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WOOLLOOMOOLOO RENEWAL PROJECT

SYDNEY NSW |1975

Ancher Mortlock and Woolley, with Philip Cox and Associates (architects) for NSW Housing Commission

From the 1970s, there was a new energy from all levels of government to stimulate precinct renewal via public housing development in inner-city areas. Growing appreciation of built heritage, as exemplified by the Berlin IBA, prompted a shift in renewal approach, with the end of slum clearance programs. Public housing projects pioneered contextually sensitive infill projects, with the designs referencing surrounding buildings. Larger schemes were awarded to multiple established and emerging architectural practices for greater built form diversity but unified by an extensive masterplan. Emphasis was placed on creating housing on a more human scale and of a high quality as it was felt this would better integrate residents and help remove the stigma associated with public housing developments. 

The Woolloomooloo Renewal Project interspersed new buildings by different architects, alongside the conservation of nineteenth-century terrace houses. The new housing directly referenced historical elements of neighbouring terraces, including parapets, arched vertical windows, verandas and narrow house forms but in a contemporary manner. The result is a development precinct of rich architectural complexity, where old and new buildings have a deliberate relationship with one another.