Development concept

12
Site land use plan

The smaller building footprint

Mixed use of retail and commer- gives the building more front-
cial with the lower floor used ages. This will further encour-
for a tourist information centre. age the connection between
The information centre has been street life and the activities in
retained as it is seen to serve an the ground floor retail stores.
important role for the precinct.

These three small buildings Mixed-use buildings of

are permanent structures to reatil and commercial.
cater for small businesses such There will be commercial
as news stand or flower shop. floors that are above retail
spaces. This is to maxi-
mise the amount of retail at
and near the ground level
so that there is a greater po-
These buildings are designed
tential to attract pedestrians
for special use of such as a
into this site. It is recom-
museum or exhibition space,
mended that ground floor
or a combination of the two
space be used for retail as it
has higher rates of attract-
ing pedestrians. Some of
In keeping with the character of the rest of Darling Harbour, the most appropriate and suitable land use these include alfresco cafes,
for this site would be mixture of commercial and retail. Having this mixture would provide even more restaurants, and clothing
diversity to the Darling Harbour precinct. Furthermore, it will provide extra employment opportuni- stores. such as cafes, res-
ties. Having residential would not fit with the character of the precinct. Nor would it be profitable for taurants.
the developer. There may also be health issues related to living so close to the Western Distributor.

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Roads and Pedestrian pathways

Due to the smaller building blocks, there

are more pathways throughout the site.
Hence, this increases the permeability of
the Darling Walk site. As well, the grid-
like layout of the building footprint makes
walking through the site memorable.

When a person is entering the site from the

northern or eastern pathways that is between
the buildings, he or she walks is walking
through a movement channel filled the retail
services which ‘spills’ onto the walkways.
However the pedestrian is introduced to a
vast open space that is aesthetically pleas-
ing and inviting to be in because of its or-
namented by the lake and the fountain.

14
Building height plan

To maintain the low density character-

istic of the Darling Harbour precinct, it
is recommended that development on
the Darling Walk site to be also kept
low. Hence the tallest buildings are only
4 storeys. The other buildings has a
natural height limit due to the fact that
they are situated under the over pass.

15
Sections

North-south Section

East-west Section
The two sections run from north to south, and
from east to west. They show the building
height, the amount of setback and spaces be-
tween them. The two sections also show that
the site requires four levels of car parking.
As visible on the sections, parking is only
available underneath the retail and commer-
cial buildings. As well, the east-west section
shows that the car park is connected so that
drivers can park underneath any building
but are able to emerge out of a different one.

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Axonometric drawing

The height of the buildings is clearly identifi-

able from this axonometric drawing. The axono-
metric also shows the shape of the building. The
buildings surrounding the circular open space are
slightly rounded so that they create an enclosure.

17
Development Yield Table

There are three types of land uses - re-

tail, commercial and special use. The to-
tal floor area for retail is 13 100 square
meters. For commercial and special land
use, this area is 12 800 square meters.

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