be a watershed project and the vanguard of a new commitment to public transportation and place making in Australia.
Station Square is the third component of the $95m Homebush Bay Rail Link designed by HASSELL. The square completes the initial masterplanning and urban design works (alignment, road and rail bridges, walls, fences and planting) for the rail corridor and complements the acclaimed Olympic Park Railway Station.
Station Square is a simple public space, a fact that belies the rigours of the design process, the exhaustive client review process fuelled by the weight of Olympic expectations, and the myriad changes of scope that impacted on the design as the 1998 Royal Easter Show deadline approached.
The square is a broad, flat plane of porous and honed concrete pavers that sits comfortably on top of the low hill at the core of the international sports precinct. Copses of mature Jacaranda (Jaccuandu minlosifolia) and Manchurian Pear (Pyrus ussuriensis) set in a tight grid. mark the forecourt and flanks of the station, fulfilling the original conception of a seamless fusion of internal and external space. They will provide shade and shelter to the 50 000 people per hour who will use the station as the gateway to the site in peak events.
Flush edges to the adjacent roads, directional and tactile paving, and the carefully considered placement of street furniture, have created a barrier-free space that is robust and legible. The space has an easy ambience at all times, but especially at night when the pavement glows with the reflections of the station canopy It is a safe and calm place in the heart of the Olympic cauldron.
Conclusion
The project's success is testament to a unique collaboration between local and international designers, the construction industry and government. The Homebush Bay Rail Link has proven unequivocally that infrastructure can contribute to the quality of our cities, deliver urban monuments that express our culture, celebrate our technology and ingemtity. and provide places for people that are beautiful and enduring.
Client
Olympic Co-ordination Authority
Project Team
Principal Consultant & Designer: HASSELL: Ross de la Motte, Chris Thomas
Design: Hargreaves and Associates and Government Architects Design Directorate
Project Manager: GHD.
