This vibrant public square is the embodiment of character, purpose, and a sense of community. It is a valuable contribution to daily life in North Sydney, Australia. Berry Square is a warm, green, and welcoming public space designed to cater to a growing and transforming residential community and to shift typical expectations about what is possible for nature in the city.
The square’s radial design makes a refreshing contribution to the local open space network, and the careful planning of its alignment means that it is the only public space in the city area that enjoys sunlight throughout the day.
An antidote to a grey city
Berry Square deliberately and actively disrupts and re-establishes norms for public spaces in North Sydney. While its design responds to the local context, it also catalyzes a shift for the area toward a warmer, greener, and more complex urban environment.
While the site is modest, the approach taken to achieve this outcome was focused and strategic. The project as an example of adaptive reuse completely transforms the public space offer and is an advocate for change in this part of Sydney. This approach to planning and design is about user experience and advocacy for the possibilities of Landscape Architecture.
The park was conceptualised as a vanguard project that will attend to the needs of a growing residential population and ameliorate the shifting tensions of the changing uses of the area. A warm material palette enlivens the space, and the use of porphyry cobblestone in a radial arrangement underfoot is an energetic interpretation of historically relevant material.
The square focuses on the experience of all people and the quality of public life and is an extension-in-waiting of the emerging network of public spaces in North Sydney that include major developments around a new metro station and other public realm projects.
Since completion, the popularity of the project has demonstrated a hunger in North Sydney for green spaces, regardless of their size and with intergenerational appeal.
Big thinking in a small space
The square signals that possibilities exist to create much-needed public and green spaces in North Sydney through imaginative design and a collaborative approach to planning. At the strategic level, the project’s conceptual life began with an intense investigation of existing and planned public spaces in North Sydney. We focused on understanding who the key users were and would be, as well as their evolving needs. The outcome of this was to prioritise user experience through spatial design and furniture detailing – a seat for every – body, age, and ability.
A challenging site also needed to be resolved. Building on an existing on-structure forecourt on structure with a substantial level change required a thoughtful and finely crafted design solution.
The material palette balances lightweight and robust materials to work around the constraints of the existing structure. Throughout the space, inviting fixed furniture pieces create pockets of seating in wells of sunlight. Elsewhere, a shade structure provides cover and defines an outdoor “room”, populated with flexible seating elements by Breakspear Architects.
A green diplomat
Our approach to engagement was not only to seek input into the design, but to advocate for the most ambitious version of it.
We challenged the client’s initial preference for a more formal, groomed garden setting – working through their concerns to instead use a wilder abundance of native planting.
The planting scheme itself was carefully designed to offer points of interest through the seasons, with a curated colour palette that accentuates the qualities of the architecture. The unusually rich scale of the planting is the result of deep thinking about what plants would be best positioned to thrive on the sizer.
A happy outcome of the project was our collaboration with Breakspear Architects. By fostering an emerging practice on a significant public project, we hope to circulate an understanding of the importance of landscape architecture within allied design practice.
Architecture offices involved in the design: Breakspear Architects (Architects for the Pavilion)
Location: 77 Berry Street, North Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Aus, 2060
Design year: 2021
Year Completed: 2023
