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Australia Square is one of the first modern international styled office towers in Australia by one of Australia's and the world's leading architects, Harry Seidler.
Harry Seidler was awarded the Royal Australian Institutes of Architects Gold Medal in 1976.
It established new principles in design and construction through its distinctive circular form and the creation of a large public open space at ground level.
The public space is established by a plaza that is set above street level and steps down throughout the site and defined on the east by a 6 storey rectangular building acting as a foil to the circular tower. The public areas include cafés, fountains, artwork (Le Corbusier tapestries, Calder Sculpture) and as one of the earliest examples of the development of comfortable public open space on private land.
The structural system was developed with one of the world's leading engineers, Pier Luigi Nervi, and features technological advances of the time such as patterned ribbing and tapering exterior columns in quartz faced pre cast concrete as permanent formwork. The tapering columns add emphasis to the height of the tower further emphasising its elegance. At the time it was built in 1961 - 1967 the tower was the world's tallest light weight concrete building.
The circular form was structurally extremely efficient and the consistency of floor plan, the use of precast façade and in situ core lead to floors being erected in 5 working days which set new standards in office tower construction.
Australia Square Tower is an elegant building which has maintained its aesthetic appeal and is still regarded as a landmark building in Sydney and an icon of Australian architecture
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Project Team
Project design:
Harry Seidler
Engineering:
Nervi, Pier Luigi in conjunction with Civil & Civic
Construction:
Civil & Civic |
