In a unique concept for an Australian supermarket, Woolworths Fishermans Bend is an adaptive reuse of an existing warehouse, inserting a cutting-edge retail neighbourhood centre into an industrial setting. It leads the transformation of a previously industrial landscape.
Hames Sharley reimagined the 13,500m² warehouse, adapting it for re-use by stripping away pieces of the shed to reveal the new neighbourhood centre within: an undercover car park, supermarket, cafes and food court areas. By keeping the existing metal-clad warehouse shed rather than demolishing and starting from scratch, the architecture celebrates the raw, industrial materiality of the old warehouse and reveals glimpses of the building’s past.
Retaining as much of the building’s fabric as possible also provided great architectural and cost advantages to our design strategy. Reusing the exterior shell, heavy-duty wearing slabs, structure and aprons allowed the development to minimise demolition and land-fill requirements. The entire retail centre was designed to fit underneath the warehouse roof, offering a beautifully raw aesthetic not found in traditional neighbourhood-centre design. Allowing the inside out and the outside in provided an inviting, welcoming feel to encourage families and locals to use the space.
The retail centre also features a dynamic food truck zone on the main facade, continuing its engagement with the immediate external environment, capitalising on the site’s connectivity with the playing fields across the road, and creating a vibrant and festive environment that addresses public realm activation and integration of the streetscape.
The functional program responds efficiently and effectively to the context of the site, which demanded separation for logistics operations to the south. By orienting the supermarket in consideration of this, Hames Sharley was able to craft a retail plan that clearly separates the public realm and pedestrian activity from the heavy vehicle movements of the remaining industrial precinct, and assists in the de-industrialisation of this pocket of Fishermans Bend. While this creative resolution of the program appears fairly simple, it disguises several cost-prohibitive challenges that would otherwise have caused significant issues for ongoing operations and community success.
Secondary specialist consultant design disciplines were also a vital part of the whole design process, from feasibility to delivery. Hames Sharley advocated and fully supported the integration of public art within the development to delight visitors, promoting richness in diversity and aesthetic layering to complement the industrial nature of the project. For these reasons, we undertook a detailed public art brief, providing several artists the opportunity to develop concepts aligned with the overall architectural narrative, selecting a preferred artist in consultation with the client, and assisting in completing the works for the development.
Hames Sharley felt it was important that early renewal projects within Fishermans Bend and Port Melbourne set a precedent for adaptive reuse rather than demolition to respect the existing urban fabric and inform a more socially and environmentally sustainable future.
