[interview] the project story
Image Credit : Brett Boardman
Project Overview
Anchored to the South Wharf of Sydney’s Darling Harbour, The Australian National Maritime Museum's Waterfront Pavilion was built to mark the centenary of World War I and commemorate 100 years of service by the Royal Australian Navy.
The design seeks to bring the narratives of war to life and significantly enliven the visitors relationship with the vessels, waterfront and broader museum precinct. The articulated facade of the pavilion compliments the scale, form, colour of the vessels and the broader marine environment. The Waterfront Pavilion offers a dynamic, immersive experience and is an elegant, integrated addition to the harbour precinct. The pavilion is further shaped by the primary forms of the adjacent vessels themselves, the conning tower of the submarine and the bridge of the destroyer creating central formal distortions. These distortions are then transformed into large glazed portals that frame lateral views onto the surrounding vessels.
Project Commissioner
Australian National Maritime Museum
Project Creator
Team
Lead Consultant / Architect - fjmt studio:
Richard Francis-Jones (Design Director)
Jeff Morehen (Managing Director)
Elizabeth Carpenter (Principal Architect)
James Perry (Project Architect)
Lilian Lau (Architect)
John Perry (Engineer)
Daniel Bourke (Designer)
Joshua Heresford (Graduate Architect)
Consultant/Construction Team Members:
Acoustic Studio (Acoustic)
Warren Smith and Partners (Fire Services) (Hydraulic Consultant)
Steensen Varming (Electrical/Lift) (Mechanical Engineer)
Taylor Thomson Whitting (Facade Engineer) (Structural Engineer)
Red Fire (Fire Engineer)
Accessibility Solutions (Accessibility)
Group DLA ( BCA)
Project Brief
The project brief for The Waterfront Pavilion was to provide to the public a destination which is an integral part of the Museum collection that serves to enliven the waterfront, improve visitor experience and access to the vessels HMAS Vampire and HMAS Onslow. Most critically however the Pavilion will provide a place where the past, present and future stories of the men, women and ships of the Royal Australia Navy can be experienced and celebrated.
Project Innovation/Need
We began with the idea of a suspended ‘tube’ that could ‘hover’ over the wharf, creating space at the wharf level to allow visitors to experience the edge where the vessels meet the water. The hovering sense of the ‘tube’ is further reinforced appearing to float in the air between the vessels floating in the water.
This tube was then shaped in relation the natural movement or flow of the visitors from the dockside up into the building, that swelled with this arrival, and then through portals and gangways onto the vessels. This flow of visitors shaped the form, in a sense, like the viscosity of water profiles the form of the vessels or like the form of the wake they leave behind.
The pavilion is further shaped by the primary forms of the adjacent vessels themselves, the conning tower of the submarine, and the bridge of the destroyer creating central formal distortions. These distortions are then transformed into large glazed portals that frame lateral views onto the vessels.
Inspired by boat building form and construction, the articulated facade also compliments the adjacent vessels and the broader marine environment, achieved using incremental and repetitive adjustments of the external skin.
Design Challenge
The purpose of this museum pavilion building is to create a transition experience for visitors from the waterfront dock onto the two navel vessels HMAS Vampire and HMAS Onslow. Built on a narrow existing wharf structure and to a tight budget the question was what should be the character of such a ‘building’ over the water of Darling Harbour and fitting tightly between two of the most significant Australian navel vessels.
The geometry of the resulting complex form is realised through a simple and low cost modular system based on a single width and gradual progressive adjustment in alignment. This low cost propriety, pre-finished, aluminium, insulated panel common in factory construction has been adapted and integrated with glazed units and openings on the same module. These insulated panels also form the interior surface and finish supported by expressed steel portals and profiled tubes.
The interior of the Pavilion is, in a sense, like the interior of the naval vessels or an industrial shed; hardy, rough and adaptable. Sheet vinyl floors, insulted aluminium walls, and industrial suspended fans. A lack of preciousness invites future change adaptation and evolution for future curators and visitors.
Sustainability
Sustainability was integrated into the building form and performance including natural ventilation and considerations for the building’s proximity to the marine environment.
There is no air-conditioning in the main multi-use and exhibition space where visitors enter and exit the vessels. The exhibition space has a series of louvres and openings for natural ventilation and very large overhead fans which help to moderate the movement of air in the space without impacting on the space.
The narrow but high exhibition space assists with air movement in the space as the height draws the warm air up. There is a concealed opening at the high point of the building which allows the air to exhaust. The natural ventilation systems incorporated creates for the building a space that is more connected to its natural environment and connection to the vessels.
The façade panels do most of the work in insulating the building due to their performance and composition of both an external and internal skin with an insulating layer between. The geometry of the exterior panels also has an impact.
Architecture - Public and Institutional
This award celebrates the design process and product of planning, designing and constructing form, space and ambience that reflect functional, technical, social, and aesthetic considerations. Consideration given for material selection, technology, light and shadow.
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