The 200-metre-long roof canopy above the Sydney Fish Market, designed by architecture studios 3XN and BVN has been completed.
Located on Blackwattle Bay, the building will combine a fresh seafood market with shops, restaurants, community spaces and a seafood school under the largest timber roof in the southern hemisphere.
According to 3XN and BVN, the building was informed by traditional market typologies with open-air market stalls under a canopy.
Comprised of 594 timber roof beams – the longest up to 32 metres in length, and 400 aluminium cassettes, the roof canopy covers the entire building. It was constructed from modular elements and designed to look like “fish scales”.
“Continuing to push sustainability while also wanting to create a warm, inviting feeling that can draw visitors upwards towards upper ground, we designed the roof canopy be timber,” 3XN partner Fred Holt told Dezeen.
“The modular nature of timber and durability near its harbour site helped to speed up construction time and reduce maintenance,” he continued.
“The aluminium roof cassettes provided a lightweight, easily maintained material that offered the best outcome for the complexity and needs of the external roof.”
Under the roof, the fish market was designed to addresses issues at its previous site, where the number of tourists often disrupted the daily operations of the working market.
The studios placed the loading area, wholesale market and an auction hall on the ground floor, which will be surrounded by glass walls.
Restaurants, cafes and shops will be located on the first floor with viewing galleries overlooking the fish market below.
These public spaces will accessed from auditorium-style steps leading from a new plaza with seating and views across the bay and of the Anzac Bridge.
“Our design goal was to create an authentic fish market experience, putting on display, the ‘theatre’ of an operating market, while becoming a catalyst for community activity,” said 3XN.
“All while being highly sustainable, as seen through the floating roof design that integrates PVs, rainwater harvesting and daylight and natural ventilation.”
The market, which is expected to be complete later this year, will be the first part of the urban renewal of Blackwattle Bay, which will unlock a connected waterfront promenade from Rozelle Bay to Woolloomooloo.
Copenhagen studio 3XN was established by Kim Herforth Nielsen, Lars Frank Nielsen and Hans Peter Svendler Nielsen in 1986. Elsewhere, the studio is designing Chungnam Art Center, its first project in South Korea, also with a sweeping roof design, as well as a “simple and poetic” nature centre in a Danish harbour.
The photography is by Multiplex, unless otherwise stated.
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