Bridge of Sighs

Sydney City council have called for a design for a new $25 million library and public plaza at Green Square in Sydney. The entries ranged from the dubious to the inspired, and amongst the myriad entries there were some bold and interesting proposals for the heart of one of Sydney’s newest villages.

Breaking away from our usual fare, we proposed a muscular truss that juts out over Botany Road, bridging the traffic below and creating a landmark that can be seen from afar. The public plaza is formed through a relationship where a dense clutch of trees opens onto a subtle interplay of grasslands and water, before progressing down a grand stair that gently alights on Botany Road.  All the while the truss flies above.  The rectangular, column free plan of the library allows the space to be organised using a diagrammatic free form arrangement of rooms or ‘zones’.