Cockatoo Island Entry Precinct ::

Project Description::

Cockatoo Island, the largest of Sydney Harbour’s islands, retains significant structures from its 150 year history as a major ship-building dockyard. Now largely vacant, the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust is conserving the Island for a range of public uses and private leasing.

Tonkin Zulaikha Greer have completed the design for a reworking of the main public entry spaces to the Island, from the wharf to the entry plaza within the dockyard.

Based on a series of interpreted historic themes, the project creates a legible, safe and secure entry sequence to orient visitors and enable a wide range of activities to be accommodated. The wharf has been upgraded with new shelters, the entry way clarified and repaved and the main entry plaza defined with a new consistent paved level. Full disabled access is provided to the entry buildings, and shade and shelter with seating provided at key points. The large Events Plaza has been conserved and interpreted with a range of solutions that remove trip hazards and interpret demolished parts of the dockyard and its machinery.

The focus of the work has been a structured sequence of interpretive material, ranging from evocative historic images on stainless steel to large-scale sculptural representations of vanished buildings and the focus of the Island – the actual ships.