Armory Wharf Cafe
Awards:
Urban Design Award for Armory Wharf Precinct from the AIA NSW Chapter 2009, lahznimmo architects with Hargreaves Associates and Lacoste + Stevenson Architects
Commercial Building Award from the AIA NSW Chapter 2009
The Armory Wharf provides a unique site for a cafe, with striking 270 degree views across the Parramatta River to mangroves and the post industrial working wharf landscape. The design draws extensively on the existing materials and industrial and military themes of the site. The result is a new responsive layer of urban elements over the original working wharf site using a broad palette of materials such as, corten steel cladding and roofing, army camouflage netting, recycled timber, and mill finish aluminium.
The new boardwalk café structure takes full advantage of its urban waterfront site by focussing the dining outlook toward the river and the procession of activities along it. The café space has different degrees of openness and enclosure. Similar to the mangroves, which progressively get less dense towards the waters edge, the new cafe structure and roof appear to dissolve from solid, progressively becoming more filigree until it disappears altogether towards the waters edge.
