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Sydney Fish Market Reference Project

“Allen Jack+Cottier Architects’ proposal ‘transforms a world bigger than itself. It addresses matters of real life, visceral life, food and transport. The architects executed their role in an exemplary and inspiring fashion” The Super Jury of World Architecture Festival 2017

The marketplace will showcase Australia’s young and vibrant food culture and become a hub for the fresh food industry that brings together quality food, dining, research and education. The marketplace will create generous open spaces which offer a maritime experience at the water’s edge, where fishing boats unload their catch and ferries and yachts moor and depart.

Beneath the generous open spaces will be auction and wholesale facilities and improved transport access. As part of the wider precinct, the markets will reconnect Blackwattle Bay and Wentworth Park providing a site of metropolitan, state and national significance.

An Opportunity for Sydney The Sydney Fish Markets is one of the top ten tourist destinations in Australia and its success has seen it become a gateway location for international visitors to experience fresh local produce, unparalleled in the country. The current location is spectacular beneath the Anzac Bridge and orientated to views across Blackwattle Bay towards Glebe.

The fish market facility itself, is an active wholesale and auction house providing visitors and patrons with a rich and dynamic experience.

To the south west of the Fish Markets sits Wentworth Park, a stretch of attractive open space framed by a historically significant rail viaduct and a magnificent stand of Fig Trees. It has the potential to become a far more significant and valuable public asset, particularly if its proximity to the Fish Markets and Blackwattle Bay is exploited.

Time for Renewal Despite the continuing success of the Sydney Fish Markets, they are overcrowded, dangerous, odorous and dilapidated. The main building is a repurposed paper warehouse and is a poor fit for the current function, having serious servicing, refrigeration and air-conditioning problems.

Vehicular and pedestrian access to the site is convoluted and congested with an absence of obvious solutions, creating a major barrier to growth. The markets are also too closely located to the noisy Western Distributor motorway that towers above it, stealing sun access to the site in the mornings.

Although these issues have been acknowledged by all of the stakeholders, government and other authorities for over twenty years, the complexity of the ownership and leasing agreements have prevented the development of a Fish Markets offering, either in the current location or elsewhere.

• Date
  Future
• client
  Urban Growth

• Awards
• 2017
  World Architecture Festival (WAF)
  Winner in Future Projects Masterplanning Category
• 2017
  World Architecture Festival (WAF)
  World Future Project of the Year 2017