Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus

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Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus

Information

  • Completion year: 2020
  • Gross Built up Area: 68000 sqm
  • Project Location: Sydney
  • Country: Australia
  • Lead Architects/Designer: Architectus: Ray Brown, CHROFI: Tai Ropiha, John Choi, Steven Fighera
  • Design Team: Architectus: Michael Harrison, Jennifer Husman, Agnieszka Romanowicz-Butler, Darrin Rodrigues, Oscar Stanish, Steve Fox, Luigi Ascione, Liam O'Brien CHROFI: Martin Tarnawski, Max Kamlah, Daniel Spence, Georgina Blix, Susanne Pollmann, Joshua Zoeller, Fraser Mudge
  • Landscape Consultants: JMD Design Lead Architect: Anton James Design Team: Don Kirkland, Claire Broun
  • Contractors: Ganellen
  • Photo Credits: Brett Boardman, Katherine Lu, Simon Whitbread, Grant Leslie, Martin Tarnawski, Clinton Weaver, Pablo Codina, Tom Evangelidis, Atelier Illume, CHROFI, Bloom Images, Morean Digital Realities, MIR.
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Excerpt: Designed by Architectus and CHROFI, Harbord Diggers Club is a vibrant Intergenerational Community Hub to both broaden and deepen its relevance to today’s Northern Beaches community. The site is structured around a central courtyard, an ocean terrace and a grid of public domain connections linking to the coast and nearby Freshwater Village. This vastly improves the permeability of the headland enabling thru-site connections in all directions and establishing the club as a key destination within the coastal walk network.

Project Description

[Text as submitted by architect] While the Harbord Diggers was born during hard times and created by working class people, the club today is re-imagined as an ‘Intergenerational Community Hub’ to both broaden and deepen its relevance to today’s Northern Beaches community. Sited on one of Sydney’s iconic headlands, the materiality is directly informed by the spectacular coastal sandstone formations and the native coastal landscape.

The site is structured around a central courtyard, an ocean terrace and a grid of public domain connections linking to the coast and nearby Freshwater Village. This vastly improves the permeability of the headland enabling thru-site connections in all directions and establishing the club as a key destination within the coastal walk network.

Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus
© Architectus
Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus
© Architectus

The seniors’ living village is organised around the courtyard with the club’s public facilities located beneath to avoid conflict between the residential and public areas.

A sunken ‘Palm Gully’ at the centre of the development anchors the legibility of the plan connecting all key public facilities while bringing light, air and lush greenery to the heart of the project. The Carrington Parade and Evans Street edges respond to their streetscapes presenting as a collection of domestic scaled buildings.

Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus
© Martin Tarnawski
Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus
© Martin Tarnawski

https://youtu.be/2wG7zYXEfc4

To the north, the ne-grained qualities of the street edges give way to a much larger scaled response to the headland setting. The natural landscape is drawn across the development to amplify the scenic quality of the headland while taller feature buildings sit above as sculptural counterpoints with owing forms that frame coastal views from within. A civic scaled veranda merged into the contour of the headland frames aspect from the public areas to the ocean terrace and coast beyond.

Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus
© Martin Tarnawski
Harbord Diggers Club | CHROFI + Architectus
© Martin Tarnawski

The project instils a sense of remembrance through its use of sandstone and with the integration of Jade Oakley’s sculpture at the club entry depicting the original diggers at their seaside location. Collectively, the topography, the native landscape, the materiality and sculptural built-form, combine to bring new identity to this long standing community institution.

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