Sydney Barangaroo Masterplan
Core idea
CBD waterfront expansion with park and mixed uses
Why it matters
Iconic addition to Sydney’s harbor city
Description
The Barangaroo Masterplan, developed from 2009 for a 22-hectare former container port on the western edge of Sydney's central business district, extends the city to Darling Harbour's waterfront. Delivered by the New South Wales government with Lendlease as principal developer and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners among the lead designers, it combines the high-rise commercial precinct of Barangaroo South, a residential and cultural middle zone, and the re-created sandstone headland park of Barangaroo Reserve.
Significance
Barangaroo is Australia's most prominent recent waterfront regeneration, emblematic of both the ambitions and controversies of large-scale public–private redevelopment. It has been intensely debated over the privatisation of harbourfront land, repeated increases in permitted density, and the late insertion of the Crown casino tower, while the Reserve's naturalistic headland has been praised as a significant act of landscape restoration.
What shaped it
- The diesel ship and the modern port (diesel ships from 1912; container shipping 1956)
- World becomes majority urban (2007)
- Global financial crisis (2007–2009)
- Landscape urbanism (Waldheim) (1997-2006)
Plans it influenced
Sources
- https://www.rsh-p.com/projects/masterplanning/barangaroo-south-masterplan/
- https://www.barangaroosouth.com.au/about/