Ashmore Estate

The site sits at a spatial and temporal nexus. The immediate surroundings comprise apartments, terraces, industrial and lush green parkland. Over time, the distribution of uses is ebbing and flowing. This site will be a catalyst for dramatic change within the Ashmore Estate.

To the east are Botany and Cascade, which form the first stages of Park Sydney, Erskineville.

Beyond is the Cooper Estate, originally developed in the 1880s to house the workers for the nearby industrial areas. Typified by both row houses and free-standing dwellings, it is interspersed with small-scale workshops that introduce a richness and texture into the context.

To the west are recent multi-unit residential developments that bring a new and contemporary visual language to the precinct.

To the north is the lush green of the Erskineville Oval – a resource for residents, as well as a visual counterpoint to the urban surroundings.

The site itself is beginning a transition from industrial to include new greenery, new connections, new retail, and new dwellings.

In the past the site was home to Hadfields Steel – a foundry that produced a vast array of iron and steel components for large-scale machinery.

These stories are important to the site, and find their expression within the design concept in a manner that transforms the essence of place and time into a new form, with an underlying continuity.

The proposal explores these intriguing combinations of differences and sequences in order to find a site-specific lexicon for the architecture.

The varying typologies of townhouse and apartment within the proposal also act as a springboard for further architectural dialogue.