New South Wales
A stadium in the park a public building set within a public park. The stadium is a memorable public room for shared play and celebration.
The surrounding public domain is expanded, legible, and accessible. Varied in activation it includes intimate spaces, new public play spaces half basketball play, exercise, kids play to a civic gesture in the form of the Kippax stairs connecting Paddington and Surry Hills.
A rusticated base mediates topography, while a visually recessive bronze body contains significant program. A sinuous highly efficient white steel diagrid roof provides identity. Guided by a do more with less approach, the project achieves LEED Gold.
The Sporting Club of Sydney positioned adjacent the stadium mediates a scale shift to the smaller heritage buildings of the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The clients objective to (re)positions Sydney ahead of competing cities through offering uncompromised patron event amenity while attracting national / international events is achieved.
The Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design
The Sydney Football Stadium is a transformative achievement, delivering long-term urban benefits to the Moore Park precinct. Transcending the typically cordoned stadium building, the design expands the surrounding public domain, replacing the blank walls and fencing of the previous stadium with a legible and accessible public realm.
This activated realm caters to diverse needs, offering intimate spaces, dedicated play areas, and grand civic gestures that come alive on event days. Crucially, the design excels at accommodating large crowds while maintaining a human-scaled experience for non-event days through varied spatial arrangements and programmed activities.
This public ribbon joins the Kippax Stair as a catalyst for ongoing renewal, the generous new public realm around the Stadium is already helping knit the neighbourhoods together by creating spaces for everyday use.
The jury commends the decision to establish visual connections into the stadium bowl from surrounding public areas; a rare and impressive achievement for this typology. Patrons within the stadium enjoy outward vistas, while passers-by glimpse the energy inside the stadium.
This insightful approach to the public realm sets a benchmark for integrating large-scale sporting facilities into the urban fabric, promoting daily experiences and public benefit beyond game day and outside the pay wall.
Commendation for Public Architecture
Constructed to enhance patron experience, the new Sydney Football Stadium significantly enhances the adjacent public space. Its intuitive circulation system transforms the spectator journey, highlighted by a dramatic entry level which offers sweeping panoramas of the field and seating areas. Anchored by a sandstone-hued concrete and cooper colour cladding base, its lightweight roof, resembling a cloud, ingeniously minimises steel usage. Supported by four thin pillars, the canopy stands out as a unique landmark against the cityscape.
Allianz Stadium is Sydney’s newest world class stadium situated on the doorstep of a world leading CBD has been a game changer for Venues NSW and the NSW Visitor Economy, welcoming nearly one million fans during the past year to an exciting range of events including concerts from Paul McCartney and Elton John, and co-hosting the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. In addition to providing a world class experience for fans and sports partners, the stadium has delivered new public open space, artwork and facilities to the whole precinct, which includes the world famous Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
