The Goods Line

Florian Groehn

• Project Design Lead

CHROFI collaborated with ASPECT Studios on the design of The Goods Line for Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority. The Goods Line is a linear spine that connects several diverse city neighbourhoods, from Central to Surry Hills, to the harbour via the Darling Harbour Precinct. The spine stitches together a unique concentration of cultural, media and educational institutions forming a civic space rich with latent potential.

photo_credit Florian Groehn — Florian Groehn

Beyond its connectivity function, The Goods Line responds to a shared desire to connect and collaborate that exists amongst the stakeholders - Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, University of Technology, Sydney, Powerhouse Museum, The ABC, TAFE - Sydney Institute, and City of Sydney. The Goods Line is conceived as a public platform for interaction, co-curation of events and exhibitions.

The revitalisation is expressed via a singular move. The laying of a new datum, a precast concrete figure, onto the existing railway corridor, articulating the sites history and concurrently telling the story of today. These precast concrete panels form the paving, edges, steps, benches and seating as an integrated prefabricated piece. They are a re-tooling of an industrial element to a social purpose using digital fabrication process.

Scattered along this 'figure' are a variety of opportunities for play, socialisation and respite ranging from water play elements, fitness stations, an oversized communal table, generous terraced seating and cantilevered pods that offer a nestled escape within the canopies of the moreton bay fig trees. Collectively these diverse moments create a civic space that encourages occupation by different user groups within one of Sydney's most densely populated precincts.

The 'ground' revealed by the absence of the 'figure' creates opportunities for robust planting, pocket gardens and lawns amongst the meandering railway tracks, further softened by the presence of the line of established fig trees that provide a visual barrier to Darling Drive.

A corridor once energised by the movement of industrial goods will be re-energised with people and the exchange of ideas, marking the transformation from industrial infrastructure to social infrastructure.