Client
Tim & Kim Berwick
Location
Lambton, Newcastle
Project
Design & Construct
The transformation of a George Street rooftop to art gallery, gardens and hospitality venue. The design is dictated by direct and reflected light incident to the space, as calculated throughout the year, with planting types and locations appropriate to illumination levels within the different areas of the rooftop, mapped to local country.
The project employs an extensive use of recycled plastics and metals, with the entire structure to be modular, so as to avoid permanent fixings to heritage fabric, in addition to allowing flexibility for various exhibitions and events.
The City’s Canvas is destined to become a platform to showcase installations from young architects, creatives, artists and chefs.






The mapping of the reflected light incident to the rooftop is the driver of the landscape placement. The nuanced and highly complex grid of reflection data creates a framework with which to place and orientate plant species - here - reflected light is turned into a formula.
The modularity of the rooftop space is based off the smallest component size - the tile. From here, a range of scaleable and moveable joinery units, art plinths and low benches have been designed with alignment to the base grid.



Client:
Private Client
Year:
2022
Status:
Development Application
Team:
Benjamin Berwick, Sarah Veas, Joshua Healey
Collaborators:
Accessed (Accessibility Consultant), 3-plus-1 (Heritage Architect), SDA Structures (Structural Engineer), SCI Fire (Fire Engineer), Ambush Gallery (Cultural), Sydney Dance Company (Cultural)


A canvas for the city, informed by city microcosm & climatic simulation.