2020 Eat Drink Design Awards: Best Retail Design

Jury comment

Here’s a design solution we’ve never seen before. This exciting and original reboot of the modern urban food court rewrites the rules. Housed within The Exchange, a spiralling new landmark in Sydney’s Darling Square designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the project stylishly captures the unpretentious vibe of a bustling market hall. Sliding steel doors roll back to reveal 12 individual food and beverage tenants, with glazed brick flooring, colourful overhead embellishments and industrial concrete pillars blurring the boundary between inside and out. The deceptively simple design meets a difficult brief and successfully pushes itself to set a new standard for a familiar genre. It’s an adventurous and commendable risk taken by developers Lendlease Group. While the jury has seen many attempts to reinvent the wheel in this category, few have come close to such a level of innovation.

Design statement

The brief was to provide a flexible market hall that enabled varying opening hours and offerings of 12 individual tenancies. Each tenancy is wrapped in a skin of galvanized steel doors that slide open to reveal a contrasting fitout, tailored to the particular tenant’s needs. These fitouts share a richness of material selection and a directness to the design that suits a market-type environment. The steel boxes bring a consistency and calmness to the space that is visible at all hours through the glazed ground floor of the Kengo Kuma-designed building. As the market hall comes to life, these boxes open to allow each tenant to spill out, energizing the space. A series of streets and clearings provide a balance that promotes discovery and communal gatherings. The floor treatment matches that of the external square, strengthening the market feel.

Darling Exchange Market Hall
1 Little Pier Street
Haymarket, New South Wales
darlingsq.com

Anthony Gill Architects, Lendlease Design (base build architects of record)
Anthony Gill Architects
Level 2, Suite 206
61 Marlborough Street
Surry Hills, New South Wales
gillarchitects.com.au

Project team
Anthony Gill, Isabell Adam, Luisa Campos, Aurelie Nguyen, Arne Heeres.

See the whole gallery of images at the Eat Drink Design Awards website.

The 2020 Eat Drink Design Awards are organized by Architecture Media and supported by supporting partners Chandon Australia, Latitude and Roca.

The Eat Drink Design Awards are endorsed by the Australian Institute of Architects and the Design Institute of Australia.