MUDD student projects

exhibits

2003-2004 Hornsby

3D Perspective (Scheme 2)

3D Perspective (Scheme 1)

Introduction

The town grew from the development of its railway station in 1886, initially following the western side of the railway line. In 1961, however, the establishment of a Westfield shopping centre on the eastern side encouraged development away from the early core, despite the location there of institutional buildings such as banks, the police station, court house, council chambers and tertiary educational facilities. The main aim of this project was, therefore, to encourage consolidation on both sides of the railway.

The division and dislocation of Hornsby was exacerbated in the 1960s by construction of two internalised shopping malls on the east side of the line, which drew activity and interest away from the old shopping strip on the west, with its associated civic and community functions.

Issues of urban morphology and urban identity were therefore central to a critical study of Hornsby as a major Town Centre in the overall matrix of metropolitan Sydney. To unlock the potential of the site, the Studio investigated the possibility of an air rights development over the railway station, and a rationalisation of the main road pattern around the station, with a boulevard on the east side, and a down-scaled Pacific Highway on the west.

At the scale of the street, the ‘railway’ scheme created a new community precinct and cultural centre, with links across the railway line. The ‘ridgetop’ scheme brought pedestrian movement to ground level through the green courts of an in-town business park. Both schemes integrated new forms of residential development with commercial and retail activities, in a detailed series of precinct studies.

As provocative masterplans, the schemes transcended the limitations of morphological and typological analysis to present poetic possibilities, fusing form and type to suggest a new urban landscape for the ridgetop corridor north of Sydney.