Bates Smart ™

55 Miller Street
Pyrmont, Sydney

This building expresses its function as a contemporary office while respecting the masonry tradition of the nearby warehouses. Statutory requirements presented challenges: an approved envelope with a highly irregular form and that 50% of the façade be masonry.

The expression of this building reinterprets the traditional Pyrmont warehouses in a contemporary manner. Masonry is used as the primary material and, declaring its modernity, it is hung as a screen around the building in contrast to the load-bearing character of the warehouses.The masonry screen is assembled from a single size baguette in an abstract pattern of piers and screens that evokes the vertical proportioning and horizontal string courses of the nearby woolstores. The screen disguises the internal subdivision into strata-title offices, instead presenting a cohesive and singular expression.

To maximise natural light penetration floor-to-ceiling glazing is used on all façades. The façades are oriented at 45 degrees to the north, requiring both horizontal and vertical sunshading to reduce heat gain. The horizontal shading is achieved by the extension of each floor level beyond the façade while terracotta piers and screens provide the vertical shading. All strata-titled units have mixed-mode cooling with the option of natural ventilation through operable windows behind each vertical pier in the façade.