Sydney Harbour Pavilion Made with Oyster Shells by SPRESSER + Peter Besley.

SPRESSER and Peter Besley have won an architecture competition for a new permanent public pavilion on Sydney Harbour. Made of recycled Sydney oyster shells, the Pavilion references human gathering by the sea. It is designed as a democratic gathering space under a landscape canopy and acts as a meeting place, a site for events, and a memorable part of the city. Approximately 380 sqm in area, the building consists of 123 columns, an 8m diameter oculus and a smaller free-standing enclosure which contains a stage and bar/servery.

“We are very honoured that our scheme has been selected from such a strong field of contenders,” says Jessica Spresser, founder of the emerging architecture practice SPRESSER. “Personally, this means a great deal as an emerging young architect. The organisers deserve great credit for putting together this blind-assessed, meritocratic competition.”

The Pavilion celebrates elements that compose the site: land, sea and sky. Land is expressed through a democratic gathering space under a landscape canopy; its curved envelope analogous to neighbouring coves. Sea is experienced via materiality. Sydney rock oysters are mixed with white concrete, which is then honed to reveal the shell. Sky is understood through a large oculus puncturing the canopy, its perfect circle free of earthly geometries.

At a distance, the Pavilion retains a bold statuesque quality due to the simplicity of its elevations being made entirely of columns, and those columns being full height to the thin eave. Up close, a person finds themselves also in a civic scale, this time of the column height with respect their own, and the column families working together in powerful arrays.

“In the context of a busy, bustling world city we wanted to make a work that was profoundly still,” says Peter Besley, UK architect who, before establishing his own studio in 2019, co-founded and led Assemblage in London. “We hope it has an almost haunting intimacy despite being a decidedly civic building at the same time.”

The Pavilion is intended to remain for a long time, and become indivisible from the place. It is intended to figure in people’s memories as they grow: from child to teenager, to adult and elderly person. The design’s distinctive shape, qualities of light, compelling spaces, and oyster texture will all live on in the mind over time, seeking to attach itself to memorable occasions in people’s lives.

The Pavilion by SPRESSER and Peter Besley is due for completion in late 2022.

[Images courtesy of SPRESSER + Peter Besley .]