STATUS
IN DESIGN
Port Kembla Masterplan
2022
CLIENT
BlueScope Steel
TYPOLOGY
Urbanism
SHARE
The Port Kembla Masterplan will regenerate 200 ha of surplus land adjoining Bluescope’s Port Kembla Steelworks southwest of Sydney, Australia, and transform the land from a closed off industrial site into a thriving precinct for community, advanced manufacturing, and green technologies. Having played a pivotal role in the Illawarra region for nearly a century, the masterplan envisions Port Kembla Steelworks for the next 100 years to come. The design aims to create facilities for innovation, training, and recreation, seizing 65% of the transformed site as green and blue space and open parklands, while acknowledging Country by addressing Ancestral knowledge and the Dharawal tradition.
The vision preserves 75% of the site’s existing building mass, historic structures and industrial artefacts, while the remaining 25% will either be transformed or dismantled and reused in new developments – including a restaurant on top of the furnace, an industrial lift turned into an elevated garden, and steel repurposed in new building structures.
CURRENT SITE CONDITIONS
— The masterplan site consists of 200 ha of land between the active industries and surrounding communities, combining industrial buildings and infrastructure, dramatic topography and green zones containing remnants of the original sub-tropical landscape.
PRESERVATION OF EXISTING STRUCTURES
— The masterplan preserves 75% of the site’s existing building mass, historic structures and industrial artefacts. The remaining 25% will either be transformed or dismantled and reused in developments.
ENHANCEMENT OF ECOLOGICAL CORRIDOR
— The ecological corridor on the site will be preserved and enhanced, ensuring that biodiversity is supported and fragmented habitats connected. Ecoducts and future wetlands are integrated to allow for diverse ecologies to thrive.
A VIBRANT PUBLIC REALM
— The masterplan proposes plazas envisioned as cultural hubs, integrating green infrastructure, pedestrian-friendly layouts, and sports facilities, which will provide a plethora of programs for users.
VARIETY IN HEIGHT DISTRIBUTION AND FLOOR PLATES
— Developments will vary in massing, roofscape types and floor plates to accommodate various programs and functions - from large production programs, to maker spaces or retail. Depending on orientations, the roofs will range from full PV coverage to accessible green roofs.
OVERALL PROGRAM DISTRIBUTION
— Educational facilities are positioned as center pieces of the masterplan to activate the public realm. Mixing the use of the park with adjacent office, retail, and start-up labs ensures flexibility and variety of program across the entire site while preserving key heritage anchors and landmarks.
The masterplan complements the Wollongong district with facilities for research, education, and manufacturing. New buildings and infrastructure carefully adapt to the site’s conditions, preserving most of the existing structures, roads and trees while proposing new volumes in different sizes and orientations with open ground-floors and plazas.
From being a vacant buffer zone separating heavy industrial operation from residential areas, Port Kembla will connect industry with new businesses, research centers, schools and community spaces, enabled through partnerships with local libraries, museums, galleries, creative hubs, and makerspaces.
“For its future, Port Kembla will bring industrial growth and ecological restoration. Influenced by dramatic topographies and architectural heritage, the masterplan harmoniously blends with the surroundings, respecting the context, and preserving the essence of the place. Shaped to shelter from industrial noise and heavy winds, the architectural volumes dissolve into the landscape, blurring the boundaries between built structures and open space, solar panels and green roofs, technology and ecology. Inspired by Country, Bluescope’s Port Kembla masterplan will bring new opportunities to Illawarra and New South Wales. It will position Australia as a global leader in sustainable, industrial regeneration, setting an example for the country and for the rest of the world.”
The urban realm is conceived as a flexible network of streets dedicated to various speeds of mobility for safer, pedestrian-friendly connections. The main entrance to the area will be on Five Island Road from where visitors will be able to freely meander and explore a variety of scales, programs and outdoor areas.
Enhancing the ecological, soil, and hydrological systems to perform more naturally, the masterplan embraces continuity in the habitat and natural land for flora and fauna to dovetail with the built site. Further, the landscaping integrates a natural water system to mitigate flooding on site.
“The Port Kembla Masterplan is an example of industrial regeneration where history, community and ecology are not only respected, but integrated and enhanced. Built environment and open spaces are mutually beneficial to one another, transforming the former steelworks into a vibrant hub connecting communities with nature and industries. By designing in response to wind, sun, sightlines, noise and flood condition, this landscape-driven approach extends its positive impact beyond the site boundaries, to showcase sustainable development as a medium for healing environments.”
Photovoltaic panels will be installed on the roof of the buildings to supply 95% of the site’s energy needs, while green roofs will provide resilient water management and enhance biodiversity.
Bjarke Ingels Amanda Lima Soares Da Cunha Andrea Hektor Jonathan Russell Martin Sitorus Sorcha Burke Zuzanna Eugenia Montwill Giulia Frittoli Aleksandar Donov Karim Daw Lucrezia Picinali Peter Andres Ehvert Alicia De Nobrega Will Chuanrui Yu Calina Bogasiu Lara Al-Kalmash Emma Isabelle Olsson Ingrid Albina Oliva Lampa Victor Corazza Sasha Spasic Harish Karthick Vijay Jan Zawadzki Floris Dreesmann Mónica Galiana Rodriquez Anna Beatrice Maria Ambrosi Ahmad Tahhan Alina Matveenko Hansen Zhu Seyederfan Masoumzadeh Nouran Wael Mohamed Rashad Mohamed Sherif Moritz Friedrich Reh Xinyu Zhao
