FUTURE PROJECT OF THE YEAR
22 Nov 2017
The design for the Sydney Fish Market redevelopment has been awarded the World Future Project of the Year award at this year’s World Architecture Festival in Berlin.
The Sydney Fish Market reference scheme by AJ+C and NH Architecture has been announced as World Future Project of the Year 2017 at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin. Judges described the project as the “clear winner” in its category for finding a solution to a challenging brief.
The World Architecture Festival (WAF) is the largest, annual, international, live architectural event in the world. It includes the biggest architectural awards programme in the industry, dedicated to celebrating excellence via live presentations to an audience of high-profile delegates and international juries. 
AJ+C and NH Architecture prepared the reference scheme and urban design framework documents for UrbanGrowth NSW, which were used as the briefing documents for the Sydney Fish Market Competition and Redevelopment. Their solution involved mitigating the inherent risks of redeveloping the current site, by relocating the existing fish market from its location in Pyrmont to a nearby wharf at the head of Blackwattle Bay, opposite Wentworth Park.
The existing location could then be transformed into a mixed-use development site. “Our approach for the reference scheme recasts the whole idea as not a building in Blackwattle Bay, but rather a large publicly occupied wharf with a filigree canopy floating over it that happens to have a market in it,” explains Michael Heenan, CEO and Principal of AJ+C. 
This approach was seen by the architects as fundamentally important that the project should not be about the building as an occupying object but rather a public space that extends Wentworth Park. The project was awarded by a super jury of names, including James and Stephen Timberlake, for opening up “the greatest transformation of the future in all its forms” and addressing matters of real life, visceral life, food and transport.
Following the international design competition, 3XN Architects is heading up a design consortium that includes, GXN in charge of sustainability, Sydney firm BVN as executive architect, Aspect Studios as landscape architects, and public art specialist Wallnerweiss. As part of the consortium FJMT will develop a masterplan, with Mott Macdonald, Royal Haskoning DHV and Arcadis providing engineering and development services for the entire Bays Market precinct.
