Barangaroo Harbour Park

Client:
Infrastructure NSW

Location:
Sydney, NSW

Completion:
Design competition won (2023)

Design Partners:
AKIN: Yerrabingin, Architectus, Flying Fish Blue, Jacob Nash Design, Studio Chris Fox

Architectus is part of the First Nations-led AKIN design team, winners of the New South Wales Government’s Barangaroo Harbour Park Design Competition – an initiative set to turn a prime stretch of Sydney waterfront into world-class open space.

The Sydney-based AKIN team is made up of Yerrabingin, Architectus, Flying Fish Blue, Jacob Nash Design, and Studio Chris Fox, with Arup as engineering consultants.

The group includes leading thinkers and designers in Indigenous knowledge systems, landscape architecture, architecture, regenerative design, public art, and placemaking.

The history and future of Barangaroo

Working alongside Infrastructure NSW, AKIN will reshape 1.85 hectares of reclaimed land in the heart of Central Barangaroo, the last section of the broader 22-hectare precinct to be developed.

Served by a new Sydney Metro station, ferry wharves, and pedestrian links, the new landscape will host public events and entertainment, while shops, restaurants, apartments, and offices will emerge around its edges.

Named after the Cammeraygal woman and influential leader of the Eora Nation, Barangaroo has more than 7,000 years of history and stories to tell. The land’s Traditional Custodians, the Gadigal, used the area for hunting, fishing, canoeing, and swimming, while its foreshore was a gathering place.

AKIN’s Country-led design is deeply rooted in this rich heritage, weaving together the threads of landscape, art, and architecture to create a place of connection, reconciliation, and regeneration.

A landscape connected to Country

Country-centered design initiatives will support regenerative ecology and natural systems, drawing insects, birds, and other fauna.

A landscape of local, native plantings will speak directly of place, with tree species such as Sydney Red Gum, Casuarina and Cabbage Tree Palm featuring prominently, along with a variety of endemic grasses.

Water will also play a vital role in the new parkland, with runoff collected and filtered through the landscape before being returned to the Harbour in better condition.

Artful elements across the park

The design incorporates major public artworks revolving around the natural elements of water, wind, and moon, referred to as ‘vessels’ by AKIN. The elements all have special significance in Indigenous knowledge systems.

The water vessel will form a connection point to the Harbor and a place for gathering and ceremony. Constructed from timber, it will reference pre-settlement campfires that burned along the Harbour as well as Sydney’s shared contemporary history. The piece will also frame Me-Mel Island (Goat Island), a physical and cultural landmark for Traditional Custodians.
Suspended in the windiest corner of the park, the wind vessel will symbolically ‘collect’ the people who pass through it. It will also give a ‘voice’ to whispering winds coming into Barangaroo from the west each morning, sharing stories, songs and language with all the park’s visitors.
Featuring an oculus and a reflective, lined underside echoing tidal lines in the Harbour, the elevated moon vessel will capture the movement of the moon across the sky. The west-facing site is a landscape of longing that never sees a dawn – an ever-present reminder of time as the sun and moon are always transiting away from this place.

In addition to the public artwork, this new destination will provide open space for up to 6,000 people to gather, with benches, paths, bike storage, cafés, and other amenities adding to the park’s diverse appeal.

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